How to Write 鹏 (péng) — Meaning “Peng (a giant mythical bird)”

Imagine a giant bird that is a friend (朋) to all other birds (鸟). The character 朋 looks like two moons, so you can think of a bird so huge it flies between two moons.

Write the left side 朋 first: two 月 characters side by side. Then add the right side 鸟. Make sure the left side is slightly narrower than the right. A common mistake is making the two parts too wide or forgetting the dot on top of 鸟.

鹏 has 朋 (friend) and means the mythical Peng bird. 鸷 has 执 (hold) and means a fierce bird of prey. 鸸 has 而 (and) and is used in the word for emu (鸸鹋). They look different because of their left-side components.

鹏 appears in idioms like 鹏程万里, meaning a bright future, from an ancient story about a giant bird flying ten thousand miles. It is also used in names, such as the place name Dapeng in Shenzhen, and it symbolizes great ambition and success.

Common words containing 鹏 include: 大鹏 (dà péng) — Dapeng (a giant mythical bird); 鹏程万里 (péng chéng wàn lǐ) — to have a bright future; a journey of ten thousand miles; 鲲鹏 (kūn péng) — Kunpeng (a legendary giant bird transformed from a fish).