Triple-stacked characters, also called “pin-shaped” characters (品字型漢字), are formed by stacking three identical characters into the shape of the character 品. Their history can be traced back to the oracle bone script of the Shang dynasty, though only 52 triple-stacked characters can now be found in dictionaries, and many of them are no longer in common use. Others fell out of use over time because their strokes were so cumbersome, gradually giving way to replacements and fading from view.
You certainly know that three suns stacked together make 晶 (jīng) and three trees make 森 (sēn). How many of the following 25 do you know?
Formerly used in trade names and personal names, taking the sense of abundant gold and prosperity. 鑫 is also read xùn, referring to a basin-shaped vessel.
淼 is like its own shape: it describes a vast expanse of water, a flow so broad that it has no shore, mist and waves stretching without end. The Tang poet Wang Wei wrote in his poem on seeing off Gao Shi’s younger brother Gao Dan, who was returning to Linhuai: “A lone sail ten thousand li away, on waters so wide, where is it bound?”
垚 is a variant character taken from the upper part of 堯 (Yáo). The Shuowen Jiezi says, under the earth radical: “垚, the look of high ground.” So 垚 means high ground.
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犇 means a herd of cattle running. The Yupian and the Guangyun both gloss it as “startled cattle”; the Zhengzitong gives “cattle bolting in fright as a herd,” which probably reflects the original sense. By extension 犇 is also used of people running, and serves as a variant of 奔 (bēn, to run).
矗 can mean towering or standing erect; 矗矗 describes something lofty and imposing. It can also stand for uprightness and truth, as in the Yuanbao Jingzhuan, in the Taiyin section: “Speak of its rightness, and it stands straight and does not deceive.” The commentary reads: upright and not false.
Three dogs stacked together give the look of a pack of dogs running, and the character was later extended to mean swift or rapid. 猋 can also mean a fierce wind or a gale. The Book of Han, in the first part of the biography of Sima Xiangru, has “陵惊风，历骇猋”, that is, riding over the startling wind and passing through the terrifying gale.
Two fires are only firelight; three fires together make a great blaze, so 焱 means brilliance and flame. The Shuowen says: “焱, the flower of fire. It follows three fires. All characters belonging to 焱 follow 焱.” The “flower of fire” here is not the later word for a spark; it should be read as the look of a fire at full strength.
掱 has three hands in all. Two of them stand for the normal hand and the hand that provides cover; the third stands for the thieving hand. The word 掱手 (the same as 扒手, a pickpocket) takes its sound from 巴, which carries the sense of “to attach” or “to stick to”: the pickpocket likes to stick close behind or beside a person, and reaches into that person’s pocket the moment there is a chance.
羴 can stand for a flock of sheep, and can also be taken in the sense of 羶: the rank smell of a sheep.
毳 is the fine hair of birds and beasts, as in Du Fu’s poem on drinking among the flowers with Li the Jinwu: “I see the down of birds blown lightly, and count the flower stamens as I please.” 毳 is also borrowed for 脆, and can mean fragile, as in the Xunzi, in the chapter on military affairs: “If the affair is small and the enemy 毳, then makeshift troops may be used.” That is, if the engagement is small and the enemy weak, such troops can be pressed into service, if only barely. 毳 can also mean crisp, tender food, as in the Book of Han, in the biography of Bing Ji: “He repeatedly presented sweet and tender foods.” Yan Shigu’s commentary says: “毳 is read the same as 脆.” 毳 is also borrowed for 橇, an ancient conveyance used for traveling over mud.
聶 means to speak in a low voice close to someone’s ear. The Shuowen Jiezi says, under the ear radical: “聶, to speak privately and softly beside the ear.” 聶 is also a surname. Nie Zheng of the state of Han in the Warring States period was a famous assassin and musician, and one of the five assassins named in the Records of the Grand Historian.
驫 can mean the look of a herd of horses moving, carrying the image of ten thousand horses galloping. 驫驫水, or 驫水, is the name of an ancient river.
The Shuowen Jiezi says: “蟲: those with feet are called 蟲; those without feet are called 豸.” 蟲 is the general name for creatures with feet, which is why the “great 蟲” that Wu Song fights in the Water Margin means a tiger.
The 鱻 made of three stacked fish does not, in fact, mean a great shoal of fish swimming! 鱻 is in fact used to describe freshness and savor, and in ancient usage meant raw fish.
力 has the shape of a plow or similar farming tool, and three 力 resemble three plows tilling side by side, the sense being that of joining strength to till the fields (Yu Xingwu). Its original meaning is to join strength. 刕 is also an ancient surname; the Kangxi Dictionary records: “It comes from the descendants of Dao Da of Shu, who changed the character to 刕 to escape trouble.”
叒 is the name of a tree in ancient myth. The Shuowen Jiezi says, under the 叒 radical: “叒, the fusang tree that the sun climbs when it first rises in Tanggu, the valley in the east; the 叒 tree.”
舙 is a variant of 話 (huà), extended to mean stirring up trouble, sowing discord, and speaking ill of others.
Although 惢 is made of three 心 (heart), it does not describe a person of many loves! 惢 means doubt of heart, excessive worry, or a dejected look. The Shuowen says: “惢, doubt of the heart. It follows three hearts.” 惢 is also read ruǐ, a kind of ancient sacrifice: “When autumn comes and the grain ripens, the Son of Heaven sacrifices at Taisuo (太惢).”
皛 means bright and luminous. It is often used in poetry of the clear moon, as in Tao Qian’s poem written on a night journey past Tukou, written in the seventh month of the year xinchou while going on leave and returning to Jiangling: “A cool wind rises toward evening, the night scene limpid and clear; bright and wide the vault of heaven, and white the calm face of the river.”
轟 stands for the sound made by many carts, and by extension for any great noise, as in the Tang poet Yuan Zhen’s poem in fifty rhymes answering his elder maternal cousin Hu Lingzhi, who had sent verses to him: “The spring outskirts have only just come into full bloom, and the evening drums already thunder.” 轟 also carries the sense of striking and driving away.
In ancient times, birds with short tails were called 隹. So 雥 means birds gathering in a flock, or a flock of birds. From the sense of a flock of birds, 雥 was extended to mean gathering together, as in the Sui dynasty writer Xu Shanxin’s Ode to the Divine Bird: “Auspicious gifts gathered together.”
22. Three speech — 譶 (tà)
Seeing three 言 (speech) stacked together, one knows that 譶 means talking a great deal, talking fast, and talking without stopping.
麤 means a herd of deer running, extended to the sense of vigilance. The Guangyun says: “麤. The Zitong says: ‘Watchfulness and defense. It is the nature of deer to feed with their backs to one another, wary of men and beasts, and so the character follows three deer.’” In old texts 麤 is often borrowed for the 粗 of “coarse,” with extended senses of violent, sturdy, and careless. The Stratagems of the Warring States, in the first Zhao section, has: “Zhi Bo as a man is coarse within and shows little affection,” meaning that Zhi Bo was violent in character and sparing of kindness. The Records of the Grand Historian, in the treatise on music, has: “When the heart is moved by anger, the sound is coarse and severe,” meaning that when anger is felt within, the music played is sturdy and stern. All the extended senses of 麤 connected with 粗 have now been taken over completely by 粗, and 麤 has become a variant of 粗.
飍, made of three characters for wind, does not mean a very strong wind! 飍 in fact describes the look of fleeing in panic, of hurried and rapid steps.
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