拍

The Chinese character 拍 (pāi) is composed of two parts: the radical 手 (shǒu), meaning "hand," and the phonetic component 拍 (pāi), which is a pictograph of two hands clapping. The character 拍 originally meant "to clap hands" or "to applaud," but it has since taken on a wider range of meanings, including "to pat," "to strike," "to photograph," and "to shoot (a film)."The character 拍 is first attested in the oracle bone script of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC), where it is used in the sense of "to clap hands." In the bronzeware script of the Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1046-771 BC), the character 拍 is used in the sense of "to strike" or "to beat." In the seal script of the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC), the character 拍 is used in the sense of "to photograph."The character 拍 is a common character in modern Chinese, and it is used in a wide variety of contexts. For example, the word 拍手 (pāishǒu) means "to clap hands," the word 拍打 (pāidǎ) means "to pat," the word 拍照 (pàizhào) means "to take a photograph," and the word 拍电影 (pāidiànyǐng) means "to shoot a film."The character 拍 is also used in a number of idioms and proverbs. For example, the idiom 拍马屁 (pāimǎpì) means "to flatter someone," and the proverb 一巴掌拍不响 (yībāzhǎng pāi bù xiǎng) means "it takes two hands to clap."