Bing (rank)

Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:More citations needed (Template:Lang-zh; Korean: ; Hanja: Template:Category handler) is the rank usually held by enlisted personnel in some East Asian militaries. The ranks are used in both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan, and both North and South Korea. The rank name is based on one of the four ancient occupations.

Etymology

The Sino-Korean word component "" means "soldier" literally, used in a wide variety of words related with soldiers, like in (Template:Langx; Hanja: , Template:Literally), but rarely (usually in technical context in armed forces) per se.

s, who work closely with their US military counterparts, are frequently addressed as "sergeant" or the equivalent E-5 term in English by the U.S. military. This varies however by unit. In a similar vein, some US E-5s are called hasa by the ROKA members, as their status is one of an NCO.

History

The various ranks of are denoted by stripes worn laterally on a service member's left sleeve. An even lower rank, that of mudeungbyeong (Template:Langx; Hanja: , Template:Literally), also known as hullyeonbyeong (Template:Langx; Hanja: , Template:Literally), is usually believed to be held by enlisted recruits in basic training, and those recruits are not allowed to have any insignia on their uniform until they finish the training course, but they are actually regarded to be ideungbyeong (the lowest byeong rank) officially.

In most comparative military scales, a is considered the equivalent of a non-commissioned officer equal to a sergeant. The South Korean military, however, does not generally grant NCO powers to a service member until obtaining the rank of hasa. Still, in South Korea is exceptionally considered as an NCO when holding the squad leader position.

The word byeong (soldier) has a natural context that personnel in those ranks are not in commanding responsibilities, thus not NCOs at all. They are strictly distinguished from the ranks above in many respects. Personnel with ranks of hasa or above are called ganbu (Template:Langx; Hanja: , Template:Literally), as an antonym of byeong. South Korea's South Korean military are retained by the conscription system. If a person is enlisted to an armed force and has not applied for NCO or officer, then his highest rank until he finishes the mandatory service term (21 months in case of the ROK Army, as of 2012) is to be the highest rank of byeong (i.e. ).

Chinese variant

People's Liberation Army

The same rank names are used for all services, prefixed by (Template:Lang-zh) or (Template:Lang-zh).

Rank group	Enlisted
Chinese
Pinyin
Literal translation	Upper class soldier	Line soldier
Template:Army	File:PLAGF-0702-PFC.png	File:PLAGF-0701-PVT.png
Template:Country data People's Republic of China	File:PLANF-0702-PFC.png	File:PLANF-0701-PVT.png
Template:Air force	File:PLAAF-0702-PFC.png	File:PLAAF-0701-PVT.png
Rank group	Enlisted

Republic of China Armed Forces

Rank group	Enlisted
Rank
Mandarin
Taiwanese
Literal translation	Upper class soldier	First class soldier	Second class soldier
Template:Army	File:Taiwan-army-OR-3.svg	File:Taiwan-army-OR-2.svg	File:Taiwan-army-OR-1.svg
Template:Naval	File:Taiwan-Navy-OR-3.svg	File:Taiwan-Navy-OR-2.svg	File:Taiwan-Navy-OR-1.svg
Template:Air force	File:Taiwan-airforce-OR-3.svg	File:Taiwan-airforce-OR-2.svg	File:Taiwan-airforce-OR-1.svg
Template:Marines	File:Taiwan-Marine-OR-3.svg	File:Taiwan-Marine-OR-2.svg	File:Taiwan-Marine-OR-1.svg
Template:Flagicon image Republic of China Military Police	File:Taiwan-MP-OR-3.svg	File:Taiwan-MP-OR-2.svg	File:Taiwan-MP-OR-1.svg
Rank group	Enlisted

Korean variant

Rank group	Enlisted
Hangul
Hanja
Romanization
Literal translation	Soldier chief	Superior soldier	First class soldier	Second class soldier
Template:Army	File:SouthKorea-Army-OR-4.svg	File:SouthKorea-Army-OR-3.svg	File:SouthKorea-Army-OR-2.svg	File:SouthKorea-Army-OR-1.svg
Official translation	Sergeant	Corporal	Private first class	Private
Template:Naval	File:SouthKorea-Navy-OR-4.svg	File:SouthKorea-Navy-OR-3.svg	File:SouthKorea-Navy-OR-2.svg	File:SouthKorea-Navy-OR-1.svg
Official translation	Petty officer second class	Petty officer third class	Seaman	Seaman apprentice
Template:Air force	File:Rokaf4.png	File:Rokaf3.png	File:Rokaf2.png	File:Rokaf1.png
Template:Marines	File:ROKMC-OR-4.svg	File:ROKMC-OR-3.svg	File:ROKMC-OR-2.svg	File:ROKMC-OR-1.svg
	兵長	上等兵	一等兵	二等兵
Rank group	Enlisted

Vietnamese variant

Rank group	Enlisted
Vietnamese
Chữ Hán	Template:Vi-nom	Template:Vi-nom
Literal translation	First soldier	Second soldier
Template:Army	File:VN-Ground Force-OR-2.svg	File:VN-Ground Force-OR-1.svg
Template:Country data Vietnam	File:VN-Navy-OR-2.svg	File:VN-Navy-OR-1.svg
Template:Air force	File:VN-Air Force-OR-2.svg	File:VN-Air Force-OR-1.svg
Vietnamese
Rank group	Enlisted

South Vietnamese variant

Rank group	Enlisted
Native name
Chữ Hán	Template:Vi-nom	Template:Vi-nom
Literal translation	First soldier	Second soldier
Template:Army (1967-1975)	File:ARVN-OR-2.svg	No insignia
Translation	Private first class	Private
Template:Country data South Vietnam (1967-1975)	File:VNN-OR-2.svg	No insignia
Translation	Seaman	Recruit
Template:Marines (1967-1975)	File:RVNMD-OR-2.svg	No insignia
Translation	Private first class	Private
Template:Air force (1967-1975)	File:B VNAF-OR-2.svg	File:B VNAF-OR-1.svg
Translation	Airman first class	Airman
Native name
Rank group	Enlisted

See also

Ranks used in Chinese character-using countries

• General officer: Jiang (rank)
• Senior officer: Sa (rank), Xiao (rank), Lyeong
• Junior officer: Wei (rank)
• Non-commissioned officers: Shi (rank)
• Enlisted ranks: Bing (rank), Shi (rank)
• Comparative military ranks of Korea