The story of 旁

beside

旁 is composed of the variant of 凡 and 方. 方 depicts a criminal enclosed by a cangue, while 凡 is the picture of a hollow bamboo pipe, here represent the cangue. 方 has already had the meaning of side, but then 方 has other meanings, and also the user wants to be more precise, 凡 is added in order to mean ‘side’ specifically, since cangue has a hole in the middle, only has four ‘sides’.