Browse Characters — Learn Chinese Through Stories

Every character has an origin. Discover the pictographs, myths, and history behind each Chinese character — with pinyin, stroke order, HSK level, and audio pronunciation.

quán

A heart carefully rolling a scroll — this rare ch

lín

This 'cold' character isn’t about temperature —

This rare character fuses 'heart' and 'already com

yuān

This rare, literary character looks like 'heart +

guǒ

Looks like 'heart + fruit' — because in ancient C

dūn

This 'kindhearted' character hides an ancient port

chóu

This 'forlorn' character refuses to stand alone—i

This rare character visually fuses heart, thorn, a

kōng

Looks like 'empty' (空) with a heart radical — bu

xìng

Looks like ‘happiness’ (幸) — but with a heart

This character’s right side, 夋, began as a coili

This 'sorrowful' character doesn’t cry — it stan

chàng

Its 'heart' radical holds a 'long' component — vi

cuì

This character’s heart radical + 'end-of-life' co

fěi

This character captures the exact Confucian moment

cóng

This rare 'joy' character hides a profound Confuci

liàng

This ‘melancholy’ character hides a silent heart

This 'character' has zero strokes and zero existen

kuī

A 10-stroke 'heart-box' character that doesn’t me

chěng

It's not a real character — no ancient inscriptio

quān

This 'reform' character hides a bronze-age U-turn

sǒng

Its ten strokes map perfectly to the physical grip

bèi

A 10-stroke heart-radical character whose very sha

This 'wish' character hides a heart whispering 'x

This 'anxiety' character hides a spilling teacup (

This 'zero-stroke' character isn’t missing stroke

hàn

This 'heroic' character hides a weapon in its hear

This character began as a picture of a man kneelin