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.

A ‘pierced heart’ character that hasn’t been us

dāo

A 5-stroke heart-knife — not a weapon, but the an

xīn

This 'heart radical' isn’t a heart at all — it’

xiāng

This 'stroll' character hides a phonetic sheep —

huī

This 17-stroke 'badge' character hides a ritual or

jiǎo

This 16-stroke character looks like a walking man

wèi

A 3,000-year-old pictograph of floorboards stretch

zhǐ

This character looks like it’s marching to war—b

This 'footpath' character hides a pastoral secret:

yáo

This character’s 13 strokes map the grueling marc

páng

This 'irresolute' character hides in plain sight

cháng

This character looks like it means 'to wander' —

Its 10-stroke form hides a Bronze Age secret: 彳 (

yáng

This ‘walking-in-circles’ character hides a shee

xùn

This '9-stroke walk toward weakness' — 彳 + 旬 —

This 'go' character isn’t for trips to the superm

chí

This ‘go to and fro’ character isn’t about trav

zhōng

Though pronounced zhōng like 'middle', 彸 is the

zhuó

This 'bridge' character vanished from speech 1,500

chì

This invisible three-stroke radical — never spoke

bīn

This character’s three decorative strokes (彡) ar

biāo

A tiger’s stripes turned into a radical for raw s

This rare, luminous character — born from royal r

yàn

This 9-stroke character hides a Bronze Age portrai

tóng

This 'red' isn’t for apples or traffic lights —

shān

This radical isn’t about bristles — it’s ancien

This 18-stroke character began as a bronze-age rit

zhì

This 12-stroke character looks like a boar lowerin