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.

lǎo

This 9-stroke mouth-character isn’t ‘old’—it’

wāi

呙 is a forgotten twin of 歪 — same sound, same m

xiū

This 'shoo!' character isn’t just sound — it’s

xuǎn

This 'character' has zero strokes and zero existen

è

This 'character' has zero strokes, no radical, and

táo

This 'wail' character hides a visual pun: mouth (

huī

A literary 'neigh' born not from horse pictures bu

luò

This 'mouth + each' character visually enacts phle

zhòu

This rare, literary character for 'bird's beak' hi

zhǐ

This 'handspan' character hides an ancient body-me

This 'cat-call' character isn’t ancient — it’s

miē

This character is a rare 'sound portrait': 口 + 羊

liě

This mouth-splitting character looks like 'mouth +

This 'surprise' interjection isn’t ancient—it’s

dié

This 9-stroke 'gnaw' character hides ancient teeth

guāng

This 'bang' isn't written — it's performed: a lat

è

This 'drum-beating' character hides a secret: its

This 9-stroke whisper hides a kneeling beggar in i

dōng

This booming onomatopoeia has no ancient roots —

zuǒ

This 'character' has zero strokes — it's not anci

Though it looks like 'ancient mouth', 咕 isn’t hi

zhòu

This 'incantation' character fuses mouth (口) and

A 20th-century comic-book invention — not ancient

jiù

This 'blame' character hides a kneeling, ritually

hāi

This 'hāi' character isn't 'happy' — it's a ghos

A rare, thunderous 'NO' carved in ink — 咈 isn’t

This 'fragrant' character looks like a mouth sayin

páo

This roaring mouth + wrapping bagel character look