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.

yāo

This three-stroke character — the smallest indepe

zhé

This 'blade of grass' character is extinct as a wo

This 2-stroke character once depicted cosmic cross

It’s not a word, has zero strokes, and appears on

丿

piě

This one-stroke radical looks like a casual slash

dòng

This 'bowl' character is actually a Japanese-modif

It looks like 'eight' and sounds like 'eight' — b

zhǔ

This one-stroke radical — the smallest in Chinese

zhuó

This 10-stroke glyph looks like tangled grass — a

chǎn

This character looks like two sticks with a tiny b

guàn

This five-stroke character isn’t abstract — it’

This ancient 'two-handed grasp' character vanished

Born as a pictograph of a forked tree branch, 丫 e

gǔn

It’s not a word — it’s the cosmic plumb line: a

chéng

Originally a kneeling servant lifting someone up,

A five-stroke minimalist masterpiece: one line ove

miǎn

A four-stroke architectural haiku: one horizontal

This 'pedestal' character doesn’t stand alone —

kǎo

This two-stroke 'breath' character never appears a

huán

A rare 18-stroke bird character whose 'sunlight +

guǎn

A meticulously engineered scientific character —

wèi

This 'blenny' character hides a secret: its right

mài

This 'element' character hides a bird (鳥) — not

shāo

This 'basket' character hides a phonetic secret:

páng

Originally picturing a dragon under a vast roof,

dǎng

This 'party' character began as a bronze-age image

This character looks like millet + fire + person

Its 'harmony + bird' structure reflects how ancien