Browse "HSK5" Characters

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

shū

This 'comb' character hides a ritual: in ancient C

Its name sounds like 'parting' — so gifting pears

táo

This 'peach' character began as a bronze-age picto

This 'pit' character evolved from fruit stones to

chái

Originally a bronze-age drawing of bound logs atop

One character, two pronunciations: jǔ in dusty di

róu

This 'soft' character hides a warrior’s secret: i

mǒu

Born as a marked tree in ancient bronze inscriptio

jià

This 'support' character began as a Bronze Age sca

Born as an axe chopping wood, 析 evolved into Chin

cūn

Though it means 'village,' 村 was invented late in

wèi

This 'not yet' character began as a treetop — and

This four-stroke 'tree' is the radical behind 1,20

cháo

Born as a sunrise ritual scene, 朝 fused time, dir

lǎng

Though it looks like a moon character, 朗’s true

This 'substitute' character 替 began as a bronze-a

céng

Born as a steaming ancestral rice pot, this charac

shài

Originally a pictograph of sunlight filtering thro

àn

This character started as a pictograph of the sun

yūn

This 'sun with wobbly rings' started as a cosmic h

zhì

Though it has the 'sun' radical, 智 isn't about li

yìng

Originally a pictograph of sunlight radiating outw

kūn

This 'descendant' character began as two suns — a

xún

This 'ten-day period' character began as a sun wit

dàn

This 'dawn' character began as a sun kissing the h

shī

Born as a bronze-age banner command, this 9-stroke

xié

This 'inclined' character began as a tilted ladle

dǒu

This 4-stroke character began as a bronze-age grai

This 'enemy' character hides a tongue — because i

jìng

This character began as a bronze-age priest holdin

Born from a hand arranging bamboo slips, 叙 isn’t

jiù

Its left side looks like 'begging' (求), but add t

mǐn

Its ancient form showed a crouching person under a

shè

This 'absorption' character began as a hand seizin

lán

This 'blocking' character hides a pastoral origin:

bǎi

Its right side looks like 'bai' (hundred), but thi

kuò

Born as a hand pulling a taut bowstring, this 6-st

Its right side 齐 once showed three grain stalks

cāo

This 'grasp' character evolved from ancient battle

dǎng

This 'hand-meeting-force' character evolved from a