Browse "HSK6" 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.

chēng

This 'support' character hides a battle scene: its

lāo

This 'fishing-up' character evolved from ancient w

piē

That sharp left-flicking stroke isn't calligraphy

zhì

Its oracle bone form shows a hand clutching a sacr

cuī

Its hand radical + 'towering mountain' phonetic vi

lōu

This 'hug' character began as a pictograph of coil

zhà

This 'press' character hides a wood-and-constricti

Though it means 'to put up,' 搭 evolved from ancie

dǎo

Its 10 strokes visually reenact a pestle striking

cuō

This 12-stroke character hides ancient agrarian wi

This 'fight' character began as a hand grabbing a

yuán

Originally a rope-and-hand pictograph for 'pulling

jiē

Originally picturing hands prying apart ancient co

zòu

This character looks like 'presenting music' (奏)

róu

This 12-stroke character hides a Daoist secret: it

jiǎn

Though it looks like 'east' (东) on the right, 拣

bāi

This 12-stroke character is literally two hands te

yǎn

Its right side 奄 once depicted a person crushed u

tàn

This 'explore' character began as a hand reaching

lu:e4

Originally a hawk snatching prey in bronze script,

jué

This 'dig' character doesn’t show a shovel—it sh

qiā

This character’s 11 strokes visually reenact thum

tāo

This character began as a hand plunging into a cla

xiān

Originally a hand ripping open a curtain — today

pěng

This 11-stroke character hides a ritual: every tim

Born as a hand chasing prey in ancient scripts, 捕

niē

Originally meaning 'to shape clay with fingers,'

shāo

This 'hand + little' character captures China’s g

hàn

This 'ward off' character hides a warrior’s grip

zhuō

Though it looks like 'hand + foot,' 捉 evolved fro

kǔn

This ‘bunch’ character is actually a rope-tighte

wǎn

This 'pull' character began as a hand gripping a r

cuò

Its right side isn’t ‘sun’ (日) — it’s ‘past

nuó

A deceptively simple 9-stroke character whose hand

āi

Born from a hand guiding a bending figure, this 10

This character began as a hand plunging into a cav

kuà

This 9-stroke character hides a 2,300-year-old phy

zhuāi

Its seal-script origin shows a commander's banner

zhuō

This 'awkward' character is actually ancient perfo

Its right side 句 means 'sentence' — so 拘 litera