Chinese Characters Starting with "P start"

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

pèi

Born as a bronze-age image of water feeding dense

piáo

This 'wood + divination crack' character is the Ko

Though it looks like 'sun + cloth + action', 曝 wa

pān

Its 19 strokes form two grasping hands, a tree, an

Born as a bronze-age hunter tackling a bird, 扑 st

piē

That sharp left-flicking stroke isn't calligraphy

pěng

This 11-stroke character hides a ritual: every tim

pāo

Originally picturing a hand scattering ash, 抛 evo

This 7-stroke character began as a Bronze Age pict

Though it looks like 'skin on dirt,' 坡 is all abo

pàn

This 'betrayal' character hides a severed pancake

This 15-stroke character visually reenacts its mea

pōu

Though it looks like a polite ‘knife beside sound

This 15-stroke character began as a pictograph of

piān

Born as a bronze-age image of a person standing as

piāo

This character’s wind radical isn’t decoration

pín

Born from ancient depictions of nodding heads and

pèi

Born from ancient wine rituals, 配 embodies China

péi

Originally 'doubling cowrie shells' to fix wrongdo

pèng

Its stone radical isn’t decoration — it’s a son

pàn

Its eye radical (目) isn’t decorative—it’s the

pén

This 9-stroke basin character has held water, rice

Though it looks like 'sick skin,' 疲 has nothing t

pài

Originally a river's fork, it became China's go-to

pīn

Originally a bronze-age carpenter's hand locking t

pāi

Though it looks like 'hand + white,' 拍’s 'white'

Born from a hand flinging animal hide over shoulde

píng

This 8-stroke character began as a person kneeling

Though it looks like 'woman + wave,' 婆’s right s

péi

This character began as a pictograph of soil heape

pēn

This 'spouting' character hides a tonal twist: say

pǐn

Originally three mouths tasting wine, now it judge

One tiny 4-stroke character hides two completely u

pèi

Originally a pictograph of a person wearing ceremo

piàn

A horse (马) gallops across a scroll (the right si

péi

Its ancient form shows a person beside a walled ci

píng

Originally ‘level speech’—a visual fusion of ‘

A grape vine (艹) grew so tall it named a European

This 'spleen' character secretly governs your temp

pìn

Originally a ritual betrothal gift — now the go-t