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.

yún

A rare, elegant character born from 'sun + even di

tūn

A Song-dynasty poetic invention — not ancient, no

mín

A Han-dynasty 'invented virtue' — fusing sun and

mín

旻 looks like 'sun over culture' — an ancient vis

chǎn

A rare, majestic character depicting sunlight aime

This rare, poetic character isn’t just 'dawn' —

gàn

This 'sunset' character hides a drought glyph — i

This 'dawn' character hides a phonetic secret: its

This 4-stroke character began as a Bronze Age draw

This character is a frozen snapshot of Zhou dynast

kuài

This rare character hides a battlefield secret: it

fān

This 'pennant' character hides a cosmic secret: it

shāo

A six-stroke character that’s not in HSK, yet enc

liú

This 13-stroke character isn’t just ‘tassel’ —

zhào

This 'banner' isn’t for parades—it’s the sacred

jīng

This 'banner' isn’t for parades—it’s a 2,500-ye

pèi

This 10-stroke character isn’t just ‘pennant’

máo

This 10-stroke character hides a yak-tail banner o

zhān

This 10-stroke character looks like a square banne

yóu

This 9-stroke character is a frozen snapshot of Br

pèi

This 'banner' character 斾 isn't just rare — it's

This 'Oh!' isn’t casual — it’s a classical excl

zhǔ

This 'chop' character hides an ancient axe-and-han

zhuó

This rare, razor-sharp character looks like an axe

zhuó

This 9-stroke axe-strike character hasn’t appeare

qiāng

This double-bladed axe character hasn’t been used

This 'hatchet' character hides a phonetic secret:

tiǎo

This 'exchange' character vanished from speech ove