Chinese Characters

HanziFeed covers 3,282 Chinese characters classified under the HSK 3.0 standard (CLEC 2022, effective 2026 syllabus). Characters are organized across 7 proficiency levels, from everyday essentials (HSK 1) to advanced literary and academic characters (HSK 7-9).

Each character page includes animated stroke-order diagrams, etymology and component decomposition, example sentences from real-world sources, NPMI-ranked collocations showing statistically significant word pairings, and a character family network connecting sound-alike, meaning-related, and visually similar characters.

Browse by HSK level to follow a structured learning path, by radical to explore meaning patterns across the writing system, or by component to uncover the phonetic and structural building blocks shared across characters.

Characters at a Glance

3,282
Total Characters
205
Radicals Indexed
630
Components Indexed
11,000
Vocabulary Words

All data follows the HSK 3.0 standard (CLEC 2022). Average stroke count across all characters: 10. Stroke range: 1–24.

Browse by HSK Level

The HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) proficiency framework organizes characters from beginner to advanced. Each level page includes character statistics, study tips, FAQ, and the complete character list with stroke order and examples.

HSK 1
246 characters
HSK 2
125 characters
HSK 3
284 characters
HSK 4
441 characters
HSK 5
431 characters
HSK 6
413 characters
HSK 7-9
1342 characters

Browse by Radical

Radicals are the primary classifying elements of Chinese characters, drawn from the traditional set of 214 Kangxi radicals. Every character has exactly one radical. Browsing by radical reveals meaning patterns — for example, characters with the water radical (氵) typically relate to liquids, rivers, or weather. Looking for phonetic patterns? Try browsing by component instead.

氵water(192)扌hand(190)口mouth(154)亻person(133)木tree(127)艹grass(105)忄heart(96)讠speech(82)纟silk(79)辶walk(67)土earth(65)日sun(56)女woman(55)火fire(53)阝mound(52)钅metal(49)宀roof(48)肉meat(46)贝shell(45)刂knife(41)目eye(38)竹bamboo(34)石stone(32)禾grain(31)王jade(30)足foot(29)月moon(28)山mountain(27)疒illness(27)一one(26)

Browse by Component

Components are recurring character parts — including radicals, phonetic elements, and structural pieces. While radicals reveal meaning patterns, components also expose sound patterns: characters sharing a phonetic component often share a pronunciation. For example, characters containing 青 (qīng) frequently sound similar: 清 (qīng), 请 (qǐng), 情 (qíng), 晴 (qíng). Looking for meaning patterns? Try browsing by radical instead.

扌扌(180)氵氵(173)口mouth(167)木wood/tree(127)亻亻(118)艹艹(92)讠讠(73)土earth, soil(71)纟纟(69)辶辶(67)一one(62)⺼⺼(62)日sun, day(61)忄忄(55)女woman(53)心heart, mind(50)宀宀(50)钅钅(47)阝阝(47)火fire(46)贝shell, money(45)目eye(38)禾(bound form) grain plant(37)刂刂(33)石stone(31)⺮⺮(31)山mountain(30)力power(29)广wide, broad(29)足foot(29)

Featured Characters — HSK 1

Start with the most essential characters. HSK Level 1 covers the building blocks of Mandarin literacy.

火huǒfire热rèhot, to heat点diǎnpoint, o'clock机jīmachine, opportunity杯bēicup, glass桌zhuōtable, desk椅yǐchair果guǒfruit, result口kǒumouth吃chīto eat喝hēto drink问wènto ask叫jiàoto call, to be called名míngname, famous可kěcan, may吗maquestion particle呢nequestion particle吧basuggestion particle知zhīto know和héand, peace哥gēelder brother爱àito love想xiǎngto think, to want忙mángbusy

Frequently Asked Questions

How many characters do I need to know for HSK?
The HSK 3.0 standard (CLEC 2022, effective 2026) covers 3,282 unique characters across all levels: 246 in HSK 1, 125 in HSK 2, 284 in HSK 3, 441 in HSK 4, 431 in HSK 5, 413 in HSK 6, 1342 in HSK 7-9. HSK 1–3 (655 characters) is sufficient for everyday conversation and basic literacy. HSK 4–6 covers academic and professional contexts. HSK 7–9 targets advanced mastery comparable to a highly educated native speaker. Most learners aiming for functional fluency focus on HSK 1–4, which covers a substantial portion of everyday written Chinese.
What's the best order to learn Chinese characters?
The HSK level system provides a well-structured learning path — start with HSK 1 and progress sequentially. HSK levels are ordered by frequency and practical utility: Level 1 characters appear in the most common everyday contexts, while higher levels introduce progressively rarer and more specialized characters. Within each level, learning characters grouped by radical or component helps you recognize structural patterns — for example, learning the water radical (氵) early means you can partially decode dozens of water-related characters (河, 海, 湖, 洗) before formally studying them.
How are Chinese characters organized?
Chinese characters are organized by several overlapping systems. The HSK proficiency framework groups characters into 7 levels by difficulty and frequency. The Kangxi radical system classifies characters by their primary structural component — HanziFeed indexes 205 radicals. Beyond radicals, characters can be analyzed by their component parts (phonetic elements, semantic elements, and structural pieces) — HanziFeed indexes 630 unique components. Each character page on HanziFeed shows the character's radical, components, stroke order, etymology, and connections to related characters.
What is the difference between a radical and a component?
A radical is the primary classifying element of a character, drawn from the traditional set of 214 Kangxi radicals used in Chinese dictionaries. Every character has exactly one radical. A component is any recurring part of a character — this includes radicals, but also phonetic elements (parts that suggest pronunciation) and structural pieces that are not radicals. For example, in the character 清 (clear), 氵 is the radical (water) and 青 is a phonetic component (suggesting the sound qīng). Browsing by radical reveals meaning patterns; browsing by component reveals both meaning and sound patterns.
How many radicals are there in Chinese?
The traditional Kangxi radical system contains 214 radicals, established in the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary and still used as the standard classification system today. HanziFeed indexes 205 radicals that appear across the 3,282 HSK characters. Some radicals appear in hundreds of characters (the water radical 氵 and the hand radical 扌 are among the most common), while others appear in only a handful. Many radicals have variant forms when used as components — for example, 水 (water) becomes 氵 when written on the left side of a character.
What does each HanziFeed character page include?
Every character page on HanziFeed provides six analysis panels: (1) meanings and pronunciation with audio, (2) animated stroke-order diagrams, (3) etymology and character decomposition showing how the character is built from components, (4) example sentences from real-world sources, (5) common compound words with NPMI-ranked collocations showing which character pairings are statistically strongest, and (6) a character family network showing sound-alike, meaning-related, and visually similar characters. All 3,282 characters are classified under the current HSK 3.0 standard (CLEC 2022) with accurate level assignments. The average character has 10 strokes.

Sources & Standards

Character data on this page is based on the HSK 3.0 Standard (《国际中文教育中文水平等级标准》), published by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC), Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 2022 revision. The standard took effect as the official syllabus for HSK examinations beginning in 2026.

Character classifications, level assignments, and vocabulary word counts reflect the official CLEC syllabus. Radical classifications follow the Kangxi radical system. Character statistics (stroke counts, frequency rankings, component decompositions) are computed from HanziFeed's curated dataset of 3,282 characters.