(chéng): to punish, to reprimand, to warn

(chéng) is a Chinese character meaning “to punish.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1804 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, heart. Its radical form (heart) appears in many related characters such as (máng, busy), (kuài, fast, happy), (zěn, how).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to punish
  2. to reprimand
  3. to warn

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿱征心 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbchéng fápenalty6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
chéng jièto discipline
yán chéngto punish severely
chéng fá xìngpunitive
chéng zhìto punish
chéng chǔto punish
chéng bànto punish (someone)
yán chéng bù dàito punish severely (idiom)
cóng yán chéng chǔto deal with sb severely (idiom)
chéng yī jǐng bǎilit. punish one, warn one hundred (idiom)
zhòng chéngto punish severely
chéng qián bì hòulit. to punish those before to prevent those after (idiom)
chéng yī jǐng bǎilit. punish one to warn one hundred (idiom)
chéng è yáng shànto uphold virtue and condemn evil (idiom)
xiǎo chéng dà jièlit. to punish a little to prevent a lot (idiom)
chéng è quàn shànsee 懲惡揚善|惩恶扬善[cheng2 e4 yang2 shan4]
18
Total compounds
61
As first character
17
As last character
22
As middle character

appears in 18 compound words: 61 as the first character, 17 as the last, and 22 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.80423,423 co-occurrences
0.5461,080 co-occurrences
yán
0.5394,722 co-occurrences
jiè
0.5212,562 co-occurrences
tān
0.472516 co-occurrences
xiōng
0.456612 co-occurrences
è
0.4551,086 co-occurrences
péi
0.427294 co-occurrences
quàn
0.424378 co-occurrences
cuò
0.408804 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

chéng'èquànshànHSK 6+

to punish the wicked and encourage the good

phrase
chéng'èyángshànHSK 6+

to punish the evil and praise the good

phrase
chéngyījǐngbǎiHSK 6+

to make an example of somebody

phrase
quànshànchéng'èHSK 6+

to encourage the good and punish the wicked

phrase
xiǎo chéng dà jièHSK 7+

lit. to punish a little to prevent a lot (idiom); to criticize former mistakes firmly to prevent large scale repetition

phrase
yánchéngbùdàiHSK 6+

to punish severely without mercy; to punish mercilessly

phrase
chéngqiánbìhòuHSK 6+

to criticize former mistakes firmly to prevent them happening again

phrase
chéngyī jǐngbǎiHSK 6+

to make an example of somebody

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

看到孩子的进步,父母中十分欣慰。

kàn dào hái zǐ de jìn bù , fù mǔ chéng zhōng shí fēn xīn wèi .

Seeing their child's progress, the parents were deeply gratified.

LtnMar 2026

军人网路赌博不起诉 却被处2大过翻案吞败

jūn rén wǎng lù dǔ bó bù qǐ sù què bèi chéng chǔ 2 dà guò fān àn tūn bài

Soldier Not Charged for Online Gambling, but Receives Two Major Disciplinary Penalties; Appeal Rejected

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...对多国目标发动攻击 CNN:不惜一切代价罚美国

. . . duì duō guó mù biāo fā dòng gōng jī C N N : bù xī yī qiē dài jià chéng fá měi guó

... Attacks on multinational targets CNN: Punish the United States at all costs

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...频传...民团批主管机关监督失灵 吁分级

. . . pín chuán . . . mín tuán pī zhǔ guǎn jī guān jiān dū shī líng xū fēn jí chéng jiè

... Frequent transmission... The militia criticized the competent authority for failing to supervise and called for graded punishment

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...医偷拍未成年病患私密照遭起诉 妇团吁建立戒指引、预警机制

. . . yī tōu pāi wèi chéng nián bìng huàn sī mì zhào zāo qǐ sù fù tuán xū jiàn lì chéng jiè zhǐ yǐn , yù jǐng jī zhì

... The doctor was prosecuted for secretly taking intimate photos of underage patients, and the women's group called for the establishment of a punishment ring and early warning mechanism

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

蒋万安“育儿减工时计画”挨批罚单身狗 劳动局:有歧视都可来申诉

蒋 wàn ān yù ér jiǎn gōng shí jì huà āi pī chéng fá dān shēn gǒu láo dòng jú : yǒu qí shì dōu kě lái shēn sù

Jiang Wan'an's "Childcare Hour Reduction Plan" was criticized for punishing single dogs Labor Bureau: If there is discrimination, you can come to complain

Tatoeba

触犯法律的人受到罚。

Chùfàn fǎlǜ de rén shòudào chéngfá.

People who break the law are punished.

Tatoeba

您为什么罚他们?

Nín wèishénme chéngfá tāmen?

What are you punishing them for?

Tatoeba

要是我们做了同样的事,我们将会受到罚。

Yàoshi wǒmen zuò le tóngyàng de shì, wǒmen jiānghuì shòudào chéngfá.

Were we to do such a thing, we should be punished.

Tatoeba

如果你违反了法律, 你将受到罚。

Rúguǒ nǐ wéifǎn le fǎlǜ, nǐ jiāng shòudào chéngfá.

You'll be punished if you break the law.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced chéng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 惩 (chéng) mean in Chinese?
惩 (chéng) primarily means "to punish." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1804 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 惩 have?
惩 is written with 11 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 惩?
The radical associated with 惩 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 惩?
惩 is composed of: 征 (phonetic), 心 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱征心 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 惩?
Common words with 惩 include: 惩罚 (chéng fá, "penalty"); 惩戒 (chéng jiè, "to discipline"); 严惩 (yán chéng, "to punish severely"); 惩罚性 (chéng fá xìng, "punitive"); 惩治 (chéng zhì, "to punish"). There are over 18 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 惩 (chéng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chéng: 撑 (to support), 成 (to succeed), 呈 (to present to a superior), 承 (Cheng (c. 2000 BC), third of the legendary Flame Emperors 炎帝 descended from Shennong 神農|神农 Farmer God), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 惩 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 惩 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.