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

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

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

惩

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿱征心 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 惩

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
惩罚verbchéng fápenalty6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
惩戒verbchéng jièto discipline
严惩verbyán chéngto punish severely
惩罚性nounchéng fá xìngpunitive
惩治verbchéng zhìto punish
惩处verbchéng chǔto punish
惩办verbchéng bànto punish (someone)
严惩不贷phraseyán chéng bù dàito punish severely (idiom)
惩一警百phrasechéng yī jǐng bǎivariant of 懲一儆百|惩一儆百
重惩zhòng chéngto punish severely
惩前毖后phrasechéng qián bì hòulit. to punish those before to prevent those after (idiom)
惩一儆百phrasechéng yī jǐng bǎilit. punish one to warn one hundred (idiom)
惩恶扬善phrasechéng è yáng shànto uphold virtue and condemn evil (idiom)
小惩大诫xiǎo chéng dà jièlit. to punish a little to prevent a lot (idiom)
惩恶劝善phrasechéng è quàn shànsee 懲惡揚善|惩恶扬善
劝善惩恶phrasequàn shàn chéng èto encourage virtue and punish evil (idiom)
17
Total compounds
65
As first character
18
As last character
18
As middle character

惩 appears in 17 compound words: 65 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 18 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 惩 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

罚fá
0.7577,833 co-occurrences
厉lì
0.538360 co-occurrences
戒jiè
0.504862 co-occurrences
严yán
0.4811,582 co-occurrences
贪tān
0.465172 co-occurrences
凶xiōng
0.449204 co-occurrences
恶è
0.448362 co-occurrences
诫jiè
0.43217 co-occurrences
赔péi
0.42198 co-occurrences
劝quàn
0.418126 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (8)

惩恶劝善chéng'èquànshànHSK 6+

to punish the wicked and encourage the good

phrase
惩恶扬善chéng'èyángshànHSK 6+

to punish the evil and praise the good

phrase
惩一警百chéngyījǐngbǎiHSK 6+

to make an example of somebody

phrase
劝善惩恶quànshànchéng'èHSK 6+

to encourage the good and punish the wicked

phrase
小惩大诫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
严惩不贷yánchéngbùdàiHSK 6+

to punish severely without mercy; to punish mercilessly

phrase
惩前毖后chéngqiánbìhòuHSK 6+

to criticize former mistakes firmly to prevent them happening again

phrase
惩一儆百chéngyī jǐngbǎiHSK 6+

to make an example of somebody

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

看到孩子的进步,父母惩中十分欣慰。

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 却被惩处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:不惜一切代价惩罚美国

. . . 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 吁分级惩戒

. . . 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 妇团吁建立惩戒指引、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”挨批惩罚单身狗 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

触犯法律的人受到惩罚。

Chùfàn fǎlǜ de rén shòudào chéngfá.

People who break the law are punished.

Tatoeba

您为什么惩罚他们?

Nín wèishénme chéngfá tāmen?

What are you punishing them for?

Tatoeba

要是我们做了同样的事,我们将会受到惩罚。

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, 你将受到惩罚。

Rúguǒ nǐ wéifǎn le fǎlǜ, nǐ jiāng shòudào chéngfá.

You'll be punished if you break the law.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 心 (heart) component

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 12 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 17 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 惩 (chéng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chéng: 成 (to succeed), 程 (rule), 城 (city, wall), 承 (to bear), 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 惩 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.