卿 (qīng): high ranking official (old), term of endearment between spouses (old)

卿 (qīng) is a Chinese character meaning “high ranking official (old).” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 卯 (structural). It ranks #3006 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 卩 seal10 strokesFrequency #3006卯 structural

Definitions

  1. high ranking official (old)
  2. term of endearment between spouses (old)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
国务卿nounguó wù qīngSecretary of State
卿卿我我phraseqīng qīng wǒ wǒto bill and coo (idiom)
国务次卿guó wù cì qīngUnder Secretary of State
机关算尽太聪明，反算了卿卿性命jī guān suàn jìn tài cōng ming , fǎn suàn le qīng qīng xìng mìngif one is too calculating, it will be the cause of one's own undoing (famous line in "A Dream of Red Mansions" 紅樓夢|红楼...
副国务卿fù guó wù qīngundersecretary of state
关汉卿guān hàn qīngGuan Hanqing (c. 1235-c. 1300), Yuan dynasty dramatist in the 雜劇|杂剧 tradition of musical comedy, one of the Four Grea...
大理寺卿dà lǐ sì qīngChief Justice of the Imperial Court of Judicial Review
公卿noungōng qīnghigh-ranking officials in the court of a Chinese emperor
王侯公卿wáng hóu gōng qīngaristocracy
科卿kē qīngCochin (in south India)
颜真卿yán zhēn qīngYan Zhenqing (709-785), a leading calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty
九卿proper-nounjiǔ qīngthe nine top officials (in imperial China)
太仆寺卿tài pú sì qīngMinister of imperial stud, originally charged with horse breeding
冏卿jiǒng qīngminister of the imperial stud, originally charged with horse breeding
徐祯卿xú zhēn qīngXu Zhenqing (1479-1511), Ming writer, one of Four great southern talents of the Ming 江南四大才子
15
Total compounds
7
As first character
87
As last character
7
As middle character

卿 appears in 15 compound words: 7 as the first character, 87 as the last, and 7 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

卿卿我我qīngqīngwǒwǒ

whispers of love; lovers' talk; to bill and coo; to be very much in love; intimate relations

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们卿字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men qīng zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "卿."

English News - RthkMar 2026

美卿称对伊朗战事仍将持续几周 七国外长吁停止...

měi qīng chèn duì yī lǎng zhàn shì réng jiāng chí xù jī zhōu qī guó wài cháng xū tíng zhǐ . . .

U.S. Secretary of State Says Fighting in Iran Will Continue for Weeks; Foreign Ministers of Seven Countries Call for a Ceasefire...

BastillepostMar 2026

古巴周二恢复大部分电网供电 美卿称古巴须彻底改革

gǔ bā zhōu èr huī fù dà bù fēn diàn wǎng gōng diàn měi qīng chèn gǔ bā xū chè de gǎi gé

Cuba Restored Power to Most of Its Grid on Tuesday; U.S. Secretary of State Says Cuba Must Undergo Comprehensive Reforms

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

美国国务卿将于下周访问以色列

měi guó guó wù qīng jiāng yú xià zhōu fǎng wèn yǐ sè liè

The U.S. Secretary of State will visit Israel next week

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

古巴领海发生船只交火 美国务卿否认美政府人员参与

gǔ bā lǐng hǎi fā shēng chuán zhī jiāo huǒ měi guó wù qīng fǒu rèn měi zhèng fǔ rén yuán cān yǔ

Ship-to-ship gunfire erupts in Cuban territorial waters; U.S. Secretary of State denies U.S. government involvement

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

美副国务卿:稳定美中关系 但不信任中共

měi fù guó wù qīng : wěn dìng měi zhōng guān xì dàn bù xìn rèn zhōng gòng

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State: Stabilize U.S.-China Relations, but Do Not Trust the Chinese Communist Party

Character Family

卩 Radical Family — Characters sharing the seal radical

却què即jí印yìn卫wèi危wēi卷juǎn卵luǎn卸xiè卯mǎo

Related Characters

印yìn危wēi卫wèi即jí卷juǎn却què卵luǎn卸xiè卯mǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 卿 (qīng) mean in Chinese?
卿 (qīng) primarily means "high ranking official (old)." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3006 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 卿 and 低?
卿 (qīng) and 低 (dī) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 卿 (high) vs 低 (low).
How many strokes does 卿 have?
卿 is written with 10 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 卿?
The radical associated with 卿 is 卩 (seal). This radical appears in many characters related to seal.
What are the components of 卿?
卿 is composed of: 卯 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 卿?
Common words with 卿 include: 国务卿 (guó wù qīng, "Secretary of State"); 卿卿我我 (qīng qīng wǒ wǒ, "to bill and coo (idiom)"); 国务次卿 (guó wù cì qīng, "Under Secretary of State"); 机关算尽太聪明，反算了卿卿性命 (jī guān suàn jìn tài cōng ming , fǎn suàn le qīng qīng xìng mìng, "if one is too calculating, it will be the cause of one's own undoing (famous line in "A Dream of Red Mansions" 紅樓夢|红楼..."); 副国务卿 (fù guó wù qīng, "undersecretary of state"). There are over 15 compound words containing this character.
Is 卿 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 卿 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 卿 with real-time feedback

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

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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.