轼 (shì): (literary) handrail at the front of a carriage or chariot, to bow while leaning on this handrail as a gesture of respect

轼 (shì) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) handrail at the front of a carriage or chariot.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 车 (semantic) and 式 (phonetic). It ranks #4790 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 轼 cart. Its radical form 车 (cart) appears in many related characters such as 车 (chē, vehicle), 辆 (liàng, measure word for vehicles), 轻 (qīng, light).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (literary) handrail at the front of a carriage or chariot
  2. to bow while leaning on this handrail as a gesture of respect

Etymology & Origin

轼

pictophoneticcart

Decomposition: ⿰车式 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
金富轼jīn fù shìKim Busik (1075-1151), court historian of the Korean Georyo dynasty 高麗|高丽, compiler of History of Three Kin...
凭轼结辙píng shì jié zhéto drive non-stop as fast as one can (idiom)
苏轼sū shìSu Shi (1037-1101), aka Su Dongpo 蘇東坡|苏东坡, Song dynasty writer, calligrapher and public official, one ...
3
Total compounds
0
As first character
67
As last character
33
As middle character

轼 appears in 3 compound words: 0 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 33 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好轼字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo shì zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhèng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "轼" correctly, you need to master the correct stroke order.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

同时,数字技术还生成了李白、杜甫、苏轼三大核心章节的情景短剧。

tóng shí , shǔ zì jì shù hái shēng chéng le lǐ bái , dù fǔ , sū shì sān dà hé xīn zhāng jié de qíng jǐng duǎn jù .

At the same time, digital technology has also generated short scenario-based skits for the three core chapters on Li Bai, Du Fu, and Su Shi.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

苏轼《赵德麟饯饮湖上舟中对月》 牛乳抨酥瀹茗芽,蜂房分蜜渍棕花。

sū shì zhào dé lín 饯 yǐn hú shàng zhōu zhōng duì yuè niú rǔ pēng sū 瀹 茗 yá , fēng fáng fēn mì 渍 zōng huā .

Su Shi, “A Poem Composed on a Boat on the Lake While Gazing at the Moon at a Farewell Banquet Hosted by Zhao Delin”: “Cream is churned from milk to brew tea leaves; honey is drawn from the hive to soak palm blossoms.”

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Apr 2026

一部开放的书法文本——解读苏轼《黄州寒食诗帖》

yī bù kāi fàng de shū fǎ wén běn — — jiě dòu sū shì huáng zhōu hán shí shī tiē

An Open Calligraphic Text: An Interpretation of Su Shi’s “Huangzhou Cold Food Festival Poem Scroll”

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 车 (cart) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced shì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 轼 (shì) mean in Chinese?
轼 (shì) primarily means "(literary) handrail at the front of a carriage or chariot." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #4790 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 轼 and 后?
轼 (shì) and 后 (hòu) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 轼 (front) vs 后 (back).
How many strokes does 轼 have?
轼 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 轼?
The radical associated with 轼 is 车 (cart). This radical appears in many characters related to cart.
What are the components of 轼?
轼 is composed of: 车 (semantic), 式 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰车式 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 轼?
Common words with 轼 include: 金富轼 (jīn fù shì, "Kim Busik (1075-1151), court historian of the Korean Georyo dynasty 高麗|高丽, compiler of History of Three Kin..."); 凭轼结辙 (píng shì jié zhé, "to drive non-stop as fast as one can (idiom)"); 苏轼 (sū shì, "Su Shi (1037-1101), aka Su Dongpo 蘇東坡|苏东坡, Song dynasty writer, calligrapher and public official, one ..."). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 轼 (shì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shì: 试 (to try, to test), 拭 (to wipe), 拾 (to pick up). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 轼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 轼 and the traditional form is 軾.

Practice writing 轼 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.