(): to connect, to relate to, to tie up

() is a Chinese character meaning “to connect.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 丿 (structural) and (semantic). It ranks #216 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, thread. Its radical form (silk) appears in many related characters such as (lěi, to accumulate), (shào, to continue), (gěi, give).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to connect
  2. to relate to
  3. to tie up

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticthread

Decomposition: ⿱丿糸 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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
noun/verbguān xirelation3
verblián xìvariant of 聯繫|联系[lian2 xi4]4
méi guān xiit doesn't matter1
xì tǒngsystem5
nounxì lièseries6
nountǐ xìsystem6
adjectiveyī xì lièa series of6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xīng xìsee 恆星系|恒星系[heng2 xing1 xi4]
xìng guān xisexual relations
tài yáng xìsolar system
yín hé xìMilky Way Galaxy
gān xìresponsibility
wéi xìto maintain
lián xì réncontact person
xì zhǔ rènhead of a (university) department
xì shùcoefficient
guān xi wǎngnetwork of people with whom one has dealings on the basis of "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours"
cāo zuò xì tǒngoperating system
ài mèi guān xìshady relationship
xì tǒng xìngsystematic
zhí xìdirectly related
pài xìsect
100
Total compounds
12
As first character
68
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 12 as the first character, 68 as the last, and 20 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.

tǒng
0.718803,738 co-occurrences
liè
0.6911,071,167 co-occurrences
guān
0.617472,192 co-occurrences
lián
0.474152,166 co-occurrences
cāo
0.42944,592 co-occurrences
0.415118,776 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.39415,552 co-occurrences
yuán
0.39213,536 co-occurrences
shòu
0.38857,900 co-occurrences
ài
0.386798 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (15)

gōnggòng guānxìHSK 3+

public relations

noun
guójì guānxìHSK 4+

international relations

noun
hūxī xìtǒngHSK 5+

respiratory system

noun
jiě líng xì língHSK 5+

see 解鈴還須繫鈴人|解铃还须系铃人[jie3 ling2 hai2 xu1 xi4 ling2 ren2]

phrase
kāifàng xìtǒngHSK 5+

open system

noun
lì hài guān xiHSK 4+

stake; vital interest; concern

phrase
línbā xìtǒngHSK 6+

lymphatic system

noun
miǎnyì xìtǒngHSK 6+

immune system

noun
qúndài guānxìHSK 3+

cronyism; nepotism

noun
rénjìguānxìHSK 4+

interpersonal relationship

noun
ShǎnhányǔxìHSK 6+

the Hamito-Semitic (Afroasiatic) language family

shè huì guān xìHSK 4+

social relation

phrase

Showing 12 of 15 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这两个事件之间存在着密切的联

Zhè liǎng gè shìjiàn zhī jiān cúnzài zhe mìqiè de liánxì.

There is a close connection between these two events.

LtnFeb 2026

美财长:与贸易夥伴联 各国盼维持既有关税协议

měi cái cháng : yǔ mào yì 夥 bàn lián xì gè guó pàn wéi chí jì yǒu guān shuì xié yì

U.S. Treasury Secretary: Liaising with trading partners Countries hope to maintain existing tariff agreements

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...中山大宅跟北方煮锅贴过年 圈中老公杜燕歌清朝皇族后裔

. . . zhōng shān dà zhái gēn běi fāng zhǔ guō tiē guò nián juān zhōng lǎo gōng dù yān gē xì qīng cháo huáng zú hòu yì

... Zhongshan Mansion and the north cook potstickers for the New Year, and her husband Du Yange in the circle is a descendant of the Qing Dynasty royal family

百度新闻Feb 2026

...场外音丨陆玮鑫:冬奥会需引入“鹰眼挑战”..

. . . chǎng wài yīn 丨 lù 玮 鑫 : dōng ào huì xū yǐn rù yīng yǎn tiāo zhàn xì . .

... Off-site sound丨Lu Weixin: The Winter Olympics need to introduce the "Eagle Eye Challenge" system:

百度新闻Feb 2026

中外交流|塞尔维亚举行列新春庙会活动庆祝中国年

zhōng wài jiāo liú sāi ěr wéi yà jǔ háng xì liè xīn chūn miào huì huó dòng qìng zhù zhōng guó nián

Sino-Foreign Exchange|Serbia celebrates Chinese New Year with a series of Lunar New Year temple festivals

百度新闻Feb 2026

学习规划建议每日问答丨构建智能化军事体

xué xí guī huá jiàn yì měi rì wèn dā 丨 gòu jiàn zhì néng huā jūn shì tī xì

Study Planning Tips: Daily Q&A丨Building an Intelligent Military System

Tatoeba

你是不是跟长岛家有关的?

Nǐ shì bù shì gēn Chángdǎo jiā yǒu guānxì de?

Are you related to the Nagashima family?

Tatoeba

您的家族史跟中医有没有关

Nín de jiāzú shǐ gēn Zhōngyī yǒuméiyǒu guānxi?

Does your family background involve Chinese medicine?

Tatoeba

你还和你的高中同学保持联吗?

Nǐ hái hé nǐ de gāozhōng tóngxué bǎochí liánxì ma?

Do you keep in contact with your high school classmates?

Tatoeba

汤姆那里有联过你吗?

Tāngmǔ nàli yǒuliánxì guo nǐ ma?

Have you heard from Tom?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 系 (xì) mean in Chinese?
系 (xì) primarily means "to connect." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #216 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 系 and 下?
系 (xì) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 系 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 系 have?
系 is written with 4 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 系?
The radical associated with 系 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are the components of 系?
系 is composed of: 丿 (structural), 糸 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱丿糸 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 系?
Common words with 系 include: 关系 (guān xi, "relation"); 联系 (lián xì, "variant of 聯繫|联系[lian2 xi4]"); 没关系 (méi guān xi, "it doesn't matter"); 系统 (xì tǒng, "system"); 系列 (xì liè, "series"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 系 (xì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xì: 吸 (to breathe), 西 (the West), 希 (to hope), 息 (breath), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 系 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 系 and the traditional form is 係.

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.