(xìn): quarrel, dispute, a blood sacrifice (arch.)

(xìn) is a Chinese character meaning “quarrel.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2823 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, blood. Its radical form (blood) appears in many related characters such as (xiě, see 血).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. quarrel
  2. dispute
  3. a blood sacrifice (arch.)

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticblood

Decomposition: ⿰血半 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
tiǎo xìnto provoke
xún xìnto pick a quarrel
xún xìn zī shì zuìdisorderly behavior (PRC law)
biān xìnclash on the frontier
xìn duānpretext for a dispute
guān xìn sì xìlit. to look for holes, and observe gaps (idiom)
xìn xìenmity
7
Total compounds
29
As first character
43
As last character
29
As middle character

appears in 7 compound words: 29 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 29 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.

tiāo
0.6697,328 co-occurrences
0.6061,716 co-occurrences
xún
0.5631,854 co-occurrences
zuì
0.4361,062 co-occurrences
shè
0.42836 co-occurrences
xián
0.424360 co-occurrences
fěi
0.41536 co-occurrences
bàng
0.40436 co-occurrences
ōu
0.39042 co-occurrences
nào
0.38848 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le xìn zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "衅" in the dictionary.

Hk01.comMar 2026

Benz女司机违泊巴士站拒离开!举中指挑 九巴司机落车理论赶走

B e n z nǚ sī jī wéi bó bā shì zhàn jù lí kāi ! jǔ zhōng zhǐ tiāo xìn jiǔ bā sī jī luò chē lǐ lùn gǎn zǒu

Mercedes-Benz driver illegally parked at a bus stop and refused to leave! She gave the middle finger in defiance; a KMB driver got out of his bus to confront her and shooed her away

TvbsMar 2026

黄仁勋罕见谈台海!吁美国不要挑中国、台湾值得友谊与支持

huáng rén xūn hǎn jiàn tán tái hǎi ! xū měi guó bù yāo tiāo xìn zhōng guó , tái wān zhí dé yǒu yì yǔ zhī chí

Jensen Huang Makes Rare Comments on the Taiwan Strait! Urges the U.S. Not to Provoke China; Says Taiwan Deserves Friendship and Support

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...男向饼店职员掟面包 另涉推跌老翁被捕 挑警员:玩嘢

. . . nán xiàng bǐng diàn zhí yuán 掟 miàn bāo lìng shè tuī diē lǎo wēng bèi bǔ tiāo xìn jǐng yuán : wán 嘢

... Man throwing bread at bakery clerk Arrested for pushing and knocking down old man provoking police officer: Playing tricks

Hk01.comFeb 2026

青衣黑褛男向饼店职员掟包 疑言语挑警员 揭另涉推跌老翁被捕

qīng yī hēi 褛 nán xiàng bǐng diàn zhí yuán 掟 bāo yí yán yǔ tiāo xìn jǐng yuán jiē lìng shè tuī diē lǎo wēng bèi bǔ

A man in a black coat in green clothes threw a bag at a bakery clerk, suspected of provoking the police officers, and was arrested for pushing and dropping the old man

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...se New Year 小粉红崩溃:在挑我们

. . . s e N e w Y e a r xiǎo fěn hóng bēng kuì : zài tiāo xìn wǒ men

... se New Year Little Pink Crash: Provoking Us

Tatoeba

反叛者践踏敌人的旗帜,以示挑

Fǎnpàn zhě jiàntà dírén de qízhì, yǐ shì tiǎoxìn.

Rebels stomped on the enemy’s flags as a sign of defiance.

Tatoeba

萨米对顾客变得更加挑了。

Sàmǐ duì gùkè biàn de gèngjiā tiǎoxìn le.

Sami became more aggressive with customers.

Tatoeba

他是个挑高手。

Tā shì gè tiǎoxìn gāoshǒu.

He's a master of provocation.

Tatoeba

有时候冰球运动员相互挑得太厉害以至于会引发斗殴。

Yǒushíhou bīngqiú yùndòngyuán xiānghù tiǎoxìn de tài lìhai yǐzhìyú huì yǐnfā dòu'ōu.

Sometimes hockey players get so competitive that fights break out.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the blood radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced xìn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 衅 (xìn) mean in Chinese?
衅 (xìn) primarily means "quarrel." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2823 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 衅 and 胖?
衅 (xìn) and 胖 (pàng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 血 vs 月 (same 半 component).
How many strokes does 衅 have?
衅 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 衅?
The radical associated with 衅 is 血 (blood). This radical appears in many characters related to blood.
What are the components of 衅?
衅 is composed of: 血 (semantic), 半 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰血半 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 衅?
Common words with 衅 include: 挑衅 (tiǎo xìn, "to provoke"); 寻衅 (xún xìn, "to pick a quarrel"); 寻衅滋事罪 (xún xìn zī shì zuì, "disorderly behavior (PRC law)"); 边衅 (biān xìn, "clash on the frontier"); 衅端 (xìn duān, "pretext for a dispute"). There are over 7 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 衅 (xìn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xìn: 心 (heart, mind), 芯 ((bound form) the pith of the rush plant (used as a lampwick)), 辛 ((of taste) hot or pungent), 欣 (happy). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 衅 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 衅 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.