(): to narrate, to chat

() is a Chinese character meaning “to narrate.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1596 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, again. Its radical form (again) appears in many related characters such as (yǒu, friend), (yòu, (once) again), (, to send out).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to narrate
  2. to chat

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticagain

Decomposition: ⿰余又 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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
verbxù shùto relate (a story or information)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xù lì yàSyria
xù jiùto reminisce
xù shìnarrative
xù shì shīnarrative poem
jì xùto narrate
dào xùto start a narrative at the end (or midway), then proceed chronologically from the beginning
xù yǒngXuyong county in Luzhou 瀘州|泸州[Lu2 zhou1], Sichuan
jì xù wénnarrative writing
píng pū zhí xù(idiom) (neutral) to narrate in a plain, unaffected manner
xù lì yà wénSyriac language (from c. 2nd century BC)
线xù shì xiànnarrative thread
xù lā gǔSyracuse, Sicily
yǐ xùIsrael-Syria
xù gōng xíng shǎngto review records and decide on rewards (idiom)
xù shù xìngnarrative
31
Total compounds
52
As first character
39
As last character
10
As middle character

appears in 31 compound words: 52 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 10 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.

0.60955,578 co-occurrences
shù
0.55525,257 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.54810 co-occurrences
0.54657,498 co-occurrences
shuì
0.54417 co-occurrences
jiàng
0.49210 co-occurrences
chá
0.48910 co-occurrences
zhù
0.47412 co-occurrences
0.46611 co-occurrences
0.4583,168 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

píngpūzhíxùHSK 6+

to recount in a dull and flat style

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

两位老朋友久别重逢,旧聊了很久。

Liǎng wèi lǎo péngyou jiǔbié chóngféng, xùjiù liáo le hěn jiǔ.

Two old friends reunited after a long separation and chatted about old times for a long while.

NewsFeb 2026

新春茶 赖总统会五院聚焦关税

xīn chūn chá xù lài zǒng tǒng huì wǔ yuàn jù jiāo guān shuì

New Year Tea Gathering: President Lai Meets with Five Branches of Government to Focus on Tariffs

NewsFeb 2026

...业证券:美关税判决是行政权受限带来的长期事变化 关注税率下降对A股出口链影响

. . . yè zhèng quàn měi guān shuì pàn jué shì háng zhèng quán shòu xiàn dài lái de cháng qī xù shì biàn huà guān zhù shuì lǜ xià jiàng duì gǔ chū kǒu liàn yǐng xiǎng

Securities: U.S. Tariff Ruling Signals Long-Term Narrative Shift Amid Restricted Executive Authority; Monitor Impact of Rate Cuts on A-Share Export Chain

NewsFeb 2026

总统邀五院茶 钟佳滨:可协调院际捍格、厘清关税议题

zǒng tǒng yāo wǔ yuàn chá xù zhōng jiā bīn kě xié diào yuàn jì hàn gé lí qīng guān shuì yì tí

President Invites Five Legislative Bodies to Tea Gathering Chung Chia-pin: Can Coordinate Inter-Institutional Coordination and Clarify Tariff Issues

NewsFeb 2026

独家》韩国瑜也穿?赖清德邀五院院长茶 伴手礼竟是这“超夯战袍”

dú jiā hán guó 瑜 yě chuān ? lài qīng dé yāo wǔ yuàn yuàn cháng chá xù bàn shǒu lǐ jìng shì zhè chāo 夯 zhàn páo

Exclusive: Han Kuo-yu Wears It Too? Lai Ching-te Hosts Tea Gathering for Five Agency Heads—Surprise Gift Is This "Ultra-Popular Battle Garment"

Tatoeba

他详细地述了那场意外的经过。

Tā xiángxì de xù shù le nà chǎng yìwài de jīngguò.

He gave a detailed description of the accident.

Tatoeba

韩国与利亚建立外交关系。

Hánguó yǔ Xùlìyà jiànlì wàijiāoguānxì.

South Korea established diplomatic relations with Syria.

Tatoeba

详细述一下这起事故吧。

Xiángxì xùshù yīxià zhè qǐ shìgù ba.

Describe that accident in detail.

Tatoeba

大马士革是利亚的首都。

Dàmǎshìgé shì Xùlìyà de shǒudū.

Damascus is Syria's capital.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 叙 (xù) mean in Chinese?
叙 (xù) primarily means "to narrate." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1596 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 叙 and 途?
叙 (xù) and 途 (tú) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 又 vs 辶 (same 余 component).
How many strokes does 叙 have?
叙 is written with 9 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 叙?
The radical associated with 叙 is 又 (again). This radical appears in many characters related to again.
What are the components of 叙?
叙 is composed of: 余 (phonetic), 又 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰余又 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 叙?
Common words with 叙 include: 叙述 (xù shù, "to relate (a story or information)"); 叙利亚 (xù lì yà, "Syria"); 叙旧 (xù jiù, "to reminisce"); 叙事 (xù shì, "narrative"); 叙事诗 (xù shì shī, "narrative poem"). There are over 31 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 叙 (xù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xù: 徐 (slowly), 须 (must), 虚 (emptiness), 墟 (ruins), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 叙 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 叙 and the traditional form is 敍.

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.