荀 (xún): surname Xun, (archaic) name of a plant mentioned in ancient texts, name of a state that existed during the Zhou dynasty in present-day Shanxi

荀 (xún) is a Chinese character meaning “(archaic) name of a plant mentioned in ancient texts.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 旬 (phonetic). It ranks #9999 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 荀 herb. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 蒸 (zhēng, to steam), 草 (cǎo, grass), 花 (huā, flower).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 艹 grass9 strokesFrequency #9999艹 semantic旬 phonetic

Definitions

  1. surname Xun
  2. (archaic) name of a plant mentioned in ancient texts
  3. name of a state that existed during the Zhou dynasty in present-day Shanxi

Etymology & Origin

荀

pictophoneticherb

Decomposition: ⿱艹旬 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:艹semantic旬phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
荀子xún zǐXunzi, (c. 310-237 BC), Confucian philosopher
荀彧xún yùXun Yu (163-212), brilliant strategist, advisor of Cao Cao in Three Kingdoms
杜荀鹤dù xún hèDu Xunhe (846-904), Tang poet
3
Total compounds
67
As first character
0
As last character
33
As middle character

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

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

此前，荀派名家、中国戏剧梅花奖得主常秋月曾携“90后”青年演员毕艺琳上演《红娘》。

cǐ qián , xún pài míng jiā , zhōng guó xì jù méi huā jiǎng dé zhǔ cháng qiū yuè céng xié 9 0 hòu qīng nián yǎn yuán bì yì lín shàng yǎn hóng niáng .

Previously, Chang Qiuyue, a renowned master of the Xun School and winner of the China Drama Plum Blossom Award, performed *The Matchmaker* alongside Bi Yilin, a young actress born in the 1990s.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

《孟子与荀子思想解读》新书在山东邹城发布

mèng zǐ yǔ xún zǐ sī xiǎng jiě dú xīn shū zài shān dōng zōu chéng fā bù

New Book *An Interpretation of the Thought of Mencius and Xunzi* Launched in Zoucheng, Shandong

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 艹 (herb) component

英yīng落luò苦kǔ药yào莱lái苏sū范fàn藏zàng草cǎo艺yì

Related Characters

蒸zhēng草cǎo花huā茶chá菜cài药yào苦kǔ落luò蓝lán节jié

Homophones — Characters pronounced xún

询xún

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 荀 (xún) mean in Chinese?
荀 (xún) primarily means "(archaic) name of a plant mentioned in ancient texts." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #9999 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 荀 have?
荀 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 荀?
The radical associated with 荀 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 荀?
荀 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 旬 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹旬 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 荀?
Common words with 荀 include: 荀子 (xún zǐ, "Xunzi, (c. 310-237 BC), Confucian philosopher"); 荀彧 (xún yù, "Xun Yu (163-212), brilliant strategist, advisor of Cao Cao in Three Kingdoms"); 杜荀鹤 (dù xún hè, "Du Xunhe (846-904), Tang poet"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 荀 (xún)?
Several characters share the pronunciation xún: 询 (to ask about). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 荀 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 荀 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 荀 with real-time feedback

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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.