(yǎng): to face upward, to look up, to admire, to rely on

(yǎng) is a Chinese character meaning “to face upward.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1360 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, to exalt 卬 a person 亻. Its radical form (person) appears in many related characters such as (rén, person), (shén, what), (jīn, now).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to face upward
  2. to look up
  3. to admire
  4. to rely on

Etymology & Origin

ideographicTo exalt 卬 a person 亻

Decomposition: ⿰亻卬 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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
xìn yǎngto believe in (a religion)
jiǔ yǎnghonorific: I've long looked forward to meeting you.
yǎng mùto admire
yǎng wàngto look up at
jìng yǎngto revere
jǐng yǎngto admire
yǎng zhàngto rely on
yǎng wò qǐ zuòsit-up (physical exercise)
yǎng guāngYangon (Rangoon), city, capital of Myanmar from 1948 to 2006
zhān yǎngto revere
yǎng tóuto raise one's head
yǎng shìto tilt one's head back to see (sth)
yǎng wòto lie supine
rén yǎng mǎ fānto suffer a crushing defeat (idiom)
yǎng làito rely on
40
Total compounds
53
As first character
28
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 40 compound words: 53 as the first character, 28 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.

xìn
0.746285,104 co-occurrences
zōng
0.635105,627 co-occurrences
jiào
0.556121,367 co-occurrences
zhān
0.5373,858 co-occurrences
0.5354,374 co-occurrences
0.53111,778 co-occurrences
yǒng
0.49810,284 co-occurrences
qián
0.4211,098 co-occurrences
jìng
0.3974,374 co-occurrences
0.3817,872 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (12)

fǔyǎngwúkuìHSK 7+

to have done nothing to make one feel ashamed

phrase
fǔyǎngzhījiānHSK 7+

a very short time; human's lifetime

phrase
jiǔyǎngdàmíngHSK 6+

I have been looking forward to meeting you for a long time

phrase
qián fǔ hòu yǎngHSK 7+

to rock one's body backward and forward; to be convulsed (with laughter etc)

phrase
qián yǎng hòu héHSK 6+

to sway to and fro; to rock back and forth

phrase
rényǎngmǎfānHSK 6+

to be utterly routed; to suffer a crushing defeat; in a complete mess

phrase
sìyǎngbāchāHSK 6+

sprawled out on one's back

phrase
yǎngrénbíxīHSK 6+

to rely on others for one's living

phrase
yǎng wū xīng tànHSK 7+

to stare at the ceiling in despair; to find no way out; nothing you can do about it

phrase
yǔ shì fǔ yǎngHSK 7+

to swim with the tide (idiom)

phrase

Showing 10 of 12 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

望星空,让人感到宇宙的浩瀚和人类的渺小。

Yǎngwàng xīngkōng, ràng rén gǎndào yǔzhòu de hàohàn hé rénlèi de miǎoxiǎo.

Looking up at the starry sky makes one feel the vastness of the universe and the smallness of humanity.

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Apr 2026

评论员:致敬永不褪色的信

píng lùn yuán : zhì jìng yǒng bù 褪 sè de xìn yǎng

SmzdmApr 2026

2026款望U8到店,相较于之前究竟升级了哪些地方...

2 0 2 6 kuǎn yǎng wàng U 8 dào diàn , xiāng jiào yú zhī qián jiū jìng shēng jí le nǎ xiē dì fāng . . .

Fx168 Finance NetworkMar 2026

小米:天堂急跌地狱,拿什么撑住信?-FX168

xiǎo mǐ : tiān táng jí diē dì yù , ná shén má chēng zhù xìn yǎng ? F X 1 6 8

Xiaomi: From Heaven to Hell in a Flash—What Can Keep the Faith Alive? - FX168

NewsFeb 2026

...深度] 美债成地缘博弈支点 川普议程还要赖盟友撑场

. . . shēn dù měi zhài chéng dì yuán bó yì zhī diǎn chuān pǔ yì chéng hái yāo yǎng lài méng yǒu chēng chǎng

... U.S. debt becomes the fulcrum of the geopolitical game, and Trump's agenda also relies on allies to support the field

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

神韻展現對神的信 令牙醫「深受鼓舞」

shén 韻 zhǎn 現 對 shén de xìn yǎng lìng yá 醫 shēn shòu gǔ wǔ

Dentists "Inspired" by Divine Rhythm's Show of Faith in God

Tatoeba

法律必须被信,否则形同虚设。

Fǎlǜ bìxū bèi xìnyǎng, fǒuzé xíngtóngxūshè.

One must have conviction in law, or its existence will be superficial only.

Tatoeba

现代人太赖手机。

Xiàndàirén tài yǎnglài shǒujī.

People rely too much on phones these days.

Tatoeba

巴哈伊信是个很棒的宗教。

Bāhāyī xìnyǎng shì gè hěn bàng de zōngjiào.

The Baha'i Faith is a very cool religion.

Tatoeba

萨哈达在伊斯兰教是信的证明。

Sà hǎdá zài Yīsīlánjiào shì xìnyǎng de zhèngmíng.

In Islam, the shahada is the testimony of faith.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yǎng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 仰 (yǎng) mean in Chinese?
仰 (yǎng) primarily means "to face upward." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1360 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 仰 and 下?
仰 (yǎng) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 仰 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 仰 have?
仰 is written with 6 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 仰?
The radical associated with 仰 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 仰?
仰 is composed of: 亻 (structural), 卬 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻卬 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 仰?
Common words with 仰 include: 信仰 (xìn yǎng, "to believe in (a religion)"); 久仰 (jiǔ yǎng, "honorific: I've long looked forward to meeting you."); 仰慕 (yǎng mù, "to admire"); 仰望 (yǎng wàng, "to look up at"); 敬仰 (jìng yǎng, "to revere"). There are over 40 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 仰 (yǎng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yǎng: 央 (center), 殃 (calamity), 秧 (sapling), 扬 (abbr. for Yangzhou 揚州|扬州 in Jiangsu), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 仰 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 仰 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.