(yīn): dynasty name at the end the Shang dynasty, after its move to Yinxu 殷墟 in present-day Henan, dark red, flourishing

(yīn) is a Chinese character meaning “dynasty name at the end the shang dynasty, after its move to yinxu 殷墟 in present-day henan.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #2295 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a midwife 殳 to helping a pregnant woman 㐆; 㐆 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form (weapon) appears in many related characters such as (duàn, paragraph), (huǐ, to destroy), (ōu, to beat up).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. dynasty name at the end the Shang dynasty, after its move to Yinxu 殷墟 in present-day Henan
  2. dark red
  3. flourishing

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA midwife 殳 to helping a pregnant woman 㐆; 㐆 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰㐆殳 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
verbxiàn yīn qínto be particularly attentive to (an attractive young lady or man etc)
adjectiveyīn qínpolitely
adjectiveyīn qièardent
adjectiveyīn shíthriving
adjectiveyān hóngdark red
yīn yīnearnest
yīn dū qūYindu, a district of Anyang City 安陽市|安阳市, Henan
wú shì xiàn yīn qín , fēi jiān jí dàoone who is unaccountably solicitous is hiding evil intentions (idiom)
yīn dūsee 殷都區|殷都区
proper-nounyīn shāngfinal name of the Shang dynasty after their move to Yinxu 殷墟 in modern Henan province
yīn yōu qǐ shèngdeep suffering can lead to enlightenment (idiom)
adjectiveyīn fùwell off
hóng yān yāndark red
kǒng yīnurgent
yīn hóng xùFrançois Xavier d'Entrecolles (1664-1741), French Jesuit missionary to Kangxi court
16
Total compounds
75
As first character
6
As last character
19
As middle character

appears in 16 compound words: 75 as the first character, 6 as the last, and 19 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.

0.539746 co-occurrences
kān
0.483696 co-occurrences
zhòng
0.455888 co-occurrences
qín
0.435816 co-occurrences
cuǐ
0.39538 co-occurrences
dèng
0.386220 co-occurrences
pàn
0.38274 co-occurrences
hào
0.381454 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.381306 co-occurrences
dào
0.378166 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

yīn yōu qǐ shèngHSK 7+

deep suffering can lead to enlightenment (idiom); storms make oaks take deeper root

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字由10笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

yīn zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "殷" consists of ten strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

少数派Aug 2026

本打算让失去记忆的他雪上加霜,想着“来都来了”的结香,一脚踏入显的回忆。

běn dǎ suàn ràng shī qù jì yì de tā xuě shàng jiā shuāng , xiǎng zhe lái dōu lái le de jié xiāng , yī jiǎo tà rù yīn xiǎn de huí yì .

Having originally intended to make things even worse for him—who had lost his memory—Ketsuka, thinking, “Well, since I’m already here,” stepped right into Yin Xian’s memories.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

驻足凝神,古人笔下“万杵之声地,火光炸天”的喧腾隐约可闻。

zhù zú níng shén , gǔ rén bǐ xià wàn 杵 zhī shēng yīn dì , huǒ guāng zhà tiān de xuān téng yǐn yuē kě wén .

As you pause and focus your attention, you can faintly hear the clamor described by ancient writers as “the sound of ten thousand pestles pounding the earth, with flames bursting into the sky.”

爱范儿Jul 2026

百度智能云副总裁大伟前段时间在中关村论坛上说过一句大实话:能用,但不敢用。

bǎi dù zhì néng yún fù zǒng cái yīn dà wěi qián duàn shí jiān zài zhōng guān cūn lùn tán shàng shuō guò yī jù dà shí huà : néng yòng , dàn bù gǎn yòng .

Yin Dawei, Vice President of Baidu Intelligent Cloud, recently spoke a home truth at the Zhongguancun Forum: "It works, but I'm afraid to use it."

StheadlineApr 2026

...金奖得主林家谦“喂狗大过天”完骚速逃 周廷避谈隐藏正印称病离场 冯允谦不贪心获四...

. . . jīn jiǎng dé zhǔ lín jiā qiān wéi gǒu dà guò tiān wán sāo sù táo zhōu yīn tíng bì tán yǐn zàng zhèng yìn chèn bìng lí chǎng píng yǔn qiān bù tān xīn huò sì . . .

...Gold medalist Lin Jiaqian made a grand entrance with "Feeding the Dog Is More Important Than Anything" before making a quick exit; Zhou Yinting avoided discussing his secret girlfriend and left the venue citing illness; Feng Yunqian, not being greedy, won four...

三立新聞網Feb 2026

赛前练打陈伟亲喂 费仔曝看他投球长大

sài qián liàn dǎ chén wěi yīn qīn wéi fèi zǐ pù kàn tā tóu qiú cháng dà

Before the game, Chen Weiyin personally fed Fei Zai exposed that he grew up pitching

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the weapon radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced yīn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 殷 (yīn) mean in Chinese?
殷 (yīn) primarily means "dynasty name at the end the shang dynasty, after its move to yinxu 殷墟 in present-day henan." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2295 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 殷 and 始?
殷 (yīn) and 始 (shǐ) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 殷 (end) vs 始 (begin).
How many strokes does 殷 have?
殷 is written with 10 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 殷?
The radical associated with 殷 is 殳 (weapon). This radical appears in many characters related to weapon.
What are the components of 殷?
殷 is composed of: 㐆 (structural), 殳 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰㐆殳 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 殷?
Common words with 殷 include: 献殷勤 (xiàn yīn qín, "to be particularly attentive to (an attractive young lady or man etc)"); 殷勤 (yīn qín, "politely"); 殷切 (yīn qiè, "ardent"); 殷实 (yīn shí, "thriving"); 殷红 (yān hóng, "dark red"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 殷 (yīn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yīn: 因 (cause), 引 (to draw (e.g. a bow)), 音 (sound), 印 (to print), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 殷 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 殷 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.