See the picture inside every character · 每个汉字都是一幅画
三千年前，汉字是画出来的。
The earliest Chinese writing — carved on oracle bones around 1200 BC — was pictographic. A circle with a dot was the sun. A crescent was the moon. A figure with open arms meant big. If you learn to see the original picture, the modern character stops being an arbitrary squiggle and becomes a memory you already own.
The 100 most frequent characters below cover about 42% of all modern Chinese text （最常用100字约覆盖现代汉语文本的42%；1000字≈89%，2500字≈98% — 据现代汉语字频统计）.
Watch the character for "sun" (日 rì) travel through five script stages · 以「日」为例，看五种字体的演变：
Four ways characters were built — the traditional "Six Writings" (六书) · 汉字的四种主要造字法：
A direct drawing of the thing. 日 sun · 月 moon · 山 mountain · 人 person.
直接描摹事物的图画。如日、月、山、人。
An abstract idea shown with marks. 上 up = a mark above a line; 下 down = a mark below; 本 root = a stroke at a tree's base.
用符号表示抽象概念。如上、下、本。
Two pictures combined into a new meaning. 好 good = woman 女 + child 子; 明 bright = sun 日 + moon 月.
两个图形合成新意义。如好（女+子）、明（日+月）。
One half hints at the meaning, the other half at the sound. About 80% of all characters work this way. 妈 mā mom = 女 woman (meaning) + 马 mǎ (sound).
一半表义、一半表音，约占汉字的80%。如妈＝女（义）＋马（音）。
Click a card to flip it and read the origin story · 点击卡片翻面，查看字源故事