{"id":2050,"date":"2022-10-21T09:35:48","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T01:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maayot.com\/blog\/?p=2050"},"modified":"2023-08-15T12:50:40","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T04:50:40","slug":"the-hardest-chinese-character","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maayot.com\/blog\/the-hardest-chinese-character\/","title":{"rendered":"Tackling the Toughest: The Hardest Chinese Character Uncovered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the most daunting parts of learning Chinese is the writing system. When people used to an alphabet of 26 letters start taking on the thousands of characters in Chinese, a question natural comes up: just how hard does this get?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most complicated character<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One way to gauge the difficulty of a character is to consider how many strokes it has. The parts of a Chinese character are written in a particular order. By counting the number of pen strokes (or, traditionally, brush strokes) in a character, we can get a sense of its complexity and therefore its difficulty. By this measure, there is one character that stands out from all the others: Biang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image source: Wikimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This character has 42 strokes in its Simplified form. Because of its complexity and its relative rareness, the character biang is not supported in most digital fonts. When typing, Chinese people typically type the Pinyin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biangbiang noodles (biangbiang\u9762 [bi\u00e1ngbi\u00e1ng mi\u00e0n]) are a kind of wide noodle found in Shaanxi province (\u9655\u897f\u7701 Sh\u01cenx\u012b sh\u011bng). They\u2019re well known in China, mainly because of their remarkable name. And yes, the name does include this character twice. Why were these noodles given such a complicated name? There are a few legends explaining the phenomenon, but sometimes the simplest answer is the best one: having a famous name helps sell more noodles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image source: Wikimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re finding the idea of having to write this character (twice!) daunting, here\u2019s some good news. There will never actually come a time when you have to write it. Most Chinese people can\u2019t write it, and those who can are the same sort of people who memorize digits of pi. A fun trick, but it\u2019s OK if most of us don\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hardest characters that you should actually learn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

OK, so biang is a neat curiosity, but what is the hardest character that Chinese learners actually need to worry about? Here are the characters with the most strokes from the HSK word lists for levels 1, 2 and 3, along with an example sentence for each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In HSK 1, \u5f71 (y\u01d0ng) has 15 strokes, \u6f02 (pi\u00e0o) has 14, and \u7761 (shu\u00ec) has 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • \u4f60\u4eca\u665a\u60f3\u8ddf\u6211\u770b\u7535\u5f71\u5417\uff1f<\/li>
  • (N\u01d0 j\u012bnw\u01cen xi\u01ceng g\u0113n w\u01d2 k\u00e0n di\u00e0ny\u01d0ng ma?)<\/li>
  • Do you want to watch a movie with me tonight?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    • \u4f60\u7684\u88d9\u5b50\u5f88\u6f02\u4eae\uff01<\/li>
    • (N\u01d0de q\u00fanzi h\u011bn pi\u00e0oliang!)<\/li>
    • Your dress is really pretty!<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      • \u6211\u5f88\u7d2f\uff0c\u6211\u60f3\u7761\u89c9\u3002<\/li>
      • (W\u01d2 h\u011bn l\u00e8i, w\u01d2 xi\u01ceng shu\u00ecji\u00e0o.)<\/li>
      • I\u2019m really tired. I want to sleep.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        In HSK 2, \u7bee (l\u00e1n) has 16 strokes, \u61c2 (d\u01d2ng) has 15 and \u8e22 (t\u012b) has 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        • \u4f60\u559c\u6b22\u6253\u7bee\u7403\u5417\uff1f<\/li>
        • (N\u01d0 x\u01d0huan d\u01ce l\u00e1nqi\u00fa ma?)<\/li>
        • Do you like to play basketball?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
          • \u6211\u4e0d\u61c2\u65e5\u6587\u3002<\/li>
          • (W\u01d2 b\u00f9 d\u01d2ng R\u00ecw\u00e9n.)<\/li>
          • I don\u2019t understand Japanese.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
            • \u6211\u4eec\u4e00\u8d77\u53bb\u8e22\u8db3\u7403\u5427\u3002<\/li>
            • (W\u01d2men y\u00ecq\u01d0 q\u00f9 t\u012bz\u00faqi\u00fa ba.)<\/li>
            • Let\u2019s go play soccer together.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

              And in HSK 3, \u7cd5 (g\u0101o) and \u8da3 (q\u00f9) each have 16 strokes, while \u8549 (ji\u0101o) and \u5634 (zu\u01d0) each have 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              • \u8fd9\u662f\u6211\u5988\u505a\u7684\u9999\u8549\u86cb\u7cd5\u3002<\/li>
              • (Zh\u00e8 sh\u00ec w\u01d2 m\u0101 zu\u00f2 de xi\u0101ngji\u0101o d\u00e0ng\u0101o.)<\/li>
              • This is the banana cake my mom made.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
                • \u6211\u5bf9\u6587\u5b66\u4e0d\u611f\u5174\u8da3\u3002<\/li>
                • (W\u01d2 du\u00ec w\u00e9nxu\u00e9 b\u00f9 g\u01cen x\u00ecngq\u00f9.)<\/li>
                • I\u2019m not interested in literature.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
                  • \u4ed6\u513f\u5b50\u7684\u5634\u5f88\u5c0f\u3002<\/li>
                  • (T\u0101 \u00e9rz\u01d0 de zu\u01d0 h\u011bn xi\u01ceo.)<\/li>
                  • Your son\u2019s mouth is very small.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

                    We can see from this that there isn\u2019t much relationship between the number of strokes a character has and its frequency. Generally speaking, there aren\u2019t many common characters that have more than 15 strokes (at least, in Simplified characters). That\u2019s a pretty far cry from the 42 strokes in biang!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    \"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                    Learning complicated characters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

                    Conveniently, nearly all complicated characters are made of smaller components that are easier to learn. So once you\u2019ve mastered those components, the difficult characters don\u2019t seem so intimidating. Let\u2019s look back at the hardest characters from HSK 1:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    • \u5f71 is made of \u65e5\u4eac\u5f61<\/li>
                    • \u6f02 is made of \u6c35\u8980\u793a<\/li>
                    • \u7761is made of \u76ee\u5782<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

                      As a bonus, these components often (but not always) provide a mnemonic for the character. For example, the \u76ee (m\u00f9) in \u7761 (shu\u00ec) means \u201ceye,\u201d because you close your eyes when you sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      Other factors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

                      There are other reasons a Chinese character might be difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      One is that it might be very similar to another character. The classic example is \u5df2 (in \u5df2\u7ecfy\u01d0j\u012bng \u201calready\u201d) and \u5df1 (in \u81ea\u5df1z\u00ecj\u01d0 \u201cself\u201d). The difference between these two characters is slight enough that they\u2019re easily confused. Another example is \u8d1d (in \u5b9d\u8d1db\u01ceob\u00e8i \u201cbaby\u201d) and \u89c1 (in \u518d\u89c1z\u00e0iji\u00e0n \u201cgoodbye\u201d). Unfortunately, there\u2019s no trick or technique for these characters; you just have to memorize which one is which.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      Another factor that might make a character difficult is if it appears frequently enough that you feel you should know it, but infrequently enough that you always forget it. I can remember learning and relearning \u5e0c\u671b (x\u012bw\u00e0ng \u201chope\u201d) over and over again. The characters aren\u2019t especially challenging in themselves, but because I didn\u2019t use the word \u5e0c\u671b often I would always forget it before the next time it came up. There is a good solution to this: make a point of using the word more often in your writing practice. And of course, reading more in Chinese will mean that you\u2019ll encounter the character more frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      \"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                      Further reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

                      Want more content about Chinese characters? Check out the articles below!<\/p>\n\n\n\n