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Write the character. Then find out what it holds.

Printable Chinese handwriting sheets where every character comes with its origin, its picture-story, and where it still lives in Chinese life today. Type characters or pick a theme — the sheet is two clicks away.

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First characters

Set 1

NAME ________________ DATE ____________

一

yī — one

Radical 一 · 1 strokes · HSK 1

The simplest character in the language: one line for one. It is also the first stroke a child is taught — 横, drawn left to right, and the foundation of almost every character that follows.

yīone

一

èrtwo

二

sānthree

三

rénperson

人

dàbig

大

kǒumouth

口

1 Type characters, or tap a theme
2 Print, or save as PDF
· Everything else is optional

Start from a list that already exists

Curated, checked, and ordered by stroke count — so beginners meet 一 before 藏.

Browse all 9 lists →

一二三人 Your first 20 characters 20 characters · 2 sheets 一二三四 Numbers one to ten 10 characters · 1 sheets 春节年红 Spring Festival characters 20 characters · 2 sheets 鼠牛虎兔 The twelve zodiac animals 12 characters · 2 sheets 茶水叶杯 Tea characters 15 characters · 2 sheets 中秋月圆 Mid-Autumn characters 15 characters · 2 sheets 家人爸妈 Who's who in a Chinese family 20 characters · 2 sheets 日月山水 Characters that are still pictures 24 characters · 3 sheets

Why we built this

A character is a small piece of Chinese culture.

Most practice sheets ask you to copy a shape twelve times. We print the reason next to it — where the character came from, what it pictures, and where it still turns up in Chinese life. You finish the page knowing something, not just having written something.

福 fú — blessing; good fortune On new year's eve this goes on the front door — usually upside-down on purpose. "Upside-down" is 倒 dào, which sounds exactly like 到 dào, "has arrived". The door reads as a joke everyone understands: fortune has arrived. 家 jiā — home; family A roof, 宀, drawn over a pig, 豕. In an early farming society a household was exactly that: a shelter with the animals kept inside it. 茶 chá — tea Grass on top, 艹. A tree underneath, 木. A person, 人, standing in between. The character is someone out among the plants, picking leaves. 龙 lóng — dragon Not the treasure-hoarding dragon of European stories. This one commands rain and rivers; farmers prayed to it in a drought and emperors borrowed it as their emblem.

All 52 characters with a story →