Things you may not know about Chinese Character

1. líng

        We all know Chinese characters are combined with several strokes, but what is the Chinese character with the least strokes? Most people will think abou’一’(yī), which means one. You may not know there’s a character‘〇’(líng). It’s pinyin is ‘líng’, and it means zero. When ‘〇’(líng) is used for measuring, it writes as ‘零’(líng). When ‘〇’(líng) is used for number in pages and years, it writes as ‘〇’(líng). For example, ‘2019’ writes as ‘二〇一九’(èr líng yī jiǔ).

        By contrast, what is the Chinese character with the most strokes? The answer is in the picture. It has the same pinyin and meaning with ‘雷’(léi), which is thunder, and is the ancient writing of it. There are 160 strokes in this character.

        Pinyin ‘yì’ has the largest number of homophonic characters. There are 57 of it: 艺、抑、易、邑、屹、亿、役、臆、 逸、肄、疫、亦、裔、意、毅、忆、 义、益、溢、诣、议、谊、译、异、 翼、翌、绎、刈、劓、仡、佚、佾、 埸、懿、薏、弈、奕、挹、弋、呓、 嗌、峄、怿、悒、驿、缢、殪、轶、 熠、镒、镱、瘗、癔、翊、蜴、羿、翳。

        What is the most commonly used radical? It is ‘口’. The estimate of ‘口’ be used in averagely 100 characters is 20.

        The character with the most pinyin is ‘那’. There are 8 of it:

Nā(family name)、nǎ(which)、nà(that)、nè(oral speech)、něi(dialect of ‘which’)、nèi(dialect of ‘that’)、nuó(a word from The Book of Songs)、nuò.

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