6 of the Most Complicated Chinese Characters

Learn how to write them and start showing off 😎

We all know that Chinese characters are complicated, but some are way more complicated than others!

Let’s take a look at our selection of what we think are six of the most complicated Chinese characters to write and memorize.

Note that some of these characters are traditional characters, but their simplified counterparts will always be introduced as well.

罐 (Guàn): Jar, pot, tin

This character is listed as one of the most complicated Chinese characters in the official HSK6 vocabulary list.

Its complexity lies in the right component of the character, 雚 (Guàn). Interestingly, this character is only complicated for simplified Chinese users. The reason is that many traditional Chinese characters from HSK1 to HSK3 contain the component 雚. This is the case for 歡 / 欢 (Huān), 權 / 权 (Quán), and 觀 / 观 (Guān), for example. 罐, on the other hand, was never simplified. It is an example where learning traditional characters early on proves to be an advantage.

籲 (Yù): Appeal, plead

籲 is made of an astonishing 32 strokes! But luckily for you, its simplified version, 吁, only has 6 strokes, meaning that the character lost 26 strokes in the simplification process.

鬱 (Yù): Luxuriant; gloomy

This character is among the most beautiful out there in our opinion. It has two main meanings: "luxuriant" and "gloomy." The traditional version, 鬱, represents these meanings through its complexity. The character embodies the meaning of "luxuriant" through the presence of 林 (forest), jars (缶), and wine (鬯). To understand the meaning of "gloomy," one has to look at the Oracle Bone Script of the character, which originally depicted a person trampling another person in the middle of the forest, seen as a depressing scene.

The simplified version, 郁, while obviously easier to write, also loses most of its soul and meanings.

嚏 (Tì): Sneeze

When it comes to the number of strokes, 嚏 isn’t the most complicated of all. However, its composition is so peculiar that even native speakers sometimes struggle to write it from memory, even though it is quite a common character, present in the word 喷嚏 (Pēntì), meaning "to sneeze.

犧 (Xī): Sacrifice

The complexity of this character lies in the fact that the right component, 羲 (Xī), is very rarely used. In fact, 犧 is the only commonly used character containing the component 羲.

Mainland China addressed this complexity by replacing 羲 with 西, resulting in the simplified version, 牺.

龜 (Guī): Turtle

龜 is one of the most obvious pictographic characters; you can clearly see the head, legs, shell, and tail of the turtle. However, its stroke order gives headaches even to traditional Chinese character users!

While not as impressive, the simplified version, 龟, is still somewhat cute.

Bonus: Biáng

We cannot talk about complicated Chinese characters without including the one everyone talks about: Biang!

With its 58 strokes, it is the most complex Chinese character in modern usage. However, you don’t have to worry; its usage is exclusively limited to naming a certain type of noodles originating from Shaanxi province. Therefore, it’s very unlikely that you will ever need to write it down, unless you want to impress your Chinese friends.

What is your favorite character from the list? Or which Character you consider to be the most complicated in general? Let us know in the comments!

Antoine & Dorota