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Chinese character · HSK 1

(xiū) — “to rest”

An ideographic compound consisting of a person (亻) leaning against a tree (木).

Visual mnemonic illustration of the Chinese character 休 (to rest)
The strokes of 休 live inside the illustration — long-press in InkSeal to watch the glyph cross-fade into the scene.

How to remember 休

A person leans against a tree to rest.

Inside the character

Where 休 comes from

A classic associative compound (会意) created by combining 'person' and 'tree' to depict a common resting scenario.

休 in Oracle bone script
Oracle bone script (甲骨文)
休 in Bronze inscription
Bronze inscription (金文)
休 in Seal script
Seal script (篆书)

Words that use 休

WordPinyinMeaningLevel
休息xiū xirest / to restHSK 1
休假xiū jiàto go on vacation / to have a holidayHSK 2
退休tuì xiūto retire (from the workforce) / to go into retirementHSK 3
Learn 休 the visual way. InkSeal pairs every HSK 1–6 character with an illustration like this one, plus component breakdowns, etymology, and spaced review. The first 100 characters are free.

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More characters: (sǎn, umbrella) · (gòng / gōng, to offer / to provide) · (jù, tool / device) — or browse the full character library.