The character 心 (xīn): heart

On a cream ground scattered with small pink sparkles, a large rounded pink heart sits at the left, smooth and unmarked. At the right, at the same height, the character 心 in dark brown: a low curve lying like the bottom of a bowl, its right end rising into a hook, one short oblique to its left and two more short strokes above it.

Pronunciation: xīn
Strokes: 4
Level: HSK4
Radical: 心

What it means

heart; mind; intention; center; core; CL:顆|颗[ke1],個|个[ge4]

Where its shape comes from

The organ, drawn. The early forms show a pouch with vessels leaving it, and Xu Shen classes it among the pictures without any hesitation: "the heart of a human being". Today's character keeps no more than one curve and three dots. The heart shape of greeting cards, incidentally, is a European drawing and has nothing whatever to do with this graph.

Source: Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi (121 CE); the Chinese University of Hong Kong character database.

How it used to be written

Oracle bone script 商
Clerical script 東漢
See all 25 forms

Forms, sources and dates: the 字形演變 database of 小學堂, Academia Sinica, public domain (CC0).

A way to remember it

A bowl lying flat, its right rim lifting into a hook, and three drops scattered around it: one on the left, two above. Not one of them touches the bowl, so leave a clear gap each time.

This is a memory aid, not the origin of the character.

Words it appears in

心里 xīn li · HSK3 chest; heart; mind
担心 dān xīn · HSK3 anxious; worried; uneasy; to worry; to be anxious
开心 kāi xīn · HSK3 to feel happy; to rejoice; to have a great time; to make fun of sb
关心 guān xīn · HSK3 to be concerned about; to care about
放心 fàng xīn · HSK3 to feel relieved; to feel reassured; to be at ease
小心 xiǎo xīn · HSK3 to be careful; to take care

See the 93 HSK words built on 心, grouped by level.

Writing it

See the stroke order of 心, animated stroke by stroke.