The Chinese Radicals Scroll

Characters aren't drawings. They're built from parts.

Chinese characters are assembled from building blocks called radicals — and those radicals often tell you something about a character's meaning or its pronunciation. Once you can see them, characters stop being intimidating tangles of strokes and start being things made of components you already recognise.

This is a self-print scroll poster of all 214 Kangxi radicals, in a tall format made to hang.

What's shown for each radical

• Its Kangxi radical number, 1 to 214
• The primary form of the radical
• Its variant forms
• Pinyin pronunciation — the romanisation used in mainland China and most of the world
• Zhuyin (bopomofo) — the phonetic system used in Taiwan
• An English keyword for its meaning
• Example characters showing the radical actually at work

Where a radical was simplified, we show both the original and the simplified form — so you can focus on the script you're learning, or take in both.

Details

• One PDF. Designed at 15″ × 40″ (38cm × 100cm) — a tall scroll
• Vector, so it scales up or down without losing quality

How it works

Download and print at home, or take the PDF to a print shop — at this size, a print shop is worth it. Nothing is shipped.

Looking for something to write on? Essential Radicals is the practice book: the 96 radicals worth learning first, with stroke order and practice blocks.