How it changed
The story you’ll hear
Top: 相 (xiāng) = eyes (目) looking at a tree (木). Bottom: 心 (heart). Missing someone = your eyes scanning the horizon, searching through trees, while your heart aches below. The top half also serves as the phonetic — 相 and 想 sound nearly identical.
What the old dictionaries say
Memory trickLovely image, but it's a memory trick. In 想, 心 carries the meaning and 相 (xiāng) carries the sound. The eyes-on-a-tree reading only works if you split 相 apart, which the character doesn't do.
What it’s made of
meaning component: heart · mindSee it in a story
Related characters
Read characters like this in real stories
Every one has word-level pinyin, narrated audio and tap-to-define.
- HSK 1
The Wrong Phone
Two classmates take identical phones by mistake and can’t unlock them or answer calls.
3 chapters · audio + pinyin
- HSK 2
The Book We Both Wanted
Two customers claim one childhood book; a shopkeeper gives them until six to explain why.
4 chapters · audio + pinyin
- HSK 3
No Seat in the Library
She resents a classmate who keeps saving an empty seat. Then she hears about his sick roommate.
6 chapters · audio + pinyin
- HSK 4
Sunrise on Huangshan
Four friends go to see the Huangshan sunrise and get train delays, a storm, and a bad booking.
6 chapters · audio + pinyin
- HSK 5
Dumplings or Tangyuan
Her first winter solstice as a wife, and her mother-in-law has hidden the tangyuan flour.
6 chapters · audio + pinyin
- HSK 6
The Kitchen Behind the App
Illness complaints lead an inspector to twelve delivery restaurants sharing four kitchens.
6 chapters · audio + pinyin