# Ecclesiastes in Chinese — vocabulary profile

> Ecclesiastes uses 841 distinct Chinese characters and 1,137 distinct words across 6,156 characters and 221 verses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). 61.2% of its word tokens are HSK 1-3, ranking it 24th of 66 books from easiest to hardest by that measure.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Chapters | 12 |
| Verses | 221 |
| Chinese characters | 6,156 |
| Distinct characters | 841 |
| Word tokens | 4,356 |
| Distinct words | 1,137 |
| Average verse | 28 characters |
| HSK 1-3 word tokens | 61.2% |
| HSK 1-6 word tokens | 73.8% |
| Not in HSK 1-9 | 19.6% |
| Difficulty rank | 24 of 66 (1 = easiest) |
| Reading time | 24 min at 260 chars/min |
| Testament | Old Testament |

## Most frequent words in this book

| # | Word | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 人 | 120 |
| 2 | 有 | 54 |
| 3 | 智慧 | 54 |
| 4 | 神 | 45 |
| 5 | 事 | 39 |
| 6 | 虚空 | 33 |
| 7 | 愚昧 | 32 |
| 8 | 劳碌 | 30 |
| 9 | 日光 | 30 |
| 10 | 之下 | 29 |
| 11 | 有时 | 29 |
| 12 | 必 | 28 |
| 13 | 行 | 27 |
| 14 | 能 | 26 |
| 15 | 一切 | 25 |
| 16 | 说 | 24 |
| 17 | 见 | 22 |
| 18 | 使 | 22 |
| 19 | 就是 | 21 |
| 20 | 心 | 21 |
| 21 | 一 | 20 |
| 22 | 要 | 19 |
| 23 | 多 | 18 |
| 24 | 知道 | 17 |
| 25 | 不要 | 15 |
| 26 | 风 | 13 |
| 27 | 做 | 13 |
| 28 | 心里 | 13 |
| 29 | 胜过 | 13 |
| 30 | 众人 | 13 |
| 31 | 得 | 13 |
| 32 | 谁 | 13 |
| 33 | 日 | 13 |
| 34 | 来 | 12 |
| 35 | 看 | 12 |
| 36 | 死 | 12 |
| 37 | 因 | 12 |
| 38 | 当 | 12 |
| 39 | 一样 | 12 |
| 40 | 日子 | 12 |
| 41 | 王 | 11 |
| 42 | 言语 | 10 |
| 43 | 过 | 10 |
| 44 | 世人 | 10 |
| 45 | 去 | 10 |
| 46 | 喜乐 | 10 |
| 47 | 强如 | 10 |
| 48 | 不能 | 9 |
| 49 | 无人 | 9 |
| 50 | 用 | 9 |

## Words found in Ecclesiastes and nowhere else

传道者 事后 定时 虚度 定理 反照 未必

## Chapters, easiest first

| Chapter | HSK 1-3 | Verses | Characters |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Ecclesiastes 11 | 67.8% | 10 | 315 |
| Ecclesiastes 8 | 64.5% | 17 | 542 |
| Ecclesiastes 6 | 64.4% | 12 | 342 |
| Ecclesiastes 9 | 64.3% | 18 | 671 |
| Ecclesiastes 2 | 63.9% | 26 | 799 |
| Ecclesiastes 3 | 62.7% | 22 | 514 |
| Ecclesiastes 4 | 61.3% | 16 | 446 |
| Ecclesiastes 1 | 59.3% | 18 | 392 |
| Ecclesiastes 7 | 58.4% | 28 | 727 |
| Ecclesiastes 5 | 57.9% | 20 | 570 |
| Ecclesiastes 10 | 55.3% | 20 | 456 |
| Ecclesiastes 12 | 54.3% | 14 | 382 |

Page: https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/books/ecclesiastes · Read it: https://chinese-bible.com/en/ecclesiastes

## Method

- Text: 和合本 (Chinese Union Version), simplified script — public domain
- Words: forward maximum matching against CC-CEDICT (this site's own segmentation)
- HSK levels: HSK 3.0 levels from the complete-hsk-vocabulary list; band 7 covers HSK 7-9
- Reading times: 260 characters a minute (an assumption)
- Computed: 2026-09-22

These are reproducible counts over a public-domain text, not a peer-reviewed study. Difficulty ranks are one stated formula, not a validated readability score.


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- Definitions: CC-CEDICT, licensed CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
- If you share this file onward, keep this notice and share alike.
- Character data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License / LGPL).
- Bible text: public domain — 和合本 · World English Bible · Louis Segond 1910.
- Built with https://chinese-bible.com