# Proverbs in Chinese — vocabulary profile

> Proverbs uses 1,441 distinct Chinese characters and 2,335 distinct words across 16,973 characters and 913 verses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). 52.5% of its word tokens are HSK 1-3, ranking it 61st of 66 books from easiest to hardest by that measure.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Chapters | 31 |
| Verses | 913 |
| Chinese characters | 16,973 |
| Distinct characters | 1,441 |
| Word tokens | 12,017 |
| Distinct words | 2,335 |
| Average verse | 19 characters |
| HSK 1-3 word tokens | 52.5% |
| HSK 1-6 word tokens | 67.1% |
| Not in HSK 1-9 | 24.3% |
| Difficulty rank | 61 of 66 (1 = easiest) |
| Reading time | 65 min at 260 chars/min |
| Testament | Old Testament |

## Most frequent words in this book

| # | Word | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 人 | 423 |
| 2 | 必 | 211 |
| 3 | 智慧 | 120 |
| 4 | 有 | 104 |
| 5 | 耶和华 | 93 |
| 6 | 要 | 89 |
| 7 | 恶人 | 85 |
| 8 | 使 | 83 |
| 9 | 义人 | 64 |
| 10 | 愚昧 | 62 |
| 11 | 心 | 59 |
| 12 | 得 | 57 |
| 13 | 口 | 55 |
| 14 | 不可 | 54 |
| 15 | 道 | 47 |
| 16 | 说 | 44 |
| 17 | 聪明 | 42 |
| 18 | 不要 | 41 |
| 19 | 因 | 37 |
| 20 | 路 | 36 |
| 21 | 正直 | 35 |
| 22 | 生命 | 35 |
| 23 | 行 | 34 |
| 24 | 能 | 34 |
| 25 | 用 | 31 |
| 26 | 愚妄 | 30 |
| 27 | 嘴 | 29 |
| 28 | 如 | 29 |
| 29 | 谁 | 29 |
| 30 | 听 | 28 |
| 31 | 言语 | 27 |
| 32 | 知识 | 27 |
| 33 | 若 | 27 |
| 34 | 责备 | 27 |
| 35 | 受 | 27 |
| 36 | 好像 | 26 |
| 37 | 儿 | 25 |
| 38 | 恶 | 25 |
| 39 | 就是 | 25 |
| 40 | 王 | 24 |
| 41 | 必得 | 24 |
| 42 | 来 | 24 |
| 43 | 多 | 23 |
| 44 | 给 | 23 |
| 45 | 一切 | 21 |
| 46 | 便 | 21 |
| 47 | 敬畏 | 20 |
| 48 | 父亲 | 20 |
| 49 | 贫穷 | 20 |
| 50 | 心中 | 20 |

## Words found in Proverbs and nowhere else

智谋 贻 步步 传神 启 谦逊 出卖 才德 劝教 真言 迷途 帝王 求知 美言 深入 心得 撤回 搜求 蚂蚁 之类 巷

## Chapters, easiest first

| Chapter | HSK 1-3 | Verses | Characters |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Proverbs 7 | 63.7% | 27 | 505 |
| Proverbs 23 | 61.5% | 34 | 649 |
| Proverbs 26 | 60.7% | 27 | 544 |
| Proverbs 4 | 60.5% | 27 | 488 |
| Proverbs 25 | 59.4% | 28 | 562 |
| Proverbs 30 | 58.6% | 33 | 666 |
| Proverbs 31 | 58.2% | 31 | 559 |
| Proverbs 27 | 57.7% | 27 | 542 |
| Proverbs 9 | 57.5% | 18 | 316 |
| Proverbs 5 | 57.2% | 23 | 426 |
| Proverbs 8 | 56.8% | 36 | 661 |
| Proverbs 3 | 56.5% | 35 | 625 |
| Proverbs 2 | 55.8% | 22 | 338 |
| Proverbs 6 | 55.5% | 35 | 624 |
| Proverbs 18 | 53.2% | 24 | 429 |
| Proverbs 24 | 52.7% | 34 | 675 |
| Proverbs 22 | 51.8% | 29 | 543 |
| Proverbs 20 | 51.2% | 30 | 549 |
| Proverbs 16 | 50.8% | 33 | 611 |
| Proverbs 1 | 50.2% | 33 | 632 |
| Proverbs 19 | 48.6% | 29 | 560 |
| Proverbs 12 | 47.4% | 28 | 529 |
| Proverbs 29 | 46.7% | 27 | 498 |
| Proverbs 10 | 46.4% | 32 | 568 |
| Proverbs 17 | 45.5% | 28 | 507 |
| Proverbs 15 | 45.2% | 33 | 576 |
| Proverbs 21 | 45.1% | 31 | 573 |
| Proverbs 14 | 44.9% | 35 | 641 |
| Proverbs 13 | 42.7% | 25 | 453 |
| Proverbs 11 | 42.4% | 31 | 579 |
| Proverbs 28 | 39.6% | 28 | 545 |

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

## 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