# The Chinese Bible in Numbers

> The Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified) contains 921,149 Chinese characters across 31,021 verses, written with 2,996 distinct characters and 11,168 distinct words; the 971 most frequent characters cover 95% of the text.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Books / chapters / verses | 66 / 1,189 / 31,021 |
| Chinese characters | 921,149 |
| Distinct characters | 2,996 |
| Distinct words | 11,168 |
| Characters for 95% coverage | 971 |
| Words for 95% coverage | 3,253 |
| HSK 1-3 word tokens | 59.7% |
| Not in HSK 1-9 | 22.5% |
| Words occurring once | 2,579 |
| Distinct pinyin syllables | 1,117 |

## Questions answered with one number

- **how many Chinese characters in the Bible** — 921,149 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-many-chinese-characters-in-the-bible)
- **how many unique characters Chinese Bible** — 2,996 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-many-unique-characters)
- **how many words Chinese Bible** — 11,168 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-many-words)
- **how many verses in the Bible** — 31,021 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-many-verses)
- **how many characters to read the Bible** — 971 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/characters-needed-to-read-the-bible)
- **how many words to read the Bible** — 3,253 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/words-needed-to-read-the-bible)
- **what HSK level to read the Bible** — HSK 3 = 59.7% (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/hsk-level-needed-to-read-the-bible)
- **easiest book of the Bible in Chinese** — John — 72.3% HSK 1-3 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/easiest-book-in-chinese)
- **hardest book of the Bible in Chinese** — 1 Chronicles — 49.7% HSK 1-3 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/hardest-book-in-chinese)
- **Bible books ranked by Chinese difficulty** — 66 books ranked (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/books-ranked-by-difficulty)
- **easiest Bible chapters in Chinese** — Psalms 131 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/easiest-chapters-in-chinese)
- **average verse length in Chinese** — 30 characters (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/average-verse-length)
- **average chapter length in Chinese** — 775 characters (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/average-chapter-length)
- **longest verse in the Bible Chinese** — Jeremiah 43:5 — 97 characters (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/longest-verse-in-chinese)
- **shortest verse in the Bible Chinese** — 耶稣哭了 — 4 characters (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/shortest-verse-in-chinese)
- **words that appear once in the Bible** — 2,579 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/words-that-appear-only-once)
- **characters in every book of the Bible** — 32 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/characters-in-every-book)
- **words only in the Old Testament** — 4,744 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/old-testament-only-words)
- **words only in the New Testament** — 1,271 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/new-testament-only-words)
- **Bible words not in HSK** — 22.5% (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/characters-not-in-hsk)
- **how many names in the Bible Chinese** — 662 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/proper-names-count)
- **how long to read the Chinese Bible** — 59 hours (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-long-to-read-the-chinese-bible)
- **how long to learn to read Chinese Bible** — 11 months at 10 words a day (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-long-to-learn-to-read-it)
- **simplified vs traditional Bible differences** — 1,909 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/simplified-vs-traditional-differences)
- **how many pinyin syllables in the Bible** — 1,117 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/pinyin-syllables-in-the-bible)
- **how often does God appear in the Bible** — 4,361 times (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-often-does-god-appear)
- **how often does Jehovah appear Chinese** — 6,960 times (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-often-does-jehovah-appear)
- **how often does Jesus appear Chinese Bible** — 1,492 times (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-often-does-jesus-appear)
- **how often does love appear in the Bible** — 388 times (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-often-does-love-appear)
- **how often does faith appear in the Bible** — 472 times (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-often-does-faith-appear)
- **how often does grace appear in the Bible** — 59 times (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-often-does-grace-appear)
- **how often does light appear in the Bible** — 162 times (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-often-does-light-appear)
- **how often does heart appear in the Bible** — 660 times (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-often-does-heart-appear)
- **does the Chinese Bible follow Zipf's law** — α = 0.993 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/does-the-chinese-bible-follow-zipfs-law)
- **how many strokes to write the Bible** — 6,505,819 strokes (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/strokes-to-write-the-chinese-bible)
- **tone distribution in the Chinese Bible** — 32.5% fourth tone (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/tones-in-the-chinese-bible)
- **homophones in the Chinese Bible** — 18 characters read yì (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/homophones-in-the-chinese-bible)
- **most common radicals Chinese Bible** — 244 radicals (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/radicals-in-the-chinese-bible)
- **how fast new words appear when reading** — β = 0.482 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/how-fast-new-words-appear)
- **information per Chinese character** — 8.77 bits (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/information-per-chinese-character)
- **which Bible book teaches the most vocabulary** — Isaiah — 90% (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/which-book-teaches-the-most-vocabulary)
- **do the Gospels cover the Bible's vocabulary** — 89.6% of the Bible (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/do-the-gospels-cover-the-bible)
- **how long are Chinese Bible words** — 64.8% (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/word-length-in-the-chinese-bible)
- **most repetitive chapter in the Bible** — Numbers 29 — 8.29× (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/most-repetitive-chapter-in-the-bible)
- **does HSK order match Bible frequency** — r = 0.312 (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/does-hsk-order-match-bible-frequency)
- **vocabulary shared by both testaments** — 5,153 shared words (https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/shared-vocabulary-of-both-testaments)

## 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.
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