HSK 1 Covers 45.1% of the Bible
Answering: “what can you read at hsk 1”
Updated 2026-09-26 · plain text · JSON
HSK levels describe a syllabus, not a text, so "is HSK 1 enough" has no answer until you measure it against something. This page measures it against the Chinese Bible: every word token in the text is matched to its HSK level, and the share at HSK 1 or below is what a reader at that level recognises.
Coverage is not comprehension. At 45.1% the unknown words are spread thinly but evenly, so most verses still hold one — which is workable with a reader that shows meaning on tap and frustrating without one. Turning pinyin off is the honest test of whether the characters have stuck.
The ceiling is worth knowing in advance: 22.2% of the tokens here are on no HSK list at all, so even HSK 7-9 reaches only 77.8%. The rest comes from the text itself.
| Level | Word tokens known | Still unknown |
|---|---|---|
| HSK 1 ← | 45.1% | 54.9% |
| HSK 2 | 53.8% | 46.2% |
| HSK 3 | 60.5% | 39.5% |
| HSK 4 | 63.9% | 36.1% |
| HSK 5 | 68.3% | 31.7% |
| HSK 6 | 72% | 28% |
| HSK 7-9 | 77.8% | 22.2% |
22.2% of word tokens are on no HSK list, which is why the last row stops short of 100%.
| Book | HSK 1 tokens | Distinct words | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| John | 58% | 1,626 | 91 |
| Mark | 53.1% | 1,917 | 67 |
| Matthew | 52.9% | 2,461 | 108 |
| Luke | 52.9% | 2,731 | 117 |
| 2 John | 52.2% | 137 | 2 |
| Ruth | 50.9% | 546 | 11 |
| 1 John | 50.7% | 394 | 12 |
| Genesis | 50.6% | 2,848 | 172 |
| Acts | 48.3% | 2,643 | 111 |
| Revelation | 47.9% | 1,545 | 52 |
Questions
- Can I read the Bible in Chinese at HSK 1?
- With help, yes: you will know 45.1% of the word tokens, and a tap-to-reveal reader covers the rest. Unassisted reading needs closer to 95% coverage, which is about 3,548 words.
- Which book should I read at this level?
- John (58%), Mark (53.1%), Matthew (52.9%) — the highest coverage of the 66 books at this level.
- Where does the level data come from?
- HSK 3.0 levels from the complete-hsk-vocabulary list; band 7 covers HSK 7-9. Words are matched after segmenting the text: forward maximum matching against CC-CEDICT (this site's own segmentation).
- Is there a deck for the gap?
- Yes — the book and topic decks are ordered by frequency in the Bible rather than by HSK, so they teach exactly the words a syllabus leaves out.
Related reference pages
Take it further
- 97 ready-made vocabulary decks — by HSK level, by book or by topic, exportable to Anki, Pleco or Quizlet.
- Printable 田字格 worksheets — passages with pinyin, meanings and tracing rows.
- The parallel reader — Chinese, pinyin and your own language side by side, every word tappable.
- The dataset behind these numbers — plain JSON, free to reuse with attribution.
How these numbers were produced
- Text: 和合本 (Chinese Union Version), simplified script — public domain — 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,021 verses.
- Words: forward maximum matching against CC-CEDICT (this site's own segmentation). A different segmenter gives slightly different word counts; character counts are unaffected.
- 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 about a fluent adult reader, not a measurement.
- Computed: 2026-09-26, from the text on this site.
These are counts anyone can reproduce from the published dataset. They are not a peer-reviewed linguistic study, and the difficulty rankings are one stated formula rather than a validated readability score.
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).