history
HSK level
历史 (lìshǐ) means 'history' — both the academic subject and the actual past events of a country, person, or institution.
As a school subject: 历史课 (history class), 学历史 (study history). As 'the past': 中国的历史 (China's history), 这家公司有100年的历史 ('this company has 100 years of history'). Unlike English, Chinese commonly treats 'has history' as a way to say something is old or established: 有历史 literally 'has history' = 'is historic / well-established.'
The character 历 (calendar / experience / pass through) plus 史 (records of the past) gives the literal sense 'records of what has been lived through.' Common adjective form is 历史的 or 历史性的 (historic). Do not confuse with 故事 (gùshi, 'story') — 历史 is real, documented; 故事 can be fictional.
Character by character
Memory hook: 历 (experience/pass through) + 史 (records) = the records of what has been passed through — history.
历史 appears in 3 Fluentide podcast episodes at natural native speed — each with the full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
我喜欢学中国历史。
Wǒ xǐhuan xué Zhōngguó lìshǐ.
I like studying Chinese history.
neutral
这本书讲的是历史。
Zhè běn shū jiǎng de shì lìshǐ.
This book is about history.
neutral
北京有很长的历史。
Běijīng yǒu hěn cháng de lìshǐ.
Beijing has a very long history.
neutral
明天我们有历史课。
Míngtiān wǒmen yǒu lìshǐ kè.
Tomorrow we have a history class.
spoken
历史 is written with 9 strokes (历: 4, 史: 5). Tap replay to watch each character drawn again.
Acquire it by listening
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