雪 xuě

雪 simplified

雪 traditional

xuě

snow · dazzling white · to wipe a grievance clean

HSK 2 笔画 11 部首雨 (rain) 声调第三声 (dipping) all xue readings →

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笔顺 bǐshùn · Stroke order

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字源 zìyuán Etymology & Structure

字源洞见 zìyuán dòngjiàn · Etymological Insight

雪 decomposes as 雨 (yǔ, rain) over 彐 (jì). The 雨 radical at the top is the natural classifier for things that fall from the sky: 雪 (snow), 霜 (frost), 雾 (fog), 露 (dew), 雷 (thunder), and 电 (lightning) all wear it. The top of the character places snow firmly in the family of precipitation.

The element underneath is the interesting one. The form 彐 in modern 雪 is a flattened descendant of 帚 (zhǒu, a broom) or, in the earliest analyses, a hand. The seal script shows rain falling onto a hand, and the traditional reading is that snow is the precipitation you can catch and hold, the rain that does not run through your fingers. This concrete image, snow as the rain a hand can grasp, is the seed of the character's second life.

That hand is also why 雪 became a verb meaning "to wipe clean" or "to sweep away." If the bottom element is a sweeping hand, then 雪 carries the motion of wiping a surface white and blank. From there the metaphor extends to wiping away a disgrace or avenging a wrong: 雪耻 (to wipe out a humiliation), 雪恨 (to expunge a hatred). The snow that whitens the ground is the same character that cleans the slate of a grievance. Han Han the modern novelist and a hundred classical poets before him built on exactly this double sense.

下雪 xià xuě Snow & Weather — The Falling and the White

下雪 xià xuě to snow; snow is falling

V-O 动宾 dòngbīn

下 xià (to come down; to fall) + 雪 xuě (snow). The standard way to say "it is snowing," built on the same 下 used for 下雨 (to rain). Chinese treats weather that falls from the sky as something the sky "sends down," so snow, rain, and frost all take 下. To say a heavy snow fell, use 下大雪; a light snow, 下小雪.

昨天晚上下雪了，今天一片白。

Zuótiān wǎnshang xià xuě le, jīntiān yí piàn bái.

It snowed last night; today everything is white.

北方的冬天经常下大雪。

Běifāng de dōngtiān jīngcháng xià dà xuě.

Winters in the north often bring heavy snow.

孩子们盼着下雪，好出去堆雪人。

Háizimen pàn zhe xià xuě, hǎo chūqù duī xuěrén.

The children are hoping for snow so they can go build a snowman.

雪花 xuěhuā snowflake

N 名词 míngcí

雪 xuě (snow) + 花 huā (flower). A snowflake, the snow seen as a falling blossom. The flower metaphor is old and pervasive in Chinese: snow falling is 雪花飘 (snow-flowers drifting), and the six-petaled structure of a real snow crystal was noticed early, with classical texts remarking that snow flowers have six points while ordinary flowers have five. 雪花 is also a common brand and product name precisely because of its clean, pretty image.

雪花一片一片地飘下来。

Xuěhuā yí piàn yí piàn de piāo xiàlái.

The snowflakes drifted down one after another.

每一片雪花的形状都不一样。

Měi yí piàn xuěhuā de xíngzhuàng dōu bù yíyàng.

Every snowflake has a different shape.

雪白 xuěbái snow-white; pure, dazzling white

Adj 形容词 xíngróngcí

雪 xuě (snow) + 白 bái (white). The brightest, purest white, with snow as the standard of comparison, exactly parallel to English "snow-white." This is a productive pattern in Chinese: a vivid object plus a color word yields an intensified shade. Compare 火红 (fire-red), 漆黑 (lacquer-black), 金黄 (gold-yellow). 雪白 describes fresh snow, clean linen, white walls, and pale skin.

她穿着一件雪白的衬衫。

Tā chuān zhe yí jiàn xuěbái de chènshān.

She was wearing a snow-white shirt.

远处的山顶覆盖着雪白的积雪。

Yuǎnchù de shāndǐng fùgài zhe xuěbái de jīxuě.

The distant peaks were covered in dazzling white snow.

滑雪 huáxuě to ski; skiing

V-O 动宾 dòngbīn

滑 huá (to slide; slippery) + 雪 xuě (snow). To ski, literally "to slide on snow." The word covers downhill skiing and snowboarding alike in casual use. Snow sports surged in popularity in China around the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and 滑雪 went from a niche pastime to a mass weekend activity in the northern provinces.

冬天我们打算去东北滑雪。

Dōngtiān wǒmen dǎsuàn qù Dōngběi huáxuě.

This winter we plan to go skiing in the Northeast.

他第一次滑雪就摔了好几跤。

Tā dì yī cì huáxuě jiù shuāi le hǎojǐ jiāo.

He fell several times the first time he went skiing.

雪恨 xuě hèn Snow as Vengeance — To Wipe Clean

文化洞见 wénhuà dòngjiàn · The Buried Metaphor

The sense of 雪 that surprises learners is the verb: to wipe out, to expunge, to avenge. It traces back to the sweeping hand in the character's bottom half. Just as snow whitens and blanks a landscape, 雪 came to mean making a record clean again, erasing a stain on one's name. The standard compounds are 雪耻 (xuě chǐ, to wipe out a humiliation) and 雪恨 (xuě hèn, to expunge a hatred), and the full set phrase is 报仇雪恨 (bào chóu xuě hèn), to take revenge and clear the grievance.

This is the language of the wronged hero in classical fiction and opera. A general defeated in battle vows to 雪耻; a family destroyed by an enemy lives to 报仇雪恨. The metaphor is precise and physical: the disgrace is a black mark, and vengeance is the act of wiping it white again, as snow wipes the dirty ground clean. A learner who knows only 下雪 will be baffled the first time 雪 turns up as a verb of revenge; the bridge between them is the sweeping hand and the blank white field it leaves behind.

报仇雪恨 bào chóu xuě hèn to avenge a wrong and wipe out the grievance

Phrase 短语 duǎnyǔ

报仇 bàochóu (to take revenge) + 雪恨 xuěhèn (to expunge a hatred). The full, four-character form of the revenge vow. 报仇 settles the score by action; 雪恨 cleans the emotional and reputational stain that the wrong left behind. The pairing makes vengeance both an act and a purification. It is a staple of martial-arts fiction, where the hero spends the whole story working toward this single phrase.

他发誓要为父亲报仇雪恨。

Tā fāshì yào wèi fùqīn bào chóu xuě hèn.

He swore to avenge his father and wipe out the grievance.

多年以后，他终于报仇雪恨。

Duō nián yǐhòu, tā zhōngyú bào chóu xuě hèn.

Years later, he finally took his revenge and cleared the old score.

成语 chéngyǔ Idioms & Set Phrases

雪上加霜 xuě shàng jiā shuāng frost on top of snow — to make a bad situation even worse 雪 xuě (snow) + 上 shàng (on top of) + 加 jiā (to add) + 霜 shuāng (frost). Frost piled on snow already covering the ground: one hardship stacked on another. The everyday equivalent of "to rub salt in the wound" or "when it rains, it pours." 他刚失业，妻子又生病了，真是雪上加霜。(He had just lost his job, and then his wife fell ill; it was misfortune piled on misfortune.) One of the most common idioms in spoken Chinese.

瑞雪兆丰年 ruì xuě zhào fēng nián a timely snow foretells a good harvest 瑞 ruì (auspicious) + 雪 xuě (snow) + 兆 zhào (to portend) + 丰年 fēngnián (a year of abundance). A farmer's proverb with real agronomy behind it: a heavy winter snow insulates the wheat from killing cold, kills overwintering pests, and melts into spring soil moisture. So snow at the right time is a blessing, a sign that next year's harvest will be good. Quoted every winter when the first big snow falls.

雪中送炭 xuě zhōng sòng tàn to send charcoal in the snow — to give help exactly when it is needed most 雪中 (in the midst of snow) + 送 sòng (to send) + 炭 tàn (charcoal). Bringing fuel to someone freezing in a snowstorm: timely help offered precisely at the moment of greatest need. It is the warm opposite of 雪上加霜. The phrase is the highest praise for a friend who shows up in a crisis: 真正的朋友会雪中送炭，而不是锦上添花。(A true friend sends charcoal in the snow, rather than merely adding flowers to brocade.)

冰天雪地 bīng tiān xuě dì ice in the sky, snow on the ground — a frozen, bitterly cold world 冰 bīng (ice) + 天 tiān (sky) + 雪 xuě (snow) + 地 dì (ground). A vivid set phrase for a landscape locked in deep winter, ice above and snow below, everything frozen. Used to describe the far north, high mountains, or any scene of extreme cold. 探险队在冰天雪地里走了好几天。(The expedition trekked for days through a frozen, snowbound wilderness.)

记忆法 jìyìfǎ · Master Retention Image

Read the character top to bottom: 雨 (rain) over a hand. Snow is the rain you can hold, the precipitation that lands in your open palm and stays. That single image carries both lives of the character. The rain on top keeps 雪 in the weather family, alongside frost, fog, and thunder; the hand underneath is doing two jobs.

As a noun, the hand catches: snowflakes you can hold, a snow-white field, a snowman the children pack together. As a verb, the hand sweeps: it wipes the ground white and blank, and from there it wipes a name clean. 雪耻 and 报仇雪恨 are not strange new words once you see that a humiliation is a stain and revenge is the act of sweeping it away, the way snow erases the dirty winter ground.

Keep the two faces of snow side by side. 雪上加霜 is misfortune piled higher, frost on snow. 雪中送炭 is rescue at the worst moment, charcoal carried through the storm. 瑞雪兆丰年 is the snow that blesses the coming harvest. The same white precipitation can bury you or save you, and the same character can name the snowfall or the vengeance that finally clears the slate.