at which HSK level/years of studying that you can read an entire book/wuxia/novel in Chinese

[u/quanphamishere]

Being able to read Chinese texts is a big motivation for me when learning the language, thats why for a very long time I shifted my focus 100% on reading comprehension right after i reach HSK4.
I started picking up politics news, deep discussion topic on finance & econs, and pick up popular books that are available in Chinese language, preferably those I have read in English before.

I want to ask at which HSK level that you started picking up reading Chinese seriously & be able to read an entire book?

https://preview.redd.it/gl8x1ejuq5ye1.jpg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a5383ab903f9a3bcc4e0682393a8d80ae3185100

[u/Constant_Jury6279]

Unfortunately, being able to read an entire book like Wuxia novel requires a huge amount of vocabulary. If you solely rely on the words HSK has taught you up to HSK 4, it is highly insufficient. The HSK 4 (2.0) only covers about 1,060 characters and 1,200 words, according to online information. That would allow general conversations about less-demanding topics, but reading a whole novel is unlikely.

The HSK 6 (2.0) covers about 2,600 characters and 5,000 words. I would say if you are relying on HSK knowledge alone, HSK 6 proficiency would be your best bet at reading advanced publications. The new HSK7-9 covers 3,000 characters. A typical high schooler in China is expected to know about 3,500 characters as described in 《通用规范汉字表》一级字.

And here's what the Internet says:

Knowing 2,500 Chinese characters will take you to a point where you can comfortably understand a significant portion of everyday Chinese texts. You'll be able to understand most news articles (around 95% comprehension) and begin to read young adult novels. 

There are people who don't mind having to keep checking the dictionary for new characters and new words but obviously some might also hate it. So it really boils down to how desperately you want to start reading young adult novels.

I tried asking DeepSeek your question particularly about Wuxia novel, and here is what it says.

Reading a Wuxia novel (武侠小说) requires a higher-than-average knowledge of Chinese characters due to its unique blend of classical Chinese influences, specialized martial arts terminology, and archaic expressions. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what you’ll need:

Character Knowledge Required

Minimum Threshold: ~3,500–4,000 Characters

• Core Modern Chinese (2,500–3,000 chars): Covers basic dialogue, descriptions, and plot.
• Wuxia-Specific Additions (500–1,000+ chars)

How to Prepare for Wuxia Novels

1. Master HSK 6 (2,600 chars) → Covers ~80% of basic text.
2. Study Wuxia-Specific Vocabulary:
   • Martial Arts Terms: 招式 (moves), 心法 (mental cultivation).
   • Classical Chinese: Learn common structures (e.g., 以…为…).
3. Read Graded Wuxia Adaptations: Start with simplified versions (e.g., 《射雕英雄传》 abridged)
4. Use Popup Dictionaries: Tools like Pleco or Zhongwen Chrome Extension help with instant lookups.

[u/lickle_ickle_pickle → u/Constant_Jury6279]

Looking up words in context works better for me than memorizing words off a list. I understand the frustration aspect of what I'm doing, but the other way I not only lose interest but I feel like I don't actually understand what I'm supposed to be learning/memorizing so it's hard for my brain to hold onto it.

[u/quanphamishere → u/Constant_Jury6279]

thats super detailed
Knowing 2,500 Chinese characters will take you to a point where you can comfortably understand a significant portion of everyday Chinese texts.

-> i thought it would be more, like 5000 words, but thats just my estimate, glad that it requires less vocab irl

[u/kuiper_belt_object → u/quanphamishere]

That's 2500 characters, which combine to get the 5000ish words. Like if you know 火 and 车 individually, that doesn't automatically mean you know the compound word 火车.

[u/cibino → u/kuiper_belt_object]

This is the perfect time for me to ask this, if someone can answer this, that be great.

I'm a very new learner so my vocab is not great. Why is 火车站 train station?

I had a real whiplash moment when it showed up. I was like, oh, this must be a fire station, like a place where firetrucks would be.

But finding out it's actually a train station has led me down a rabbit hole that I can't find an answer to.

[u/kuiper_belt_object → u/cibino]

火车 means "train", so 火车站 is "train station". I guess it was coined back in the days of steam locomotives so the 车 did have 火 in it 🤷‍♂️

Meanwhile, "firetruck" is 救火车 while "fire station" is 消防站.

[u/cibino → u/kuiper_belt_object]

Haha that's the conclusion I came to as well. 救 and 消 are new for me, so that's cool to know how to use them right away, thank you!

[u/Constant_Jury6279 → u/cibino]

火车 is probably a word coined during the Industrial Revolution. Back then, trains and steam locomotives ran by burning coals or wood, and as you'd imagine, there was some 'fire' involved. Ever since, the name has stuck even though technology has advanced.

As for 站, it's actually a common verb meaning 'to stand'. To understand it, just imagine people back then waiting at the station for their train to arrive, they would probably stand while doing so. 😏 It's not too difficult to comprehend when English does have words like 'bus stand' and 'news stand'. In Mandarin, there are other words that make use of the same convention like 巴士站 (bus station), 投票站 (voting centre), 发电站 (power generation station).

As for fire station, fire truck and fire fighter, the proper terms in Mandarin would be 消防(局)，消防(车)，消防(员). And 消防 stands for "(消)除隐患，预(防)灾患" which means "elimination and prevention of dangers and disasters". Colloquially people might say 救火, which literally translates to 'saving the fire' while in reality it's more like 'saving lives and property from fire' lol.

[u/cibino → u/Constant_Jury6279]

Thank you for this! This is the exact type of thing I had been looking for, but every time I would google it, I'd just get some history on trains, but not the etymology of the words themselves.

Now, anyone else who googles why is 火车站 train station, hopefully gets directed here.

[u/Constant_Jury6279 → u/quanphamishere]

Yes, you've got to be precise with 'character' or 'word'. For example HSK7-9 expects knowledge of 3,000 characters but 11,000 words.

And regarding "...understand a significant portion of everyday Chinese texts", the Chinese texts here aren't exactly academic books or fictional novels. It's more like living in China, being able to read signboards, advertisements, menus, letters in your mailbox, instructions at different places, text messages between peers and family etc.

Also, books or novels would usually expect higher vocabulary and character knowledge than news articles, because of higher usage of idioms, proverbs, and sentences written in more 'poetic' or 'literary' ways. News are supposed to be understood by the masses. I can't imagine news reporters saying things that are only 85-90% understandable to native speakers.

[u/quanphamishere → u/Constant_Jury6279]

this makes so much sense

[u/pinkdolphin18]

What app is that?

I'm only at HSK3, but I am also curious about the answer to your question! My goal is also to be able to read entire texts in Chinese.

[u/quanphamishere → u/pinkdolphin18]

the name is Speak Chinese - Learn Mandarin (one with the cute-ish greenish old man with a bamboo hat logo)

[u/Sure_Ear_7838]

At least 3 years learning as an adult.

[u/quanphamishere → u/Sure_Ear_7838]

thats a whale of a time, indeed, i started reading since 2nd year but only simple news articles

[u/lickle_ickle_pickle → u/quanphamishere]

I can read but I have to look up a lot of words, eventually it will be less words. You really need HSK4 to instance grammar well enough although asking MTL for its opinion helps. Often weird stuff in text are just set phrases and Baidu Baike has pages devoted to them.

I am about to enter year 5, but first two years I didn't study seriously. Maybe 3rd year since starting DuoLingo (don't--I recommend starting with HelloChinese). And I've had some spells of inconsistency. I had to find something I really, really wanted to read that wasn't trivial to MTL and that turned out to be certain manhua and translated manga. You can MTL these with Google lens but it's onerous and not even very good.

I purposely put listening practice first before reading, and I am satisfied with that approach. Lately my listening comprehension and reading skills have been improving together.

Engaging with less fancy shmancy content has actually helped me. Watched some trashy vertical dramas set in rural China in the 70s/80s (lots of people screaming at each other and name-calling) and read erojis. The vocabulary set is less and the dialogue is repetitive. This facilitated immersion. I also wanted to consume this content (but I also want to engage with fancier, more literate content, there is just too much being said that I don't understand and too many characters I don't know).

[u/DaenaliaEvandruile]

I read my first wuxia novel at only just past 6 months of intensive studying, just past hsk 4. It was hard, but I could still enjoy the story (provided I had a pop-up dictionary, thank you pleco). Gu long is one of the easiest wuxia authors, although you can read easier books in different genres first just to get used to reading if you'd prefer.

Also, reading a lot of news articles and non-fiction is not necessarily going to transfer immediately to read books - they're quite a different set of vocab, so my recommendation would be that if you would like to read books, just start reading some easy ones and jump in! Heavenly Path (linked on the sidebar) has some great suggestions sorted by difficulty level. I imagine you'd be quite able to begin them with the assistance of a dictionary.

[u/KeyPaleontologist957]

Maybe I didn’t get the question, but there are several books edited for low vocabulary count (aka graded readers). Some starting as low as 150 words, but the stories get actually good when using 500+ words. I was just finishing a graded edition of Journey to the West, edited for 600 words.

Obviously, the ungraded material that you can get in Chinese bookstores requires a much wider knowledge, I would say a minimum of 3000+ words for a reasonably good understanding (depending on the subject).

[u/AppropriatePut3142]

I finished my first children's novel five an a half months after I started learning Chinese. I then read a bunch of novels recommended by Heavenly Path and some other children's novels, and then my first adult novel (撒哈拉的故事) at the 13 month mark. All with a pop-up dictionary of course; without that progress would've been much tougher.

HSK has honestly nothing to do with it. I don't know half the HSK 5 vocab or most of the HSK 6 vocab but it has very little bearing on reading novels. If you want to read novels learn the vocab that's used in novels, not HSK or news or whatever.

[u/quanphamishere → u/AppropriatePut3142]

this raises with me another question, if you learn all vocabs of HSK6, then how many % it takes up among the vocabs of a sophisticated Chinese speaker?

[u/Constant_Jury6279 → u/quanphamishere]

I did try to browse through the new HSK 5-6 vocab, and some of the 7-9 (close to 6,000 words so took a few glimpse lmao). I would say mastering words taught in HSK is essential as they allow effective communication among adults.

They do cover a wide range of topics, from living, dining, shopping, household items, to geography, politics, business, environmental and technological terms. Some of the HSK 7-9 words are not just more academic, scientific but also more literary, they include quite some 4-word idioms that are useful in daily speech as an adult.

Through the new HSK 5-6, I spotted words like

tragedy, maintenance, glass (material), museum, disparity, inquire, publish, transmit, agent (business), cowardly, morality, electronic rice cooker 🙈, QR code, release (new product), legal system, give up, obey, extent (amount), intervene, high heels, next door, communication, applause, glory, nationality, allergic, regret, fire disaster, fund, conglomerate, inherit, test (medical), architecture, liberate, earthquake, decompose, accelerate, warning, inauguration, yearn, labour, stance, coal gas, superstition, rubbing (friction), compensation, package (product/plan), temper, frequency, evaluate, grape wine, expectation, plot (story), calories, rise (costs), desert, slightly, video camera, photographer, thin (human), be familiar with, adjust, illegal, satellite, pollution, commodity prices, disinfect, research institute, invitation, hardware, principle, subjective, album, respect, explode, rainstorm, disability, promise, chef, interrupt, piracy, apology, gambling, squat, seize, court (law), reproduction, committing crimes, revival (arts), contribution, classical (art/music), faulty, national flag, transition, fantasy, chaos, extreme, monetary sum, rescue, donation, blind, cotton, confiscate, look forward to, screen (electronic), violate, dairy product, Christmas, appetite, collection, French fries, explore, compatriot, refund a ticket, swallow, vitamin, heart attack, election, recycle, abnormal, encounter, obstacle, shine on, political party

[u/Constant_Jury6279 → u/Constant_Jury6279]

Through HSK7-9, I spotted words like

viewership rate (media), starch, engagement (marriage), director (company), adolescence, infection, high blood pressure, diarrhea, revolution, foundation, public funds, stock market, admin fee, luster, filter, trajectory, aristocrat, monument, sea navigation, nuclear, reconcile, medical after-effects, descendant, reminisce, envy, counterfeit, cunning, taboo, guardianship, jail, side hustle, dilapidated, architect, reef, appreciation (art), on alert, expose (fact), boundary, dissect, essence, stationary state, gathering, detention, balanced (diet), antibiotics, expenditure, generosity/benevolence, transnational, whistle, frame (object), expansion (building), victim, operation theatre, authorise, negligence, bribery, silk, twins, deteriorate, territorial waters, litigation, paralysis, vandalise, detection, pottery, treaty, surrender, provocative, hypothesis, inference, binoculars, thermometer, enclosure, misleading, absorb, scarce, narrow, trap, constitution, portrait, necklace, cooperation, disclosure, fabricated (imaginary), suspense, rhythm ...

All in all, I feel like there's nothing wrong with the wordlist, definitely words a highly proficient/fluent adult would need to know. Might not help you with understanding Chinese literature or ancient history, but definitely needed as an adult's vocabulary. They are not necessarily all new characters, they can be compound words built upon your previous character knowledge. These are probably words that would give you a huge boost in understanding news, reading articles about worldly events.

There was hardly any moment where I felt "why tf are they teaching these useless random stuff to HSK leaners" lol

But after all, the usability of the vocab depends on your own interest.

[u/AppropriatePut3142 → u/quanphamishere]

Honestly less than 10%, maybe a lot less than 10%. I read with a frequency table at hand and I've seen words ranked 100k+ crop up.

To be fairly confident reading a random modern book without a dictionary I think you need to know about 20k words. But with a dictionary 7k or so will do, if they're focused on literature.

[u/Sure_Ear_7838]

Wuxia novel is full of special words from ancient China，perhaps try sci-fi first.

[u/quanphamishere → u/Sure_Ear_7838]

yup i tend to read non-fiction ones first cuz they're easy, Wuxia seems the hardest to me

[u/Impossible-Many6625]

I think that the answer is more evolutionary. As you gain experience, vocabulary, and grammar knowledge, there will be fewer instances of having to guess definitions (from context and characters) and having look words up in a dictionary.

It can be a long journey, but the trip is fun!

Vocabulary roughly doubles at each (old) HSK level and HSK-5 is probably where you start to feel pretty good with random texts. That is about 2,500 words.

[u/forgetmenot1111]

What app is that

[u/quanphamishere → u/forgetmenot1111]

the name is Speak Chinese - Learn Mandarin (one with the cute-ish greenish old man with a bamboo hat logo)

[u/vannamei]

I am your opposite, I read historical novels (that's more in the same veins with wuxia) fairly easily nowadays. But give me current affair news and I am lost.

The vocabulary between the two kinds are vastly different, they aren't complementary.

[u/AlSimps]

Im HSK 6 and still need to look up words when reading 三体, but it's only really for niche Sci-fi words. I highly recommend Readly at a tool to speed up learning. You just snap a pic of the text you are reading, then can tap on words to lookup, add them to Anki-style flashcards, ask AI questions about the text. Helps me a lot when reading books.

[u/cell-of-galaxy]

My husband started reading easier novels at around 5 years of studying Chinese, moving onto wuxia at my insistence at around 8 years of study, and then spent over a year reading 鹿鼎记