| 一 | yī | one; 1; single; a (article); as soon as; entire; whole; all; throughout; "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1) |
| 部 | bù | ministry; department; section; part; division; troops; board; classifier for works of literature, films, machines etc |
| 二 | èr | two; 2; stupid (Beijing dialect) |
| 十 | shí | ten; 10 |
| 四 | sì | four; 4 |
| 史 | shǐ | history; annals; title of an official historian in ancient China; surname Shi |
| 不 | bù | (negative prefix); not; no |
| 知 | zhī | to know; to be aware |
| 从 | cōng | lax; yielding; unhurried |
| 从 | cóng | from; via; passing through; through (a gap); past; ever (followed by negative, meaning never); (formerly pr. and related to 纵) to follow; to comply with; to obey; to join; to engage in; adopting some mode of action or attitude; follower; retainer; accessory; accomplice; related by common paternal grandfather or earlier ancestor; surname Cong |
| 从 | zòng | second cousin |
| 何 | hé | what; how; why; which; carry; surname He |
| 说 | shuì | to canvass; to persuade; see 游说, to canvass and 说客, persuasive speaker |
| 说 | shuō | to speak; to say; a theory (usually in compounds such as 日心说 heliocentric theory) |
| 起 | qǐ | to rise; to raise; to get up; to set out; to start; to appear; to launch; to initiate (action); to draft; to establish; to get (from a depot or counter); verb suffix, to start; (before place or time) starting from; classifier for occurrences or unpredictable events: case, instance; classifier for groups: batch, group |
| 二十四史 | èr shí sì shǐ | twenty four dynastic histories (or 25 or 26 in modern editions); fig. a long and complicated story |
| 不知 | bù zhī | not to know; unaware; unknowingly; fig. not to admit (defeat, hardships, tiredness etc) |
| 从何 | cóng hé | whence?; where from? |
| 说起 | shuō qǐ | to mention; to bring up (a subject); with regard to; as for |
