<p>This study used a three-wave longitudinal design to examine the reciprocal relationships between semantic radical knowledge, character recognition, and vocabulary knowledge. A total of 149 first-grade Chinese children participated in the present study. After controlling for phonological awareness, morphological awareness, nonverbal intelligence, and autoregressive effects, cross-lagged analysis results showed the following: (1) From first to second grade, semantic radical knowledge significantly predicted character recognition, while from second to third grade, character recognition significantly predicted semantic radical knowledge. (2) From first to second grade, no longitudinal predictive relationship existed between semantic radical knowledge and vocabulary knowledge, but from second to third grade, semantic radical knowledge and vocabulary knowledge could predict each other. (3) From first to second grade, vocabulary knowledge could unidirectionally predict character recognition, while from second to third grade, vocabulary knowledge and character recognition could predict each other. These findings indicate a reciprocal relationship between semantic radical knowledge, character recognition, and vocabulary knowledge in Chinese children, emphasizing that their developmental relationships are dynamic and characterized by stage-specific features.</p>