Basic Strokes of Chinese Writing

How to Write Chinese Characters

Chinese writing, which shows the richness and essence of Chinese civilization has a rich and long history. How do we write Chinese characters? Many learners say that Chinese words consist of a group of complex strokes that have no rules to follow. Actually, Chinese characters consist of several parts instead of many complex single strokes and it’s very easy to learn once you break them down into components. The current Chinese characters has changed a lot from the original complex form to the current simplified form, thus making it much easier to recognize.

Chinese writing looks vast different from English, German, French or any other language. It may seem challenging for some, but if you dig out the meaning of each Chinese word and know how it has turned out this way, it would be very easy to learn.

Basic Strokes of Chinese Writing

There are eight basic strokes in Chinese characters. The Chinese word 永 (yǒng) which means eternally is a very special character which contains all the basic strokes. Very often, the strokes in each Chinese word are written with the pen not leaving the paper. For example, in the Chinese word 永(yǒng), strokes 2,3 and 4 are written as one continuous stroke, so it is with strokes 5 and 6. That’s why 永(yǒng) has five strokes in total instead of eight.

1. "Dian" – which means a dot.

2. "Heng" – a horizontal stroke, left to right.

3. "Shu" – a vertical stroke, top to bottom.

4. "Gou" – a hook appended to other strokes.

5. "Ti" – a diagonal stroke, rising from left to right.

6. "Pie" – a diagonal stroke, falling from right to left.

7. "Duan Pie" – a short diagonal stroke, falling from right to left.

8. "Na" – a horizontal stroke, falling from left to right.

Stroke Order of Chinese Writing

"Stroke Order" means: which stroke is written first and which one comes after that. The general rules of writing Chinese characters are: from the top to the bottom and from the left to the right. To really write Chinese word in the right way, we need to accumulate day by day in learning Chinese writing.

Learning Chinese is like learning any other language. It involves continuous effort and practice. To really write Chinese well, you need to repeat writing the same Chinese word time and time again. The more you repeat what you have learned, the faster you will learn Chinese characters