After you’ve learned all of the strokes and stroke order rules, you will now be able to write any character even if you don’t know what they mean!
But for writing on the paper is another thing. Just knowing the pinyin is not enough. You need to know the strokes to know how these radicals are constructed. That’s not all, you also need to know the correct stroke order and the direction to be able to write each character correctly.
In conclusion, I would like to summarize what we have learned earlier.
In this blog, I’m going to teach you the most basic of Chinese writing – strokes, and explain some of the logic behind the common radicals.
The following table shows the 6 most fundamental strokes in Chinese writing.
Let’s move on to the Chinese radicals! The radicals can be considered as the pillar of the Chinese language learning. Each radical has its own meaning.
the connection between the stroke and the radical
By now you probably know the importance of radicals in Chinese writing. But Chinese writing is not as simple as typing on the keyboard “How to type Chinese Characters on the keyboard“. You will be able to type if you know the pinyin and the characters.
These 11 strokes are the most basic strokes in Chinese writing. The rest of the strokes are just the combinations of the above ones.Now that you have learned all the basic strokes, let’s move on to which stroke and in which order you need to write. The picture below shows you the 8 rules that you need to follow in Chinese writing.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220), people tended to simplify the seal character which had many strokes and created the official script. The new calligraphy appeared to be much neater and delicate, turning the round style into a flat one. When beginning to write a horizontal line, one must let the brush go against the direction of point like a silkworm, and concentrate on stretching steadily, then end up with warp like a swallow's tail. This is one of the characteristics – 'silkworm's head and swallow's tail'.
Today, although various modern ways have been substituted for the original calligraphy, especially which created with a writing brush, people still love the ancient form and practise it untiringly. During the traditional festivals, propitious couplets are always indispensable decorations each written in a beautiful style.
The delicacy gives literators and painters inspiration for creation, and has led to brush shafts being decorated with artistic patterns. One prized example was an ivory-weasel's hair writing brush. On the ivory shaft with the diameter of 0.8 cm, there carved eight figures of the immortals and pavilions concealed seemingly in the clouds. With this in one's hand, the threads of writing would hardly halt.
Ancient people paid great attention to calligraphy. It was the essential whereby a candidate could manifest his literary talent in the Imperial Examination, for it gave a first impression to the examiners. Children of high officials had to learn and try to write a good hand
Four Treasures of the Study
Just as the name implies, the regular script features its regularity and varies from the flat font to a square one. In Chinese it provides a model that can be followed by calligraphy lovers. It has developed since the late Han Dynasty and is today's most popular and influential writing style. The Sage of Calligraphy, Wang Xizhi led the art of calligraphy to its summit. It is recorded that when a carpenter was asked to engrave the wooden stele where there were characters written by Wang Xizhi, he found the ink had filtered into the wood piece 'three fen' deep (3.3cm or 1.3 inch)! This demonstrated the magnitude of his force and people admired him all the more because of it. The period when regular script thrived most was during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907), when Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan successively established schools of their own styles noted for their strength and mellowness.
Cursive script has more flexibility, for it only maintains the essence of each character and expresses more personal exertion. Therefore its value lies in appreciation more than practicality. While the running hand makes full use of connecting lines between two strokes it can be regarded as the quickly-written form of regular script. These two seem to be more unrestrained than the previous styles.
To practise calligraphy requires the basic tools of 'four treasures of study' (writing brush, ink stick, paper, and ink slab) as well as much concentration on guiding the soft writing brush charged with fluid ink, and writing on the paper where the ink will diffuse quickly. Once the brush movement hesitates, a black mark is created, so speed, strength and agility is the essence of fine artwork. When writing, many calligraphers will forget all worries and even themselves, combining all thoughts in the beauty of their art. Thus it can be compared with Qigong, which also can mould and improve a person's temper and promote well being.
Calligraphy has endured for more than 2,000 years, and evolved into five main ways of writing each with different techniques. Even today, these are still followed and practiced often as a hobby.
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As you shop for joss paper, note that variations abound. Joss paper may be decorated with different seals, stamps, pieces of contrasting paper, engraved designs or other motifs. Different regions of the world have preferences for the type of joss paper that is used. For instance, Hell Bank Notes are commonly found in regions where Cantonese populations dominate, but are rarely seen or used in places such as Taiwan or Macau, which predominantly use bamboo paper sheets.
There are many occasions to burn joss paper throughout the year, and each instance carries a slightly different meaning and requirements. For some people, burning joss paper is a near-daily spiritual practice
The Chinese believe that it’s unlucky to arrive in the afterlife empty-handed or indebted. Consequently, burning joss paper is an essential part of Chinese funeral customs. Funeral offerings can be elaborate and typically include joss paper squares, lots of currency and household necessities like clothing, electronics and jewelry.
What is Joss Paper?
This 300 piece collection is appropriate for funerals, ancestor birthdays and holidays like the Qingming Festival and the Hungry Ghost Festival. The set includes bills resembling the U.S. Dollar, the Chinese Yuan and the Bank of Heaven and Earth.
As part of a tomb sweeping ceremony, joss paper currency and personal craft items are burned to honor the deceased. Larger offerings are emphasized, as this is the primary opportunity during the year to remember a family’s ancestors.
The most traditional type of “everyday” joss paper is made from sheets of coarse bamboo paper, each decorated with a square of gold or silver foil to represent money. They come in all different sizes and can be burned “as is” or after being folded into the shape of the traditional gold ingots used as currency in ancient China. Here are a few examples.
Sapore di Cina says
横折折 missing 凹 卍
横折弯 (héng zhé wān) horizontal stroke followed by a bend and a curved stroke: 朵铅
横折提 (héng zhé tí) horizontal stroke followed by a bend and a rising stroke towards the right: 讨 论 计
横折钩 (héng zhé gōu) horizontal stroke followed by a bend and a hook: 刀 同 门
横斜钩 (héng xié gōu) horizontal stroke followed by a curved stroke descending from left to right and a hook: 飞 凤 执
竖折折 (shù zhé zhé) vertical stroke followed by two curves: 鼎 卍 亞
竖折撇 (shù zhé piě) vertical stroke followed by a curve and a curving stroke descending toward the left: 专
竖弯钩 (shù wān gōu) vertical stroke followed by a curve and a hook (also 卧钩 wò gōu, “extended” hook): 也 电 心 必
First of all, let’s disprove a common misconception: modern Chinese is written from left to right and from top to bottom, horizontally just like western languages.
The strokes are simply the dots (点 diǎn) and lines (线 xiàn) that make up the characters.
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4. The hook 钩 (gōu) can be added to other strokes by modifying the last part. To give two examples, the center vertical stroke 竖 (shù) in 水 (shuǐ) goes up into a point. The hook could be towards the right or left and usually follows the direction of the stroke that joins it. In the character 我 (wǒ) there are two: the first goes towards the left, the second to the right.
Combined in different ways, the same strokes can form different characters:
Here’s a list of the eight strokes and their characteristics (see the figure below for a graphical example of each stroke):
To conclude, I leave you with a few curiosities (if you have others, add them in the comments!):
Personal handwriting is also important in Chinese culture. In Chinese, we have a saying called “字如其人(zì rú qí rén),” which means “the handwriting reflects the person.” According to my harshest handwriting critic, (my mother) my handwriting says that I am “disorganized, daring, and a little out of the box.” Clearly, I need more practice. What do you think your Chinese handwriting says about you? Hopefully with these tips, you’ll be on your way to improving your handwriting!
When a Chinese character is “stacked” vertically, like the character 立 (lì) or “to stand,” the rule is to write from top to bottom.
When it comes to writing Chinese stroke order is surprisingly important. The Chinese take great pride in their language, which includes the complex writing system.
First, let’s talk a little bit about strokes themselves. As you can see from the graph below, there are 11 basic strokes that comprise all Chinese characters.
7. Character spanning strokes last
“永(yǒng)” the character for eternity, is often the poster-child character for calligraphers. If you examine this character closely, you will notice that this one character has 8 of the most common stroke types that appear in the Chinese writing system. This is why calligraphers are often judged on skill by how well they write the character 永.
Horizontal strokes are always written before vertical strokes. Check out how to write the character “十(shí)” or “ten.”
The Chinese have always believed in balance and harmony. For example, when one fell ill, he or she was thought to have an imbalance of yin and yang in his or her body system. Traditional Chinese medicine was produced to restore balance.
For strokes that cut across many other strokes, they are often written last. For example, the character 半 (bàn), which means “half.” The vertical line is written last.