Strokes (simplified Chinese:笔画;traditional Chinese:筆畫;pinyin:bǐhuà) are the smallest structural units making up writtenChinese characters. In the act of writing, a stroke is defined as a movement of a writing instrument on awriting material surface, or the trace left on the surface from a discrete application of thewriting implement.^[1] The modern sense of discretized strokes first came into being with theclerical script during theHan dynasty.^[2] In theregular script that emerged during theTang dynasty—the most recent major style, highly studied for its aesthetics inEast Asian calligraphy—individual strokes are discrete and highly regularized. By contrast, the ancientseal script has line terminals within characters that are often unclear, making them non-trivial to count.

Study and classification of strokes is useful for understandingChinese character calligraphy, ensuring character legibility, identifying fundamental components ofradicals, and implementing support for the writing system on computers.

The terminals of the individual marks in ancient character forms are often unclear, and it is sometimes nontrivial to count them. The modern motion of discretized strokes did not fully emerge untilclerical script:^[3]

Historical evolution of the character馬 'horse'

Oracle	Bronze	Seal		Clerical	Regular
		Large	Small		Traditional	Simplified

The study and classification of strokes is used for:

1. understandingChinese character calligraphy – the correct method of writing, shape formation and stroke order required for character legibility;
2. understanding stroke changes according to the style that is in use;

3. 

   defining stroke naming and counting conventions;
4. identifying fundamental components ofHan radicals; and
5. their use in computing.

When writing Han radicals, a single stroke includes all the motions necessary to produce a given part of a character before lifting the writing instrument from the writing surface; thus, a single stroke may have abrupt changes in direction within the line. For example:

• (Vertical /shù) is classified as a basic stroke because it is a single stroke that forms a line moving in one direction.
• (Vertical – Horizontal – Vertical /shù zhé zhé) is classified as a compound stroke because it is a single stroke that forms a line that includes one or more abrupt changes in direction. This example is a sequence of three basic strokes written without lifting thewriting instrument such as theink brush from the writing surface.

All strokes have direction. They are unidirectional and start from one entry point. As such, they are usually not written in the reverse direction by native users. Here are some examples:

CJK strokes are an attempt to identify and classify all single-stroke components that can be used to write Han radicals. There are some thirty distinct types of strokes recognized inChinese characters, some of which are compound strokes made from basic strokes. The compound strokes comprise more than one movement of the writing instrument, and many of these have no agreed-upon name.

A basic stroke is a single calligraphic mark moving in one direction across a writing surface. The following table lists a selection of basic strokes divided into two stroke groups: simple and combining. "Simple strokes" (such as Horizontal /Héng and Dot /Diǎn) can be written alone. "Combining strokes" (such as Bend /Zhé and Hook /Gōu) never occur alone, but must be paired with at least one other stroke forming a compound stroke. Thus, they are not in themselves individual strokes.

Table of basic strokes

English	Name in PRC	Name in ROC	Name in Japan	Name in Vietnam	CJK stroke	Meaning of Chinese name (Japanese name, if different)	Additional description
Simple strokes
Dot	Diǎn,点	Diǎn,點	Ten,点	Chấm 枕		"Dot"	Tiny dash, speck.
Horizontal	Héng,横	Héng,橫	Yoko,横	Sổ ngang 𬃈昂		"Horizontal"	Rightward stroke.
Vertical	Shù,竖	Shù,豎	Tate,豎	Sổ dọc 𬃈𫆡		"Vertical"	Downward stroke.
Upward horizontal	Tí,提	Tiāo,挑	Hane,跳	Hất 迄		"Rise" ("Jump")	Flick up and rightwards.
Press	Nà,捺	Nà,捺	(Migi) Harai,(右)払	Mác 莫		"Press down" ("(Right) Sweep")	Falling rightwards (fattening at the bottom).
Throw	Piě,撇	Piě,撇	(Hidari) Harai,(左)払	Phẩy 𢵪		"Throw away" ("(Left) Sweep")	Falling leftwards (with slight curve).
Combining strokes
Bend	Zhé,折	Zhé,折	Ore,折	Gập 岋		"Bend, fold"	Indicates change in stroke direction, usually 90° turn, going down or going right only.
Hook	Gōu,钩	Gōu,鈎(鉤)	Kagi,鉤	Móc 鈢		"Hook"	Appended to other strokes, suddenly sharp turning before crash stopping.
Clockwise curve	Wān,弯	Wān,彎	(Hidari) Sori,(左)反	Cong 𢏣		"Curve"	Tapering curved line, usually concave left (convex outward right).
Anticlockwise curve	Wān,弯;Xié,斜	Qū,曲	(Migi) Sori,(右)反	Nghiêng 迎	㇄;	"(Right) curve"; "Slant"	Curved line, usually concave right (convex outward left).

Note, the basic strokeDiǎn "Dot" is rarely a realdot. Instead it usually takes the shape of a very small line pointing in one of several directions, and may be long enough to be confused with other strokes.

A compound stroke (also called a complex stroke) is produced when two or more basic strokes are combined in a single stroke written without lifting the writing instrument from the writing surface. The character永 (pinyin:yǒng) "eternity", described in more detail in§ Eight Principles of Yong, demonstrates one of these compound strokes. The centre line is a compound stroke that combines three stroke shapes in a single stroke.

Basics for making compound strokes^[A]

In most cases, concatenating basic strokes together form a compound stroke. For example, Vertical /Shù combined with Hook /Gōu produce (Vertical–Hook /Shù Gōu). A stroke naming convention sums the names of the basic strokes, in the writing order.

An exception to this applies when a stroke makes a strictly right-angle turn in theSimplified Chinese names. Horizontal (Héng) and Vertical (Shù) strokes are identified only once when they appear as the first stroke of a compound; any single stroke with successive 90° turns down or to the right are indicated by a Bend 折 (pinyin:zhé). For example, an initialShù followed by an abrupt turn right produces (Shù Zhé). In the same way, an initialShù followed by an abrupt turn right followed by a second turn down produces (Shù Zhé Zhé). However, their inherited names are "Vertical–Horizontal" and "Vertical–Horizontal–Vertical". We need not to use "Bend" in the inherited names.

Nearly all complex strokes can be named using this scheme.

Organization systems used to describe and differentiate strokes may include the use of roman letters, Chinese characters, numbers, or a combination of these devices. Two methods of organizing CJK strokes are by:

• Classification schemes that describe strokes by a naming convention or by conformity to ataxonomy; and
• Categorization schemes that differentiate strokes by numeric or topical grouping.

In classification schemes, stroke forms are described, assigned a representative character or letterform, and may be arranged in a hierarchy. In categorization schemes, stroke forms are differentiated, sorted and grouped into like categories; categories may be topical, or assigned by a numeric or alpha-numericnominal number according to a designednumbering scheme.

A naming convention is a classification scheme where acontrolled vocabulary is used systematically to describe the characteristics of an item. The naming convention for a CJK stroke is derived from the path mark left by the writing instrument. In this instance, the first letter of each stroke component - transliterated withpinyin pronunciation - are concatenated to form a stroke name with the sequence of letters indicating the basic strokes or stroke components used to create the CJK stroke. This system is used in theUnicode standard when encoding CJK stroke characters. In a basic stroke example, H represents the stroke named横 (Héng); in a compound example,HZT represents横折提 (Héng zhé tí).

While no consensus exists, there are up to 12 distinct basic strokes that are identified by a unique radical.

Letters commonly used in CJK stroke naming conventions (12 items)^[5]

Letter	B	D	G	H	N	P	Q	S	T	W	X	Z
Stroke direction
Simp./Trad.	扁	点/點	钩/鈎(鉤)	横/橫	捺	撇	圈	竖/豎	提	弯/彎	斜	折
Pinyin	Biǎn	Diǎn	Gōu	Héng	Nà	Piě	Quān	Shù	Tí	Wān	Xié	Zhé
Meaning	"Flat"	"Dot"	"Hook"	"Horizontal"	"Right-falling"	"Left-falling"	"Circle"	"Vertical"	"Rising"	"Curved"	"Slant"	"Bent"

There are many CJK compound strokes, however there is no consensus for sequence letter naming of compound strokes using the basic strokes. The following table demonstrates one of the CJK stroke naming convention:

Selected named CJK basic and compound strokes

Stroke	Name in PRC	Abbr[5][6]	Full Name	Dictionary meaning and Note	Example characters	Encoding
	横	H	Héng	一yī, "cardinal number one", "alone" (Radical 1 一).	二 三 丁 丞 丈 世 不 上 十 卅 七	U+31D0 (㇐)
	提	T	Tí		冰 淋 病 孑 治 冶 冽 暴 氾 录 地 虫	U+31C0 (㇀)
	横钩	HG	Héng Gōu	乛wān, ya,zhé (折) turning stroke / to break (Radical: Variant form of 乙yǐ).	疋 了 危 予 矛 子 字 令 疏 写 冖	U+31D6 (㇖)
	横撇	HP	Héng Piě		又 水 夕 径 炙 双 叒 今	U+31C7 (㇇)
	横折	HZ	Héng Zhé		口 囗 己 田 品 吕 申 甲 圆 巪	U+31D5 (㇕)
	横折钩	HZG	Héng Zhé Gōu	(Radical: Variant form of 乙yǐ).	羽 习 包 勻 葡 用 青 甫 勺 月 也 乜	U+31C6 (㇆)
	横折提	HZT	Héng Zhé Tí		讠 计 鳩	U+31CA (㇊)
	横折折	HZZ	Héng Zhé Zhé		凹	U+31C5 (㇅)
	横折弯	HZW	Héng Zhé Wān		殳 投 朵	U+31CD (㇍)
	横折弯钩[5]	HZWG[5]	Héng Zhé Wān Gōu[5]	Unofficial name "HWG" is used by Hugo Lopez to refer to both HZWG and HXG.[4]	九 几 丸 杂	U+31C8 (㇈)
	横斜钩[6][7]	HXG[6]	Héng Xié Gōu[6]	This stroke was merged into strokeHZWG in Unicode.,[8] but later disunified.[7]	飞 风 瘋 凬 虱 迅 气	U+31E4 (㇤)
	横斜弯钩[5] (横折弯钩[6])	HXWG[5] (HZWG[6])	Héng Xié Wān Gōu[5] (Héng Zhé Wān Gōu[6])	乙yǐ, niè, "the second of the tenheavenly stems", "second";zhé (折) turning stroke / to break (Radical 5 乙).	氹 乞 乤 艺	U+31E0 (㇠)
	横折折折	HZZZ	Héng Zhé Zhé Zhé		凸	U+31CE (㇎)
	横折折撇	HZZP	Héng Zhé Zhé Piě		建 及	U+31CB (㇋)
	横撇弯钩	HPWG	Héng Piě Wān Gōu		阝 队 邮	U+31CC (㇌)
	横折折折钩	HZZZG	Héng Zhé Zhé Zhé Gōu	𠄎nǎi, archaic form of乃 "then", "really, indeed", "namely", "you, your".	乃 孕 仍	U+31E1 (㇡)
	竖	S	Shù	丨gě,gǔn, "vertical line" (Radical 2 丨).	丩 中 串 讧 乍 上 五 丑	U+31D1 (㇑)
	竖钩	SG	Shù Gōu	亅jué, "a vertical line with a hook" (Radical 6 亅).	爭 事 求 水	U+31DA (㇚)
	竖提	ST	Shù Tí		以 比 切 卯 食 良 艮 很 狠 鄉 民	U+31D9 (㇙)
	竖折	SZ	Shù Zhé		断 陋 继 山 互 彙 牙 乐 东	U+31D7 (㇗)
	竖弯	SW	Shù Wān		區 亡 妄 四	U+31C4 (㇄)
	竖弯左	SWZ	Shù Wān Zuǒ		肅 嘯 蕭 簫	U+31D8 (㇘)
	竖弯钩	SWG	Shù Wān Gōu	乚yǐn, "hidden", "mysterious", "small", usually read as隱 /隐yǐn (Radical: Variant form of 乙yǐ).	乱 己 已 巳	U+31DF (㇟)
	竖折折	SZZ	Shù Zhé Zhé		亞 鼎 卐 吳	U+31DE (㇞)
	竖折撇[7]	SZP[6][7]	Shù Zhé Piě	This stroke was merged into strokeSZZ in Unicode.,[8] but later disunified.[7]	专 𧦮 𤓷 𤦡	U+31E5 (㇥)
	竖折弯钩[5] (竖折折钩[6])	SZWG[5] (SZZG[6])	Shù Zhé Wān Gōu[5] (Shù Zhé Zhé Gōu[6])		亏 强 弓 丏 丐 与 马 鸟 丂 号	U+31C9 (㇉)
	撇	P	Piě	丿 usually read as 撇piě, "line", "slash" (Radical 4 丿).	乂 爻 禾 毛 乏 乖 釆 衣 八 行	U+31D2 (㇒)
	竖撇	SP	Shù Piě		乃 月 用 齊 几 人 班 大	U+31D3 (㇓)
[a]	撇钩	PG	Piě Gōu		乄	U+31E2 (㇢)
	撇折	PZ	Piě Zhé		弘 玄 公 厶 翁	U+31DC (㇜)
	撇点	PD	Piě Diǎn	𡿨quǎn, a little drain between fields, usually read as畎quǎn (Radical 47 巛).	女 巛 巡 獵 災 甾	U+31DB (㇛)
	点	D	Diǎn	丶zhǔ, "dot", usually read as 點 / 点diǎn (Radical 3 丶).	丸 叉 义 永 冰 凡 丹 主 求 火 刃	U+31D4 (㇔)
	捺	N	Nà	㇏ usually read as 捺 nà.	大 人 天 入 走 边 廷 尺	U+31CF (㇏)
	提捺	TN	Tí Nà	(1)乀fú, "stretch". (2)乁yí, "to move" (archaic).	尐 之 道 八 入 廻	U+31DD (㇝)
	斜钩	XG	Xié Gōu		戈 弋 戰 我	U+31C2 (㇂)
	扁斜钩	BXG	Biǎn Xié Gōu		心 必 沁 惢 蕊	U+31C3 (㇃)
	弯钩	WG	Wān Gōu		狐 狱 豹 家 啄 嶽 貓 家 逐	U+31C1 (㇁)
[b]	圈	Q	Quān	〇líng, "zero"; also read as圈quān, "circle". Rare.	〇 㔔 㪳 㫈	U+31E3 (㇣)

Besides, some strokes have been unified or abandoned in Unicode:

CJK basic and compound strokes which have been unified or abandoned

Stroke	Name in PRC	Abbr	Full Name	Note	Example characters
	横撇弯	HPW[4]	Héng Piě Wān	It only appears inRegular script, can be merged into strokeHPHP inSong typeface.	辶 过 边
	竖折折弯钩	SZZWG[4]	Shù Zhé Zhé Wān Gōu	This stroke has been merged into strokeSZZG in Unicode.[8]	弓 丐
	弯	W[4]	Wān	It never occurs alone, only appears inside compound strokes.	辶 豕 𢀓
	弯钩	WG[4]	Wān Gōu	It never occurs alone, only appears inside compound strokes.	乙
	点捺	DN[6]	Diǎn Nà	This stroke has been merged into strokeN in Unicode.[8]	內 全 廴
	平捺	PN[6]	Píng Nà	This stroke has been merged into strokeN in Unicode.[8]	是 走 廴
	提平捺	TPN[6]	Tí Píng Nà	This stroke has been merged into strokeTN in Unicode.[8]	辶 之 辷

Note that some names in the list do not follow the rules of controlled vocabulary. For example, stroke P (Piě) is not found in the compound stroke PN. The name "PN" comes from 平捺 (pinyin:Píng Nà), not 撇捺 (pinyin:Piě Nà). The meaning of 平 (pinyin:Píng) is "flat", and it should be called "BN" 扁捺 (pinyin: Biǎn Nà) if the rules are to be followed closely. The letter "Z" in stroke SWZ means 左 (pinyin:Zuǒ), not 折 (pinyin:Zhé). The meaning of 左 is "left", and it is not defined in the naming convention. Moreover, some 折 (pinyin:Zhé) strokes are far more than or far less than 90°, such as stroke HZZZG, stroke HZZP and stroke PZ.

Some strokes are not included in the Unicode standard, such as,,,,,, etc.

In Simplified Chinese, stroke TN is usually written as (It was called "stroke DN", but Unicode has rejected it^[8]).

There is another naming convention that use abbreviated forms of the English names for CJK strokes. The first letter of the English names are used in the naming system. The controlled vocabulary can be divided into two groups.^[9]

The first group is the abbreviated forms of the basic strokes.

Abbreviation form of the basic strokes (10 items)

Abbr form	H	V	T	P	D	U	C	A	J	O
Shape of stroke
English name	Horizontal	Vertical	Throw	Press	Dot	Upward horizontal	Clockwise curve	Anticlockwise curve	J hook	Oval
Chinese name	橫	豎	撇	捺	點	挑	彎	曲	鈎	圈

The second group is the abbreviated forms of deformations used to form compound strokes.

Abbreviation form of the deformations (10 items)

Abbr form	F	W	S	L	R	E	N	I	M	Z
Deformation
English name	Flat	Wilted	Slanted	Left	Right	Extended	Narrowed	Inverted	Mirrored	Zag
Chinese name	扁	直	斜	左	右	長	短	倒	反	折

“Zag” can be omitted in the naming system. The following table demonstrates the English abbreviation naming convention:

Inherited names of CJK basic and compound strokes (63 items)

Stroke		Chinese name	Abbr form	Full name	Name in Unicode	Example
Ming	Kai
		橫	H	Horizontal	H	三 言 隹 花
		斜橫	SH	Slanted Horizontal	(H)	七 弋 宅 戈
		挑	U	Upward horizontal	T	刁 求 虫 地
		點挑	DU	Dot – Upward horizontal	(T)	冰 冷 汗 汁
		豎	V	Vertical	S	十 圭 川 仆
		斜豎	SV	Slanted Vertical	(S)	丑 五 亙 貫
		右斜豎	RSV	Right Slanted Vertical	(S)	𠙴
		撇	T	Throw	P	竹 大 乂 勿
		扁撇	FT	Flat Throw	(P)	千 乏 禾 斤
		直撇	WT	Wilted Throw	SP	九 厄 月 几
		點	D	Dot	D	主 卜 夕 凡
		長點	ED	Extended Dot	(D)	囪 囟 这 凶
		左點	LD	Left Dot	(D)	心 忙 恭 烹
		直點	WD	Wilted Dot	(D)	六文宇空
		捺	P	Press	N	人 木 尺 冬
		挑捺	UP	Upward horizontal – Press	TN	文廴父爻
		橫捺	HP	Horizontal – Press	(TN)	入 八 內全
		扁捺	FP	Flat Press	(N)	走 足 廴麵
		挑扁捺	UFP	Upward horizontal – Flat Press	(TN)	之乏巡迴
		彎	C	Clockwise curve	W
		曲	A	Anticlockwise curve	X
		圈	O	Oval	Q	〇 㔔 㪳 㫈
		橫鈎	HJ	Horizontal – J hook	HG	冧 欠 冝 蛋
		挑鈎	UJ	Upward horizontal – J hook	(HG)	也乜池馳
		橫撇	HT	Horizontal – Throw	HP	夕 水 登令
		橫斜	HSV	Horizontal – Slanted Vertical	(HP)	今 彔 互 恆
		橫豎	HV	Horizontal – Vertical	HZ	口 己 臼 典
		橫豎鈎	HVJ	Horizontal – Vertical – J hook	HZG	而 永 印令
		橫撇鈎	HTJ	Horizontal – Throw – J hook	(HZG)	勺 方 力 母
		挑撇鈎	UTJ	Upward horizontal – Throw – J hook	(HZG)	也乜池馳
		橫豎橫	HVH	Horizontal – Vertical – Horizontal	HZZ	凹 兕 卍 雋
		橫豎挑	HVU	Horizontal – Vertical – Upward horizontal	HZT	殼鸠 说 计
		橫曲	HA	Horizontal – Anticlockwise curve	HZW	朵沿殳没
		橫曲鈎	HAJ	Horizontal – Anticlockwise curve – J hook	HZWG	九 几 凡 亢
		橫捺鈎	HPJ	Horizontal – Press – J hook	(HZWG)	風 迅 飛 凰
		橫撇曲鈎	HTAJ	Horizontal – Throw – Anticlockwise curve – J hook	HXWG	乙 氹 乞 乭
		橫撇彎	HTC	Horizontal – Throw – Clockwise curve	---	過过這这
		橫撇橫撇	HTHT	Horizontal – Throw – Horizontal – Throw	HZZP	延 建巡及
		橫撇彎鈎	HTCJ	Horizontal – Throw – Clockwise curve – J hook	HPWG	陳 陌 那 耶
		橫豎橫豎	HVHV	Horizontal – Vertical – Horizontal – Vertical	HZZZ	凸 𡸭 𠱂 𢫋
		橫撇橫撇鈎	HTHTJ	Horizontal – Throw – Horizontal – Throw – J hook	HZZZG	乃 孕 仍 盈
		豎挑	VU	Vertical – Upward horizontal	ST	卬 氏 衣 比
		豎橫	VH	Vertical – Horizontal	SZ	山 世 匡直
		豎曲	VA	Vertical – Anticlockwise curve	SW	區亡四匹
		豎曲鈎	VAJ	Vertical – Anticlockwise curve – J hook	SWG	孔 已 亂 也
		豎橫豎	VHV	Vertical – Horizontal – Vertical	SZZ	鼎 亞 吳 卐
		豎橫撇	VHT	Vertical – Horizontal – Throw	(SZZ)	奊 捑 𠱐 𧦮
		豎橫撇鈎	VHTJ	Vertical – Horizontal – Throw – J hook	SZWG	弓 弟 丐 弱
		豎鈎	VJ	Vertical – J hook	SG	小 水 到 寸
		豎彎	VC	Vertical – Clockwise curve	SWZ	肅 嘯 蕭 瀟
		豎彎鈎	VCJ	Vertical – Clockwise curve – J hook	---	𨙨 𨛜 𨞠 𨞰
		撇挑	TU	Throw – Upward horizontal	PZ	去 公 玄 鄉
		撇橫	TH	Throw – Horizontal	(SZ)	互 母 牙 车
		撇點	TD	Throw – Dot	PD	巡 兪 巢 粼
		直撇點	WTD	Wilted Throw – Dot	(PD)	女 如 姦 㜢
		撇橫撇	THT	Throw – Horizontal – Throw	(SZZ)	夨 𠨮 专 砖
		撇橫撇鈎	THTJ	Throw – Horizontal – Throw – J hook	(SZWG)	巧亟 污 號
		撇鈎	TJ	Throw – J hook	PG	乄
		彎鈎	CJ	Clockwise curve – J hook	WG	狗 豸 豕 象
		扁捺鈎	FPJ	Flat Press – J hook	BXG	心 必 沁 厯
		捺鈎	PJ	Press – J hook	XG	弋 戈 我 銭
		撇橫撇曲鈎	THTAJ	Throw – Horizontal – Throw – Anticlockwise curve – J hook	---	𠃉 𦲳 𦴱鳦
		撇圈點	TOD	Throw – Oval – Dot	---	𡧑 𡆢

A numbering scheme is a categorisation method where similar strokes are grouped into categories labeled by nominal numbers. Category numbering may be an index of numbers of types, with sub-types indicated by a decimal point followed by another number or a letter.^[6]

The following table is a common numbering scheme that uses similar names as the Roman letter naming convention, but the stroke forms are grouped into major category types (1 to 5), which further break down into 25 sub-types in category 5.

Example of a CJK stroke numbering scheme (34 items)^[10]

Type No. Stroke Name (simplified Chinese andpinyin) Horizontal (一) 1 1 横 Héng 1.1 提Tí Vertical (丨) 2 2 竖Shù 2.1 竖钩Shù Gōu Slash (丿) 3 3 撇Piě Dot (丶) 4 4 点Diǎn 4.1 捺Nà 4.2 提捺Tí Nà

Type No. Stroke Name (simplified Chinese andpinyin) Turning stroke (折Zhé =right angle turn) or (弯Wān = curve turn) 5 5.1 横折Héng Zhé 5.2 横撇Héng Piě 5.3 横钩Héng Gōu 5.4 竖折Shù Zhé 5.5 竖弯Shù Wān 5.6 竖提Shù Tí 5.7 撇折Piě Zhé 5.8 撇点Piě Diǎn 5.9 卧钩Wō Gōu 5.10 弯钩Wān Gōu 5.11 斜钩Xié Gōu 5.12 横折折Héng Zhé Zhé 5.13 横折弯Héng Zhé Wān 5.14 横折提Héng Zhé Tí 5.15 横折钩Héng Zhé Gōu 5.16 横斜钩Héng Xié Gōu 5.17 竖折折Shù Zhé Zhé 5.18 竖折撇Shù Zhé Piě 5.19 竖弯钩Shù Wān Gōu 5.20 横折折折Héng Zhé Zhé Zhé 5.21 横折折撇Héng Zhé Zhé Piě 5.22 横折弯钩Héng Zhé Wān Gōu 5.22.1 横斜弯钩Héng Xié Wān Gōu 5.23 横撇弯钩Héng Piě Wān Gōu 5.24 竖折折钩Shù Zhé Zhé Gōu 5.25 横折折折钩Héng Zhé Zhé Zhé Gōu

Some strokes are not included in the numbering scheme, such as stroke,,,,,,,, etc.

Besides, there are ways of grouping strokes that are different from the Unicode standard. For example, stroke is merged into stroke in Unicode system, while it is merged into in this numbering scheme.

Stroke number orstroke count is the number of strokes making up a character. Stroke count plays an important role in Chinese character sorting, teaching and computer information processing.^[2] Stroke numbers vary dramatically from characters to characters, for example, characters丶,一 and乙 have only one stroke, while the character齉 has 36 strokes, and龘 (a composition of龍 in triplicate) has 48. The Chinese character with the most strokes in the entire Unicode character set is"taito"𱁬 with 84 strokes.^[11]

There are effective methods to count the strokes of a Chinese character correctly. First of all, stroke counting is to be carried out on the standardregular script form of the character, and according to itsstroke order. And if needed, a standard list of strokes or list of stroke orders issued by the authoritative institution should be consulted.^[12][13]

If two strokes are connected at the endpoints, whether they are separated into two strokes or linked into one stroke can be judged by the following rules:^[14]

1. If the two strokes are connected in the upper left corner of a character or component, then separate them into two strokes.

   Examples: 厂 (stroke order: ㇐㇓),口 (㇑㇕㇐) and日 (㇑㇕㇐㇐).

2. If they are connected in the upper right corner, then one stroke.

   Examples: 口 (㇑㇕㇐),月 (㇓㇆㇐㇐),句 (㇓㇆㇑㇕㇐).

3. If they are connected in the lower left corner, then if it is a fully enclosed structure, then count as two separated strokes

   Examples: 口 (㇑㇕㇐),回 (㇑㇕㇑㇕㇐㇐),田 (㇑㇕㇐㇑㇐)

   • Exceptions: 惯, 實, 母, 马, 鸟, 乌

4. If it is not fully enclosed, then count as one stroke.

   Examples: 山 (㇑㇗㇑),区 (㇐㇓㇔㇗),葛 (㇐㇑㇑㇑㇕㇐㇐㇓㇆㇓㇔㇗) .

   • Exceptions: 馬; 巨(Taiwan: 12511；Mainland：1515)

5. If they are connected in the lower right corner, then two strokes.

   Examples: 口 (㇑㇕㇐),回 (㇑㇕㇑㇕㇐㇐),田 (㇑㇕㇐㇑㇐).

An important prerequisite for connecting two strokes into one stroke is: the tail of the first stroke is connected with the head of the second stroke.

Chart of Standard Forms of Common National Characters is a standard character set of 4,808 characters issued by Taiwan's Ministry of Education.The stroke numbers of characters range from 1 to 32 strokes. The 11-stroke group has the most characters, taking 9.297% of the character set. On the average, there are 12.186 strokes per character.^[13][15]

TheList of Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese (现代汉语常用字表) is a standard character set of 3,500 characters issued by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China.^[16] The stroke numbers of characters range from 1 to 24 strokes. The 9-strokes characters are the most, taking 11.857% of the character set. On the average, there are 9.7409 strokes per character.^[17]

TheUnicode Basic CJK Unified Ideographs is an international standard character set issued by ISO and Unicode, the same character set of the China national standard 13000.1. There are 20,902 Chinese characters, including simplified and traditional characters from China, Japan and Korea (CJK).^[18]The stroke numbers of characters range from 1 to 48 strokes. The 12-strokes group has the most characters, taking 9.358% of the character set. On the average, there are 12.845 strokes per character.^[19][17]

Stroke forms (笔形;筆形;bǐxíng) are the shapes of strokes. Different classification schemes have different numbers of categories by which one may classify individual strokes.^[20]

The strokes ofmodern Chinese characters can be divided intoplane strokes (平笔) andturning orbent strokes (折笔) .^[21]

• Plane orbasic strokes move in only one direction, or only curve gently—usually less than 90 degrees.

Examples: heng (横,㇐),ti (提,㇀),shu (竖,㇑),pie (撇,㇓),dian (点,㇔),na (捺,㇏)

• Bent strokes are composed of plane strokes and turning points with sharper bends. Bent strokes also calledderived strokes (派生笔形) orcompound strokes (复合笔形).^[22]

Examples: ㇕ ㇅ ㇎ ㇡ ㇋ ㇊ ㇍ ㇈ 乙 ㇆ ㇇ ㇌ ㇗ ㇞ ㇉ ㄣ ㇙ ㇄ ㇟ ㇚ ㇜ ㇛ ㇃ ㇂.

When the six plane strokes of“heng (横, ㇐), ti (提, ㇀),shu (竖, ㇑),pie (撇, ㇓),dian (点, ㇔), na (捺, ㇏)” are classified into four categories by putting "ti" into categoryheng, andna intodian, then together with the bent stroke category, a five-category system is formed:^[23]

1. heng (横,㇐),ti (提,㇀).
2. shu (竖,㇑).
3. pie (撇,㇓).
4. dian (点,㇔),na (捺,㇏).
5. Bent strokes:㇕ ㇅ ㇎ ㇡ ㇋ ㇊ ㇍ ㇈ 乙 ㇆ ㇇ ㇌ ㇗ ㇞ ㇉ ㄣ ㇙ ㇄ ㇟ ㇚ ㇜ ㇛ ㇃ ㇂.

Current national standards of PRC such asStroke Orders of Commonly-used Standard Chinese Characters and many reference works published in China adopt the five categories of strokes, and stipulate theheng–shu–pie–dian–zhe (横竖撇点折) stroke-group order. This order is consistent with the stroke order of the character札 (zhá): ㇐㇑㇓㇔㇟, and as such is called the "札 order".^[12] In Hong Kong and Taiwan among other places, people also use the group order ofdian–heng–shu–pie–zhe (點橫豎撇折)^[24]

The five basic strokes ofheng (一),shu (丨),pie (丿),dian (丶), andzhe (𠃍) at the beginning of each group are called main stroke shapes; and the following strokes are called subordinate stroke shapes, or secondary strokes. The name of a category is the name of the main stroke. For example, categoryheng include main strokeheng and secondary stroketi.

There are disputes over the classification of the vertical hook stroke (亅) among the five types of strokes. In the currently effective national standards,亅 belongs to categoryshu,^[25] but some language scholars argue that it should be put in thezhe ('bend') category.^[22]

In this classification, a new categorygou (钩 'hook'), which include all the strokes with hooks, is divided out from the original bend category; then, together with the six types of plane strokes, an eight-category system is formed:^[23]

1. heng (横): ㇐
2. ti (提): ㇀
3. shu (竖): ㇑
4. pie (撇): ㇓
5. dian (点): ㇔
6. na (捺): ㇏
7. zhe (折 'bend'): ㇕ ㇅ ㇎ ㇋ ㇊ ㇍ ㇇ ㇗ ㇞ ㄣ ㇙ ㇄ ㇜ ㇛
8. gou (钩, 'hook'): ㇡ ㇈ 乙 ㇆ ㇌ ㇤ ㇉ ㇟ ㇚ ㇃ ㇂

Because the character永 (yǒng; 'forever') happens to contain strokes similar to each of these eight types, this classification is also called theEight Principles of Yong.

The stroke forms of astandard Chinese character set can be classified into a more detailed stroke table (or stroke list), for instance, the Unicode CJK strokes list has 36 types of stroke:

A stroke table is also called a stroke alphabet, whose function in the Chinese writing system is akin to the Latin alphabet for the English writing system.

Another stroke table is the YES Stroke Alphabet, which is used inYES stroke alphabetical order.^[26][a]

This is a list of 30 strokes:

㇐ ㇕ ㇅ ㇎ ㇡ ㇋ ㇊ ㇍ ㇈ 乙 ㇆ ㇇ ㇌ ⺄ ㇀ ㇑ ㇗ ㇞ ㇉ ㄣ ㇙ ㇄ ㇟ ㇚ ㇓ ㇜ ㇛ ㇃ ㇔ ㇏ ㇂

The stroke alphabet is built on the basis ofUnicode CJK Strokes^[27]and theStandard of Chinese Character Bending Strokes of the GB13000.1 Character Set.^[28] There are totally 30 strokes, sorted by the standard plane strokes order ofheng (横;橫,一),tiao, ti (提;挑,㇀),shu (豎,丨),pie (撇,丿),dian (点;點,丶),na (捺,㇏) and the bending points order ofzhe (折),wan (弯;彎) andgou (钩;鉤).^[29]

The English name is formed by the initialPinyin letters of each character in the Chinese name, similar to the naming of CJK strokes in Unicode,^[27] (i.e., H:heng, T:ti/tiao, S:shu, P:pie, D:dian, N:na; z:zhe, w:wan and g:gou).

YES stroke names

Stroke	English name	Chinese name	Example[b]
㇐	H	横	First stroke of十 First stroke of七
㇕	HzS	横折竖	• Second stroke of口 • First stroke of敢
㇅	HzSzH	横折竖折横	• Second stroke of凹
㇎	HzSzHzS	横折竖折横折竖	• Fourth stroke of凸
㇡	HzSzHzSg	横折竖折横折竖钩	• First stroke of乃 • Fifth stroke of杨
㇋	HzSzHzP	横折竖折横折撇	• Second stroke of及 • Fifth stroke of延
㇊	HzSzT	横折竖折提	• Second stroke of计 • Second stroke of鸠鳩
㇍	HzSwH	横折竖弯横	• Second stroke of朵 • Fifth stroke of投
㇈(乙)	HzSwHg	横折竖弯横钩	• Second stroke of几 • Last stroke of亿
㇆	HzSg	横折竖钩	• Second stroke of同 • First stroke of也
㇇(乛)	HzP	横折撇	• First stroke of又 • Third stroke of寳
㇌	HzPzPg	横折撇折撇钩	• First stroke of陽 • Ninth stroke of部
	HzNg	横折捺钩	• First stroke of飞 • Second stroke of风
㇀	T	提	• Third stroke of提 • Third stroke of堆 • Third stroke of江
㇑	S	竖	• Second stroke of十 • Second stroke of五
㇗(㇜)	SzH	竖折横	• Second stroke of山 • Second stroke of车
㇞	SzHzS	竖折横折竖	• First stroke of鼎 • Fourth stroke of吳
㇉	SzHzSg	竖折横折竖钩	• Second stroke of马 • Third stroke of弓
ㄣ	SzHzP	竖折横折撇	• Third stroke of专 • Seventh stroke of奊
㇙	SzT	竖折提	• Third stroke of长 • First stroke of以
㇄	SwH	竖弯横	• Fourth stroke of四 • Fifth stroke of西
㇟	SwHg	竖弯横钩	• Third stroke of己 • Last stroke of电 • Second stroke of心
㇚	Sg	竖钩	• First stroke of小 • Second stroke of了
㇓	P	撇	• First stroke of千 • First stroke of人 • First stroke of儿
㇜	PzT	撇折提	• Sixth stroke of私 • First and second strokes of红
㇛	PzD	撇折点	• First stroke of女 • First, Second and third strokes of巡
㇢	Pg	撇钩	• Second stroke of犹 • First stroke of乄
㇔	D	点	• First and second strokes of河 • First and second strokes of家
㇏(〇)	N	捺	• Second stroke of人 • Last stroke of边 •〇, Last stroke of㔔
㇂(㇃)	Ng	捺钩	• Second stroke of戈 • Fourth stroke of成• Second stroke of心 in Regular font

For more on stroke forms, stroke naming and stroke tables, please visit the previous sections.

The termstroke order can refer to one of two concepts:

• The direction in which a stroke is written—for example, theheng (㇐; 'horizontal') stroke is made horizontally from left to right, while theshu (㇑; 'vertical') stroke is written vertically from top to bottom.
• The order in which strokes are written one by one to form a Chinese character.

Because the direction of strokes is relatively simple, people generally refer to the latter meaning when talking about stroke order.

Certainstroke orders guidelines are recommended to ensure speed, accuracy, and legibility in composition, as mostChinese characters have many strokes. As such, teachers enforce exactly one stroke order for each character, marking every deviation as a mistake, so everyone writes these characters the same way.^{[citation needed]} The stroke order follows a few simple rules, though, which aids in memorizing these. To writeCJK characters, one must know how to write CJK strokes, and thus, needs to identify the basic strokes that make up a character.

The most basic rules of stroke order are:

1. Heng (㇐), thenshu (㇑)
   • Examples:十、卄
2. Pie (丿), thenna (㇏)
   • Examples:乂、文
3. Up, then down
   • Examples:三、旦
4. Left, then right
   • Examples:川、好
5. Outside, then inside
   • Examples:同、廣、司

The stroke orders of笔;筆 and顺;順 are

筆：㇓㇐㇔㇓㇐㇔㇕㇐㇐㇐㇐㇑

笔：㇓㇐㇔㇓㇐㇔㇓㇐㇐㇟

順：㇓㇑㇑㇐㇓㇑㇕㇐㇐㇐㇓㇔

顺：㇓㇑㇑㇐㇓㇑㇕㇓㇔

The order of strokes is a summary of people's experience in writing Chinese characters correctly and conveniently.It plays an important role in the teaching, sorting and computer information processing of Chinese characters.The stroke order of cursive script (草書) is quite flexible and changeable, so the standard of stroke order generally refers to the stroke order of regular script (楷書).

The current stroke order standards are

• China'sStroke Orders of the Commonly-used Standard Chinese Characters (通用规范汉字笔顺规范^[12]), and
• Taiwan'sHandbook of the Stroke Orders of the Commonly-used National Chinese Characters (常用國字標準字體筆順手册^[13]).

Chinese characters can be sorted into different orders by their strokes. Stroke-based sorting methods include Stroke-count sorting, Stroke-order sorting, Stroke-count-stroke-order sorting, and YES sorting.

Characters may be sorted by their number of strokes. For example, the different characters in汉字笔画、漢字筆劃 are sorted into:

• 汉 (5)
• 字 (6)
• 画 (8)
• 笔 (10)
• 筆、畫 (12)
• 漢 (14)

The characters are firstly arranged by their first strokes according to an order of stroke groups—such as

or

then the characters with first strokes belonging to the same group, if any, are sorted by their second strokes in a similar way, and so on. This method is usually employed to support stroke-count sorting to deal with characters of the same stroke number. For instance,筆 (12) starts with stroke㇓ of thepie (撇) group, and畫 (12) starts with㇕ of thezhe (折) group, andpie is beforezhe in groups order, so筆 goes before畫.

This is a combination of the previous two methods. In China, stroke-based sorting normally refers to stroke–count–stroke–order sorting. The Chinese national standard stroke-based sorting is in fact an enhanced stroke-count-stroke-order method^[30] Characters are arranged by stroke count, followed by stroke order. For example, the different characters in汉字笔画、漢字筆劃 are sorted into

• 汉 (5)
• 字 (6)
• 画 (8)
• 笔 (10)
• 筆 (12)
• 畫 (12)
• 漢 (14)

where each character is put at a unique position.

YES is a simplified stroke-based sorting method free of stroke counting and grouping, but without comprising accuracy. It has been used successfully to index the characters in theXinhua Zidian andXiandai Hanyu Cidian.^[31]

There are three types of combinations between two strokes (笔划组合;筆劃組合;bǐhuà zǔhé):^[32]

1. Separation: the strokes are separated from each other. Such as:八, 三, 小.
2. Connection: the strokes are connected, this type can be further divided into two categories:
   1. The end point of one stroke is connected with the body of another stroke
      1. An end of the first stroke is connected to the following stroke's body, such as匕 (stroke order:㇓㇟),
      2. The body of the first stroke is connected to an end of the following stroke, such as:人 (㇓㇏).
   2. Two strokes are connected end to end, including
      1. head-to-head (首首), such as厂 (stroke order:㇐㇓),
      2. tail-to-tail (尾尾), such as the first two strokes of弓 (㇕㇐㇉),
      3. tail-to-head (尾首), such as了 (㇇㇚). Another example: in character口 (㇑㇕㇐), the first two strokes are connected head-to-head, the second two tail-to-tail, and the last stroke is connected to the first stroke head-to-tail.
3. Intersection: the strokes are intersected. Such as:十丈車.

In a Chinese character, multiple stroke combinations are usually used together. Such as:港.

The same strokes and stroke order may form different Chinese characters or character components due to different combinations. For example:^[32]

• 刀力 (stroke order:㇆㇓),
• 由田 (㇑㇕㇐㇑㇐),
• 工土士 (㇐㇑㇐),
• 八人入乂 (㇓㇏),
• 甲曱申叶 (㇑㇕㇐㇐㇑),
• 己已巳 (㇕㇐㇟).

Stroke combinations can function to distinguish Chinese characters.

The following tables present some experimental results on the distribution of Chinese character strokes in several dictionaries and character sets. The strokes are summarized in the five categories ofheng (横,一 'horizontal'),shu (竖,丨 'vertical'),pie (撇,丿 'left-falling'),dian (点,丶 'dot') andzhe (折,𠃍 'bent').

where field Characters includes the numbers of characters containing the strokes of each type, and field Appearances includes the number of appearances of the strokes in each type. The data is from an experiment on the 16,339 traditional and simplified Chinese characters in theCihai (1979 edition), sorted in descending order of frequencies of appearance.^[33]

The data is from an experiment on the 20,902 traditional and simplified Chinese characters in the GB13000.1 character set—equivalent to the Unicode BMP CJK Chinese character set—sorted in descending order of frequencies of appearance.^[19][15]

The statistical results above made by different people on different character sets are basically consistent:The most commonly used stroke isheng (㇐), followed byshu (㇑). The least used ispie (㇓).The orders ofdian (㇔) andzhe (㇕) are different, though their frequencies are close.

There are 2,322 characters started with theheng stroke, 29.827% of the dictionary. There are 2,288 characters that end withheng, or 29.390% of the dictionary.

The data of the table is from an experiment on the 7,784 characters in theChinese Character Information Dictionary, sorted in descending order of numbers of characters started.^[34]

The data is from an experiment on the 20,902 traditional and simplified Chinese characters in the GB13000.1 character set—equivalent to the Unicode BMP CJK character set—sorted by the number of characters started in descending order.^[19][15]

The above statistical results on the first and last strokes of Chinese characters made by different people on different character sets are consistent.

The descending orders of strokes by number of characters started are all

and the descending orders of strokes by number of characters ended are all

Some rules can be drawn from here, such as:Strokepie generally does not appear as the last stroke of a character or component, but more often as the first stroke.Strokedian, includingna (捺), appear more often at the end of characters or components.

The Eight Principles ofYong explain how to write eight commonstrokes inregular script which are found all in one character,永 (pinyin:yǒng, "forever", "permanence"). It was traditionally believed that the frequent practice of these principles as a beginningcalligrapher could ensurebeauty in one's writing.

Eight basic strokes^[A]

－ theDiǎn 點 / 点, is a dot, filled from the top, to the bottom, traditionally made by "couching" the brush on the page.

－ theHéng 横, is horizontal, filled from left to right, the same way the Latin letters A, B, C, D are written.

－ theShù 豎 / 竖, is vertical-falling. The brush begins by a dot on top, then falls downward.

－ theGōu 鈎(鉤) / 钩, ending another stroke, is a sharp change of direction either down (after a Heng) or left (after a Shù).

－ theTí 提 /Tiāo 提, is a flick up and rightwards.

－ theWān 彎 / 弯, follows a concave path on the left or on the right.

－ thePiě 撇, is a falling leftwards (with a slight curve).

－ theNà 捺, is falling rightwards (with an emphasis at the end of the stroke).

(+ － theXié 斜 is sometimes added to the 永's strokes. It's a concaveShù falling right, always ended by aGōu).

()

Thestroke count method is based on the order of strokes to input characters on Chinese mobile phones.

As part ofChinese character encoding, there have been several proposals to encode the CJK strokes, most of time with a total around 35~40 entries. Most notable is the currentUnicode block “CJK Strokes” (U+31C0..U+31EF), with 38 types of strokes:

• Chinese character description languages
• Chinese whole characters

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCJK strokes.

• Unicode: CJK Strokes, Range: 31C0–31EF — set of 36 CJK strokes
• The Unicode Standard Core Specification: Appendix F - Documentation of CJK Strokes
• Proposal to add twenty strokes to Unicode; this proposal has been approved and is at Stage 6 of theUnicode Pipeline as of July 30, 2007.
• Standardization documents of Inherited Glyphs: List of Strokes for Inherited Glyphs
• Ministry of Education, R.O.C.: Grouping list of CJK Strokes
• State Language Commission, P.R.C.: Chinese Character Component Standard of GB 13000.1 Character Set for Information Processing
• State Language Commission, P.R.C.: Chinese Character Turning Stroke Standard of GB 13000.1 Character Set
• 38 CJK strokes, by Wenlin Institute
• Tom Bishop, Richard Cook: Character Description Language (CDL): The Set of Basic CJK Unified Stroke Types
• Yannis Haralambous: Seeking Meaning in a Space Made out of Strokes, Radicals, Characters and Compounds
• Yannis Haralambous: Fonts & Encodings O'Reilly Media Inc., Sept 26 2007, p. 154-156*Unicode: CJK Strokes, Range: 31C0–31EF — set of 36 CJK strokes
• The Unicode Standard Version 15.0 – Core Specification: Appendix F - Documentation of CJK Strokes
• Ministry of Education, R.O.C.: Grouping list of CJK Strokes
• State Language Commission, P.R.C.: Chinese Character Turning Stroke Standard of GB 13000.1 Character Set
• 國字標準字體筆順學習網

• East Asian calligraphy
• Hanja
• Kana
• Kanji
• Unicode
• Chinese character strokes

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