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Two-cell Chinese Braille was designed in the 1970s and is used in parallel withtraditional Chinese Braille in China.

Each syllable is rendered with two braille characters. The first combines theinitial andmedial; the second therime andtone. The base letters represent the initial and rime; these are modified with diacritics for the medial and tone. Thus each of the braille cells has aspects of anabugida.^[2][3]

The first cell indicates the initial, generally in dots 1 to 4, and the medial in dots 5 and 6. This design exploits restrictions on co-occurrence of initials and medials to fit all the allowable combinations in a single cell.

The medial-i- is represented by dot 5 (⠐), the medial-u- by dot 6 (⠠), and the medial-ü- by both dots 5 and 6 (⠰). Thez c s series is derived fromzh ch sh as if they contained a-i- medial; these two series are not distinguished in many Mandarin dialects. As intraditional Chinese Braille,k g h andq j x are unified, as they never contrast.

A null/zero initial (a vowel-initial syllable) is indicated with thenull consonant⠾.

–

b-

p-

m-

f-

d-

t-

n-

l-

g-

k-

h-

zh-

ch-

sh-

r-

y-

bi-

pi-

mi-

di-

ti-

ni-

li-

ji-

qi-

xi-

z-

c-

s-

w-

du-

tu-

nu-

lu-

gu-

ku-

hu-

zhu-

chu-

shu-

ru-

yu-

nü-

lü-

ju-

qu-

xu-

zu-

cu-

su-

At least one letter in each place of articulation comes from international use (⠖f,⠞ti,⠇l,⠅k,⠓xi,⠉zh), with at least some of the others derived from these (cf.⠅⠃⠁k h g and⠍⠋⠉ch sh zh).

The second cell represents the rime, generally in the top half of the cell, and the tone, generally in dots 3 and 6.

Tone 1 (mā) is indicated by dot 3 (⠄), tone 2 (má) by dot 6 (⠠), and tone 3 (mǎ) by dots 3 and 6 (⠤). (In rime-ei, which already contains a dot 3, the dot 3 for tones 1 and 3 is replaced by dot 5 (⠐ or⠰).) Tone 4 (mà) and neutral/toneless syllables use the basic rime.

A null/zero rime (a syllable ending with mediali u ü) is written with⠃.

-ì, -ù, -ǜ	-à	-è, -ò	-ài	-èi	-ào	-òu	-àn	-èn	-àng	-èng	èr
-ī, -ū, -ǖ	-ā	-ē, -ō	-āi	-ēi	-āo	-ōu	-ān	-ēn	-āng	-ēng	ēr
-í, -ú, -ǘ	-á	-é, -ó	-ái	-éi	-áo	-óu	-án	-én	-áng	-éng	ér
-ǐ, -ǔ, -ǚ	-ǎ	-ě, -ǒ	-ǎi	-ěi	-ǎo	-ǒu	-ǎn	-ěn	-ǎng	-ěng	ěr

• ⠃ is the 'zero' rime transcribed as-i afterz c s zh ch sh r in pinyin; here it's also used to carry the tone for syllables where the medial is the rime, such asgu ormi. Afterb p m f, it is equivalent to pinyin-u.
• ⠊ is transcribed in pinyin aso afterb p m f w and the medialu; otherwise it'se.

The rimeer is written as if it were *ra; this is possible because *ra is not a possible syllable in Mandarin. At the end of a word,⠔-r iserhua, as in⠣⠞⠔huār (花儿). Within a word, hyphenateerhua (⠔⠤) to avoid confusion with an initialr- in the following syllable.

The exclamationê is⠐⠊,^{[dubious –discuss]}yo is⠈⠊, ando is⠠⠊, with appropriate modification for tone.

Combinations of onset and rime follow the conventions ofzhuyin, and are therefore not obvious from pinyin transcription.

• for pinyin-in, use medial-i- with rime-en; for-ing, use-i- and-eng
• for-un (the equivalent ofwen), use-u- and-en; for-ong (the equivalent ofweng), use-u- and-eng
• for-iong (the equivalent ofyueng, though writtenyong in pinyin), use-ü- and-eng

Several syllables arepalindromes, with the onset and rime written the same:

⠾⠾ǎ,⠊⠊bò,⠪⠪mó,⠮⠮tuǒ,⠯⠯nuǎn,⠗⠗liāo,⠧⠧lǔ,⠑⠑jìng,⠕⠕qīng,⠥⠥kǔn,⠓⠓xiào,⠣⠣hú,⠉⠉zhòu,⠙⠙zàng,⠍⠍chōu,⠝⠝cāng,⠋⠋shàn,⠛⠛sài

A toneless or 4th-tone zero rime is omitted at the end of a polysyllabic word. (Words ending in⠔⠃rì (日) 'day' are an exception, to prevent confusion with theerhua suffix.) When context makes it unambiguous, the zero rime in other tones may also be omitted.

Sandhi is not rendered; rather, the inherent tone of a morpheme is written.

The following are rendered as toneless syllables:

• Interjections and grammatical particles such as啊a,呀ya,哇wa,吧ba,啦la,呢ne,吗ma.
• The verbalaspectual suffixes了-le,着-zhe,过-guo
• The nominal suffixes子-zi and头-tou.

Suffixes

Words

Some common homophones are distinguished by prefixing with a dot 4⠈ or 5⠐, or by dropping the rime:

• tā:他 (he)⠎⠞,她 (she)⠈⠎⠞,它 (it)⠐⠎⠞
• zài:在 (at)⠙⠛,再 (again)⠈⠙⠛
• shì:是 (to be)⠋,事 (thing)⠋⠃

  是 as a suffix is⠖, like an initialf-

The three grammatical uses of non-tonicde are irregular:

• de: attributive的⠌, adverbial地⠜, complement得⠌⠔^{[dubious –discuss]}

Often printed Chinese can be contracted, compared to speech, as unambiguous where a phonetic rendition such as braille would be ambiguous; in such cases, the sign⟨⠘⟩ may be used to indicate the omitted syllables. For example, in the clause露从今夜白Lù cóng jīnyè bái,露lù means 'dew' (colloquial露水lùshuǐ). However, there are several other words transcribed⠧⠃lù in braille. To clarify, the–水 element of the colloquial word can be added with the⟨⠘⟩ prefix:

⠧⠃⠘⠫⠼⠀⠽⠱⠀⠑⠅⠒⠊⠀⠊⠻

Lù(shuǐ) cóng jīnyè bái

露（水） 从 今夜 白

In other cases a synonym may be provided; here the prefix is⟨⠸⟩.^{[clarification needed]} For example, in print the meaning of

两岸猿声啼

Liǎng'àn yuán shēng tí

(from both sides, the voices of monkeys cried out)

is clear, but in a phonetic script猿yuán 'monkey' and啼tí 'cry' can be obscure. The first can be clarified as猿猴yuánhóu 'primate' and the second with the parenthetical叫jiào 'call':

⠗⠽⠾⠋⠘⠀⠲⠫⠘⠃⠩⠋⠕⠀⠞⠣⠸⠑⠓

Liǎng'àn yuán(hóu) shēng tí (jiào)

两岸 猿（猴） 声 啼 （叫）

When longer parenthetical explanations are provided, the sign⟨⠸⟩ is repeated before each word (not each syllable).

Numbers are the same as in other braille alphabets. Use the number sign⠼ followed by⠁ 1,⠃ 2,⠉ 3,⠙ 4,⠑ 5,⠋ 6,⠛ 7,⠓ 8,⠊ 9,⠚ 0.

Notes are indicated as⠔⠼⠁,⠔⠼⠃, etc., sections as⠬⠼⠉ etc.

emphasis	⠠
proper name	⠨
foreign script	⠰
number	⠼

⠼ is also used for reduplication rather than repeating a syllable or word. When attached to a word, it repeats a syllable; standing alone, it repeats a word:

⠳⠧⠼⠬⠎⠼

xǔxǔ-duōduō

许许多多

⠓⠙⠕⠫⠐⠀⠼⠐⠀⠼⠰⠂

Xiàngqián, xiàngqián, xiàngqián!

向前， 向前， 向前！

Chinese braille punctuation is based on that ofFrench Braille, but they are generally split between two cells. This gives them the 'full-width' feel of print Chinese, as well as avoiding confusion with letters.

clausal comma⟨，⟩	⠐
phrasal comma⟨、⟩	⠠
full stop / period⟨。⟩	⠐⠆
question mark⟨？⟩	⠐⠄
exclamation mark⟨！⟩	⠰⠂
wave dash⟨〜⟩	⠤
interpunct⟨·⟩	⠐⠂
colon⟨：⟩	⠠⠄
semicolon⟨；⟩	⠰
ellipsis⟨……⟩	⠐⠐⠐

	Outer	Inner
quotation marks「 ... 」	⠰⠄ ...⠠⠆	⠰⠢ ...⠔⠆
title quotes《 ... 》	⠐⠤ ...⠤⠂	⠐⠄ ...⠠⠂
parentheses（ ... ）	⠰⠤ ...⠤⠆	⠰⠦ ...⠴⠆

square brackets〔 ... 〕	⠰⠆ ...⠰⠆
dashes—— ... ——	⠠⠤ ...⠤⠄

• Innovative braille scripts
• Transcription of Chinese

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