General Literary Chinese from Scratch/How do we write Chinese?

Hello! Now that you know a few characters, let's talk about how we write them. 200px|thumb|永, meaning "forever" or "eternity". The character you see here means "forever" or "eternity," and is pronounced yong in Chinese. It is one of few characters that uses all eight types of strokes that make up every character in regular script (Kaiti zh 楷體). thumb|200px|Each of the strokes, numbered. These strokes are as follows:Here, I use the modern Chinese names, but they vary across era and region. Do not be beholden to them - just know what they are. zh ㇔ - "Dian," a small down-left stroke. zh ㇐ - "Heng," a horizontal stroke. zh ㇑ - "Shu," a vertical stroke. zh ㇚ - "Gou," is a downward-vertical version of shu, ending in a slight "hook" at the bottom. zh ㇀ - "Ti," a right-up flick stroke. zh ㇁ - "Wan," a curve. zh ㇒ - "Pie," a curve that falls to the left. zh ㇏ - "Na," a curve that falls to the right, starting thin and ending flat. Let's see them in action. If you look at yong, you will see that all the above strokes are used in some capacity. I strongly recommend you practice this character the most out of all you have right now. Let's look at the rules being followed with these strokes. Typically, when writing a character, the following rules are followed:Björkstén, J. (1994). Learn to Write Chinese Characters. Yale University Press. 0-300-05771-7.Zhou, R. (2021). 永字八法: 书法艺术讲义 [yǒngzìbāfǎ shūfǎ yìshù jiǎngyì] (L. Zhou, Ed.; 4th corrected ed.). 广西师范大学出版社 [Guangxi Normal University Press]. Horizontal strokes are written before vertical ones. For example, zh 十 "ten" Left-falling strokes are written before right-falling ones. For example, with zh 人 as you learned in the last lesson, you would write the left stroke first. Characters are written from top to bottom. For example, when writing zh 三, as you learned in the first lesson, you write the three strokes from top-to-bottom. Characters are written from left to right. If we turn zh 三 on its side and add a wan, we get zh 川 "river," which would be written left-to-right. If a character is framed from above, the frame is written first. zh 网 "net" is a good example of this: First, you write the frame, then the rest of it. If a character is framed from below, the frame is written last. zh 凶 "omen, vicious, peril" does this: First, you write the cross, then the box holding it. Frames are closed last. When writing zh 日 "sun, day," the frame holding the first heng zh ㇐ will be closed after it is already written. In a symmetrical character, the middle is drawn first, then the sides. zh 水 "water" and zh 小 "small" work this way. You can also see this applied in yong above. It should be stressed that this is very general, and some characters may violate these rules or even use strange strokes. Don't worry about it too much: Unless you want to learn super-standard kaiti, historical fonts, or calligraphy, you will not need to go super into it. Above all else, find what works for you, and then start writing. These strokes make up ~214 components as documented by Mei Yingzhuo (zh 梅膺祚) in the Zihui (zh 字彙) dictionary during the Ming dynasty of China. While this is a lot, they are worth learning over time to memorise characters more effectively. Take this sentence, made as an example: zh 土在地均 Soil exists on ground-level "Soil exists on level ground" The first character appears in the latter three as a component. Try writing it out yourself, guessing which strokes you need to perform. We will go into this more in a later lesson. For now, we just want to see you writing. Now that you understand how we write Chinese, try writing the characters you have learned before, and in this lesson, using these rules. Take it slow, day by day, and most of all, relax. Recall that many people use this system every day: It is for humans! Cangjie codes 永: 戈弓水 (INE) 楷: 木心心日 (DPPA) 體: 月月廿田廿 (BBTWT) 三: 一一一 (MMM) 川: 中中中 (LLL) 网: 月大大 (BKK) 凶: 山大 (UK) 小: 弓金 (NC) 梅: 木人田卜 (DOWY) 膺: 戈土月 (IGB) 祚: 戈火竹尸 (IFHS) 字: 十弓木 (JND) 彙: 女一月田木 (VMBWD) 土: 土 (G) 在: 大中土 (KLG) 地: 土心木 (GPD) 均: 土心戈一 (GPIM) 八: 竹人 (HO) 法: 水土戈 (EGI) 书: 戈木尸 (IDS) 艺: 廿弓 (TN) 术: 戈木 (ID) 讲: 戈女廿廿 (IVTT) 义: 戈大 (IK) 广: 難戈 (XI) 西: 一金田 (MCW) 师: 中中一月 (LLMB) 范: 廿水尸山 (TESU) 大: 大 (K) 学: 火月弓木 (FBND) 出: 山山 (UU) 版: 中中竹水 (LLHE) 社: 戈火土 (IFG) Notes References Category:Book:General Literary Chinese from Scratch