This is a primer on the Chinese writing system. More specifically, this guide covers Regular Script, the modern standard style of writing Chinese. I'm writing this guide in an attempt to introduce my fellow FPNers to this fascinating script. Perhaps it might encourage them to try writing a few characters, or perhaps even seriously study Chinese calligraphy. Calligraphers of other scripts might find Chinese particularly interesting. One does not need to know any Chinese to write the characters. There are many people who write beautifully but cannot speak a word or construct a sentence of Chinese.
I will not give you a history lesson. For that, read this.
The Structure of Chinese Characters
(Note: I will use the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system to describe pronunciation. For more information about Hanyu Pinyin, read Wikipedia's article on Hanyu Pinyin.)
Let's start from the very beginning (a very good place to start). The Chinese writing system is composed exclusively of Chinese characters (漢字 han4 zi4). Each character occupies a square frame, i.e. most characters are square shaped.
Each character is composed of radicals. One may think of radicals as letters, where a character would be a word composed of letters. More accurately, a radical is merely an element that may be semantic or phonetic, that contributes to the character's meaning or pronunciation. All radicals can stand alone as characters. Unlike letters in alphabetic writing systems, radicals often change shape depending on the character they're in. They can be squished or stretched in order to make room for other radicals, balance a character, or just because it looks pretty. Furthermore, a few radicals have different forms depending on the character they're in. We'll look at those later.
Radicals are further composed of strokes. It is important to know what counts as a stroke and what doesn't. Basically a stroke is a continuous line that you write without lifting your writing instrument. I'll get to it in detail later.
In summary, strokes compose radicals, and radicals compose characters. Another way to think of it is that radicals are pure elements (such as carbon, hydrogen, etc.) that may stand alone (as in diamond, or H2) or mix up to form other compounds (such as methane).
Let's look at a few example characters.
(Note: For this section, I will use a non-calligraphic typeface, because I want to give you just the facts and nothing else.)
字
This character means "character," and is pronounced zi4 in Mandarin. It is composed of two radicals:
宀and子
宀 (mian2) means "roof." It is a semantic element because writing is an activity one does indoors. 子 (zi3) means "child," but its meaning doesn't matter. It contributes only in pronunciation. Both 宀 and 子 can stand alone as characters, although modern Chinese expresses "roof" differently.
Another example:
紙
This character means "paper," and is pronounced zhi3. It is composed of two radicals:
糸 and 氏
糸 (si1) means "silk." Before paper, the Chinese wrote on silk. Paper is a fibrous material like silk, which is why the character for paper has the silk radical. 氏 (shi4) means "surname," but its meaning doesn't matter. It contributes only in pronunciation. Both of these radicals may stand alone as characters.
As I mentioned before, a few radicals change form. A common one is "water," pronounced shui3:
水
It often occurs in this form on the left of other radicals:
氵
…as in the character for "sweat" han4:
汗
水 contributes semantically. The radical 干 means "celestial stem" and is pronounced gan1. As one would expect, it only contributes phonetically.
You might have noticed that all of the characters I've listed so far are phono-semantic compounds, where one element contributes phonetically while another contributes semantically. The vast majority of Chinese characters are like this.
One final example:
櫻
This character means "cherry" (the tree) and is pronounced ying1. It contains four radicals:
木, 貝, another 貝, and 女.
櫻 is a phono-semantic compound. 木 (mu4) means "tree." 貝 (bei4) means "shell." 女 (nü3) means "woman." Obviously 木 is the semantic element here. Which is the phonetic element? In this character, it is the whole right side:
嬰
This is a character which means "infant" and is pronounced ying1, but this character is a phono-semantic compound too! 女 is the semantic element (because infants are rather effeminate), while the phonetic element is…
賏
…which means "necklace of shells" and is pronounced ying1. This makes 櫻 a phono-semantic compound which contains another phono-semantic compound.
Writing Chinese Characters
As I mentioned before, the most basic component of a Chinese character is a stroke. There are 8 basic ones. They are assigned numbers.
1. 點 dian3 "dot." It is a raindrop-shaped dot, with the point to the upper right. One writes it from the top left to the bottom right.
(It may be elongated thus:
)2. 橫 heng2 "horizontal." It is a straight horizontal stroke from left to right.
(Okay, so that's not really horizontal. "Horizontal" strokes often slant up at the right in script.)3. 豎 shu4 "vertical." It is a straight vertical stroke from top to bottom.
4. 鉤 gou1 "hook." Hooks are attachments onto other strokes. They are returns to approximately the opposite direction of the stroke, while quickly lifting the writing instrument. They are usually made in preparation for the next stroke, which would usually begin in the region where the hook is pointing. There are hooks attached to these two strokes:
5. 挑 tiao1 "lift." It's a straight tapering line going from thick at the lower left to thin at the upper right.
6. 撇 pie3 "slant." It is a slightly curved, tapering stroke going from thick at the upper right to thin at the lower left.
7. 短撇 duan3 pie3 "short slant." It's a short, less curvy slant.
8. 捺 na4 "press." It's a slightly curved, tapering stroke going from thin at the top left to thick at the bottom right.
These 8 basic strokes may merge with one another to form more complex strokes.
This character, pronounced yong2, meaning "permanence," contains all 8 of these common strokes:
…leading to the appellation of these 8 strokes to be the Eight Principles of Yong (永字八法 yong2 zi4 ba1 fa3). Review them here.
Recall that strokes compose radicals, which can stand alone as characters. Let us try writing a character. Perhaps the simplest character is this, pronounced yi1, meaning "one:"
Yes, it's a single horizontal!
Two (er4) and three (san1) are similar in construction:
But which stroke do you write first? Here's a rule of thumb: The stroke that ends lowest is written last. If they end at the same height, the stroke that ends on the right is written last.
How about some variety? Write ten (shi2).
Of course, you would write the horizontal first, because the vertical ends lower.
Now write regulate (yi4).
It's a slant and a press. Both end at approximately the same height, but the press ends on the right, so it is written last.
Now, to introduce another rule, write prisoner (qiu2).
(It might be interesting to note that the radical in the middle is person [ren2]. This person is confined.) The rule here is that if there is a frame, write the frame, write its contents, and close it at the bottom if you need to. In this character, the frame is the outer rectangle. Therefore, one would first write the vertical on the left. Then, write the horizontal on top and without lifting your writing instrument, make a -90 degree turn and write the vertical on the right, ending with a hook (This counts as one stroke because you didn't lift your writing instrument.). Then you would write the person radical. You know how to do that—since the dot ends on the right, it's written last. After completing the contents of your frame, you can close it on the bottom.
At this point, I feel the need to clarify what counts as a stroke. Again, if you don't lift your writing instrument, it's one stroke. Therefore, the most complex stroke in 卐 is the vertical-horizontal-vertical stroke. In
, it is horizontal-vertical-horizontal. You cannot push straight up or straight left, because such strokes are not one of the 8 basic ones.Here's another character with a frame. Ordinary (fan2).
The frame is 几. First write the slant. Then the horizontal, merging with what is actually a press with a hook on it (but it has been turned in to save space and balance the character). Then write the dot in the middle.
Now, to introduce a third rule, write small (xiao3).
At first one might think, that since the vertical stroke with the hook ends lowest, one should write it last, but what is that hook doing there anyway? Yes, it's made in preparation for the short slant that it points to. In characters that are symmetrically balanced vertically, write the center before the two sides. This ensures that your character will stay aligned. After you write the center, you can use it as a guide for the sides. Now, with that knowledge, it is obvious that the vertical with the hook is written first. After that, the short slant, and finally the dot.
Feeling good? Try this on for size.
Remember this? It should be simple for you. You notice that it's kind of symmetrical vertically, so you begin with the center. Write the dot, then write the horizontal merging with the vertical and adding a hook. This completes the center. The left side has only one stroke, composed of the lift and the slant. The right side has a short slant and a press.
Now for our fourth and final rule regarding stroke order, write cherry (ying1).
Wow…so many strokes. Are you going to go about determining which one ends lower and whatnot? No! The rule here is that you should finish writing one element before starting on another. Assuming you know the stroke order of the radicals 木, 貝, and 女 (whose stroke order is exceptional, by the way), you can find the stroke order for 櫻 using this rule. Remember that there are two elements in this character: 木 and 嬰. There are two elements in 嬰: 賏 and 女.There are two elements in 賏: two of 貝. Now let me tell you that element order is a lot like stroke order. So here we go! 木 and 嬰 end the same height, but 木 ends on the left. Write 木 first. Within 嬰, 賏 is higher than 女, so write 賏 first. Within 賏, both of 貝 end at the same height, so write the left one first. Thus, the overall radical order is 木, 貝, 貝, 女. You're done!
I've mentioned four rules since we have started writing.
1. The stroke that ends lowest is written last. If they end at the same height, the stroke that ends on the right is written last.
2. If there is a frame, write the frame, write its contents, and then close it at the bottom if you need to.
3. In characters that are symmetrically balanced vertically, write the center before the two sides.
4. Finish writing one element before starting on another.
The rest are exceptions. These four rules will help you deduce the stroke order of most characters.
If you're ever unsure about the stroke order of a character, you can look it up in an online handbook which lists the stroke order for many common characters. It works like a dictionary. Learn how to use one. See endnote 1.
As you are just writing, there is no need for you to have any vocabulary. It might be helpful, though, to have a few characters memorized. As your vocabulary increases, you will first be memorizing the stroke order of radicals that you use most often. After learning to write the most common radicals, you will no longer be memorizing stroke order but radical order. Radical order later transcends into element order. Then, seemingly complex characters such as 櫻 are easily reduced to only two elements.
How to Make It Pretty
First, you should follow your internal sense of beauty. If you find something beautiful, someone else will too.
If you want to get really good, the best strategy is to copy famous dead calligraphers' handwriting. No kidding!
But here are a few things that you might want to pay attention to. Many of them apply to calligraphy in all writing systems.
1. Balance. That is, if what you wrote turned into brass, the center of gravity of the piece of brass would be the center of the character.
2. Consistent white space. Give each stroke, each radical, each element some room. They're squishy. Squish them into place.
If you're using a writing instrument that allows line width variation, control your stroke width.
3. Write vertically. Chinese was meant to be written top to bottom, right to left. If you don't, it will be difficult to balance characters in a line of text. Furthermore, the initial stroke of your characters will carry with it the funky inertia of the previous character which came from the left, while your last stroke will feel lop-sided having to start the next character on the right (See endnote 2). You might as well try to get a consistent x-height while writing Latin characters vertically.
4. Use Traditional Chinese characters. The main reason why one would use Simplified Chinese characters is that they contain fewer strokes and are therefore faster to write. They are not easier to learn, or to read, but most of all (as this is the Penmanship forum) they are ugly.
What if you get bored?
Well, I'm sorry to say that you have been looking at only one Chinese style, Regular Script. Just as Latin characters can be written in Copperplate, Spencerian, Textura, Fraktur, Italic, etc. Chinese can be written in Kaishu, Xingshu, Caoshu, Lishu, Zhuanshu, etc. You can read about many styles here.
Or, learn another writing system!
Thanks for reading!
End Notes
1. So here's how to use a dictionary. Each character is classified under a radical. Let us just call it the main radical. Usually, it's the first radical you write, but there are exceptions. Most dictionaries recognize 214 main radicals. First determine how many strokes are in the main radical. Then find the radical in the index. Once you've found the main radical, determine how many additional strokes there are in the character. Find that number under the main radical you've chosen, and follow the link to the page of entries. After that, find the character you're looking for. Here's an example. Let's use the Unihan Database as an example dictionary. It's not only a Chinese dictionary. It's a dictionary of almost every language in the Sinosphere, including Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. Where they have data, they even include Tang Dynasty Middle Chinese pronunciations. Let's say you want to look up 櫻 in this dictionary. The first thing you write in 櫻 is 木, so it's probably the main radical. There are 4 strokes in 木, so click on 4 in the index. Now select 木. It's in the last column of the table. The rest of the character is 嬰. It contains 17 strokes. This dictionary allows you to enter a range of strokes, but since you're pretty sure it's 17, you can just enter 17 in both fields. You can check the "Use UTF-8" box to display text instead of images of text. If you're not sure whether your browser supports UTF-8, you'd better leave it unchecked. Click submit! You'll be presented with a list of characters that fit your criteria. 櫻 is in there, the sixth one. If you click on it, you'll be presented with everything in the Unihan Database about that character.
2. Since the PRC government changed all newspapers in the PRC to horizontal writing, the stroke order of some characters were also affected to facilitate horizontal writing. Most notable are characters with the halberd radical, pronounced ge1.
The correct stroke order has the slant last. In horizontal writing, that would end the writing instrument far away from the beginning of the next character, so the stroke order was changed so that the dot at the top right is last, placing the writing instrument closer to the next character. This is why many beginners question the stroke order of
(wo3), the standard first-person pronoun, as they have learned the PRC stroke order.Edit: LOL! My picture of 卐 written calligraphically was deleted by my image host.
A phonetic language (English, Spanish, Hindi, etc) has characters that represent sounds, so you learn what sounds they make, learn to say them together, and then you discover that you already know that word.
.)