ChinaKnowledge.de -
An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art

Brush Strokes and Writing Rules

Mar 23, 2011 © Ulrich Theobald

Brush strokes (bihua 筆畫) are units of which Chinese characters are composed. They correspond to the movement of the brush during the writing process. The shape of brush strokes has been standardized for the normal script (kaishu 楷書) and is imitated in book printing, especially the Song-period style Songti 宋體 and its modern variant, the Fangsongti 仿宋體. The number of brush strokes in a character is used for indexing, for instance, in dictionaries.

Brush strokes only appeared with the invention of the chancery script (lishu 隸書) with its square or angled appearance. The older seal script (zhuanshu 篆書) has a more soft appearance with round edges which is not easy to write with a brush. This change of the appearance of characters and the writing method resulted in a more abstract form of characters, in which the original shapes are often not any more recognizable. Chinese characters so became ever more ideographic than pictographic.

Many dictionaries do index characters in a two-layer system, first according to the radical (radicals themselves also arranged according to the number of brush strokes), and then according to the number of residual strokes. Instead of using the radical, quite a few dictionaries and lexica make exclusively use of the number and shapes of brush strokes to index characters.

There are several different types of brushstrokes, depending on length, shape and brush movement. Traditional calligraphers developed several models with different complexities. The most important types of brush stokes are:

Table 1. Types and sub-types of brush strokes
Basic strokes Extended strokes
dian dot
heng horizontal line 横撇 hengpie horizontal stroke with a downward hook
横折彎鉤 hengzhe wangou horizontal stroke with a long bent hook
横折折撇 hengzhe zhepie horizontal stroke with a double broken slant
横折折彎鉤 hengzhe zhe wangou horizontal stroke with a double broken hook
横折挑 hengzhe tiao horizontal stroke with a slant hook
shu vertical line 竪折 shuzhe vertical stroke with a horizontal hook upwards
竪折撇 shuzhe pie vertical stroke with a double broken slant
竪折折鉤 shuzhe zhegou vertical stroke with a double broken hook
pie slant to the left 撇折 piezhe left slant with a sharp bend towards the right
撇點 piedian left slant with a dot towards the lower right
na slant to the right
tiao dot strechted to the upper right
zhe right edge downwards
gou vertical hook to the left

With the invention of the brush, the modern style of calligraphy developed with up to 16 different stroke patterns and several rules how to write a character and its elemens. Every character can be separated into a certain number of strokes, the simpliest character being a single horizontal stroke 一 "one", one of the most complex characters, written with 48 brush strokes, is 龘, consisting of three dragons 龍.

The six basic brush strokes are, according to the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) encyclopaedia Sancai tuhui 三才圖會:

Table 2. Standard shapes and sub-shapes
horizontal (heng 橫)
vertical (shu 竪 or zhi 直)
dot (dian 點)
丿slant to the left without hook or slant to the right with hook, with many derivatives (pie 撇)
hook (gou 勾)
slant to the right bottom (ne 抐 or na 捺)

This basic set can be enlarged to eight different strokes, exemplarified in the character yong 永:

Figure 1. The "eight [brush stroke] rules" as seen in the character yong
dian 點 "dot" or ce
heng 橫 "horizontal" or le
shu 竪 "vertical" or nu
tiao 挑 "lift-up" or ti
zuoshang 左上 "towards upper left" or ce
zuoxia 左下 "towards lower left" or lüe
youshang 右上 "towards upper right" or zhuo
youxia 右下 "towards lower right" or zhe
From Sancai tuhui 三才圖會, Renshi 人事, 3.

Today, there are five different types of strokes, exemplarified in the character zha 札:

Figure 2. The brush stroke rules as seen in the character zha
heng 橫 "horizontal"
zhi 直 "vertical"
丿 pie 撇 "bend to the lower left"
dian 點 "dot"
na 捺 "bend to the lower right" or "hook"

The sequence of brush strokes (bishun 筆順) is also subject to strict rules and important for indexing characters, at least concering the first few strokes. The basic rules of stroke order are:

Table 3. Rules for the sequence of brush strokes
from left to right
from top to bottom
vertical strokes in the middle are written first if the middle stroke is longer
left and right enclosures are written last
from outside to inside
first fill the box, then close it
lower enclosures are written last
first horizontal, then vertical
vertical strokes in the middle are written last if passing other strokes
hooks beginning vertically are written last if touching or passing other strokes
first from right to left (pie 撇), then from left to right (na 捺)
in x-crossed parts first the left slant, then the right
protruding horizontal crossing strokes are written last
dots in the upper left corner are written first
dots in the upper right corner or inside are written last

Yet in calligraphy, these rules are often not adhered to.

In the first character 王, the calligrapher wrote the vertical stroke before combining the two lower horizontal strokes. In the second, 右, the slant vertical character was written before the horizontal one, and in the lower examples, the calligraphers begin with the left part of the character, in opposition to the rule, which demands that the central part (the vertical stroke) is written before the enclosure.
Sources:
Cao Xianzhuo 曹先擢 (1988). "Gujinzi 古今字", in Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Yuyan wenzi 語言•文字 (Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe), 97.
Chen Fu 陳紱 (1993). "Benzi 本字", "Chongwen 重文", "Gujinzi 古今字", "Huiyi 會意", "Jiajie 假借", "Jiezi 借字", "Leizengzi 累增字", "Tongjia 通假", "Yitizi 異體字", "Zhuanzhu 轉注", in Zhongguo xiaoxue jiaoxue baike quanshu zong bianji weiyuanhui Yuwen juan bianji weiyuanhui 中國小學教學百科全書總編輯委員會語文卷編輯委員會 (ed.), Zhongguo xiaoxue jiaoxue baike quanshu 中國小學教學百科全書, Yuwen 語文 (Shenyang: Shenyang chubanshe), 151-154.
Wang Jihuai 王吉懷 (2000). "Zai lun Dawenkou de taoke 再論大汶口的陶刻, Dongnan wenhua 東南文化 2000/7, pp. 6-14.
Xu Zhongshu 徐中舒, ed. (1990). Jiaguwen zidian 甲骨文字典 (Chengdu: Sichuan cishu chubanshe).
Zhang Zhenglang 張政烺 (1988). "Bafen 八分", "Caoshu 草書", "Guwen 古文", "Lishu 隸書", "Niaochongshu 鳥蟲書", "Xingshu 行書", "Zhenshu 真書", "Zhouwen 籒文", "Zhuanshu 篆書", in Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Yuyan wenzi 語言•文字 (Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe), 10, 31-32, 257-258, 303-304, 430, 515-516, 538, 542-543.
Zhou Zumo 周祖謨 (1988). "Hanzi 漢字", in Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書, Yuyan wenzi 語言•文字 (Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe), 195-199.
Zhu Xiaojian 朱小健 (1993). "Bihua 筆畫", "Bishun 筆順", in Zhongguo xiaoxue jiaoxue baike quanshu zong bianji weiyuanhui Yuwen juan bianji weiyuanhui 中國小學教學百科全書總編輯委員會語文卷編輯委員會 (ed.), Zhongguo xiaoxue jiaoxue baike quanshu 中國小學教學百科全書, Yuwen 語文 (Shenyang: Shenyang chubanshe), 156.
Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan kaoguxue yanjiusuo 中國社會科學院考古學研究所, ed. (1984). Yin-Zhou jinwen jicheng 殷周金文集成 (Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju).