If you examine this character closely, you will notice that this one character has 8 of the most common stroke types that appear in the Chinese writing system. “永(yǒng)” the character for eternity, is often the poster-child character for calligraphers. None of them skew dramatically to one direction or the other, which again reflects how much we value symmetry and balance. You may notice that all Chinese characters fit neatly into a square box. Furthermore, it was also designed to be efficient – creating the most strokes with the least amount of hand movement across the page. Similarly, the Chinese stroke order system was designed to produce the most aesthetical, symmetrical, and balanced characters on a piece of paper. Traditional Chinese medicine was produced to restore balance. For example, when one fell ill, he or she was thought to have an imbalance of yin and yang in his or her body system. The Chinese have always believed in balance and harmony. Do you see how you lose some of that natural flow?
Now try recreating it, but start from the bottom instead. Don’t believe me? Try writing the letter “S” on a piece of paper. Should you write it backwards, you would not have the same effect. You can see that the “捺 (nà)” stroke has starts out thin, but thickens and thins out again in an elegant sweep. Using the wrong stroke order or direction would cause the ink to fall differently on the page. As you can see from the graph below, there are 11 basic strokes that comprise all Chinese characters. So, why is Chinese character stroke order so important?įirst, let’s talk a little bit about strokes themselves. Other phrases often heard in elementary classrooms are “乱写!(luàn xiě)” or “writing crazily” and “写错了! (xiě cuò le)” which is “You wrote it wrong!” The sole meaning of the phrase“倒插笔” is to criticize someone for using improper stroke order. I remember my Chinese teacher cringing every time I used the improper Chinese stroke order for a character and shrieking “倒插笔 (dào chā bǐ)” in my ear. The Chinese take great pride in their language, which includes the complex writing system. When it comes to writing Chinese stroke order is surprisingly important.
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