Chinese Characters in Chinese Calligraphy

Learn How to Write Chinese Characters the Right Way

Chinese Characters are the root of the Chinese language and are what enable us to read and understand newspapers, books, signs while traveling and writing messages to friends, etc. They can be easy yet confusing at the same time - ranging from 1 stroke to as many as more than 2o strokes. Whew! It definitely takes some time to learn and get used to writing these big words.

Why Chinese Characters are Difficult to Learn?

One of the reasons that Chinese is more difficult to write than English is because English writing is phonetic. The Chinese writing system is non-phonetic and uses ideographic symbols which we called them “汉字“.

Some of the Characters (汉字）have a component that suggests its pronunciation but those sound components have no systematical development in the Chinese language. Before the invention of Hanyu Pinyin, China has gone through the movement of the “Phonetic Alphabet Movement” in 1892-1918. It was called the “Chinese National Phonetic Alphabet". After Pinyin was adopted in learning Chinese phonetics as the standard system, it makes learning Chinese a lot easier, at least you can connect the sound with the characters when Pinyin is provided. However, it still makes learning challenging as many Chinese words are having the same sound and are spelled the same in Pinyin and have the same tone, but their meanings are different.

Where Should I Start to Learn Chinese Characters?

We recommend our students start learning Chinese characters after mastering Hanyu Pinyin. There is no fixed answer to when you should start learning the Characters. If there is one, I will say the earlier the better. Because it helps you to quickly master Chinese and is very helpful in terms of reading words and typing if for practical purposes. You will find it is a lot quicker to build up your vocabulary than using Pinyin. You can start to learn Chinese characters by learning the basic components of Chinese characters, Strokes (笔画, bǐ huà).

Learning Basic Strokes and Stroke Orders

There are eight basic strokes in writing Chinese characters.

Horizontal stroke 横 héng
Vertical stroke 竖 shù
Left downward stroke 撇 piē
Right downward stroke 捺 nà
Dot 点 diǎn
Stroke with a hook 钩 gōu
Turning stroke 折 zhé
Rising stroke 提 tí

The following rules can be applied to writing Chinese characters.

From top to bottom
From left to right
Horizontal strokes first, then vertical strokes
Center first, then left and right
Outside before inside
Outside before closing

12 Structures of Chinese Characters

⿰ ⿱ ⿲ ⿳ ⿴ ⿵ ⿶ ⿷ ⿸ ⿹ ⿺ ⿻

Learning Chinese Radicals 部首

The Chinese characters are composed of radicals which are the components of the characters. According to the 《现代汉语词典》, there are 201 components. In order to find the unknown character in Chinese dictionaries or even online dictionaries or apps, you need to know the radical classification. Many of the characters share the same components, it would be helpful for you to master those commonly used radicals and associate with the characters that you have already learned. Learning the radicals helps you easily memorize the characters easily.

The following radicals are composed by the number of strokes : (example: 01画 means 01stroke)

01画：丨亅丿乛一乙丶乚

02画：十厂匚刂卜冂亻八人入勹儿匕几亠冫丷冖讠凵卩阝刀力又厶廴

03画：干艹屮彳巛川辶寸大飞彑工弓廾广己彐巾口马门宀女犭山彡尸饣士扌氵纟巳土囗兀夕小忄幺弋尢夂子

04画：贝比灬长车歹斗厄方风父戈卝户火旡见斤耂毛木牛牜爿片攴攵气欠犬日氏礻手殳水瓦王韦文无毋心穴牙爻曰月爫支止爪

05画：白癶甘瓜禾钅立龙矛皿母目疒鸟皮生石矢示罒田玄疋业衤用玉

06画：臣虫而耳缶艮虍臼老耒米糸齐肉色舌糹网西覀行血羊页衣羽聿至舟竹自

07画：辰赤辵豆谷龟角里卤麦身豕辛言邑酉鱼豸走足

08画：采齿非阜金隶黾青鱼雨隹釒

09画：革骨鬼韭面食(飠) 首香音

10画：髟高鬲

11画：黄鹿麻

12画：鼎黑黍

13画：鼓鼠裏

14画：鼻

17画：龠

What is the Difference between Simplified Chinese Characters (简化字 jiǎnhuàzì) and Traditional Chinese?

The Chinese government published the Scheme for Simplifying Chinese Characters in 1956 and in 1964 the Complete List of Simplified Characters was put into common use.

Nowadays, the Simplified Chinese script is the official script in China and Singapore. It is being used in all textbooks, media, official documents, novels, and many other publications. The traditional Chinese Characters are still being used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Ways of Simplification

Changing phonetic element to graphically simpler one or to a handwritten form
Changing by keeping part of a traditional characters
Simplifying based on the handwritten forms:
𦥯 → 龸: 學 → 学; 覺 → 觉; 黌 → 黉
單 → 单: 彈 → 弹; 嬋 → 婵; 囅 → 冁
頁 → 页:顏 → 颜; 頷 → 颔; 順 → 顺; 額 → 额
專 → 专 : 傳 → 传; 轉 → 转; 磚 → 砖
食 → 饣: 飯 → 饭; 飽 → 饱; 飼 → 饲; 餃 → 饺
言 → 讠: 話 → 话; 語 → 语; 誰 → 谁

How Many Basic Chinese Characters are there? How Many Should I Learn?

Traditional Chinese dictionaries contain more than 10,000 characters, depending on the readership of the dictionary. The Kangxi Dictionary contains 47,035 characters. What would be the realistic number of words that we need to master in order to proficiently communicate with others? If you would master 2500 characters, you would be able to recognize 99% of the modern text. According to statistics, the maximum rate to absorb characters is about 30 a week especially at the beginning of your study.

There are a few tips on how to make Chinese characters faster and effective:

HSK Character Workbook Level 1 - Inner Page 2.jpg

1. Take Note of Stroke Orders

It seems like a minimal matter but stroke order does affect the legibility and proportion of your words. With proper proportion comes beautiful characters. Writing in the wrong stroke order may result in illegible words and cause misunderstandings when others are reading what you have written. You can choose a Chinese Character writing book with the correct stroke orders indicated. It serves as a guidance for beginners and get you one step further to your success on writing. Get the HSK Chinese Characters Workbook Level 1: HSK 新汉语水平考试汉字练习一级词汇 here.

HSK Chinese Character Workbook - Inner Page Sample.jpg

2. Correct Proportion of Radicals

Radicals are somewhat Chinese alphabets when combined with other characters, they form words and meanings. Radicals may or may not be words on their own. Words such as 提，你，好，话，灯 have radicals. Take 灯 for example, which is made up of 火and丁. However, note how 火 is sightly thinner and smaller when written as a radical. This is what makes it clear that you are writing 灯 and not 火丁, which has no meaning.

3. Calligraphy Writing

It is not a must that your handwriting has to be as beautiful as Chinese calligraphy. But attending some lessons and using a brush to write definitely helps you get a grip on the strokes, the size and proportion of each word and of course, how they look aesthetically. After this, writing on paper with normal pens would also seem much easier. when writing Chinese calligraphy, all words are written in traditional Chinese.

4. Practice Makes Perfect!

What better way to improve than to practice? Take a few minutes each day to practice some characters, they can be easy as writing numbers or more advanced such as writing names of places. Nonetheless, they do help you perfect your handwriting and also train you to remember how each word is pronounced. There are many practice books with guiding squares to lend you a helping hand!

How to Learn Chinese Characters?