What are the strokes of a Chinese character and how many are there?

Basic strokes of Chinese characters

The traditional eight methods of the Yong character categorize the strokes of Chinese characters into: "dot, horizontal, vertical, apostrophe, press, pick, fold, and hook".

In fact, there are so many variations in the strokes of the Chinese characters that what is summarized in the "Eight Methods of the Yong Characters" is only the general types summarized from a calligraphic point of view. There are also subtle differences within each type. These differences include the angle of inclination, size, length, and so on.

Based on the tendency of the brush to move when writing, i.e., the characteristics of the "stroke", the strokes can be further summarized. For example:

"Point" and "down" tend to run from the left to the right, only the length of the size of the different, and therefore can be merged into a large category;

"Lift" and "cross" are the same. The "twist" and "hook" both change direction in the course of the stroke to form a turn.

In this way, the eight strokes can be summarized into five.

In 1988, the State Language Commission and the Press and Publication Administration published the List of Common Characters in Modern Chinese, which stipulates five basic strokes,

Yi (横), 丨 (竖), 丿 (撇), 丶 (点), 乛 (折). Among them:

There are four kinds of single strokes:

一(横)、丨(竖)、丿(撇)、丶(点);

Compound Strokes: 乛(折)

Horizontal Strokes include 詽ang and 詽ang(坪);

Point includes 鈪 and 詽ang(点) and 詽ang(捺);

The Folding Strokes are divided into eight types of strokes, such as 鈪 horizontal, vertical, 鈪 apostrophe, 詽ang, 鈪 bending and hooking and so on.

List of basic strokes

Horizontal:

Vertical:

Skimming:

Dotting:?

Fold:?