Lesson 2: Stroke-Order of Characters
课程二: 笔顺规则

The writing of Chinese characters follows from the practice of traditional calligraphy which utilized brush and ink.  They are written in a fixed stroke-order to ensure accuracy, speed and legibility. The stroke-order still remains important today for the same reasons.

The stroke order of Chinese characters usually starts from left or top and ends at right or bottom. However, there are many exceptions that do not follow these generic rules. As such, we should aim to know the stroke-order for each character.
Basic stroke-order rules

Examples Stroke-Order Rules

     Top to bottom and left to right.

     Horizontal to vertical.

     Character-spanning strokes last.

     Diagonals right-to-left to diagonals left-to-right.

     Center to two outsides.

     Outside to inside with sealing stroke last.

     Left vertical to enclosing.




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