Sophie Song

Chinese characters are written in a shape of square, therefore they are known as square-shaped characters consist of various strokes formed by different dots or lines as the basic components.

There are six basic strokes of Chinese characters. They are the horizontal strokes (heng 横), the vertical stroke (shu 竖), the left-falling stroke (pie撇), the right-falling stroke (na捺), the dot (dian 点) and the rising stroke (ti提). Other types of strokes are derived from the strokes mentioned above, and thus know as the derived strokes.

There is a particular sequence in which the strokes must be written. If it is followed, the writing can be smooth and fast.

先写横后写竖
A horizontal stroke is written before a vertical stroke.
十：一 十

先写撇后写捺
The sweeping stroke to the left is written before the sweeping stroke to the right.
八： 丿 八
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A Chinese script of one from or another has been in existence for over 5,000 years. The origins of Chinese script are shrouded in mystery, and various legends exist to explain its creation. One such legends tells how Cang Jie (仓颉), a minister of the Emperor Huang Di (黄帝), observed the footprints of birds and animals. He noticed that each one was distinct and recognizable. Inspire by this, Cang Jie drew pictures of objects, simplifying them by reducing the number of lines. These were the first pictographs, called xiang xing (象形) by the Han lexicographer Xu shén (许慎).

象形
Pictographs
Certain items could be represented very well by pictographs. For example: animals, plants, parts of the body and so on. We can see that over the time some of the characters tend to lose some of their resemblance from the original during the development.
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