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Stroke Order for Chinese Characters

You many feel that Chinese character learning can be very difficult. But there are some rules we can follow when writing Chinese characters.

The rules for writing Chinese characters are intended to smooth hand motion and thereby promote faster and more beautiful writing.

The basic principal when writing Chinese characters is Left to Right, Top to Bottom.

The rule of left to right also applies to compound characters which can be divided into two or more radicals or components. Each component of complex characters are completed in the order of left to right.

As with the left to right rule, the top to bottom rule also applies to complex characters.（川、三）

When there is an inner component, the surrounding strokes are drawn first.（月）

In Chinese characters which have crossing strokes, the horizontal strokes are drawn before the vertical strokes. In this example, the bottom stroke is not a crossing stroke, so it is drawn last, as according to rule #7.（士）

Angled strokes are drawn downward to the left before those which are downward to the right.（文）

If there is a center vertical stroke flanked by strokes on either side, the center vertical is drawn first.（水）

The bottom stroke of a character is drawn last.（里）

Horizontal strokes which extend beyond the right and left boundaries of the body of the Chinese character are drawn last.（丹）

Characters which form a frame around other strokes are left open until the inner components are finished. Then the outer frame is completed - usually with the bottom horizontal stroke.（回）

Dots which appear on the top or upper left of a Chinese character are drawn first. Dots which appear on the bottom, upper right, or inside a character are drawn last.（犬）