Chinese stroke order: the 8 basic strokes and the 7 rules

Many beginners ask: "If the final character looks the same, why would order matter?" There are four good reasons.

1. Memory. Writing a character in the same order every time builds motor memory, like a dance move. You remember better, and for longer.

2. Beauty and balance. Stroke order was refined over centuries of calligraphy to keep characters well proportioned. The wrong order often produces a lopsided character.

3. Reading handwriting. In fast writing, strokes join together. If you know the standard order, you can read handwritten notes, hand-written menus and cursive calligraphy.

4. Technology. Handwriting recognition on phones and some dictionaries work better with the standard order.

The good news: there aren't thousands of orders to learn. Everything rests on 8 basic strokes and 7 rules. Once these principles sink in, you can guess the correct order for the vast majority of new characters.

All Chinese characters are built from a small set of strokes. Traditionally, eight are distinguished, illustrated by the famous character 永 (yǒng, "eternal"), which contains almost all of them.

• 横 héng: horizontal. Left to right, rising slightly. E.g. 一, 三.

• 竖 shù: vertical. Top to bottom, straight. E.g. 十, 中.

• 撇 piě: left-falling diagonal. Starts top right, sweeps down to the left, tapering. E.g. 人 (1st stroke), 八.

• 捺 nà: right-falling diagonal. Starts top left, thickens, then flares at the end. E.g. 人 (2nd stroke), 大.

• 点 diǎn: dot. A short stroke, usually down to the right. E.g. 六, 主, 氵.

• 折 zhé: turning stroke. A stroke that changes direction without lifting the pen, e.g. horizontal then vertical (横折 héngzhé). E.g. 口, 日.

• 提 tí: rising stroke. From bottom left to top right, short and quick. E.g. 我 (4th stroke), 扌, 冫.

• 钩 gōu: hook. A small hook at the end of another stroke. E.g. 小 and 水 (竖钩), 我 (斜钩).

In fact, dictionaries list around thirty variants (横折钩, 竖弯钩, 横撇…), but they are all combinations of these eight.

Rule 1. 先横后竖 (xiān héng hòu shù): horizontal before vertical.
When a horizontal and a vertical stroke cross, write the horizontal first.

• 十: 一 then 丨.

• 干: 一, 一, then 丨.

• 王: 一, 一, 丨, then the final 一 (the bottom stroke closes the character).

Rule 2. 先撇后捺 (xiān piě hòu nà): left-falling before right-falling.
When two diagonals form a "roof" or "legs", write 撇 (down-left) first, then 捺 (down-right).

• 人: 丿 then ㇏.

• 八: same principle.

• 大: 一, then 丿, then ㇏ (combined with rule 1).

• 文: 丶, 一, 丿, ㇏.

Exception to know: in some characters the vertical comes before a horizontal that sits at the bottom and doesn't really cross it: 上 (丨, short 一, long 一) and 止.

Rule 3. 从上到下 (cóng shàng dào xià): top to bottom.
Write the upper strokes and components before the lower ones.

• 三: the three strokes from top to bottom.

• 京: 亠, then 口, then 小.

• 字: 宀, then 子.

• 草: 艹, then 早.

Rule 4. 从左到右 (cóng zuǒ dào yòu): left to right.
Write left strokes and components before right ones.

• 川: three strokes from left to right.

• 你: 亻 first, then 尔.

• 明: 日, then 月.

• 谢: 讠, then 身, then 寸 (three parts, left to right).

These two rules apply at every level: first to the layout of the big components, then to the strokes inside each component. That's why recognising radicals is so useful: a complex character becomes a series of small, familiar blocks.

Rule 5. 从外到内 (cóng wài dào nèi): outside before inside.
When a component encloses another (on two or three sides), write the frame first, then the inside.

• 月: 丿 and 𠃌 (the frame), then the two small inner strokes.

• 同: 冂, then 一 and 口.

• 问: 门, then 口.

Rule 6. 先里头后封口 (xiān lǐtou hòu fēngkǒu): fill in before sealing.
The logical follow-up to rule 5: when the frame is closed on all four sides, draw the left side and the top, fill in the inside, and seal the bottom last. Chinese people say: "先进人，后关门", "let people in first, then close the door".

• 日: 丨, 𠃌, 一 (inside), then the bottom 一.

• 国: 丨, 𠃌, then 玉 inside, then the bottom 一.

• 回: big open frame, small 口 inside, then close the big frame.

Common mistake: ✗ drawing the full square of 国 and then filling it. ✓ The bottom stroke comes last of all.

Rule 7. 先中间后两边 (xiān zhōngjiān hòu liǎngbiān): centre before sides.
When a character is symmetrical with a dominant central stroke, write the centre first, then the left, then the right.

• 小: 亅 (the central hook), then the left dot, then the right dot.

• 水: central 亅, then the left part, then the right part.

• 办: 力 first, then the dots on either side.

Special case A: the top-right dot comes last.
In characters like 我, 书, 犬, 发, the small dot at the top right is written at the end.

Special case B: 辶 and 廴 are written last.
The "walk" component 辶 (and 廴) wraps around the bottom of the character, so you write the inside first, then 辶: 这 (文 then 辶), 进 (井 then 辶), 远, 建 (聿 then 廴).

With these seven rules and two special cases, you can correctly write over 95% of common characters. For the rare exceptions (必, 火, 出…), Hanlu's animation shows you the exact order.

• Use a 田字格 grid (tiánzìgé): a square divided into four. It helps you place each component and keep proportions even. Every character fills a square of the same size, whether it has 1 stroke or 20.

• Count strokes. Knowing that 我 has 7 strokes and 爱 has 10 forces you to tell them apart and helps with paper dictionaries.

• Start slowly. Speed will come. At first, one well-written character beats ten sloppy ones.

• Write to learn, not to copy. Cover the model, write from memory, then check. Active recall is what fixes the memory (see our guide on spaced repetition).

• Don't try to hand-write everything. Today Chinese is typed far more than it's written. A realistic goal: be able to read every character at your level and hand-write the most frequent ones (the first 300-500). Typing in pinyin will reinforce the rest.

• Use the animations. In Hanlu, every character has a stroke-order animation and a "write with your finger" mode that checks your strokes.