4.4: Writing

Writing in the age of word processors

Just as in English it is possible to read well without being able to spell every word from memory, so in Chinese it is possible to read without being able to write every character from memory. And in fact, with the advent of Chinese word processing, it is even possible to write without being able to produce every character from memory, too; for in a typical word processing program, the two steps in composing a character text are, first, to input pinyin and, second, to confirm – by reading – the output character, or if necessary, to select a correct one from a set of homonyms (ordered by frequency).

There is, nevertheless, still a strong case to be made for the beginning student learning to write characters by hand. First of all, there is the aesthetic experience. In the Chinese world, calligraphy – beautiful writing, writing beautifully – is valued not only as art, but also as moral training. Even if your handwriting never reaches gallery quality, the tactile experience and discipline of using a writing implement on paper (or even on a tablet computer) is valuable. Writing also serves a pedagogical function: it forces you to pay attention to details. Characters are often distinguished by no more than a single stroke:

4 strokes	天	夭	夫	犬	太
	tiān sky	yāo goblin	fū person	quǎn dog	tài grand
5 strokes	白	申	田	甲	由
	bái white	shēn explain	tián field	jiǎ ‘A’	yóu from

Learning to write characters does not mean learning to write all characters encountered from memory, for the immense amount of time it takes to internalize the graphs inevitably takes away from the learning of vocabulary, usage and grammatical structure. This course adopts the practice of introducing material in pinyin rather exuberantly, then dosing out a subset to be read in characters. The balance of writing to reading is something to be decided by a teacher. In my view, at least in the early lessons, students should not only be able to read character material with confidence, but they should be able to write most of it if not from memory, then with no more than an occasional glance at a model. The goal is to learn the principles of writing so that any character can be reproduced by copying; and to internalize a smaller set that can be written from memory (though not necessarily in the context of an examination). These will provide a core of representative graphs and frequently encountered characters for future calligraphic endeavors.

Principles of drawing characters

Strokes are called bǐhuà(r) in Chinese. Stroke order (bǐshùn) is important for aesthetic reasons – characters often do not look right if the stroke order is not followed. Following correct stroke order also helps learning, for in addition to visual memory for characters, people develop a useful tactile memory for them by following a consistent stroke order.

a) Form

There are usually said to be eight basic strokes plus a number of composites. They are shown below, with names for each stroke and examples of characters that contain them.

héng ‘horizontal’	一	shù ‘vertical’	十
piě ‘cast aside’ ie leftwards slanting	人	nà ‘pressing down’  ie rightwards slanting	入
tiǎo ‘poking up’ ie rightward rising	冷 把	diǎn ‘dot’	小 熱
gōu ‘hook’ [four variants, shown]	小 心 弋 买	zhé ‘bend’ [many variants]	马 凸

Composite strokes can be analyzed in terms of these eight, eg ‘horizontal plus leftwards slant’.

b) Direction

In most cases, strokes are falling (or horizontal); only one of the eight primary strokes rises – the one called tiǎo.

c) Order

The general rules for the ordering of strokes are given below. These rules are not detailed enough to generate word order for you, but they will help you to make sense of the order, and to recall it more easily once you have encountered it. Begin here by drawing the characters shown below as you contemplate each of the rules, and recite the names of the strokes:

Step	Pinyin	English	Hanzi
i) Horizontal (héng) before vertical (shù):	shí	10	十
ii) Except a closing héng is often postponed till last:	wáng tǔ	king; surname soil	王 土
iii) Left stroke before right: (eg piě before nà)	bā rén mù	8 person wood	八 人 木
iv) Top before bottom:	sān yán	3 speech	三 言
v) Left constituent before right: (eg 土 before 也)	dì	place	地
vi) Boxes are drawn in 3 strokes: the left vertical, then top and right, ending with bottom (left to right):	kǒu	mouth	口
vii) Frame before innards:	yuè guó	moon; month country	月 国
viii) Frames are closed last, after innards:	sì rì tián	4 sun; day field	四 日 田
ix) For symmetrical parts, dominant precedes minor:	xiǎo	small	小

d) Two illustrative characters

Because of the symmetry of its form as well as the gravity of its meaning, the character that represents the root yǒng, whose basic meaning is ‘everlasting’, is often used as an illustration of the 8 basic strokes. Actually, yǒng is composed of only 5 strokes, but some of the 5 can illustrate several stokes simultaneously. Also cited, on the right, is the more common character for shuǐ, ‘water’, which is similar in form.

Find out the way these characters are written from a teacher, then see if you can follow the analysis of yǒng into the 8 basic strokes by overlaying each stroke in the following set in red ink:

 

diǎn	héng	zhé	gōu	tiǎo	piě	piě	nà
永	永	永	永	永	永	永	永
dot	horiz’l	bend top mid	hook	rise top left	fall left bottom left, top right		fall right bottom right