Structure of Chinese Characters


The strokes of each Chinese character are the building blocks of its structure. The character structures and the unique strokes written with a brush form a Chinese calligrapher’s unique style. Traditional aesthetic theory has valuated individual brush strokes according to four qualities:

 

This famous Chinese character ("forever") contains the major basic strokes and is chosen by most calligraphers for teaching.

 

 

The founding principles of a character’s structure can be analyzed into the following characteristics:

 


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