There is only one more thing to consider before we can write freely: stroke order. The following is the basic rules of the stroke-order of Chinese characters. If you know these basic rules, you will soon learn to write Chinese intuitively and not have to think about them as you write.

Rule 1. Heng precedes Shu; that is, horizontal stroke precedes vertical stroke.

Rule 2. Pie precedes Na; that is, left-falling stroke precedes right-falling stroke.

Rule 3. Characters are written from top to bottom.

Rule 4. Characters are written from left to right.

Rule 5. If the character is framed from above, the frame is written first; that is, from outside to inside.

Rule 6. Middle precedes the two sides.

Rule 7. The top right-hand corner precedes the bottom left-hand corner.

Rule 8. Inside precedes the sealing stroke.

Rule 9. Leave dot in the top right-hand corner for the last.

These rules don’t unequivocally cover all situations. When no rule seems applicable, you must simply learn the stroke order by heart. If you are conscientious about this from the start, you will quickly develop a feeling for what is correct.

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