Stroke order 筆順

[skylee]

Could anyone advise me where on the internet I could find information on proper stroke order for writing traditional characters? Like when I input a character a picture showing the stroke order will pop up and so on?

I am shocked by my recent discovery that my friends and I write the same characters in very different ways. For example, one of my friend writes the middle part first whenever there are three components from left to right, e.g. 興, 變, whereas I always start from the left. And another writes the "boat" first for words like 遊, 邊, whereas I always write the "boat" last. Yet another begins 門 from the middle, whereas I always write it as if there are two 日.

Apparently we stick to what our primary school teachers taught us, right or wrong. But I find it unbearable that I might have been writing in the wrong ways for so many years, and am very keen to "correct" if necessary.

Thank you.

[trooper]

I wouldn't sweat over it too much if I were you. I've found that different textbooks (and Chinese teachers) have differing opinions on what is the right stroke orders for a given character. If you found one source of stroke orders for traditional characters on the net, no doubt you could find a different source with a different opinion.

I think there's sometimes more than one way to do things. As long as you follow one of the correct ways, then it's not worth troubling yourself any further.

[roddy]

Skylee, as far as I'm concerned the way you write is the correct way.

Roddy

[cometrue]

I am shocked by my recent discovery that my friends and I write the same characters in very different ways. For example' date=' one of my friend writes the middle part first whenever there are three components from left to right, e.g. 興, 變, whereas I always start from the left. And another writes the "boat" first for words like 遊, 邊, whereas I always write the "boat" last. Yet another begins 門 from the middle, whereas I always write it as if there are two 日.

i believe that the way u write 遊 and 邊 興 變 is right, but i m afraid the 門's correct order SB, the first stroke is like 刀's first one, and than write the two "heng", after that "shu", the right part of it is "heng" "shu" "heng""heng zhe shu wan gou"

[nnt]

For strokes order, I use 香港小學生中文詞典 from 明華出版公司 (1994). For the 門character, the left half is like the 日 character, the right half begins with the "L" then goes on with the "-" then the "J".

For some character, two ways are given.

[skylee]

Alas, I think I will buy a 小學生中文詞典. But if stroke orders are an opinion thing ...

I've heard some bitter stories about parents not agreeing with their children's teachers' "opinions" on stroke orders but had to yield lest the kids suffer. Ai ~~~.

[holyman]

agree with nnt. for the xing and other words, u are correct. u can look up ancient calligraphy works to tell. so maybe get a shufa zidian or even better, a 5 styles shufa zidian and check up the 'xingshu'(running strokes) style. i think u can find the 'xing' in wang xizhi's 'shengjiao xu'(introduction to the holy teachings). the stroke order is pretty clear. for calligraphy lovers, wrong strokes usually means ugly writing...

[pazu]

Skylee, believe me, I'm very sure the word with 3 parts should be written from the MIDDLE.

I always write it from the MIDDLE, but then I was challenged by my friend whose name was "Hok" (學). He insisted that he wrote his name correctly (left middle right), so I asked him to try to input his name in Nokia 8310 (which follows strict stroke order), he couldn't. And I've double-checked it in a dictionary too, I'm right.

[trooper]

Just because you've found one way given in a particular book you can't assume it's the only way!

If you look at the stroke order for xue2 given in McNaugton (the text many people in this forum have recommended for learning Chinese) the order is left, middle, right. But when he writes bian4 (change) the order is middle, left, right.

My other textbook source for stroke order is Colloquial Chinese, which clearly gives middle, left, right for xue2.

The fact that so many people are in disagreement over stoke order suggests that there are different ways available, just as you get different, valid ways to pronounce certain words in English, although in school, you are only taught one way.

[skylee]

This is getting more and more confusing. No rules???

[Quest]

先左后右，先上后下，先横后竖，先撇后捺，先中间后两边，先进门后关门，先上货后开船。

Following the correct stroke orders would make your writing/calligraphy prettier.

[skylee]

Quest this is very useful. But what does it mean by 先進門後關門?

And 先中間後兩邊 worries me. Does it mean that I should write the two crosses first for the word 學?

[Quest]

先进门后关门/先里头后封口--for characters such as 回，国。口 and 玉 go inside first, your last stroke closes the door at the bottom.

先中间后两边--is for characters like 小，水，光，承，與。

先外后內：月，肉

先內后外： 山，樂，凶， 函

[smithsgj]

先进门后关门/先里头后封口

so both of these refer to the component 口. Not anything else (like 门 for example!?!?!)

Wot's all this about loading up before sailing? Is it like 進 where the left bit is last? And if not, what is the rule that covers that?

[Quest]

先进门后关门/先里头后封口

so both of these refer to the component 口. Not anything else (like 门 for example!?!?!)

Wot's all this about loading up before sailing? Is it like 進 where the left bit is last? And if not' date=' what is the rule that covers that?[/quote']

You are right.

[trooper]

先左后右，先上后下，先横后竖，先撇后捺，先中间后两边，先进门后关门，先上货后开船。

Following the correct stroke orders would make your writing/calligraphy prettier.

For xingshu and caoshu styles, calligraphers break the rules of stroke order. This doesn't seem to make their calligraphy any worse.

Also, if I remember, when writing Japanese people use a slightly different stroke order than for some characters. Are you saying that Japanese people are not capable of writing as well as Chinese?

[skylee]

Why is Japanese involved here? I thought we were talking about writing traditional Chinese.

[trooper]

Because Japanese uses many of the traditional Chinese characters too. Isn't this thread about Chinese characters, not Chinese language?

[Quest]

先左后右，先上后下，先横后竖，先撇后捺，先中间后两边，先进门后关门，先上货后开船。

Following the correct stroke orders would make your writing/calligraphy prettier.

... Are you saying that Japanese people are not capable of writing as well as Chinese?

That's a bit elaborate for the comments I made!