Check out the other parts of this series here:
Part 1: What are Chinese Characters?
Part 2: Chinese Strokes, Components & Radicals
Part 3: The 6 Types of Chinese Characters
Handwriting characters is essential as a means of developing muscle memory to further enhance your retention of Chinese character. It’s also very useful to be able to write Chinese by hand in certain situations. Just to be 100% clear, though, we do NOT advocate rote learning! We just recommend writing them out once or twice while learning or reviewing them for the reasons stated above.
In order to write characters in a remotely legible way, you need to follow a clear set of rules. There are 12 rules you need to follow. Here they are one-by-one:
Rule #1: From Top To Bottom
Rule #2: From Left To Right
Rule #3: Horizontal Before Vertical
Rule #4: Diagonals Right-To-Left Before Diagonals Left-To-Right
Rule #5: Outside Before Inside
Rule #6: Inside Before Outside
Rule #7: Inside Before Bottom Enclosing
Rule #8: Center Verticals Before Outside “Wings”
Rule #9: Cutting Strokes Last
Rule #10: Left Vertical Before Enclosing
Rule #11: Top Or Upper-Left Dots First
Rule #12: Inside Or Upper-Right Dots Last
Thanks to ArchChinese for this list and thanks to commons.wikimedia.org for the images!
https://www.mandarinblueprint.com/6-types-of-chinese-character-2/” Part 3 -- The 6 Types of Chinese Character
https://www.mandarinblueprint.com/chinese-mnemonics/
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