Chinese writing rules

Here are the seven basic rules of stroke order in a Chinese character:

First draw horizontally then vertically.

Draw the line down to the left and then down the right.

Write downward.

Write from left to right.

Trace the external strokes before interior strokes.

Close after filling the frame.

When a character is symmetrical, tracing the line of the middle first.

The Chinese character is written in an imaginary square, without fully completing the square.

Beauty depends largely on the nature of the balance within the square. To practice calligraphy, Chinese models use different grids in which they trace the characters: see the different models of grid.