Chinese characters, which are in the shape of a square, are made up of strokes. In order to write Chinese symbols, the first thing you shall to know is the Basic Strokes of Chinese characters.

Basic Chinese Writing Stokes

Stroke	Names	Way of Writing	Example
	横 Horizon Stroke	Horizontally from left to right	二 two
	竖 Vertical Stoke	Vertically from top to bottom	开 open
	撇 Left-falling Stroke	Softly from top to lower left	少 less
	捺 Right-falling Stroke	Softly from top to lower right	人 people
	点 Dot Stoke	Dot to lower right and pause	太 very
	提 Rising Stoke	Dot from bottom left to top right	习practice

In the Chinese writing system, the basic strokes may change with their positions in direction or in length. We call these changed strokes Transformed Strokes.

Transformed Strokes

Basic Strokes	Transformed Strokes	Names	Way of Writing	Example
		左点 Right Dot Stroke	Dot to lower left and pause	六 six
		长点 Long Dot Stroke	Longer than a Dot Stroke	区 district
		平撇Horizontal Left-falling Stroke	Nearly horizontally from right to left	千 thousand
		竖撇 Vertical Left-falling Stroke	Nearly vertically down from top	川 river
		平捺 Vertical Right-falling Stroke	Nearly horizontally from left to right	之

Some strokes that must be attached to some other strokes are called dependent strokes, which includes Turning Strokes and Hook Strokes.

Dependent Strokes

	Dependent Strokes	Names	Example
Turning Strokes		横折 Horizontal Turning Stroke	五 five
		竖折 Vertical Turning Stroke	山 mountain
		撇折 Left-falling Turning Stoke	云 cloud
Hook Strokes		竖钩 Vertical Hook Stroke	小 small
		横钩 Horizontal Hook Stroke	买 buy
		斜钩 Slanting Hook Stroke	划 scratch, paddle
		弯钩 Curved Hook Stroke	家 home
		卧钩 Lying Hook Stroke	心 heart

Two or more strokes are joined together to form Complex Strokes in Chinese writing. Below are all of the complex strokes in Chinese Writing system.