Draw translation of Chinese characters into Russian. Hieroglyphics. Elementary features. Basic rules of calligraphy in Chinese

In this article we will touch on the writing rule Chinese characters- this is the basis that every beginning sinologist should know. behind. Now you know what sounds Chinese speech can consist of. It's time to learn how hieroglyphs look and are written. And we will start with the rules for writing hieroglyphs. Let's get started!

In today's lesson we want to tell you how to write hieroglyphs correctly. Hieroglyphs are not written in a chaotic order, as we please. Eat certain rules that must be followed. So here they are:

Rules for writing Chinese characters

All hieroglyphs are written from left to right

Top down.

First you need to write horizontal elements, then vertical and lastly descending ones

First the outer outline, then the inner element and lastly the bottom line

First, descending to the left is written, then descending to the right.

First the central line, if it does not intersect, then the side ones

The bottom horizontal line is written after all the lines, if they do not intersect, except for the point on the right, which is written last.

Hieroglyphs must be the same size, no matter how many strokes they have. For convenience, you can take a simple notebook in a square and practice writing one hieroglyph per square centimeter. By the way, our story: “” will help you in this not difficult matter.


I think there is no point in telling you that writing hieroglyphs is an entire art called calligraphy. Of course, if you wrote one hieroglyph, this does not mean that you were engaged in calligraphy. The art of “beautiful writing” in China is embodied with the help of a canvas, brush, ink, ink (a vessel for ink) and, preferably, a teacher. People who practice calligraphy develop a very beautiful handwriting of hieroglyphs. On this moment Calligraphy classes in China for one hour cost from 100 yuan (about 1000 rubles) with a more or less good teacher.

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Hi all! Based on the search queries of those in need, in this article I want to talk about the procedure , and whether it exists at all.

First, let's figure out whether we are talking about specific hieroglyphs here or about all possible hieroglyphs. IN Chinese There are two main types of hieroglyphs: traditional and simplified. There are, of course, quite ancient letter, but it is not currently used, and therefore the order writing Chinese characters Few people are interested in this type. So let's stick to simplified writing.

In modern Chinese, all hieroglyphs can be written using, having studied which, you can easily sort any hieroglyph into shelves and write it correctly. However, when there is a certain consistency that makes the process smoother and more convenient. Below are the rules of calligraphy.

Rules writing Chinese characters:

  1. The hieroglyph is written from top to bottom.
  2. The hieroglyph is written from left to right.
  3. First, horizontal lines are written, then vertical and folding ones. The lower horizontal line, if it does not intersect, is written after the vertical line.
  4. First, flip to the left is written, then flip to the right.
  5. First, the features that make up the outer outline of the sign are written, then the features inside it; the feature that closes the outline at the bottom is written last.
  6. First, the vertical line located in the center is written, if it does not intersect the horizontal line, then the side lines.
  7. The dot on the right is written last.

I don’t remember after what period of time I stopped paying attention to the order of writing strokes in a hieroglyph, either I got used to it mechanically, or it somehow settled into my brain, and such a need disappeared by itself.

The more you write, the better it gets. Over time, you will stop thinking about writing Chinese characters, the same way you change your feet while walking or brush your teeth. Knowing from my own experience, I can say that the rules writing Chinese characters not so strict. Because I am left-handed, I often write strokes in the wrong order and in the wrong direction, but this does not in any way interfere with learning the language.

However, correct writing Chinese characters plays an important role in their search in online dictionaries at handwriting, because Not correct writing leads to the dictionary misunderstanding the hieroglyph and does not provide its translation. Although in Lately I haven’t noticed that the dictionary doesn’t understand me, and I think that modern dictionaries, probably, have already overcome this problem.

Another question when writing Chinese characters is their similarity and, at the same time, diversity. So, a hieroglyph that differs by just one dot has a completely different meaning. Therefore, at the very beginning of learning the Chinese language, many are faced with the problem of unreadability of hieroglyphs, when, having encountered an unfamiliar hieroglyph, you do not know how it is read, and, accordingly, cannot translate it. Knowing all 24 traits and order will not help here writing Chinese characters, a different method is used here.

Many dictionaries first have a table in which hieroglyphs are grouped by keys or graphemes. By identifying the correct key in a character, you can find the correct pinyin and translation of the character itself.

This method will help not only with writing Chinese characters, but also with the study of the Chinese language and will give you the opportunity to understand the secret of one of the most ancient writings, the history of which dates back more than 5 thousand years ago!

Good luck in learning Chinese!

One of the main difficulties facing everyone Chinese language learners, - mastery of Chinese characters, which have been the generally accepted writing system in China for at least three and a half millennia.

What are hieroglyphs? What is their specificity that distinguishes them? Chinese characters from other scripts of the world? To answer this question, you need to know that any writing system can be classified into one of two main types.

The first of them (phonetic) includes systems whose signs serve to record the sound of certain linguistic units. This includes alphabets, including letters and recording individual sounds (an example would be chinese alphabet), And syllabaries, fixing entire syllables (this type of phonetic writing includes, in particular, Japanese katakana And hiragana).

The second type of writing (ideographic, or hieroglyphic) is characterized by the fact that signs serve to record the lexical meaning of speech units - syllables or words. The Chinese writing system belongs to this type.

Hieroglyphic writing differs from alphabetic or syllabic writing in that it includes significantly larger number signs. There may be two or three dozen letters in the alphabet, hundreds of characters in syllabic systems, and several thousand or even tens of thousands in hieroglyphic systems.

In Chinese, each significant syllable (morpheme) is represented by a separate character; To write a word, you need as many hieroglyphs as there are syllables in it. In total, the Chinese language has about 400 syllables that differ in sound composition; the presence of tones increases this number three to four times. The number of different morphemes is many times greater, which is explained by the presence of homonyms. This is why there are so many characters in Chinese writing.

In the official list of only the most common characters there are 3000 of them. In order to read, for example, the People's Daily newspaper, you need to know at least 4 thousand hieroglyphs, and in order to understand special or literary texts- and even more. In "Big Chinese-Russian Dictionary" ed. prof. Oshanin more than 40 thousand hieroglyphs; in Chinese explanatory dictionary“Kangxi Zidian” - there are about 48 thousand of them.

The need to remember a large number of characters is one of the main difficulties associated with mastering the Chinese writing system.

However, most Chinese characters are complex in their structure, which makes them difficult to memorize.

If you don't remember something from this lesson, it's okay, just move on to the next one (don't do this with the next ones!)

Elementary features

Main features

With all their apparent diversity, modern Chinese characters are combinations of a certain number of strictly defined elementary crap. There are only eight main features:

horizontal 二五百
vertical 千士巾
folding right 欠又文
folding left 成石九
oblique intersecting 戈戰戒
ascending 冰決波
point right 六玉交
point left 心小亦

The first column contains the trait, the second column contains its name, and the third column contains examples.

Features with a hook

Some traits have variant spellings. Thus, horizontal, vertical and folding to the right can end with a slight bend - a “hook”. There are a total of five such traits with a hook:

Broken lines

In addition to the main features and their variants with a hook, in hieroglyphs there are continuous writings of several features, which we will call broken. There are six such features:

The name of the broken line (horizontal, vertical, folding) is given by its initial part.

Broken lines with a hook

Broken features can also be combined with a hook. There are only five such traits:

All Chinese characters in their modern writing are composed of these 24 strokes.

The number of strokes that make up modern Chinese characters can vary greatly. If the simplest hieroglyphs in their structure have one or two lines, then the most complex ones can have two to three dozen or even more. For example, the sign “bright” consists of 28 features, and the sign “stuffy nose” consists of 36! However, such examples are by no means isolated.

It is very important to learn how to quickly and accurately identify the constituent features of a hieroglyph and correctly count them total number, because in many dictionaries, library catalogs, etc., hieroglyphs are arranged in order of increasing number of strokes.

In addition, when writing hieroglyphs, it is necessary to strictly observe the sequence of strokes.

Basic rules of calligraphy

The sequence of writing strokes in a hieroglyph is subject to strict rules:



It should be borne in mind that a hieroglyph of any complexity, regardless of the number of features that make it up, must fit into a square of a given size. It is recommended to write hieroglyphs on squared paper, allocating four squares for each hieroglyph and making a space between hieroglyphs. Graphic elements in characters with a small number of strokes should be written enlarged, and in complex characters - compactly.

For example:

口 器 讓 聲 敬 句

Assignments and exercises

The art of calligraphy

When we discussed calligraphy above in connection with the analysis of Chinese characters, we meant, first of all, compliance correct sequence their constituent elementary features. But the term “calligraphy”, as you know, also has another meaning - the ability to write not only correctly, but also beautifully. In China, calligraphy has long been one of the traditional types high professional art, along with painting.

It is impossible to imagine a traditional Chinese painting without hieroglyphs masterfully written on it; and inscriptions made in various handwritings still decorate a scientist’s office in China or are hung on the doors of houses on major holidays.

And this is no coincidence. Hieroglyphs provide abundant food for perceiving them not just as signs of writing, but as certain artistic images, containing no less diverse information than the text itself, and capable of delivering aesthetic pleasure.

The high standards traditionally demanded of everyone who sat down at a desk required the mandatory mastery of special skills, and these were obtained through years of hard training.

It is not surprising that in China the ability to write hieroglyphs correctly and beautifully has always been and is still considered an integral sign of intelligence. It is known that many famous European writers and statesmen there was disgusting handwriting, which few except themselves could make out. In China, where the cult of learning was associated with the art of calligraphy, this was simply impossible.

Anyone who has taken up the study of the Chinese language should pay close attention to hieroglyphs - the most valuable cultural heritage China, its invaluable contribution to the treasury of world civilization.