Stroke number

Stroke number, or stroke count (Pinyin: bǐhuà shù; Traditional Chinese: 筆畫數; Simplified Chinese: 笔画数), is the number of strokes of a Chinese character. [lower-alpha 1] Stroke number plays an important role in Chinese character sorting, teaching and computer information processing.[1]

Stroke numbers vary dramatically, for example, characters "一" and "乙" have only one stroke, while character "齉" has 36 strokes, and "龘" (three 龍s, dragons) 48 strokes. The Chinese character with the most strokes in the entire Unicode character set is "𪚥" (four 龍s) of 64 strokes.[2] The contents of this article include stroke counting and the distribution of Chinese characters on stroke numbers.

Stroke counting

There are effective methods to count the strokes of a Chinese character correctly. First of all, stroke counting is to be carried out on the standard regular form (楷體, 楷体) of the character, and according to its stroke order, e.g., by writing the character stroke by stroke (in one's mind). On the same stroke, the tip of the pen can only move along a path once, not allowed to go back. Strokes "㇐" (heng, 横) and "㇀" (ti, 提) are written from left to right, and strokes "㇑" (shu, 竖), "㇓" (pie, 撇), "㇔" (dian, 点) and "㇏" (na, 捺) are written from top to bottom. And if needed, a standard list of strokes or list of stroke orders issued by the authoritative institution should be consulted.[3][4]

If two strokes are connected at the endpoints, whether they are separated into two strokes or linked into one stroke can be judged by the following rules: [5]

  • If the two strokes are connected in the upper left corner of a character or component, then separate them into two strokes, such as: 厂 (stroke order: ㇐㇓), 口 (㇑㇕㇐) and 日 (㇑㇕㇐㇐).
  • If they are connected in the upper right corner, then one stroke, such as: 口 (㇑㇕㇐), 月 (㇓㇆㇐㇐), 句 (㇓㇆㇑㇕㇐).
  • If they are connected in the lower left corner, then if it is a fully enclosed structure, then count as two separated strokes, such as: 口 (㇑㇕㇐), 回 (㇑㇕㇑㇕㇐㇐), 田 (㇑㇕㇐㇑㇐) ;[lower-alpha 2] if it is not fully enclosed, then count as one stroke, such as: 山 (㇑㇗㇑), 区 (㇐㇓㇔㇗), 葛 (㇐㇑㇑㇑㇕㇐㇐㇓㇆㇓㇔㇗) .[lower-alpha 3]
  • If they are connected in the lower right corner, then two strokes, such as: 口 (㇑㇕㇐), 回 (㇑㇕㇑㇕㇐㇐), 田 (㇑㇕㇐㇑㇐).

An important prerequisite for connecting two strokes into one stroke is: the tail of the first stroke is connected with the head of the second stroke.

Some characters or components have the same shape in the China Mainland and Taiwan, but the numbers of strokes are different, such as "之 (Mainland China: ㇔㇇㇏, 3 strokes), 之 (Taiwan: ㇔㇀㇓㇏ 4)", "阝 (M: ㇌㇑, 2), 阝 (T: ㇇㇢㇑, 3)”.[6]

The number of strokes of some characters are easy to be mis-counted, such as 凹 (㇑㇅㇑㇕㇐, 5 strokes), 凸 (㇑㇐㇑㇎㇐, 5), 鼎(㇑㇕㇐㇐㇐㇞㇐㇓㇑㇐㇑㇕, 12).

Distribution of characters

In the following, there are several tables of statistical data illustrating the distributions of Chinese characters among all stroke numbers of some representative character sets.

Chart of Standard Forms of Common National Characters (Taiwan)

Chart of Standard Forms of Common National Characters (常用國字標準字體表) is a standard character set of 4,808 characters issued by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan (ROC).

Numbers of strokes and their numbers of characters in the "Common National Characters"
strokes characters %
1 2 0.042
2 17 0.354
3 39 0.811
4 91 1.893
5 125 2.600
6 159 3.307
7 256 5.324
8 351 7.300
9 356 7.404
10 404 8.403
11 447 9.297
12 427 8.881
13 399 8.299
14 342 7.113
15 341 7.092
16 256 5.324
17 231 4.804
18 145 3.016
19 122 2.537
20 85 1.768
21 66 1.373
22 51 1.061
23 32 0.666
24 31 0.645
25 12 0.250
26 5 0.104
27 8 0.166
28 3 0.062
29 3 0.062
30 1 0.021
32 1 0.021

The stroke numbers of characters range from 1 to 32 strokes. The 11-strokes group has the most characters, taking 9.297% of the character set. On the average, there are 12.186 strokes per character.[4][7]

List of Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese (Mainland)

The List of Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese (现代汉语常用字表) is a standard character set of 3,500 characters issued by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 26 Jan 1988.[8]

Numbers of strokes and their numbers of characters in the "List of Frequently-Used Characters in Modern Chinese"
strokes characters %
1 2 0.057
2 19 0.543
3 50 1.429
4 113 3.229
5 151 4.314
6 250 7.143
7 341 9.743
8 408 11.657
9 415 11.857
10 391 11.171
11 350 10.000
12 320 9.143
13 232 6.629
14 140 4.000
15 126 3.600
16 78 2.229
17 51 1.457
18 16 0.457
19 20 0.571
20 15 0.429
21 6 0.171
22 4 0.114
23 1 0.029
24 1 0.029

The stroke numbers of characters range from 1 to 24 strokes. The 9-strokes characters are the most, taking 11.857% of the character set. On the average, there are 9.7409 strokes per character.[3][7]

List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese (Mainland)

The List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese (现代汉语通用字表) is also a standard character set issued by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. There are 7,000 characters, including the 3,500 characters in the List of Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese (现代汉语常用字表). [9]

Numbers of strokes and their numbers of characters in the "List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese"
strokes characters %
1 2 0.03
2 21 0.30
3 59 0.84
4 136 2.00
5 201 2.87
6 346 4.94
7 545 7.79
8 690 9.86
9 785 11.21
10 761 10.87
11 726 10.38
12 678 9.68
13 549 7.84
14 412 5.88
15 331 4.73
16 276 3.94
17 185 2.64
18 90 1.29
19 81 1.16
20 47 0.67
21 28 0.41
22 22 0.31
23 12 0.17
24 8 0.11
25 6 0.085
26 1 0.015
30 1 0.015
36 1 0.015

The stroke numbers of characters range from 1 to 36 strokes. The 9-strokes group has the most characters, taking 11.21% of the character set. On the average, there are 10.75 strokes per character. [10]

Unicode Basic CJK Unified Ideographs

The Unicode Basic CJK Unified Ideographs is an international standard character set issued by ISO and Unicode, the same character set of the China national standard 13000.1. There are 20,902 Chinese characters, including simplified and traditional characters from China, Japan and Korea (CJK).[11] [7]

Numbers of strokes and their numbers of characters in the "Unicode Basic CJK Unified Ideographs"
strokes characters %
1 10 0.048
2 44 0.211
3 98 0.469
4 204 0.976
5 331 1.584
6 583 2.789
7 966 4.622
8 1300 6.220
9 1541 7.373
10 1709 8.176
11 1859 8.894
12 1956 9.358
13 1741 8.329
14 1570 7.511
15 1516 7.253
16 1292 6.181
17 1012 4.842
18 771 3.689
19 692 3.311
20 501 2.397
21 350 1.674
22 274 1.311
23 197 0.942
24 152 0.727
25 83 0.397
26 48 0.230
27 43 0.206
28 27 0.129
29 10 0.048
30 10 0.048
31 1 0.005
32 3 0.014
33 4 0.019
35 1 0.005
36 1 0.005
39 1 0.005
48 1 0.005

The stroke numbers of characters range from 1 to 48 strokes. The 12-strokes group has the most characters, taking 9.358% of the character set. On the average, there are 12.845 strokes per character.[12][7]

Characteristics

From the data of the previous tables, some valuable cross-table characteristics can be found:

  • Everybody knows that the average number of strokes per character of the simplified Chinese writing system is less than the traditional writing system, but is not likely to know how much less it is. And the data from the first two tables present a very useful reference: "9.7409:12.186" strokes per character is the ratio between the two frequently-used character sets of China mainland (simplified Chinese) and Taiwan (traditional Chinese).
  • According to the data of the second and third tables, the average number of strokes of the 3,500 frequently-used characters is 9.74, and the average number of strokes of the 7.000 commonly-used characters (a super set of the 3,500 characters) is 10.75. That means generally speaking, frequently-used characters have less strokes than less frequently-used characters.
  • The number of strokes per character is in normal distribution, i.e., high in the middle and gradually low in both sides, with the peak numbers of characters ranging between 9 and 12 strokes in the four tables. Here is an explanation: To be easy to read or recognize, the forms (or glyphs) of Chinese characters should be sufficiently differentiated from each other, and to be easy to write, the characters should be relatively simple. The former condition requires that the number of strokes of a character should not be too small, while the latter condition requires that the number of strokes should not be too large. Under the action of these two forces, the normal distribution is formed. [13]

See also

Notes
  1. The other possible meaning of stroke number, i.e., the number of different strokes in a Chinese character set, or the number of strokes in a stroke list, will be introduced in discussion on strokes forms or stroke lists.
  2. exceptions: 惯, 實, 母, 马, 鸟, 乌
  3. exceptions: 馬; 巨(Taiwan: 12511；Mainland：1515)

References
  1. Su, Peicheng (苏培成) (2014). 现代汉字学纲要 (Essentials of Modern Chinese Characters) (in Chinese) (3rd ed.). Beijing: 商务印书馆 (Commercial Press). pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-7-100-10440-1.
  2. https://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=2A6A5&useutf8=true
  3. PRC, National Language Commission (2021). 通用规范汉字笔顺规范 (Stroke Orders of the Commonly-used Standard Chinese Characters) (in Chinese). Beijing: the Commercial Press. ISBN 978-7-100-19347-4.
  4. Taiwan, 國語推行委員會 (National Language Promotion Committee) (1996). 常用國字標準字體筆順手册 (Handbook of the Stroke Orders of the Commonly-Used National Chinese Characters) (in Chinese). Taipei: Ministry of Education. ISBN 978-9-57-090664-6.
  5. Su 2014, pp. 75–76.
  6. Zhang, X. (and Cheung W. K) (2013b). "A Mainland-Taiwan Comparative Study on Standard Stroke Orders of Chinese Characters (兩岸漢字規範筆順比較)" (PDF). Newsletter of Chinese Language (中國語文通訊). 92 (2013) (1): 17–26.
  7. (Lecture notes of the subject "Modern Chinese Characters and Information Technology", Dept of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, Hong Kong Polytechnical University, by Dr. Zhang Xiaoheng, June 12, 2017.)
  8. 现代汉语常用字表 Archived 2016-11-13 at the Wayback Machine [List of Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese], Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 26 January 1988.
  9. 现代汉语通用字表 Archived 2016-11-23 at the Wayback Machine [List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese], Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 26 Jan 1988.
  10. Su 2014, p. 76.
  11. https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U4E00.pdf
  12. National Language Commission of China (October 1, 1999). "GB13000.1字符集汉字字序(笔画序)规范 (Standard of GB13000.1 Character Set Chinese Character Order (Stroke-Based Order))" (PDF) (in Chinese). Shanghai Education Press. ISBN 7-5320-6674-6.
  13. Su 2014, p. 77.
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