Stroke count method

The Stroke Count Method (Chinese: 笔画; pinyin: bǐ huà), Wubihua method, Stroke input method or Bihua IME (Chinese: 五笔画输入法; pinyin: wǔ bǐhuà shūrù fǎ or Chinese: 筆劃輸入法; pinyin: Bǐhuà shūrù fǎ) (lit. 5-stroke input method) is a relatively simple Chinese input method for writing text on a computer or a mobile phone. It is based on the stroke order of a word, not pronunciation.[1] It uses five or six buttons, and is often placed on a numerical keypad. Although it is possible to input Traditional Chinese characters with this method, this method is often associated with Simplified Chinese characters. The Wubihua method should not be confused with the Wubi method.

Keyboard of a Chinese mobile phone, showing roles of the numbers 1–5 in the Wubihua method

T9 keypad of a Chinese mobile phone, showing roles of the numbers 1–5 in the Wubihua method

Decomposition of some characters by their basic strokes. Some implementations of this input method assign the keys "h", "s", "p", "n" and z", which are the first letter of the pinyin of the name of the basic stroke they correspond to

Each of the five keys from 1 to 5 are assigned a certain type of stroke (resembling the Eight Principles of Yong; these five are sometimes called 橫竖撇捺折[lower-alpha 1] (héng-shù-piē-nà-zhé) with each character of this phrase being a one-syllable description of the respective five strokes:[lower-alpha 2]

1. A horizontal stroke from left to right (一)
2. A vertical stroke from top to bottom (丨)
3. A long diagonal stroke downward from right to left (丿)
4. A very short dash stroke downward from left to right (丶)
5. A horizontal stroke from left to right, ending with a downwards hook to the left (乙)

To input any character, the user simply presses the keys corresponding to the strokes of a character then select from a list of matching characters. The list of suggestions to choose from becomes more and more specific as more digits of the code are entered.[1] The system will not recognize a character input with an incorrect stroke order.[1] Some people find this method of entering characters into a mobile phone to be faster than pinyin. In fact, as pinyin is based upon Mandarin Chinese, many Chinese people – particularly in the southern regions of China like Hong Kong and Macau – who speak other varieties of Chinese and never learned pinyin relied solely on this method of entering characters on their phones, until touchscreen-based Smartphones allowed the possibility of Handwriting recognition.

Wubihua is one of the easiest to learn methods because it is simple and does not require knowledge of pronunciation or Pinyin. However, it tends to be vague, as a Wubihua code will normally match ten characters, and each character has one correct code, which confuses users whose stroke orders are wrong.

Strokes map to Wubihua input generally according to the following table:

Wubihua Character	Stroke Type	Stroke	Name of stroke (simplified Chinese and pinyin)
1	Horizontal, or Rising		横 Héng
			提 Tí
2	Vertical		竖 Shù
			竖钩 Shù Gōu
3	Falling to the Left		撇 Piě
4	Dot, or Falling to the Right		点 Diǎn
			捺 Nà
			提捺 Tí Nà
5	Turning		横折 Héng Zhé
			横撇 Héng Piě
			横钩 Héng Gōu
			竖折 Shù Zhé
			竖弯 Shù Wān
			竖提 Shù Tí
			撇折 Piě Zhé
			撇点 Piě Diǎn
			撇钩 Piě Gōu
			弯钩 Wān Gōu
			斜钩 Xié Gōu
			横折折 Héng Zhé Zhé
			横折弯 Héng Zhé Wān
			横折提 Héng Zhé Tí
			横折钩 Héng Zhé Gōu
			横斜钩 Héng Xié Gōu
			竖折折 Shù Zhé Zhé
			竖折撇 Shù Zhé Piě
			竖弯钩 Shù Wān Gōu
			横折折折 Héng Zhé Zhé Zhé
			横折折撇 Héng Zhé Zhé Piě
			横折弯钩 Héng Zhé Wān Gōu
			横撇弯钩 Héng Piě Wān Gōu
			竖折折钩 Shù Zhé Zhé Gōu
			横折折折钩 Héng Zhé Zhé Zhé Gōu