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It is very likely that you have drawn a stroke beyond its frame.
Select full-screen display and ensure that strokes start and end within the stroke frame, whether you use a mouse or a drawing tablet.
For detailed instructions, refer to Explanation of Stroke Order Animation(new windows) in the User’s Guide.

Click  at the bottom right of the display to view the stroke-order animation in full-screen mode.

The current version of this program does not provide phonetic spellings for characters in the Vocabulary Workbook.
For teaching purposes, users can print the practice sheets and fill in the phonetic spellings manually.

Since no characters based on the radical “夂” are included in the database, it is not displayed in the List of Radicals.

If the pinyin spelling is followed by a question mark, all characters matching the pinyin with any tone will be displayed.
For more precise results, add the tone mark after typing the pinyin.
For more information about Search by Phontic, refer to Explanation of Search Methods in the Instructions(new window).

The “Teacher Review” function is designed to help teachers monitor students' learning progress and focus on frequently misspelled characters.
It is not intended for assigning homework and therefore does not provide individual practice results.

The switch on the left side of an iPhone toggles between ring and silent modes.
If there is no sound, it may have been switched to silent mode.
Toggle the switch back to ring mode to resume sound playback.

To enhance user convenience while accessing the Learning Program for Stroke Order of Chinese Characters, this website offers a reference table that matches URL IDs with their corresponding Chinese characters.
Please click the link below to download the reference table:
​​​​​​​
Download: [URL ID and Chinese Characters Reference Table]

This program consists of stroke-order animations of 6,063 Chinese characters. 
Also included are the stroke-order animations of 37 Bopomofo symbols.

There are a total of 17 basic rules as shown in Handbook of Stroke Order of Frequently Used Chinese Characters, published by the Ministry of Education.

The explanation of the character 淵 in the book Shuowen Jiezi(Explanations of Characters) states: “，回水也，从水，象形。左右岸也，中象水皃” 回水 means “returning water,” 象形 means is a pictograph indicating “returning water.” 左右岸 means “” which represents river banks. 中象水皃 means “the middle part  in  resembles flowing water.”

One must know that in seal script the character 水 is , and when written horizontally, it becomes .

The middle part  in  is a clerical script derived from the seal script of 水 written horizontally.
The ancient form of 淵 is ““ and its middle part means “flowing water”.

As for the stroke count of , all the dictionaries and books on characters from the Zhengzitong (Correct Forms of Characters) of the Ming Dynasty and the Kangxi Dictionary of the Qing Dynasty to those of present day indicate that it has eight strokes. This is because the upper left part “” in ““ is written not with two separate strokes but rather as a vertical stroke with a left turn. This can be seen from the upper left part of its seal script , and that is why the stroke count of 淵 is eleven in the dictionaries compiled by the MOE.

The International Standard Organization (ISO 10646) states that 淵 has eleven strokes in accordance with the Kangxi Dictionary. On this basis, it can be inferred that 肅 has twelve strokes, 蕭 sixteen, and 簫 eighteen.
 

The stroke order of  is based upon the left-before-right and outside-before-inside principles for writing a character. For more information about stroke order of characters, refer to theHandbook of Stroke Order of Frequently Used Chinese Characters(new window).

According to the basic rules for stroke order given in Handbook of  Stroke Order of Frequently Used Chinese Characters, published by the Ministry of Education, the 17th rule stipulates the following:

Components between the same or symmetrical parts are written first, followed by the left part and then the right part of the symmetrical structure, as in 兜, 學, 樂, 變, 贏.

For example, writing the middle part of the character 學 first makes it easier to position the whole character in the center of a space and hence make it look prettier.

According to rule number 8 of the basic rules for stroke order given in Handbook of Stroke Order of Frequently Used Chinese Characters, published by the Ministry of Education, a middle horizontal stroke that cuts through other strokes is written last, as in 女, 丹, 母, 毋, 冊.

It is apparent that we write the horizontal stroke last in 女. The structures of 母, 毋, and 女 in seal script (、、) show that they are related. Thus, the horizontal stroke in the first two characters should come last, just as the one in 女 does.

In the chapter “Stroke Order” of his book Vocabulary, Mei Ying-zuo of the Ming Dynasty said that in writing 毋,  comes before , which is then followed by  and 一. He thought that the horizontal stroke should come last in writing 毋. Lin Yi-tong, a contemporary scholar, in his book On Teaching Stroke Order also said, “Inside an enclosure, a horizontal stroke comes after dot(s) or a right-to-left diagonal, as in 舟, 丹, 冊, 母, 毌, 毋.” Both scholars held the same opinion because by convention a spanning horizontal line is written last. A vertical stroke that spans horizontal strokes is also written last, as in 牛, 羊, 半, 千, 華, 畢 and so on.

Stroke order for some characters may vary due to different writing habits among people. However, in order to facilitate teaching character writing, the MOE still considers it necessary to establish standard rules of stroke order for frequently-used characters. At the same time, the commonly-accepted variant stroke-order for certain characters should be tolerated and not excluded for the general public. As a result, for the characters 戈, 方, 升 the MOE adopts two variants of stroke order for each as shown in the following chart. Stroke order of variants in Variant A is the stroke order publicized by the MOE and is meant for school teachers to use in teaching character writing; variants in Variant B are written in the alternative stroke order.

There are two ways of writing 戈. One is writing the left falling diagonal before the dot. The reasoning is that the first horizontal line is often drawn slower, followed by a faster slant stroke running to the end point of a hook. The third stroke moderates the movement of a writing instrument by a short diagonal, thus preparing for the final dot stroke. This explanation is based upon the speed one moves a writing instrument in writing.
 

 The other way is writing the dot before the diagonal. The reasons are as follows.

In fact, neither way violates the basic rules for stroke order. The first way concerns the speed of the movement of a writing instrument, and the explanation seems more profound. The second way is easier for teachers to explain, and that’s why the MOE adopted the principle of “dot first, then diagonal” to make it easy to teach the relevant characters. As for the general public, both ways conform to the rules of stroke order.

The first stroke of 皮 is a right-to-left diagonal according to the principle of from-left-to-right stroke order. Characters based on 皮 as a radical are all written this way, as in 彼, 披, 波 and so on.

The character 之 in seal script is , composed with four strokes. Accordingly, dictionaries and books on characters from the Kangxi Dictionary onward all list 之as having four strokes.

In standard script, 之 is written in the order of dot, upward stroke, right-to-left diagonal, and left-to-right diagonal with a pressing at the end. The second stroke, an upward one, makes it easy in to connect the stroke with the following right-to-left diagonal.

When this program was first established, only 4,808 frequently-used characters decided by the MOE were included. However, in 2024, based upon the collection of characters in Concise Mandarin Chinese Dictionary and Mandarin Chinese Mini Dictionary, the number of characters has been increased to 6,063. Some rarely-used characters will also be included step-by-step in the future. For information about pronunciation and meanings of characters not included, users may refer to Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary (new window)or Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants(new window).

If the symbol appears in the explanation section, it means that in addition to a text explanation, there are graphics at the bottom of the page for illustration.
If one sees the ◎ symbol but does not see any illustration, it is possible that the data has been damaged or lost.
Send the page information to the Ministry of Education(new window) to take care of the problem.

If an arrow sign appears in the explanation section, it means there is additional information associated with the expression after the arrow sign. Just click the expression to view the source.
If one sees an arrow sign but cannot follow the link to the expression indicated, it is possible that the data has been damaged or lost.
Send the page information to the Ministry of Education(new window) to take care of the problem.

The pronunciation and explanation of a character or an expression are based upon the principles incorporated inConcised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary(new window), published by the MOE. For more information about the alternative pronunciation of a character, refer to Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary(new window).

It indicates that the authorization provision of the Creative Commons 3.0 license under the conditions of attribution, non-commercial use, and prohibition on creating derivative works applies to the Stroke Order Animation section of this program.

The Ministry of Education of the Republic of China owns the copyright of this learning program.
The purpose of developing this program is to facilitate teaching the stroke order of Chinese characters in standard script. The program is not intended for commercial use.

The Stroke Order Animation and Whole Character Stroke Order of this site is covered by the authorization provision of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Taiwan 3.0 Unported License.
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If there is a need other than using the contents of this program, state your purpose and intended usage and submit a written request for permission to the Ministry of Education.
 

Mailing address: No.5, Zhongshan S. Rd., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City 100217, Taiwan (R.O.C.).

Tel: (+886) 2-7736-6820.
 

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Click here to download the archive：“Principles for using Chinese transliteration(new window)”

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Due to its extensive contents, this program may contain mistakes.
If you find one, please inform the developers.

Please contact us at HERE(new window),
or send a fax to the Ministry of Education at (+886) 2-3393-2319,
or send mail to the Ministry of Education.
Mailing address: No.5, Zhongshan S. Rd., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City 100217, Taiwan (R.O.C.).