The Structure of Characters — Skeleton
Understand the structure of Chinese characters and how to practice calligraphy with tools.
Structure of Chinese Characters
Chinese characters appear as squares. Each character can be fit into a grid.
Each Chinese character follows either the “solo form” or the “combo form”.
The strokes of solo-form characters are combined into an integral character, such as human （人）, middle（中）, square（正）, female（女）, wood（木）, day（日）, etc.
Combo-form characters are composed of multiple solo-form characters, including the following combinations:
The strokes of solo-form characters are combined into an integral character, such as human
Combo-form characters are composed of multiple solo-form characters, including the following combinations:
Learn more about the combinations
Examples
Left-right combinations
Up-down combination
Triple combination
Envelop combination
Compound combination
