A Historic Perspective on Hanzi Stroke Order: its Development, Evolution and Importance for Contemporary Research

Abstract

The order or strokes for writing Chinese Hanzi (汉字) characters has a long historical existence. However, research efforts devoted to studying stroke order are limited, leaving limited results and published books on this topic. Available previous research relevant to stroke order only discussed it as a subsidiary of the writing standard for Hanzi characters or only focused on the detailed rules of stroke order. There was little prior research focusing on the origin, development and evolution, as well as the historical and cultural basis of stroke order. Similarly, it is poorly known as to how evolution of Hanzi characters drives the changes of stroke order. Here, I conducted a longitudinal summarization of the development and evolution of stroke order from a historic perspective, since the maturation period of Regular Script for Hanzi characters. I provided historical and cultural underpinnings that influence the development and evolution of stroke orders, offering insights into the research focuses of historical eminent scholars on relevant topics. These results have provided an important historic overview of stroke order. I further discussed the contemporary significance of conducting in-depth and systematic research of Hanzi stroke order for a better understanding of Hanzi characters in forging and influencing Chinese literature and culture.