Page:The Chinese language and how to learn it.djvu/27

Rh The fifth style, Tsʻao tzŭ, or "grass characters," dating from about the same period, is a freer style of the running hand than the foregoing, and is full of abbreviations which render it very difficult even to an educated native. It is still in common use, and is largely employed in Japan and Korea.



The sixth and last class, known as the Sung Tʻi, or style of the Sung Dynasty, is the printed style introduced under the Dynasty whose name it bears. It was adopted in the early part of the tenth century, and since that period it has undergone no material alterations.



A description has been given of the method of looking up characters in a dictionary by counting the number of strokes the character contains, exclusive of the radical. Some knowledge of the mode of writing is necessary for an accurate calculation of the number of strokes. The pencil, it may be well to explain, is held in a vertical position between the thumb on one side and the forefinger and second finger on the other. The following character is said to include the elements of all the strokes required in Chinese writing:&mdash;



Horizontal strokes are drawn before perpendicular ones; central strokes before those on each side; and those on the left before those on the right. A single stroke often takes one, and sometimes two,