Help me uncover the Seven Mysteries

November 17, 2005 7:55 AM

Help with basic Chinese calligraphy: I'm typesetting a book for kids that includes the "Seven Mysteries" (the basic strokes of Chinese calligraphy). and I need some help finding the characters in a computer font.

See this page for sample drawings of the Seven Mysteries.
See this page for textual descriptions of the strokes. (Ctrl F for "seven mysteries")

I've been able to find some of them, in the "standard" 'MS Mincho' typeface (strikeout = "found")
1. horizontal line
2. dot
3. sweeping downward stroke
4. vertical line
5a. sharp curve
5b. sharp curve (second style)
6. downward stroke 1
7. downward stroke 2


In the wilder "draft" script (still in 'MS Mincho'), I've found some, but not others:
1. horizontal line
2. dot
3. sweeping downward stroke
4. vertical line
5a. sharp curve
5b. sharp curve (second style)
6. downward stroke 1
7. downward stroke 2

I'd prefer to use the "standard" (not "draft") style, as I have other characters (man, woman, fire, tree, etc.) already in standard style and I'd hate to have to find a "draft" version of them.

I've also found this site to be useful for finding characters, but I can't get it to output the Seven Mysteries' strokes themselves.

Can any of you help me find those characters in a typeface? I've considered having someone draw the characters by hand, but we had that for the initial edition of the book, and I'd rather have the cleaner typeface version this time around.

posted by Alt F4 to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

Response by poster: Here are the characters I have found so far. I don't know Chinese, so I recognize that these might be off.



Stroke#Standard ScriptDraft Script


1一ー


2丶(is this right?)・


3(can't find)ノ


4丨ー (not showing up right in HTML)


5a(can't find)フ


5b乚し


6乀(can't find)


7(can't find)(can't find)


(My table worked in Live Preview; it might not work on posting. Apologies if it doesn't output a correct table.)
posted by Alt F4 at 8:07 AM on November 17, 2005

Best answer: 一 丨 丶 乁 乀 丿 乚 乙 亅

http://dictionary.kaide.net/, click on "Start Chinese English Dictionary" button, and in the new window, click on "Radical Index".
(Not sure this is exactly what you are asking for, but this gets you the unicode at least.)
posted by of strange foe at 8:28 AM on November 17, 2005

Not sure if.
posted by of strange foe at 8:30 AM on November 17, 2005

Best answer: I've no idea about chinese, but I recall from my Japanese lessons and conversations and research about shodo (calligraphy): doesn't the character Ei/Eternity (永) have all the basic strokes?

This page about japanese calligraphy does say so, but talks about eight basic strokes, not seven. Perhaps chinese calligraphy is different. Still, this page on chinese calligraphy also talks about the eight basic strokes. A bonus on that page is that each stroke is illustrated with example characters that contain it, along with the pinyin for each basic stroke, so you should be set :)
posted by splice at 11:08 AM on November 17, 2005