<p>According to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_order" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia article on stroke order</a> there is disagreement as you have already mentioned.</p>

<p>Wikipedia sites the following text: </p>

<p><a href="http://www.yys.ac.cn/gfbz/scanning/bsgf/bsgf.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">现代汉语通用字笔顺规范 (PRC-China modern Chinese commonly used characters standard stroke orders), Beijing: 语文出版社 (Language and Literature Press), 1997, pp. 453, ISBN 7801262018, retrieved 2010-09-02 (Authoritative)</a></p>

<p>As the authoritative reference for the PRC.</p>

<p>An example of the radical you have above is listed on the second page and is written as left dot, right dot, middle stroke.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/xjSjh.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T04:52:46.517Z
hmm... I'm not seeing any mention of a disagreement on Wikipedia's page. It's written that some people forget the correct stroke order but it doesn't mean there's no correct stroke order. You're right that 现代汉语通用字笔顺规范 is most likely the reference although it's quite old, so I was hoping a more up to date one would be available.
laurent
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T04:56:46.267Z
@Laurent - As per my suggestion above I would suggest the most authoritative would be a Chinese school child's text book (likely looking at year 1).
going
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T03:17:29.030Z
2011-12-14T03:17:29.030Z
going
<p>&quot; 现代汉语通用字笔顺规范 (PRC-China modern Chinese commonly used characters standard stroke orders), Beijing: 语文出版社 (Language and Literature Press), 1997, pp. 453, ISBN 7801262018, retrieved 2010-09-02 (Authoritative) &quot;</p>
<p>is a pdf file which has been scanned, and doesn't allow a search in 458 pages...</p>
<p>There is a new file ( the GF 0023-2020 released in 2020 ) here : <a href="http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_sjzl/ziliao/A19/202103/W020210318300204215237.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_sjzl/ziliao/A19/202103/W020210318300204215237.pdf</a>  more useful</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-09-11T15:44:19.650Z
2021-09-11T15:44:19.650Z
faure
<p>You can reference <a href="http://www.yys.ac.cn/gfbz/scanning/bsgf/bsgf.htm" rel="nofollow">《现代汉语通用字笔顺规范》</a> published by the Ministry of Education of PRC, which includes the stroke order of over 7000 daily used simplified Chinese characters.</p>

<p>If you want to find some traditional Chinese stroke order resources, check <a href="http://stroke-order.learningweb.moe.edu.tw/home.do?rd=66" rel="nofollow">this</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-10T14:41:00.423Z
Does that first link still work?
Tsundoku
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T03:57:14.483Z
I heard about this book before but it's 15 years old. Sometime I show stroke orders from this book to Chinese people and they told me they learn something different at school. Is this book still current or is there a more recent edition (can't seem to find any)? Thanks for the traditional Chinese reference, I'll have a look.
laurent
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T04:05:53.143Z
I check MoE's publish, there is no newer version. For most ( actually only few argument like you mentioned ) condition, this book is not OLD. But I suggest you read traditional chinese's as a reference. In the part you are interest, SC & TC are the same.
Alex Chen
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T04:44:11.860Z
@Laurent - Something like stroke order you could find from a current Chinese child's school book, but people are still going to disagree with you. I promise you, even if you find a book autographed by the Chinese gov. people are still going to disagree with you, not sure how this is going to help? As mentioned in my answer, even Wikipedia acknowledges there are disagreements.
going
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T04:49:53.220Z
@xiaohouzi79 is right, standard chinese characters [Kai](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script) is very different with hand writing chinese characters like [Cao](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive_script_(East_Asia)) for writing convenience reason.
Alex Chen
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-14T03:00:41.677Z
2011-12-14T19:54:23.100Z
2011-12-14T19:54:23.100Z
Alex Chen
<p>It seems various people often have various ways to write the same characters. For instance, I have seen the radical "忄" being written in three different ways (left, middle, right; left, right, middle; and middle, left, right) which is a lot for such a small radical. Chinese teachers sometime don't even agree on what should be the correct stroke order.</p>

<p>So is there any authoritative source on what the correct stroke order for a character should be? Perhaps some book published by the government?</p>

<characters><stroke-order>
Is there an authoritative reference for the stroke order of simplifed characters?
# Is there an authoritative reference for the stroke order of simplifed characters?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2011-12-14)

It seems various people often have various ways to write the same characters. For instance, I have seen the radical "忄" being written in three different ways (left, middle, right; left, right, middle; and middle, left, right) which is a lot for such a small radical. Chinese teachers sometime don't even agree on what should be the correct stroke order.

So is there any authoritative source on what the correct stroke order for a character should be? Perhaps some book published by the government?

**Tags:** characters, stroke-order

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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2011-12-14. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

You can reference [《现代汉语通用字笔顺规范》](http://www.yys.ac.cn/gfbz/scanning/bsgf/bsgf.htm) published by the Ministry of Education of PRC, which includes the stroke order of over 7000 daily used simplified Chinese characters.

If you want to find some traditional Chinese stroke order resources, check [this](http://stroke-order.learningweb.moe.edu.tw/home.do?rd=66)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I heard about this book before but it's 15 years old. Sometime I show stroke orders from this book to Chinese people and they told me they learn something different at school. Is this book still current or is there a more recent edition (can't seem to find any)? Thanks for the traditional Chinese reference, I'll have a look.  
> **username_3**: I check MoE's publish, there is no newer version. For most ( actually only few argument like you mentioned ) condition, this book is not OLD. But I suggest you read traditional chinese's as a reference. In the part you are interest, SC & TC are the same.  
> **username_1**: @Laurent - Something like stroke order you could find from a current Chinese child's school book, but people are still going to disagree with you. I promise you, even if you find a book autographed by the Chinese gov. people are still going to disagree with you, not sure how this is going to help? As mentioned in my answer, even Wikipedia acknowledges there are disagreements.  
> **username_3**: @xiaohouzi79 is right, standard chinese characters [Kai](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script) is very different with hand writing chinese characters like [Cao](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive_script_(East_Asia)) for writing convenience reason.  
> **username_4**: Does that first link still work?  

---

### Answer by username_1 on 2011-12-14. Score: 1

According to the [Wikipedia article on stroke order](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_order) there is disagreement as you have already mentioned.

Wikipedia sites the following text:

[现代汉语通用字笔顺规范 (PRC-China modern Chinese commonly used characters standard stroke orders), Beijing: 语文出版社 (Language and Literature Press), 1997, pp. 453, ISBN 7801262018, retrieved 2010-09-02 (Authoritative)](http://www.yys.ac.cn/gfbz/scanning/bsgf/bsgf.htm)

As the authoritative reference for the PRC.

An example of the radical you have above is listed on the second page and is written as left dot, right dot, middle stroke.

![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/xjSjh.jpg)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: hmm... I'm not seeing any mention of a disagreement on Wikipedia's page. It's written that some people forget the correct stroke order but it doesn't mean there's no correct stroke order. You're right that 现代汉语通用字笔顺规范 is most likely the reference although it's quite old, so I was hoping a more up to date one would be available.  
> **username_1**: @Laurent - As per my suggestion above I would suggest the most authoritative would be a Chinese school child's text book (likely looking at year 1).  

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### Answer by username_2 on 2021-09-11. Score: 0

" 现代汉语通用字笔顺规范 (PRC-China modern Chinese commonly used characters standard stroke orders), Beijing: 语文出版社 (Language and Literature Press), 1997, pp. 453, ISBN 7801262018, retrieved 2010-09-02 (Authoritative) "

is a pdf file which has been scanned, and doesn't allow a search in 458 pages...

There is a new file ( the GF 0023-2020 released in 2020 ) here : <http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_sjzl/ziliao/A19/202103/W020210318300204215237.pdf> more useful


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