3. Structures of Chinese Characters
Each Chinese character occupies a square of space.
Different structures can be used to combine character components inside the square of space to form a Chinese character. Some common structures are listed below.
Structure
Example
1
Whole
2
Left Right
3
Top Bottom
4
Left Center Right
5
Top Center Bottom
6
Top-Left Enclosed
7
Top-Right Enclosed
8
Bottom-Left Enclosed
9
Top-Left-Bottom Enclosed
10
Left-Top-Right Enclosed
11
Left-Bottom-Right Enclosed
12
Fully Enclosed
The structures above can be further combined to form more complex characters. For example, the character 時 has a left right structure.
If we break down the character, we can see that the right component 寺 has a top bottom structure on its own.
