It is said that Calligraphy Sage Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420) spent several years to practice writing the character yong ( , it means eternal). In his view, this character embodied eight writing ways of Kai calligraphy (regular script), which are called Eight Strokes in the Character Yong, and if one could write the character well, he/she could write any other character well. Later, Wang Xizhi's grandson Zhi Yong imparted the Eight Strokes in the Character Yong to Yu Shinan and then the technique was handed down with efforts of many calligraphers.

The Chinese character yong is made up of a dot stroke, a horizontal stroke, a vertical stroke, a left-falling stroke, a right-falling stroke, a rising stroke, a turning stroke and a hook stoke. When these eight strokes are combined to form characters, there necessarily is partial likeness between different works.

In writing Chinese characters there are eight basic ways of moving the pen, called strokes. Many words all have common word components, which are called radicals. Some of these components or radicals are themselves independent characters while others are not. But one and all they can be so combined as to form Chinese characters. There are top and bottom components too.

The structure and form of Chinese characters are based on the different movements involved in the eight basic strokes of calligraphy, exemplified by the character yong. The introduction is like the first downward stroke: an opening note in forte with a succession of portamenti, strumming and vibratos are followed by quickening sixteenth notes that build to a crescendo. This sustained crescendo comes to a dramatic halt, as when the flowing energy of the brush is suddenly withdrawn.