Eight Principles of Yong

The Eight Principles of Yong are used by calligraphers to practice how to write the eight most common strokes in regular script, using the fact that they are all present in the character. It was believed that the frequent practice of these principles as such when beginning one's study could ensure beauty in the Chinese calligrapher's writing.

The Eight Principles are influenced by the Eastern Jin-era Seven Powers by Lady Wei Shuo. Publications on the principles include:
 * The Tang-era Praise to the Eight Principles of "Yong" by Liu Zongyuan
 * The Tang-era Praise to the Eight Principles of "Yong" by Yan Zhenqing
 * The Yuan-era Eight Ways to Explain "Yong" by Li Puguang, which provides two-character metaphorical names

CJK strokes
In addition to these eight common strokes in, there are at least two dozen strokes of combinations which enter in the composition of CJK strokes and by inclusion the CJK characters themselves. Many are included in Unicode.