The character used to demonstrate the eight basic strokes of Chinese calligraphy is Yong, written 永.
The character means “forever,” “permanence,” or “eternity,” and its Chinese pronunciation is yǒng. In the traditional Eight Principles of Yong, each part of 永 is used to illustrate a fundamental brush movement, including the dot, horizontal stroke, vertical stroke, hook, rising stroke, bend, left-falling stroke, and right-falling stroke.
This makes 永 more than an ordinary vocabulary character: it is a calligraphic teaching model. Students study it to coordinate brush angle, pressure, direction, turning, and finishing technique. The exercise is particularly associated with regular script, although the principles help develop skills used across Chinese script styles.
Ren, Da, and Zhong are also common Chinese characters, but they do not give their names to this eight-stroke training method. A frequent mix-up is treating “Yong” as an English word rather than a romanization; the important identifying feature is the Chinese character 永.