The next stroke that we will discuss is the hook stroke, called 鉤 (gōu) in Chinese. The hook stroke is not one of the primary 6 strokes. It is the seventh stroke. We will examine it here to makes things simpler, since it commonly is used with some of the primary strokes.
In the previous stroke, the wrist extends the hand straight, such that the hand and fingers are completely parallel with the arm. When the hand and arm are parallel, the hand is simply part of the same stroke. When the hand is parallel with the arm but the fingers are not, the hand forms a different stroke. To form the hook, the wrist extends the right hand parallel with respect to the arm. However, the fingers are not parallel. The 3 bones of the fingers bend 90o with respect to the hand. Furthermore, the outermost 2 bones of the fingers bend another 45o back toward the forearm arm. The fingers of the hand hook back toward the arm.
Since the right arm can have various positions, the hook stroke need not orient vertically.
Note that the hook stroke never appears as a standalone stroke, all by itself, but always appears as an extension of another stroke. Sometimes the hook stroke is a necessary part of the stroke. Other times, it is an optional variation that is not necessarily required.
The previous stroke that we discussed, the vertical stroke, can include the hook.
The following stroke is called 豎鉤 (shùgōu), vertical stroke with a hook. In this stroke, the hook is usually optional.
The character that means eternal (yǒng) contains the hook stroke; it is an extension of the vertical stroke along the midline.
