Sanshiliu fa 三十六法

Shufa 書法, also called Sanshiliu fa 三十六法 or Ouyang jieti sanshiliu fa 歐陽結體三十六法 is an overview of 36 structural types of Chinese characters. It was compiled during the early Tang period 唐 (618-907) by Ouyang Xun 歐陽詢 (557–641). The text names the types, describes them, identifies methods to write them correctly, and presents examples.

Table 1. The Thirty-Six Rules of calligraphy according to Ouyang Xun

1	排疊 paidie	layers	壽, 藁, 系, 言
2	避就 bijiu	balancing of density, distance and directions	廬, 府, 逢
3	頂戴 dingdai	tops or crowns	疊, 鸞, 聲
4	穿插 chuancha	penetration	中, 禹, 襄, 無
5	向背 xiangbei	back-to-back	非, 卯
6	偏側 piance	inclination or asymmetry	心, 幾 (right); 久, 少 (left); 亥, 不 (straight)
7	挑 {扌窕} tiaotiao	one-sided weight is supported from the other side	戈, 氣, 獻, 斷, 省, 炙
8	相讓 xiangrang	mutual symmetrical yielding in case of unbalanced stroke density	馬, 系, 䜌, 辦, 鷗, 鳴, 呼, 和, 扣
9	補空 bukong	filling space in corners	我, 襲, 贛
10	覆蓋 fugai	flat covers	寳
11	貼零 tieling	attaching down-flows	令
12	粘合 nianhe	open parts stick together	卧, 門
13	捷速 jiesu	velocity in downward strokes	風
14	滿下 manxia	filling towards the lower parts	園, 勾
15	意連 yilian	mental union of graphical cuts	之, 求
16	覆冒 fumao	large heads	雲, 穴, 奢, 泰
17	垂曳 chuiye	hanging parts and long trails	都; 水, 欠, 也
18	借換 jiehuan	inversions when character parts are difficult to link	秘 > liaison of the dots of 示 and 必 ; 鵝 > 鵞, 䳘
19	增減 zengjian	increase and simplification of complexity	新 > ; 建 > 建[= 䢖?]; 曹 > 曺
20	應副 yingfu	harmonious integration of parts with fewer strokes	龍, 轉
21	撑拄 chengzhu	strengthening of characters with few strokes	可, 弓
22	朝揖 chaoyi	mutual yielding of components in bi- or tripartite characters	謝, 儲; 讐, 斑
23	救應 jiuying	aiming at correspondence in the strokes that will be written next
24	附麗 fuli	beauty in closeness	形, 勉
25	回抱 huibao	comprehensive enclosure from the left or from the right	曷, 丐; 艮, 包
26	包裹 baoguo	enclosure from both, three or all four sides	園, 尚, 幽, 匡, 旬
27	郤好 xihao	the nature of each component in enclosed characters must be retained
28	小成大	downsizing and magnification of components according to need	冂, 辶, 乀
29	小大成形	small and large characters fill out space
30	小大，大小	yet without giving up their natural appearance	日<> 國
31	左小右大	many characters consist of a smaller component on the left, and a larger one to the right
32	左高右低，左短右長	many characters consist of a taller component on the left and a smaller one to the right, and vice versa – all these phenomena have to be avoided
33	褊	compactness is required
34	各自成形	characters shall be unified in their overall shape, but divided into distinct parts
35	相管領	Components of a character shall look at and respond to each other without losing their positions. The upper part should cover the lower part, and the lower part should support the upper part; the same applies to the left and right sides.
36	應接 yingjie	Dots and strokes shall respond to each other and form coherent units	小, 忄; the dots in 糹and 然

The text is found in the series Xu baichuan xuehai 續百川學海, Shuofu 説郛 (Wanwei Shantang 宛委山堂 edition), Tangren shuohui 唐人説薈 and Lidai shufa lunwen xuan 歷代書法論文選.