Mi Zi Ge (米字格) Chinese practice paper

Character squares divided eight ways — a cross plus both diagonals — giving twice the reference points of Tian Zi Ge.

Open in the generator →

Opens with these settings already loaded. Change anything you like, then download as PDF, PNG or SVG.

Eight sections instead of four

Mi Zi Ge (米字格) takes its name from 米, "rice", whose form the eight radiating lines resemble. The added diagonals give reference points for strokes that run corner to corner, which Tian Zi Ge cannot help with — and a great many strokes in Chinese characters do exactly that.

Who benefits from it

Beginners struggling to place strokes proportionally, and calligraphy students working on classical forms, gain the most. Once proportion is instinctive the extra lines become clutter and most people move back to Tian Zi Ge, or to plain squares. It is a scaffold, not a permanent home.

Larger squares for brush work

For pen practice, 12–20 mm is standard. For brush calligraphy, go much larger — 40 to 80 mm — since brush characters need room for the stroke to open and taper. At those sizes fewer squares fit on a sheet, but each one is a full exercise.

Printing it accurately

This only measures correctly if your printer doesn't rescale the page. In the print dialog set Scale: 100% — not "Fit to page" or "Shrink oversized pages". If you're not sure it worked, print the calibration page, measure the ruler on it with a real ruler, and it will tell you exactly what your printer is doing to the page.