The Calligrapher — Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之

The 'Sage of Calligraphy'; his running script has set the standard for 1,700 years.

Eastern Jin calligrapher (303–361), master of running script/cursive script/regular script — the Sage of Calligraphy; his Orchid Pavilion Preface is the most celebrated work in the tradition, and nearly every later master traces lineage to his hand. Eastern Jin dynasty

Cultural Story

Zhuangzi opens his book with the chapter 'Free and Easy Wandering' (逍遥游), where the giant peng bird lifts from the northern sea to ride the winds ten thousand li. The word 遥 — distant, far — sits at the heart of that title, naming the unbounded reach the sage pursues. Later poets kept the character for whatever lay beyond the horizon: 遥望 a far shore, 遥想 a remembered year.

Common words & phrases

• 遥远 distant · far away · remote
• 逍遥 carefree · free and easy · leisurely
• 遥控 remote control · telecontrol
• 遥望 look into the distance · gaze afar
• 遥想 recall from afar · think back
• 遥遥 far away · distant · long

Read the story behind the character

In a dim living room a child points the 遥控 at the television and the channels jump. His grandparents live in a 遥远 province, and each week the family phone bridges the kilometres with a video call. From the balcony he 遥望 the city lights and wonders when he will travel there himself, measuring the distance the small black remote cannot cross.