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

The Rites of Zhou fixed that five families made a 邻 and five 邻 a 里, the village unit where neighbors watched and aided one another under the same wall. The 里 was also the measure of three hundred paces, the length a traveler counted. From those old counts the character kept both the hamlet and the distance, the place one lives and the road one walks.

Common words & phrases

• 里面 inside
• 这里 here
• 哪里 where
• 心里 heart · mind
• 公里 kilometer
• 邻里 neighbors

Read the story behind the character

A road sign posts the next town at twelve 公里, a 邻里 group plans the block festival, and a message asks what is in your 心里 tonight. The 里面 of the drawer holds the keys. The 这里 is where the bus stops. The character now measures a highway and a feeling, the old village unit and the old pace carried into a sign and a quiet question about the heart.