The Calligrapher — Wáng Zhì 王志

Southern Qi calligrapher of running script, author of the Throat-Pain Letter (Houtong tie).

南朝齐 calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《喉痛帖》. Southern Qi dynasty (Southern Dynasties)

Cultural Story

The old scripts used gai in the sense of 'to comprise, to be due', the word that gathered and bound, as in the phrase 'gai bian tian xia,' embracing all under heaven. Only later did it settle into the everyday ying gai, 'should', the mild obligation of modern speech. The character joins words to a tally; to gai was once the inclusive reckoning, the account that held everything in. It is the word that learned to shrink from cosmos to courtesy.

Common words & phrases

• 应该 should · ought to
• 该死 damn
• 该当 should · deserve
• 活该 serves right
• 该地 that place

Read the story behind the character

A rule says you ying gai, should, wear the badge; a driver mutters gai si, damn, at the delay; a contract states what gai dang, is due; a loser earns huo gai, serves right; a map marks gai di, that place. The character runs from the scolding to the shrug, every degree of what is owed or deserved. It names the soft grammar of expectation, the quiet arithmetic of ought, from the cosmic 'all' it once meant to the small 'should' we use all day.