The Calligrapher — Yǔ Jiānwú 庾肩吾

Liang scholar-critic who authored Shupin, the first systematic graded ranking of calligraphers.

南朝梁 calligrapher (), master of regular script — known for 《书品》. Liang dynasty (Southern Dynasties)

Cultural Story

In 'Dream of the Red Chamber' the Jia household 雇佣 a small army of servants, cooks, and gatekeepers, each bound by wage and rank within the compound's walls. A 雇主 held real power over a 雇员's daily life, and a dispute over pay could end in dismissal or a beating. The novel's quietest cruelties often turn on who is hired, who is let go, and who is never paid what was promised.

Common words & phrases

• 雇佣 employ · hire
• 雇主 employer
• 雇员 employee
• 雇用 hire · employ
• 雇工 hired hand · employee

Read the story behind the character

A restaurant owner interviews a 雇员 for the evening shift, signing the 雇佣 contract that lists wages and duties in plain print. The 雇主 explains the tip pool while a 雇工 stacks chairs for the dinner rush. At the agency window another applicant waits, one of dozens the company 雇 each season to cover the holiday crowd.

Why this character belongs on skin

雇 has a humble origin with a surprising body: its oldest form was a bird, the “nine-fold” 鸠, a crop-guarding dove said by the ancients to be hired each spring to chase sparrows from the grain. Farmsteads paid in cloth or grain; the bird, it was said, was paid in worms. From that seasonal bargain the character came to mean all hiring — to engage, to employ, to enlist a pair of hands — and its work radical still holds the bird inside it. Strip the economics and something older remains: no one does anything alone. Every harvest, every voyage, every enterprise is a web of small contracts, people agreeing to carry part of another person's weight for a fair return. Confucius would add the invisible clause — that any contract is also a trust. To wear 雇 is to accept interdependence without embarrassment: to ask well, to pay honestly, to owe and be owed.