The Calligrapher — Yú Shìnán 虞世南

Tang court calligrapher revered for refined, restrained regular script.

Tang calligrapher (558–638), master of regular script — Tang master of quiet, inward regular script and teacher to the imperial academy. Tang dynasty

Etymology & Meaning · 字义溯源

### Soundliǎng — liǎng (3rd tone). Free-standing morpheme ### Original meaningLiǎng (3rd tone). The Shuowen Jiezi defines it as 「二十四銖爲一兩。从一；㒳，平分，亦聲」 — 'twenty-four zhu make one liang': built from 一 with 㒳, 'to divide evenly', which also supplies the sound. So the headword is not the number two at all but a weight, and Duan Yucai explains the arithmetic carefully: 「《禾部》曰：十二粟爲一分，十二分爲一銖……兩之爲兩，二十四銖爲兩」 — twelve grains make a scruple, twelve scruples a zhu, twenty-four zhu a liang, which is why the Qin-Han half-tael coin carried the legend 半兩. From there the word generalised into pairing, and that is where the classics use it: 《易·繫辭》「兼三才而兩之」 (take the three powers together and double them), 《周禮·天官·大宰》「以九兩繫邦國之民」 with its comment 「兩猶耦也，所以協耦萬民，聯繫不散」 (to bind the people together in pairs), and 《詩·召南》「百兩御之」 — a hundred carts, since a cart counts by wheels. The 《說卦》 line 「參天兩地而倚數」 (heaven takes three, earth takes two) is the reason 兩 sits at the bottom of Chinese cosmology: the Two Modes from which the rest unfolds. Its famous line is 《荀子·勸學》「目不能兩視而明，耳不能兩聽而聰」 — the eye cannot see two things clearly at once. ### The structure (會意兼形聲 · 从一，从㒳（㒳，平分也，亦聲） — the top stroke with the divided pair beneath; 'one' over what is shared out equally)①一yīonethe single standard above the division②㒳liǎngto divide evenlythe pair made equal; also the sound③兩liǎngone taelthe Shuowen headword — a weight before it was a number④耦ǒua paired yoke《周禮》's gloss: 兩猶耦也 — things bound two by two so they do not drift apart ### In use todayItemReading / meaningNoteReadingliǎng (3rd tone)single syllableCore sensetwo; a pair; the taelShuowen root is the weightGrammarnumeral / measure兩個人 · 兩扇門 · 兩全其美 · 半兩錢Tattoo fitcaution — a number, not a virtueuse 衡 or 平 if what you mean is balance ### Closest words in English — and what each misses - Balance — 衡/平 hold the level and the scales; 兩 is simply what is being weighed - Duality / Yin-yang — the philosophical pairing is 兩儀 or 陰陽; the plain numeral carries no cosmology on its own - Together — 共/合 hold joining; 兩 only notes that there are two - Double / Twice — 倍 holds multiplication; 兩 states a number and leaves the arithmetic to youAn honest note on grammar. Free morpheme but grammatical rather than poetic: the numeral 'two' used before measure words and with paired objects (兩個人, 兩扇門); also the tael, a unit of weight; also 'both' (兩全, 兩難).Where a Western reader can stand: 兩 (liǎng) means 'two', 'a pair', 'both' — and originally something more concrete, a weight: the Shuowen says twenty-four zhu make one liang, which is why the old coin was called 半兩, 'half

Cultural Story

The old weight 兩 balanced a string of coins; twenty-four grains of millet made one. The form showed a pair of measures. The Tribute of Yu tallied tribute by 兩. In the chronicles, 兩岸 named both banks of a river where two armies faced each other across the water, neither crossing.

Where a Western reader can stand: 兩 (liǎng) means 'two', 'a pair', 'both' — and originally a weight: the Shuowen says twenty-four zhu make one liang, which is why an old coin was called 半兩, 'half a tael'. The classical uses are about coupling: binding people in pairs so they do not scatter, taking the three powers and doubling them. The practical moral is from 《荀子》: the eye cannot hold two sights clearly at once. Honest note: if what you want is 'balance', the Chinese words are 衡 and 平, not 兩.

Common words & phrases

• 兩個 two
• 兩邊 both sides
• 兩岸 both banks · both sides
• 斤兩 weight
• 車兩 carriage

Read the story behind the character

A shopper buys 兩個 apples by weight; a sign reads 兩邊 exit, both sides open. The strait is called 兩岸, the two shores. A 車兩 — an old carriage — appears in the museum case, its two wheels lifted on a stand. The scale still clicks in 兩 for the elderly who trust the unit.