The Calligrapher — Cài Xiāng 蔡襄

One of the Four Song masters, known for graceful regular and running script.

Song calligrapher (1012–1067), master of regular script/running script — Song master of warm, disciplined regular script, the most 'proper' of the Song Four. Song dynasty

Cultural Story

楮 is the paper mulberry, and the Shuowen names it a tree (榖) whose bark made the finest paper. Because 楮 bark fed the mill, the word itself became a polite term for paper, and 楮币 were the Song dynasty's paper notes - the world's early paper money. 楮墨, 'paper and ink,' stood for writing itself. So a humble tree gave its name to the surface of Chinese literature and to money that travelled lighter than coin.

Common words & phrases

• 楮币 paper money (old)
• 楮墨 paper and ink (writing)

Read the story behind the character

A calligrapher speaks of 楮墨, paper and ink, as the tools of his art, and history class mentions 楮币, the Song paper currency, as an early banknote. Scholars note that the 楮 tree's bark still makes archival paper. Though we print on wood pulp now, the 楮 endures as the antique word for paper and for the written word itself - the tree that quietly carried China's poems and its money.

Why this character belongs on skin

Before this tree, memory died with its speaker; after it, memory lived on paper. 楮 is the paper mulberry, whose bark the Chinese beat, soak, and lift into sheets—the tree that became documents, poetry, imperial edicts, love letters, the entire paper civilization. So complete was the transformation that 楮 itself came to mean paper, and poets referred to money and manuscripts alike by its name. There is transubstantiation in that: bark into scripture, a swamp tree into the Diamond Sutra and the tax rolls and a child's first drawn horse. The tree is patient and unlovely and its gift is permanent. You, too, have taken what was rough and fibrous in your life and made it into something that carries meaning forward. Let this ink mark that alchemy—the conversion of the ordinary into the lasting, which is the oldest miracle still performed by human hands.