The Calligrapher — Dǒng Qíchāng 董其昌

Late-Ming theorist and running-script master who shaped later taste.

Ming calligrapher (1555–1636), master of running script/regular script — late-Ming connoisseur-critic of understated, misty elegance. Ming dynasty

Cultural Story

爨 is the kitchen stove and the act of cooking, a dense char showing hands, a pot, and fire. Inscriptions record 爨 as the hearth that anchored the home; dividing the 爨 meant dividing the household. Families noted 同居各爨, living together but cooking separately, when brothers grew apart. To keep the 爨 going was to keep the family fed, warm, and whole through winters.

Common words & phrases

• 分爨 separate households · divide cooking
• 爨灶 kitchen stove
• 同居各爨 live together but cook separately

Read the story behind the character

爨 survives in old compounds: the 爨灶 kitchen stove of a village grandmother, and the saying 分爨 when a big family splits into separate kitchens. Historians read 同居各爨 to trace how households broke apart. Though few still cook at a wood 爨, the char remains the image of the hearth itself, where a home's warmth and meals begin.