The Calligrapher — Hé Shàojī 何绍基

Qing master blending stele strength into running script.

Qing calligrapher (), master of running script/regular script — Qing master who wrote cursive with a sideways-held brush, all stele flavor. Qing dynasty

Cultural Story

Yu the Great divided the floodplain into nine provinces, and 兗州 was the low, watery tract along the lower Yellow River, its soil black and cold. The Tribute of Yu lists it planting of mulberries and hemp. Today 兗州 is a rail junction in Shandong where freight lines from north and south cross, a plain town built on silt.

Common words & phrases

• 兖州 Yanzhou (city)

Read the story behind the character

A traveller changes trains at 兗州 station, its platforms busy with coal trucks. The city's name appears on a departing board beside Jinan and Xuzhou. Locals still say 兗州 when giving an address, though the map now marks it a district, its fields given to wheat and the slow smoke of brick kilns.