The Calligrapher — Cài Yōng 蔡邕

Han scholar who perfected clerical script and invented flying-white.

Han calligrapher (133–192), master of clerical script/飞白书 — known for 《熹平石经》/ 飞白书. Han dynasty

Etymology & Meaning · 字义溯源

2 · The Character: 升 Shēng (升, pinyin shēng) means 'to rise, to ascend,' and is also a small capacity unit (a 'liter'-like measure). Its oracle form shows a dipper (斗) lifting a measure upward. 《说文》gives the metrological sense '十合也' (ten ge = one sheng) and notes it is 'also like an ascent.' Free-morpheme note: 升 is a common free word (上升, 升职 'promotion', 旭日东升 'the sun rises in the east'). Honest disclosure: it is thoroughly positive — ascent, promotion, dawn — with no shadow. The only care is that 升 (rise) is not 昇 (also rise, sun-radical) nor 陞 (rise in rank, 阜-radical); all three are 'to ascend' but 升 is the everyday form.

Cultural Story

Hexagram 46 of the Yijing is named 升 — “the tree rises from the earth,” and the sage “积小以高大,” building the great from the small. 升 was also the measure, a dou of grain; 升旗 the flag a garrison ran up at dawn. The word is growth and the cup that holds it.

Where a Western reader can stand: Where a Western reader can stand: 升 is 'the ascent' — the Latin ascensus or the Greek anabasis (the upward march). Cai Yong's public career was a climb cut in stone. On skin 升 is one of the safest, brightest Chinese marks: promotion, dawn, the tree pushing through soil (hexagram 46). No misfortune attaches. It reads: 'I rise.'

Common words & phrases

• 上升 rise · go up · ascend
• 升旗 raise a flag · hoist the flag
• 升级 upgrade · promote · level up
• 升学 enter a higher school · advance
• 提升 promote · raise · elevate

Read the story behind the character

A student 升学 to senior high; 上升 is the line a fever chart draws. 升旗 opens the school week, and 升级 the phone a teen begs for. 提升 is the title a review grants, and 升 the level a game ticks with a chime. The word moves from the grain scoop to the promotion.