The Calligrapher — Kǒng Línzhī 孔琳之

Liu Song calligrapher famed with Yang Xin as 'Yang-true, Kong-grass'; master of cursive script

南朝宋 calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《日月帖》. Liu Song dynasty (Southern Dynasties)

Cultural Story

麼 is the little tail added to questions and demonstratives, a late, spoken character with no seat in the 說文. It rode in on the colloquial tide that gave Chinese its flexible questions. 什麼, 怎麼, 這麼, the tongue needed a word to soften a statement into a question or a point into a degree, and 么 became that soft tail, the feather on the end of a sentence.

Common words & phrases

• 什么 what · something
• 怎么 how · why
• 这么 so · such · like this
• 那么 then · so · like that
• 多么 how (exclamatory)

Read the story behind the character

什么 is the first word a learner shouts, 这是什么. 怎么 is the daily why and how; 这么 and 那么 frame every comparison. 多么 carries the feeling, 多美啊. The character is pure function, a suffix with no meaning alone, but it turns statements into questions and flat facts into emphasis. You use it dozens of times a day without once thinking it began as a spoken afterthought.