The Calligrapher — Sū Shì 苏轼

Song literatus whose spontaneous running script shaped the literati ideal.

Song calligrapher (1037–1101), master of running script/regular script — Song poet-statesman and polymath whose expressive running script made personality, not rules, the point. Song dynasty

Cultural Story

Mencius pressed King Hui: 'who can unify the realm?' — 孰能一之 — and answered, the ruler who spares life. The 'Analects' asks 孰为夫子, which is the master? The graph set a board with cooked grain, 'what is done,' and turned into the question word who or which in debate.

Common words & phrases

• 孰与 which is
• 孰若 which is better
• 孰知 who knows
• 孰能 who can

Read the story behind the character

Editorials still reach for 孰能 when asking who can save a failing firm, and 孰知 opens reflective essays on loss. The word is rare in speech, surviving in rhetorical questions and translated quotations, a classical hinge that lets a writer sound both ancient and certain.