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

斤 is the axe and the weight. The bronze 斤 felled the tree and carved the rite; later it became the catty, half a kilogram on the scale. 斤斤 is to haggle over the trifle — 'particular to the ounce.' The word is the tool that built and the unit that taxed, the chop that clears and the count that clings.

Common words & phrases

• 公斤 kilogram
• 斤两 weight
• 斤斤 particular · petty
• 市斤 catty
• 斤斗 somersault

Read the story behind the character

公斤 is the gym's measure; 市斤 the market's. 斤两 the 'weight' of your argument; 斤斤 the relative who 计较 the bill. 斤斗 the somersault of the acrobat. From the dumpling stand to the scale, 斤 still weighs the food and the pride, the commodity and the petty score kept over it. The axe and the unit, same old word.