The Calligrapher — Wáng Xiànzhī 王献之

Son of Wang Xizhi and pioneer of wild cursive who pushed brush freedom further.

Eastern Jin calligrapher (344–386), master of running script/cursive script — seventh son of Wang Xizhi who broke his father's rules for a more fluent, emotional running script; together they are 'the Two Wangs'. Eastern Jin dynasty

Etymology & Meaning · 字义溯源

2 · The Character: 吾 Wú (2nd tone). The Shuowen Jiezi is terse: 「吾，我自称也。从口五声」 — 'the way one names oneself', a mouth (口) with 五 for sound. 《尔雅·释诛》 agrees: 「吾，我也」. It is the pronoun of the classical self, and the sentences it carries are the ones China memorised: 《论语·学而》 「吾日三省吾身」 — 'daily I examine myself on three counts'; 《论语·里仁》 「吾道一以贯之」; 《楚辞·离骚》 「吾令羲和弥节兵」, where Qu Yuan commands the sun-charioteer. Zhu Xi's note to 《楚辞·九章》 even distinguishes register: 「余平而吾倮」 — 余 is level, 吾 stands taller. Honest disclosure: 吾 is literary and archaic. Modern Chinese says 我; a solo 吾 reads as 'I' in classical costume, which without a predicate says very little. It is safe but semantically thin alone — pair it (吾心, 吾道, 三省吾身) so the sentence finishes.

Cultural Story

吾 is a classical first-person pronoun—"I," "my," "we"—used by Confucius and 莊子 with easy grace; 論語 has the master say 吾日三省吾身, "I examine myself thrice daily." It yields 吾辈 (we/us) and 吾国 (our country) in later prose, while 支吾 means to hem and haw, evading with the mouth. The character is the scholar's "I," intimate yet dignified across two millennia of Chinese letters and speech.

Common words & phrases

• 吾辈 we · us
• 吾人 we · our
• 吾国 our country
• 支吾 to hem and haw · to evade

Read the story behind the character

Patriotic essays still invoke 吾国 (our country) with pride, and a writer addresses 吾辈 (we/us) as a generation with a mission. A nervous witness 支吾 (hems and haws/evades) when questioned, unable to give a straight answer. Though 吾 sounds bookish today, it surfaces in speeches, slogans, and period dramas—the elegant "we" and "I" of a China that remembers its own voice across the centuries of change.