The Calligrapher — Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之

The 'Sage of Calligraphy'; his running script has set the standard for 1,700 years.

Eastern Jin calligrapher (303–361), master of running script/cursive script/regular script — the Sage of Calligraphy; his Orchid Pavilion Preface is the most celebrated work in the tradition, and nearly every later master traces lineage to his hand. Eastern Jin dynasty

Cultural Story

彼 is the other shore, the there across from here. 詩經 gathers 彼采葛兮, she who picks ferns over there, just out of reach, and 彼岸 is the far bank the 曼珠沙華 blooms on, the world after this one. The character is distance made personal, the not-you that you watch.

Common words & phrases

• 彼此 each other · one another · mutual
• 彼岸 the other shore · paradise · the opposite bank
• 彼时 at that time · then
• 彼处 that place · there

Read the story behind the character

彼此 is the word that ends a thank-you, 彼岸 the opposite bank a ferry crosses, or the afterlife a funeral mentions. The ferns are a text from someone far; the far bank is still death. We name the other shore constantly, and cross to it seldom, which is the old grief exactly.