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

繇 lives two lives. In the Changes, 繇辞 are the adjudicating words of the hexagram lines — cast the yarrow stalks, read the 繇 aloud. As labor it wrote 繇役, the corvée drafts that built walls and roads. And as a surname it belongs to the calligrapher Zhong Yao, whose brush shaped regular script's childhood.

Common words & phrases

• 繇辞 oracle text · divination words
• 繇役 corvee labor

Read the story behind the character

繇 is strictly literary now: I Ching study groups recite 繇辞, Qin-Han historians cite 繇役 in corvée records, and calligraphy students copy 钟繇, the Wei master whose work anchors every serious copybook. In daily life almost nobody writes it — which is exactly why dictionaries guard it so carefully.