匱
surname Kui; to lack; lacking; empty; exhausted
Closest English meanings
deficient·lacking
The Calligrapher — Chǔ Suíliáng 褚遂良
Tang chancellor and regular-script master of elegant, balanced strokes.
Tang calligrapher (596–658), master of regular script — Tang master of graceful, tensile regular script favored by the imperial court. Tang dynasty
Cultural Story
The Han kept its laws in a 匡金石室 — a golden-cabinet and stone-chamber archive meant to outlast fire and theft; 匡 was the chest itself, not yet the want. 匪乏 came later, when the same box stood empty. The word carried safekeeping before it carried lack, a cabinet's two fates.
Common words & phrases
- 匮乏 short · lacking
- 匮缺 deficient
- 穷匮 impoverished
Read the story behind the character
A museum logs a 匡 from a tomb; 匪缺 of parts slows the assembly line, and 穷匡 the rural clinic's drug shelf. The traditional form now mostly appears on old ledgers and carved chests, while the simplified 匪 runs the aid report. Either way the word counts what is missing.
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