The Calligrapher — Kē Jiǔsī 柯九思

Yuan painter-calligrapher renowned for his robust running script.

Yuan calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《老人星赋》. Yuan dynasty

Etymology & Meaning · 字义溯源

2 · The Character: 使 使 (shǐ, 3rd tone) is the character of being sent. The received Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Xuan's 大徐本, 人部) reads 使，伶也。从人吏聲, but Duan Yucai corrects it — 大徐令作伶，誤。令者，發號也 — and the 小徐本 already gives 令也, 'to command.' Palaeographically 史 / 吏 / 事 / 使 are one graph split four ways: pre-Spring-and-Autumn bronzes write 吏 where later texts write 使, and the 人 radical was added in Qin script to tie the word to human affairs. From 'to dispatch' come the envoy (使者), the mission (使命), the ambassador (大使). The Analects gives the classic restraint on power — 節用而愛人，使民以時 (學而), 'be sparing, love the people, and call on them only in season' — and the classic dignity — 使於四方，不辱君命 (子路), 'sent to the four quarters, he does not disgrace his ruler's charge.' Honest disclosure: alone, 使 leans bound and grammatical; modern Chinese mostly meets it as 使用 (to use) or the causative 'to make, to cause.'

Cultural Story

使 is the envoy and the cause. The 史记 sends 使者 along the Silk Road; a king's 使命 is to bear a message of war or peace. The 论语 says rites 使 people orderly. To 使得 a thing happen is to move it from will to fact. A 大使 still represents a state abroad.

Where a Western reader can stand: Where a Western reader can stand: 使 (shǐ) is the verb 'to cause, to make, to send' — the word that turns a wish into an act ('make it so'). It also means 'envoy' and lives in 天使 (heaven-sent, 'angel') and 使命 (a mission, a calling). As a tattoo it is a quiet engine of intention, not a label you are. Ke Jiusi was a 14th-century Yuan court scholar who authenticated the emperor's art collection and painted bamboo by calligraphic method; his neat regular script (after Tang master Ouyang Xun) gives 使 a refined, authoritative look.

Common words & phrases

• 使用 use · employ
• 使者 envoy · messenger
• 使命 mission
• 迫使 force · compel
• 使得 cause · make
• 大使 ambassador

Read the story behind the character

The app 使用 a fingerprint to unlock; an 大使 meets the press. A deadline 迫使 the team to work late, and a note 使得 the plan change. At the desk a 使者 delivers a package. Causing, employing, and representing all pass through this busy official word.