The Calligrapher — Lǐ Sī 李斯

Qin chancellor who standardized the small-seal script for China's first empire.

Qin calligrapher (约前284–前208), master of small seal script — Qin chancellor who standardized the small-seal script for the first empire. Qin dynasty

Cultural Story

A long stride with intent is 迈, the step that covers ground with purpose. To 迈进 is to stride forward; to 迈步 to take the first step of a journey. 豪迈 is the bold stride of a hero; 年迈 the slowed step of one who has walked too many years to hurry now. The word is motion with a bearing — the foot lifting not in haste but in purpose, toward something worth the distance to go.

Common words & phrases

• 迈进 stride forward
• 迈步 step · stride
• 迈开 stride
• 豪迈 heroic · bold
• 年迈 aged

Read the story behind the character

A marching band 迈进 down the street and a graduate 迈步 onto the stage to collect the diploma. The 年迈 neighbor 迈开 the gate with a stick, and a slogan urges the firm to 豪迈 its expansion abroad. The character that measured a hero's stride now measures a ceremony's and an old man's alike — the same lifting foot, whether it crosses a stage or merely reaches the garden gate by noon.

Why this character belongs on skin

One foot before the other, and the world moves — 迈 is the stride, the step taken deliberately into what's next. It also names the years as they pile on, the advanced age no one wants to name. But there is no shame in the long stride; the old man who still walks out the door at dawn is 迈 in his bones. To carry it is to refuse the chair, the excuse, the slow surrender. Forward is a verb you keep conjugating. Some marks mourn. This one marches. It is ink for the one who has walked through worse and kept walking, who measures a life not in years survived but in ground covered, who intends to die mid-stride, facing the way he was headed.