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

群 counts what gathers: sheep first, then people, birds, and islands. The 易经 sorts the world by it — 物以群分, things part into flocks — while the 论语 draws the gentleman's line: 群而不党, he mingles with all yet factions with none. To belong to a group and stay unbought was the classical balancing act.

Common words & phrases

• 群众 masses · the public
• 群体 group
• 人群 crowd
• 群岛 archipelago
• 合群 sociable

Read the story behind the character

The group chat is the new flock: the 微信群 for the apartment building, the carpool 群 for commuters, homework groups pinging past midnight. You push through 人群 (crowd) at the subway exit, vacation among 群岛 (archipelago) reefs, and worry the new kid is 不合群 (not sociable) — though introverts would call it peace.