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

Confucius told his devoted disciple Yan Hui to guard the senses: 'Do not look upon what is not in accordance with ritual.' The phrase fei li wu shi stands at the head of a whole ethics of the eyes. The character shi joins shi, to show, with jian, to see, so that seeing becomes a received instruction. In the court and the Confucian household alike, where you let your gaze rest was a matter of character, not accident.

Common words & phrases

• 电视 television · TV
• 视线 line of sight · view
• 视觉 vision · visual sense
• 重视 value · attach importance · cherish
• 注视 gaze · watch · stare
• 视力 eyesight · vision

Read the story behind the character

At home the dian shi, the television, glows through dinner; a driver keeps his shi xian, his line of sight, on a rain-slick road; a designer tweaks the shi jue, the visual feel, of an app. We zhong shi, attach importance to, a friend's message, zhu shi, gaze at, a sleeping child, and book an eye test to check our shi li, our eyesight. The character threads from ritual restraint to the daily mechanics of simply keeping something in view.

Why this character belongs on skin

The altar radical gives 视 its sacred weight: to look, to see, to regard with intention. The ancients used it for the reverent gaze upon the rites; a general uses it for reading the battlefield; a lover, for the face that undoes him. To 视 is to grant attention, the rarest gift. In a world that scrolls past everything, to truly see is a kind of devotion. To wear 视 is to promise yourself you will keep looking, at the person, the pain, the small miracle. Let it rest above the eye that has learned to notice. The needle meets your gaze; for once, you do not look away — and the mark is the vow that you won't, not for a long while yet.