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

One spring night in Luoyang, Li Bai heard a flute drift from somewhere unseen and asked, shei jia yu di an fei sheng, whose jade flute steals through the dark. The character shei opens the poem like a window, turning a sound into a question of origin and home. Across the tangshi the word keeps that lonely habit of wondering who, among strangers, shares a thought or a grief.

Common words & phrases

• 谁人 who · whom
• 谁家 whose family · who
• 谁料 who would have expected
• 谁边 where · which side

Read the story behind the character

A phone lights up with an unknown caller, and the receiver thinks shei before answering. A child asks shei jia dog barked at the gate, and a friend texts shei liao that the trip would be canceled, who could have guessed. The character shei still opens the everyday gap between a voice and a name, the small puzzle of who stands behind the sound.