The Calligrapher — Zhū Xī 朱熹
Song neo-Confucian sage whose running script conveys calm authority.
Song calligrapher (), master of running script/regular script — known for 《城南唱和诗》. Song dynasty
Cultural Story
翦 is the ancestor of 剪 — a hand shearing — and early texts write of shearing hair as punishment and of 翦裁, cutting cloth to pattern for court robes. The Lu ode declares that King Wu began to cut down Shang, 实始翦商, and historians ever since used 翦灭 for a dynasty's rivals being lopped off like branches from a tree.
Common words & phrases
- 翦灭 exterminate · wipe out
- 翦除 wipe out · eliminate · cut off
- 翦裁 cut and trim · tailor
Read the story behind the character
The old axe-fall survives in formal prose. A news item may report police 翦除 (wipe out, eliminate, cut off) a fraud ring; a business column warns an incumbent of startups eager to 翦灭 (exterminate, wipe out) its market share. Tailors still 翦裁 (cut and trim, tailor) cloth by chalk line in old shopfronts, and students meeting the character in classical excerpts learn that scissors and statecraft once shared one blade.
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