Jenna Moran's blog posts on learning Chinese are excellent, and who knows how long the Eos-sama website will be up after all the shenanigans. So, here's an archive.
Oh, sure, the textual version of shì (是) doesn’t really cut it for me, exuberance-wise. It was a rush the first time I recognized it in a font like this, but let’s face it—you can go look at, I don’t know, this page or something, and you’ll see that 是 doesn’t have the sheer visual impact of the calligraphic shì.
Go look!
In the calligraphy, right, it has that little double box above this very even, straight-lines-on-a-grid T/F shape with this sweeping lambda of a thing beneath it. Doesn’t it make a perfect blend of symbolic, angular, and flowing? Like it’s a bento box made out of word? Like it’s a love letter from some ancient Chinese letter-maker, straight to you?
It does. It is.
I now know that that double box is the sun, so some of my innocence has been lost. To—
Huh, “To” looks a bit like bù (不) now.
Anyway!
I now know that the box is the sun, so some of my innocence is lost. To see the calligraphic shì is now to see the sun rising above a road sign. Up ahead the road we’re on merges into another road that meets it at an angle. It’s like we’re returning to the river of all life, rather than opening up a bento box—
It’s still pretty darn exuberant, though.
So, shì means “to be;” also “yes, right.” I am a little confused about the “yes” thing because everyone in my experience uses duì (对) for yes, but I think we all know a little something about “to be” from Shakespeare’s classic 是不是 (transliterated from the original Klingon.)
So, exist! Do it! Be! You know you want to. There are fictional and even intertextual children in China who could only dream of having such a superfluity of existence as you. And shì (是) would like, I think, for you to be, as well.
Deep contemplation of the letter “shì (是)” and the expenditure of Domain Miracle Points may yield instruction on the following miracles:
Existence-Ofuda (4 DMP)
You create an ofuda that you could attach to a nonexistent thing, if only you had some way of doing so, to give that thing a temporary power of existence. The more strongly the ofuda and specifically the letter “shì (是)” that you’ve written on it exists, the longer this power lasts. By default, when reified in this fashion:
expectations last for three hours;
hypotheses endure for thirty minutes;
postulates exist for ten minutes;
fictions exist for three;
fantasies remain real for up to thirty seconds; and
the chimera of a diseased mind will consume the reality of an ordinary ofuda in a single three-second action.
Note that attempting to apply an existence-ofuda to an unreal miraculous entity may qualify as hubris, particularly if that entity is themselves capable of creating existence-ofuda.
Applying an existence-ofuda is a lesser animation of existence and consumes your miraculous action.
Each 4 MP buys a single-use ability, but you may have duplicates: specifically, you may have a number of ofuda up to [your Treasure rating + 1] available at any given time.
Sun Rising on the Emptiness (1 DMP)
Somewhere that isn’t here, somewhere that isn’t even really like here, somewhere in the Outside, there is a street sign near the junction of two roads. The sun hangs overhead. The entire collage takes the form of the letter “shì (是).” You may float a piece of paper labelled with “shì (是)” on the surface of a bowl of water to spy on that location.
Spying on the Outside is a level 2 miracle with 2 bonus Strike. It consumes your miraculous action and you must sustain it for as long as you wish the street sign, roads, and sun to remain visible in the bowl. Note that this isn’t necessarily very useful, since there’s no particular reason why anything interesting should happen there, much less in the moment that you are happening to look.
Once you develop this ability you retain it for the remainder of the story.
Exuberance-Ofuda (2 DMP)
You create an ofuda that you can attach to someone to make them exclaim, “Yes!” in an exuberant fashion, optionally leaping into the air with one fist raised high. They will also feel a surge of exuberance and joyous spirit which lasts one hour and at least until the ending of the scene.
Applying the ofuda requires a mundane or Aspect-based action. Activating it requires your miraculous action and invokes a level 4 Enchantment of Shì (是); you can do this up to three seconds before making contact with the target, which is useful when you’re planning to use Aspect to affix it. Note that if you charge it up and then fail to apply it to someone else within three seconds it may turn its power on you or whatever you’re using to hold it with instead.
Each 2 MP buys a single-use ability, but you may have duplicates: specifically, you may have a number of ofuda up to [your Treasure rating + 1] available at any given time.
Radiant Confirmation (1 DMP)
You learn to say “shì (是)” so firmly that your meaning comes across even when the person you’re talking to cannot hear or understand you—you can even shì (是) somebody from across the void of space! When using this ability “shì (是)” always means “yes” or “correct,” and you are forbidden by a level 2 Auctoritas from explaining to anybody but me why you didn’t just say “correct” or “right” or “duì (对)” instead. You may however give as many evasions or false explanations as you like, such as “because I am a person of refinement,” “oh my god look behind you,” or “ah, these are not such days as those.”
This ability is single-target and local in its scope—your clearly-stated “shì (是)” can find a single target within two hundred yards of you or fly unerringly to a known location within ten miles.
In developing this ability you will draw a proper nine-stroke shì (是). Each use of this ability fades the ink on one stroke, so you may use this a total of nine times before you must retreat and contemplate “shì” again.
Postscript
In case you’re wondering how to get the nine strokes of shì, the double box at the top is considered four strokes: down, then a bending right-and-down stroke, then two strokes across. It takes three strokes to make the T/F thingie, and then two more complete the diagram. The bottom rightward line is actually a single sweeping arc from left to right!
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A Book of Divine Letters: Shì
Deep contemplation of the letter “shì (是)” and the expenditure of Domain Miracle Points may yield instruction on the following miracles:
Existence-Ofuda (4 DMP)
You create an ofuda that you could attach to a nonexistent thing, if only you had some way of doing so, to give that thing a temporary power of existence. The more strongly the ofuda and specifically the letter “shì (是)” that you’ve written on it exists, the longer this power lasts. By default, when reified in this fashion:
Note that attempting to apply an existence-ofuda to an unreal miraculous entity may qualify as hubris, particularly if that entity is themselves capable of creating existence-ofuda.
Applying an existence-ofuda is a lesser animation of existence and consumes your miraculous action.
Each 4 MP buys a single-use ability, but you may have duplicates: specifically, you may have a number of ofuda up to [your Treasure rating + 1] available at any given time.
Sun Rising on the Emptiness (1 DMP)
Somewhere that isn’t here, somewhere that isn’t even really like here, somewhere in the Outside, there is a street sign near the junction of two roads. The sun hangs overhead. The entire collage takes the form of the letter “shì (是).” You may float a piece of paper labelled with “shì (是)” on the surface of a bowl of water to spy on that location.
Spying on the Outside is a level 2 miracle with 2 bonus Strike. It consumes your miraculous action and you must sustain it for as long as you wish the street sign, roads, and sun to remain visible in the bowl. Note that this isn’t necessarily very useful, since there’s no particular reason why anything interesting should happen there, much less in the moment that you are happening to look.
Once you develop this ability you retain it for the remainder of the story.
Exuberance-Ofuda (2 DMP)
You create an ofuda that you can attach to someone to make them exclaim, “Yes!” in an exuberant fashion, optionally leaping into the air with one fist raised high. They will also feel a surge of exuberance and joyous spirit which lasts one hour and at least until the ending of the scene.
Applying the ofuda requires a mundane or Aspect-based action. Activating it requires your miraculous action and invokes a level 4 Enchantment of Shì (是); you can do this up to three seconds before making contact with the target, which is useful when you’re planning to use Aspect to affix it. Note that if you charge it up and then fail to apply it to someone else within three seconds it may turn its power on you or whatever you’re using to hold it with instead.
Each 2 MP buys a single-use ability, but you may have duplicates: specifically, you may have a number of ofuda up to [your Treasure rating + 1] available at any given time.
Radiant Confirmation (1 DMP)
You learn to say “shì (是)” so firmly that your meaning comes across even when the person you’re talking to cannot hear or understand you—you can even shì (是) somebody from across the void of space! When using this ability “shì (是)” always means “yes” or “correct,” and you are forbidden by a level 2 Auctoritas from explaining to anybody but me why you didn’t just say “correct” or “right” or “duì (对)” instead. You may however give as many evasions or false explanations as you like, such as “because I am a person of refinement,” “oh my god look behind you,” or “ah, these are not such days as those.”
This ability is single-target and local in its scope—your clearly-stated “shì (是)” can find a single target within two hundred yards of you or fly unerringly to a known location within ten miles.
In developing this ability you will draw a proper nine-stroke shì (是). Each use of this ability fades the ink on one stroke, so you may use this a total of nine times before you must retreat and contemplate “shì” again.
Postscript
In case you’re wondering how to get the nine strokes of shì, the double box at the top is considered four strokes: down, then a bending right-and-down stroke, then two strokes across. It takes three strokes to make the T/F thingie, and then two more complete the diagram. The bottom rightward line is actually a single sweeping arc from left to right!