One counting rod, laid on the table: one. It is the simplest character in the language and the first stroke every child in China ever writes. Calligraphy teachers say you can judge a master by their 一 alone — one breath of the brush, nothing to hide behind.
A piece of culture
One births all things The Daodejing, Laozi's 2,400-year-old classic, builds the whole universe from this character: "The Dao births one, one births two, two births three, and three births the ten thousand things." From the simplest possible beginning, everything grows. It is also how this course works — and how Chinese writing works: every character you know began as one stroke.
Use it in a real word
一天
yìtiān · jat1 tin1
one day; a day — the unit this whole garden grows in