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

The Shuowen defines it as the expression on the face, so the oldest uses describe countenance and desire as much as pigment. The Analects urges disciples to value virtue over a pretty face, while court histories warn that a ruler beguiled by beauty neglects the state. Only later did painters' catalogs settle it firmly into the vocabulary of color.

Common words & phrases

• 颜色 color · hue · tint
• 景色 scenery · view · landscape
• 特色 feature · characteristic · specialty
• 出色 excellent · outstanding · fine
• 角色 role · part · character
• 色彩 color · hue · coloring

Read the story behind the character

Now it is simply the word for color in a phone's display settings, and for scenery on a hiking photo. A restaurant's specialty is its feature, a standout employee gets a bonus on the spot, and an actor accepts a role after the script. Designers argue about color palettes in group chats late into the night.

Why this character belongs on skin

The character began as a man bowing before a woman — the original meaning was her face, her beauty, the pull of the eye toward what it wants. 色 became color, became lust, became the look that lingers too long in a doorway. We are embarrassed by desire, but it is the paint on the world; without it everything is gray liturgy. To wear 色 is to stop apologizing for wanting. A tattoo of this word is for the sensualist, the one who notices light on a cheekbone, who has ruined a good evening by wanting the wrong person beautifully. Wear it where the eye travels — the neck, the hip — and let it name the appetite that made you alive. The body is a feast you were given once; 色 is the permission to taste. Carry it, and the looking becomes a kind of prayer.