The Calligrapher — Wèi Guàn 卫瓘

Wei calligrapher with Suo Jing as 'Two Wonders' of cursive; made willow-leaf seal script

三国魏 calligrapher (), master of cursive script/柳叶篆 — known for 与索靖并称二妙. Wei kingdom (Three Kingdoms)

Cultural Story

后 was the lord and later the queen. Hou Ji -- "Lord Millet" -- taught the people to farm and became the Zhou ancestor. The 皇后 ruled the inner palace beside the emperor. The word also meant after, as in the 后汉书, the history of the later Han. It named the sovereign and the sequel both, the woman on the throne and the age that followed.

Common words & phrases

• 后来 later · afterwards
• 后面 behind · back
• 以后 after · since
• 后果 consequence
• 皇后 queen · empress
• 背后 behind · back

Read the story behind the character

The 后来 of that day brought the rain; the 后果 of the cut is a scar. The 皇后 walks the period drama in heavy robes; a rumor spreads 背后 the back. The word runs the day's sequence -- the afterward, the result, the empress, the hidden side. It names what comes after and who sat highest, from the delayed hour to the costume serial's court.

Why this character belongs on skin

Before it meant 'after,' 后 was a crown — the sovereign, the queen who ruled from the center of the ancient court. The character shows a woman enthroned, the mother of the people, the one whose word was weather. To the Western mind she is the queen in the tarot, the sovereign whose power asks no permission. A tattoo of 后 is for authority claimed quietly, the kind that does not raise its voice. It is the mark of the woman who governs her own life, or of anyone who honors the feminine seat of rule. Wear it as a small coronation, administered by no one but yourself. The world expects you to wait your turn behind others. This character says you were never behind. You were on the throne, and the throne was yours from the first.