The Calligrapher — Wēng Tónggē 翁同龢

Qing imperial tutor renowned for robust regular and running script.

Qing calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 同治、光绪帝师. Qing dynasty

Cultural Story

For a thousand years, a young man would 赶, hurry, to the capital to sit the imperial exams, 进京赶考, a journey of weeks on foot and boat with a scholar's whole future in his box. To 赶 was to race the calendar itself, for the tests came once, and late meant a lost life.

Common words & phrases

• 赶快 hurry · quickly
• 赶忙 hurry
• 追赶 pursue · catch up
• 赶路 hurry on with journey
• 赶集 go to market

Read the story behind the character

At a bus stop, a commuter 赶快, hurries, to make the last coach while a farmer 赶集, goes to market, at dawn with a basket of greens. A runner 追赶, pursues, the leader and a traveler 赶路, pushes on, before dark. The exam candidate's urgent pace now fills every ordinary errand. The urgent step of the candidate now carries a child to a morning bus.

Why this character belongs on skin

The shepherd swings his staff and the flock moves faster than the coming storm; this is the hurry, the drive, the urgent closing of distance between where you are and where you must be. But it also means to drive off — the same motion that pursues also repels. The monk drives away desire; the lover hurries to the door before the train. There is a thin sorrow in hurry, the fear that the moment will outrun us. Yet the Daoist finds the step that is urgent and unhurried at once, the walk that arrives because it does not panic. Ink this and you keep the tension of the chase — the life lived at the edge of arrival, neither fleeing nor arriving, but moving with the whole body toward the thing that matters.