The Calligrapher — Wú Dàchéng 吴大澂

Qing scholar-official famed for refined seal script.

Qing calligrapher (), master of seal script — known for 金文书法家. Qing dynasty

Cultural Story

奔 means to run and to flee. The 诗经 has 奔跑 (running) deer across the bright field; 夸父 (Kuafu) 奔 (ran) toward the sun until he fell. 投奔 (seek refuge) with a lord was a 三国 (Three Kingdoms) move of loyalty; 奔波 (rush about) wore the 论语's travelling official thin. 奔放 (uninhibited) praised a 李白 line of wine. The character is motion let loose.

Common words & phrases

• 奔跑 run · dash
• 奔放 uninhibited · bold
• 投奔 go to · seek refuge
• 狂奔 gallop · run wildly
• 奔波 rush about · toil

Read the story behind the character

Commuters 奔波 (rush about) at dawn on two trains; a dog 奔跑 (runs) in the park after a ball. 投奔 (seek refuge) with a friend in a new city for work; 狂奔 (gallop) from a sudden rain. 奔放 (bold) describes an artist's loose style. Delivery apps map the 奔波 of a single evening's orders — the word still releases the legs.

Why this character belongs on skin

There is a stroke that is already moving. 奔 is to run — the old pictograph shows a person with arms flung back, legs mid-stride, fleeing or racing or simply alive in motion. It is also the private run of lovers who elope, 私奔, choosing each other over the world's permission. To carry 奔 is to honor momentum as a form of courage. We calcify in comfort, afraid to leave the room. This mark is for the one who has run — from something, toward something, it does not matter which. There is a purity in the full sprint, the body that has stopped negotiating with itself. Let it sit on your skin like wind at the throat. Some of us were built to move and ashamed of it; ink 奔 and you stop apologizing. The road is the point. Carry the run and you carry the proof that you were once, and still are, faster than your fear.