The Calligrapher — Xī Yīn 郗愔

Jin official famed for his mastery of clerical-cursive script.

Jin calligrapher (), master of clerical cursive — known for 郗鉴之子. Jin dynasty

Cultural Story

案 is a low wooden table — the 几 where you unrolled a scroll, ate, or wrote a memorial. The official's 案 held the 档案, the files of a case; the scholar found his 答案 leaning over one. The character is the flat surface on which work and judgment happen, the desk before there were chairs to sit at.

Common words & phrases

• 案件 case · lawsuit
• 答案 answer
• 方案 plan · scheme
• 教案 lesson plan
• 档案 archive · file

Read the story behind the character

案 is the desk and the docket: 案件 the court case on the news, 方案 the plan a committee debates, 档案 the personnel file HR keeps. 教案 is the teacher's prep; 答案 the answer key a student craves. The character is the table become the record, the surface where things get decided and stored away.

Why this character belongs on skin

On the low table the documents wait—the case, the contract, the account of a life. 案 is the table and, by the weight of use, the case, the record, the thing brought forward to be judged. The ancients set their scrolls and their justice on the same surface; to lay a matter on the 案 was to ask it be seen plainly. There is a Christian echo, the books opened at the end of time. To ink this is to honor the part of you that keeps accounts with honesty, that is willing to be read. It is a mark of seriousness, of a life not lived by accident. Wear it where you can press a palm, a quiet pledge that your story is written down and you are not ashamed of the page. The mark says you have nothing to hide from the table, and that what is recorded, examined, may also at last be absolved.