The Calligrapher — Xiè Língyùn 谢灵运

Liu Song poet-calligrapher of cursive script whose works were imperial 'two treasures'.

南朝宋 calligrapher (), master of cursive script/running script — known for 诗书兼擅. Liu Song dynasty (Southern Dynasties)

Cultural Story

Long before leather boots, the Han and Tang played 蹴鞠, kick-ball, where players 踢 a stuffed hide toward a goal hung high, emperors among the fans. 踢球 is the modern name for the same old game. The character that once entertained a Tang court now fills stadiums on every continent. The stuffed ball at the Tang court is the ancestor of every kick on a pitch.

Common words & phrases

• 踢球 kick a ball
• 踢开 kick away
• 踢腿 kick legs

Read the story behind the character

At a pitch, boys 踢球, kick a ball, after school while a dancer 踢腿, kicks her legs, at the barre and a door is 踢开, kicked open, in a film. A fan 踢 a penalty to win. The emperors' 蹴鞠 has become a child's daily game and an athlete's profession. The penalty and the dance step are the old kick put to new use.

Why this character belongs on skin

The foot radical beside an easy sound: to kick, the most honest verb in the body. No weapon, no tool — just the leg swung in anger or in play, the oldest way of saying no and sometimes the oldest way of saying yes. Children kick before they can speak; horses kick when words would ruin them; there is a martial art built entirely on the discipline of it, power rising from the ground through hip and knee into one deliberate point of contact. Kicking is also refusal with a body attached — the mule that will not cross the flooded river, the striker who walks out, the child in the womb announcing itself. Everything the polite world asks us to swallow, the kick returns to sender. There is a place for grace and there is a moment for the pushed-away, and knowing which is which is called maturity. Ink this where it can flex — the calf, the outer thigh. Some boundaries are better worn than spoken.