The Calligrapher — Xú Wèi 徐渭

Ming mad genius regarded as father of wild, expressive cursive.

Ming calligrapher (1521–1593), master of cursive script — Ming wild genius whose cursive is expressive to the edge of chaos. Ming dynasty

Cultural Story

叢 was a cluster. The 草丛 hid the quail; the 花丛 drew the bee. Buddhist monasteries were called 丛林, forests of monks under one roof. A 丛书 gathered many books under one title, as the great collectanea did. The word joined the thicket in the field to the gathering on the shelf, growth bunched together.

Common words & phrases

• 草丛 bushes · grass clump
• 花丛 flowers · flower cluster
• 丛书 series · collection
• 丛林 jungle · woods
• 丛刊 collected works
• 丛集 gather · collect

Read the story behind the character

A child rustles the 草丛 and flushes a frog; a reader collects the 丛书 shelf by shelf. Trekkers enter the 丛林 and lose the path by noon. The 丛刊 appears quarterly from the academy. The word names what grows or gathers in a mass -- the bushes at the park edge, the series on the bookcase, the wood where the trail thins. It is the mark of many in one place.