The Calligrapher — Yáng Xīn 羊欣

Liu Song calligrapher, student of Wang Xianzhi; famed in the saying 'buy Wang, get Yang'

南朝宋 calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《采古来能书人名》. Liu Song dynasty (Southern Dynasties)

Cultural Story

A thoroughly modern workhorse, 搞 barely existed before the spoken tongue made it do everything — a verb with no dignity and no limits. The classics had a separate word for each thing it now lumps together; 搞 is the democracy of the hand, and the academy that once scorned it now uses it in memos, having run out of separate words for the separate messes.

Common words & phrases

• 搞笑 make people laugh · comic
• 搞错 make a mistake
• 搞定 get done · settle
• 搞鬼 play tricks
• 搞好 do well

Read the story behind the character

You 搞笑 to make them laugh; a man 搞定 the deal; a clerk 搞錯s the date; a trickster 搞鬼. The one verb does the whole day's work, from comedy to crime. The character is the language shrugging and saying, whatever it is, someone is 搞ing it, somewhere, right now, and the shrug is the only honest grammar the century managed to agree on.

Why this character belongs on skin

Modern, messy, indispensable — 搞 is the workhorse verb of contemporary Chinese: 搞定, get it done; 搞好, fix it right; 搞什么, what on earth are you doing? It is the verb of schemes and projects, of hustle and repair, the one word that covers building a startup, planning a birthday, and untangling a bureaucratic nightmare in the same breath. It has a street-level swagger that classical characters never had — born in the provinces, adopted everywhere, slightly improper the way get is slightly improper next to accomplish. And that is its charm. Every language needs a verb for the getting-your-hands-dirty middle of life, the part between the plan and the result where things actually happen. Not everything on your skin should be scripture and jade. Sometimes the truest tattoo is the working verb, ink-stained and unpretentious. 搞 is for the fixers, the makers, the ones who hear a problem and crack their knuckles. Whatever it is — you'll get it done.