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

斥 is the voice that drives out. The censor 斥 the official's fault; 排斥 is to shut the stranger from the gate. 斥退 the servant; 斥力 the force that pushes the like charges apart. The word is refusal made loud — the rebuke, the banishment, the pole that will not let the other pole rest. Discipline and distance share it.

Common words & phrases

• 斥责 rebuke · reprove
• 排斥 exclude · reject
• 斥退 dismiss · expel
• 斥力 repulsion · repulsive force
• 训斥 scold · reprimand

Read the story behind the character

斥责 is the parent and the review; 排斥 the clique. 斥退 the fired manager; 斥力 the diagram in physics. 训斥 the drill sergeant. The word runs from the classroom to the lab, the scold that corrects and the force that separates, the sharp sound of a line being drawn and someone being put outside it.

Why this character belongs on skin

There is a word for the line we draw when something has gone too far — the sharp word, the door closed, the boundary finally spoken aloud. 斥 is that moment: to rebuke, to expel, to name the trespass and refuse it. It is not cruelty. It is the discipline of a person who knows where they end. We are taught to accommodate, to soften, to let the intrusion slide one more time. But a life with no 斥 in it leaks; it lets everything in until nothing of you remains. The character once meant to pull apart, to cast off what does not belong. To carry it is to carry a quiet oath of self-defense — the right to say no, to banish, to keep the perimeter. Some marks commemorate what we welcomed. This one honors what we had the nerve to turn away, and the clean, hard peace that follows.