The Calligrapher — Zhāng Xiàoxiáng 张孝祥

Song lyricist and calligrapher famed for his robust running script.

Song calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《柴沟帖》. Song dynasty

Cultural Story

The Qianlong court fed Heshen, whose tan wu stuffed the treasury of a single house while the realm went thin, until the new reign seized it all. The character tan is that grasping, the tan xin that no hoard fills. From the minister's fall the word passed to tan lan, the hunger no gift satisfies, and to tan tu, the coveting that begins as a glance and ends as a crime.

Common words & phrases

• 贪污 corruption · graft
• 贪婪 greedy · avaricious
• 贪心 greed · avarice
• 贪图 covet · seek
• 贪玩 fond of play

Read the story behind the character

An anti-graft film details an official's tan wu, and a clerk is warned not to tan xin the bonus. A child is chided for tan wan past bedtime, and a seller tan tu the easy mark. The character tan still names the want that grows by feeding, from the greedy hand to the spoiled boy.

Why this character belongs on skin

The hand reaches past enough. 贪 is to covet, to want beyond need — its bottom half is 贝, the shell-money the ancients hoarded, the original currency of desire. The Buddhist names 贪 one of the three poisons, the wanting that burns the hand holding it. Yet 贪 is also evidence of appetite, of a creature that wanted so badly to live it forgot where to stop. To wear this character is not to boast of virtue but to name the hunger honestly — the greed for touch, for more life, for the one thing just out of reach. Let it mark you as a warning and a confession both: I have wanted too much, and I will again. Ink it where you can see it when the wanting returns, a small honest mirror on the skin, reminding you that desire is the price of being alive.