The Calligrapher — Zhōng Shàojīng 钟绍京

Tang calligrapher famed for the regular-script Lingfei Jing.

Tang calligrapher (), master of regular script — known for 《灵飞经》. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

签 began as slender sticks — temple divination drew lots from a bamboo cup, each 签 bearing a numbered verse of fate. Officialdom used bamboo tallies and labels for stores and documents; the scribe's proof of identity, once pressed by seal, gradually accepted the written 签名 as well.

Common words & phrases

• 签名 sign · signature
• 签字 sign
• 标签 label · tag
• 牙签 toothpick
• 签订 sign (a contract)

Read the story behind the character

Daily life is one long signing session: you 签收 (sign for) parcels, 签订 (sign) a lease, ask a novelist for a 签名 (autograph), peel a 标签 (label) off a new shirt. Convenience stores stock 牙签 (toothpicks) by the till, and temple-goers still 抽签 (draw divination lots) at New Year.

Why this character belongs on skin

签 is the character of commitment made with a name. Its bamboo radical points to its oldest bodies — slender bamboo slips on which oracle verses were written and drawn at temples, and the tallies by which contracts were split and matched. When you drew a lot at a shrine, when you signed a bond, you were touching bamboo that now stood for you. The modern word is still with us: 签名, the signature; 签证, the visa; 签约, the signed accord. There is gravity in the act that the ballpoint hides. To sign is to annex your name to a consequence — to say, in the one gesture no court can undo, this is mine, I will answer for it. The old diviners understood the trembling honesty of the drawn lot; the merchant understood the bound hand. To wear 签 is to be someone whose yes, once given in ink or in life, stays given.