The Calligrapher — Lín Zǎo 林藻

Tang calligrapher of running script, famed for the Shenwei Letter (Shenwei tie).

Tang calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《深慰帖》. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

厦 was a great roofed hall. Du Fu, in his thatched hut blown open by autumn wind, wished for "ten thousand wide halls" to shelter all the poor scholars -- 安得广厦千万间. The line outlived the poet's cold night. The word names not a house but a building with ambition, the kind that shades a whole street.

Common words & phrases

• 大厦 large building · mansion · skyscraper
• 广厦 great mansion · vast building
• 高楼大厦 tall buildings · skyscrapers

Read the story behind the character

A 大厦 in the financial district lifts forty floors of glass; its lobby holds a coffee bar and a security desk. 高楼大厦 line the new boulevard where the old lanes stood. The word now means any large building, and often the tallest one in view. Developers print 广厦 on the hoarding, promising the wide halls Du Fu only dreamed of for the cold and the poor.

Why this character belongs on skin

A great roof changes the meaning of the weather. Sha is the tall house, the mansion with many rooms, the shelter built not for one but for the many who gather beneath a single broad eave. In the south they name a whole city by it — the gate of the sea. To carry sha in ink is to honor the ambition of shelter, the desire to raise something that outlasts the storm and holds more than yourself. It is the architectural confession of a generous mind: I will build wide. Let this character lie across the chest, the broadest plain you own, a quiet pledge that whatever you raise — a family, a work, a name — it will have doors, and the doors will open, and no one seeking cover will be turned from your eave.