The Calligrapher — Liǔ Gōngquán 柳公权

Tang regular-script master famed for 'bones' of strength; rival to Yan Zhenqing.

Tang calligrapher (778–865), master of regular script — Tang master of bone-strength regular script, paired forever with Yan Zhenqing as 'Yan sinew, Liu bone'. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

In the classical tradition: 哺 pairs 口 with 甫 and means to feed, nurse, and the daytime meal. The 詩經 speaks of birds that 哺 their young, and 哺乳, breastfeeding, was the primal bond of mother and child. 哺育, to nurture, described a lord feeding his people, and 反哺 the pious young bird that feeds its aged parent — a Confucian image of filial repayment woven into every lesson on gratitude.

Common words & phrases

• 哺乳 breastfeed · suckle · lactate
• 哺育 nurture · rear · feed
• 反哺 repay parents (like young birds)

Read the story behind the character

In the modern world: A new mom 哺乳 — breastfeeds — her baby in the train nursery, and parents 哺育, nurture and rear, children through sleepless years. The idiom 反哺, repaying parents like young birds, moves a son to send money home each month. At the zoo a stork 哺s its chick, and a charity 哺育s stray kids with free meals — the old word for feeding now spans family, nature, and kindness.

Why this character belongs on skin

Everything you are began at a mouth. 哺 is to feed, the mouth radical 口 opening onto the oldest act of love — the parent bird returning to the nest, the breast, the hand that lifts the spoon. 哺乳 is nurture itself; 哺育 is to rear a whole people. The Confucians built their ethics on this debt, the child who spends a life repaying the mouth that fed him. To carry 哺 is to honor the one who fed you, named or unnamed, human or otherwise. We speak of independence as if we birthed ourselves; this mark is the counter-argument, worn close to the chest. It is for the one who learned love as a meal delivered again and again. Some of us were starved and became the feeders; inking 哺 closes that circle. Place it over the heart, a quiet vow that you will be the mouth that returns, that nothing in you will ever go unfed again, least of all the small, hungry parts.