The Calligrapher — Lù Jiǎnzhī 陆柬之

Tang calligrapher and nephew of Yu Shinan; his running-script 'Essay on Literature' survives

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

Cultural Story

脾 is the spleen, in classical medicine the assistant of digestion and, oddly, the seat of thought — worry was said to injure the spleen. From its supposed post arose 脾气, one's temper, as if character were secreted there. Physicians read a pale tongue and poor appetite as the spleen's complaint.

Common words & phrases

• 脾气 temper · mood
• 脾胃 spleen and stomach
• 脾性 temperament
• 脾脏 spleen

Read the story behind the character

Everyone tiptoes around the boss's terrible 脾气 temper before the quarterly review; a nutritionist lectures the 脾胃 spleen and stomach pair on cold drinks. A friend's easygoing 脾性 temperament survives the shared apartment; the hospital report lists your 脾脏 spleen as normal. Temper, then as now, is written in the body.

Why this character belongs on skin

The body keeps its own counsel, and the ancients listened. 脾 is the spleen — the moon-pale organ that Chinese medicine crowned as keeper of transformation, the earth-centered palace where food becomes spirit and worry becomes weight. Where the West gave the spleen to temper and sudden rage — a splenetic man, a fit of spleen — Chinese physicians made it the seat of thought held too long, the organ that suffers when the mind will not rest. Either way, it is the character of what we feel below language: the mood before the word, the heaviness with no name, the strange lightness when it finally lifts. There's honesty in marking the interior. Tattoos usually shout of eagles and anchors; this one whispers of your own flesh, your own weather. For anyone who trusts the body's older knowledge, 脾 is a quiet salute to the machinery of feeling. Put it where only you know. Let it hum.