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

The Song dynasty's variety stages, the za ju and yuan ben, gave the clown his da hun, the comic turn between serious acts, and each of the Outlaws of the Marsh earned a hun ming, a nickname, the Timely Rain, the Leopard Head. The character hun joins words to a muddle, the playful disorder of jest. To hun was the theater's release valve. It is the old word for the name you earn by being known.

Common words & phrases

• 诨名 nickname
• 诨号 nickname
• 打诨 crack jokes

Read the story behind the character

A squad gives a teammate a hun ming, a nickname; a regimental roll lists a hun hao, a sobriquet; a comedian da hun, cracks jokes, between songs. The character lives in the playful edge of identity, the tag, the alias, the laugh. It names the human habit of renaming one another in affection or mockery, the small comic freedom that turns a person into a character, and a character into someone the room will never call by the book again.

Why this character belongs on skin

Every feast needs one soul who will not let the room go solemn. 诨 is the stage voice of Chinese comedy—the bawdy, improvised banter of Song dynasty storytellers who worked the winehouses like jazz musicians, drawing laughter out of strangers who had come in grieving. In classical opera it is the chou, the clown role, speaking 诨语 at precisely the moment the plot grows too heavy, puncturing pomposity with a needle and letting the audience breathe again. This is holy work, whatever the decorum manuals claim. Laughter is how mortals negotiate with mortality; it is how soldiers survive the eve of battle, how families survive funerals, how lovers forgive the unforgivable by first laughing at the argument that caused it. Every circle has an irreverent one—the court jester, the medicine. If that is you, you already know it. Wear the proof. The room you will someday hold together is waiting.