The Calligrapher — Mǐ Fú 米芾

Song eccentric genius of dynamic, 'flying' running script.

Song calligrapher (1051–1107), master of running script — Song eccentric genius ('crazy Zhang, idiot Mi') whose running script alternates discipline with glee. Song dynasty

Cultural Story

The musician Li Yannian sang to Han Wudi of a beauty who, "with one glance topples a city, with another topples a kingdom" — 倾人城, 倾人国. The word 倾 here is literal overturning, as of a wall. Zhuge Liang's 倾覆 of enemy plans worked the same root. To 倾 was to tip the world off its balance, by beauty or by strategy.

Common words & phrases

• 倾斜 to tilt · to slope · inclined
• 倾倒 to topple · to dump · to admire
• 倾诉 to pour out · to confide · to unbosom
• 倾注 to pour into · to devote · to lavish
• 倾盆大雨 downpour · pouring rain
• 倾城 breathtaking beauty · the whole city

Read the story behind the character

A summer 倾盆大雨 floods the subway steps; commuters 倾倒 umbrellas at the door. A fan 倾倒 over a singer on a livestream, sending likes. A friend 倾诉 worries at midnight, and a city 倾注 money into a new line. The word still tips things — rain, feeling, cash — from one side into another, fast and full.

Why this character belongs on skin

Tilt the cup and the wine goes where it was meant to go, into the friend's waiting mouth, not hoarded on the table. The character is a person inclined, the body given over to its lean — to pour, to topple, to incline wholly toward. The Daoists loved the emptied vessel, the bowl that tips and is refilled, the man who spends himself and is thereby made whole. A love that will not pour grows sour; a strength that will not yield becomes a wall no one can approach. To be inclined is to be willing to fall, and there is a warrior's courage in the controlled fall, the lunge that commits fully or dies. Wear this as a pledge against the guarded life — you will tip, you will spend, you will pour the contents of yourself into the few things worthy of the浪费. Let the ink mark the place where you chose to empty rather than to clutch, to incline toward the world and let it drink.