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

In the Book of Documents, Yu 图 the nine provinces onto a 地图 to control the floods. The Tang painter Han Huang left a 图 of farm life, oxen and weary villagers, now in the Palace Museum. To 图 was to plan and to picture at once — a drawn intention.

Common words & phrases

• 地图 map · atlas
• 图片 picture · image · photo
• 图书 books · publications
• 企图 attempt · try · seek
• 图表 chart · diagram · graph
• 图书馆 library

Read the story behind the character

:The library app lends 图书 you download in seconds. A slide deck needs a clearer 图表 for the sales meeting. The 图片 on the listing looks nothing like the room. At the station a 地图 on the wall shows the closed line. She 企图 finish the essay before the café closes.

Why this character belongs on skin

Before the wall is built, someone draws it in the dust. 图 is the picture, the map, the plan, and also the verb to seek, to reach toward a shape not yet real. The emperor's 图 showed a kingdom before the kingdom existed; your 图 is the life you are quietly drafting, the outline you trace again each time you begin. Zhuangzi laughed at those who 图 too hard, who mapped the sky and forgot to look at it; but even he drew, in his way. To carry 图 is to admit you are a maker of designs, that your days are not accidents but a picture in progress. Let it lie on your skin like a faint blueprint, a small square of ink that says you are still drawing, still becoming the thing you imagined, and the incompletion is not failure but the honest shape of a life still being made.