The Calligrapher — Ōuyáng Tōng 欧阳通

Tang regular-script master known for powerful, square strokes.

Tang calligrapher (?–691), master of regular script — known for 《道因法师碑》. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

肤 means skin, and the classics used it for what lies nearest the surface. 曾子's deathbed pledge — that his body, head and skin, received from his parents, would not be damaged — made skin a family trust. From this came the warning against 肤浅 superficial judgment: only what is skin-deep is shallow.

Common words & phrases

• 皮肤 skin
• 肤浅 superficial · shallow
• 肤色 skin color
• 肌肤 skin · flesh

Read the story behind the character

Sunscreen ads promise to protect your 皮肤 skin from the summer sun, foundation counters match your 肤色 skin color under unforgiving light. A mother warns her child not to scratch an itch until the 肌肤 skin reddens. When someone judges a book by its cover, friends mutter that the remark is 肤浅 superficial.

Why this character belongs on skin

This is the border where you end and the world begins — 肤, the skin, the thin nation between inside and out. Built from the flesh-radical and the word for man, it is the surface that has touched everything that ever touched you: the wind, the hand, the blade, the sun. The ancients praised 肤如凝脂, skin like congealed cream, but the character itself asks no beauty, only honesty about the boundary. To wear 肤 is almost a joke and almost a prayer — to mark the very thing that holds the mark. It is the page on which all other ink is written, the first and last surface. Let this character sit where the skin is thinnest and most alive, a reminder that you are both the writer and the written, the vessel and the vow, the surface that has borne it all and will bear more.