The Calligrapher — Shěn Càn 沈粲

Ming calligrapher of the Two Shen known for elegant, flowing cursive script.

Ming calligrapher (), master of cursive script — known for 沈度之弟. Ming dynasty

Cultural Story

犊 is the calf, a young 牛 cattle. The Yijing loves the image of 舐犊 a cow licking her calf, parental love in its purest form; the phrase became the type of a father's tenderness. A 牛犊 calf frisks in the spring field, and 犊子 a calf, or cheeky 'kid,' fills folk speech. The char is youth, helplessness, and the love that guards it.

Common words & phrases

• 牛犊 calf · young cattle
• 犊牛 calf · young cattle
• 舐犊 parental love · calf-licking
• 犊子 calf · brat · kid

Read the story behind the character

A 牛犊 calf wobbles after its mother, and we call a 犊子 calf or a brat with a laugh. The old phrase 舐犊 parental love, a cow licking her calf, now describes any doting dad. City kids meet the 犊牛 calf only at the petting zoo, but the warmth of 犊 still names the soft spot every parent carries for small, stumbling things.

Why this character belongs on skin

A calf, and everything the word has come to mean: the Chinese proverb says a newborn calf does not fear tigers — chusheng niudu bu pa hu — and the character is that beautiful recklessness made permanent. Not stupidity; purity. The young animal has not yet been taught the size of its dangers, and so it moves through the world with a freedom the experienced can only mourn or steal. Every tradition has had to decide what to do with that fearlessness. The Gospels place a child at the center of the kingdom; Zen points to the beginner's mind, which has few possibilities but many, as the master says, while the expert's mind has many possibilities but few. This character asks you which you would rather be: the one who knows all the reasons to hesitate, or the one still walking straight toward the tiger. Ink it on and make a decision about your own innocence — that it was not naivety to be outgrown but a strength to be reclaimed. The calf does not calculate. The calf goes.