The Calligrapher — Shěn Chuánshī 沈传师

Tang running-script master prized by Mi Fu for his lean, lofty style.

Tang calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《柳州石》，米芾推重. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

餐 (cān) is built from 食, “food,” with the phonetic 叄 (cān); an older form 湌 used 水, suggesting rinsing food down. 《説文解字》 reads 吞也, “to swallow,” and the word has long named a meal taken at table.

Common words & phrases

• 餐厅 restaurant
• 早餐 breakfast
• 午餐 lunch
• 晚餐 dinner
• 餐具 tableware

Read the story behind the character

餐 is everyday dining. We meet in a 餐厅 (restaurant), eat 早餐 (breakfast), 午餐 (lunch), and 晚餐 (dinner), set the 餐具 (tableware), and speak of a 三餐 (three meals) that structure the working day.

Why this character belongs on skin

The character 餐 is hunger made elegant. At its heart sits food and a hand, ringed by the sense of a meal eaten with real attention—the difference between feeding and dining. Its oldest literary home is gorgeous and strange: the Songs of Chu describe spirit journeys where the traveler feeds on dew and drinks of the flying spring, dining on light itself. So the word always carried a second appetite, the soul's. A meal is the most human of rituals: bread broken, steam rising, strangers becoming family across a table in under an hour. Every love story worth telling has at least one unforgettable dinner in it. This is a character for people who believe pleasure is a form of respect—for the food, for the cook, for the body that carries you. Wear it and live accordingly. Eat like it matters. Because it does.