The Calligrapher — Sūn Guòtíng 孙过庭

Tang cursive master and author of the key treatise 'Shu Pu'.

Tang calligrapher (约646–691), master of cursive script — known for 《书谱》. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

In the classical tradition: 品 shows three 口, mouths, originally meaning numerous voices or ranks, and came to mean grade, character, and to taste. The 禮記 ranked officials by 品, and tea and wine were judged by 品味, the act of savoring. A person of high 品 had noble character; 商品 were the goods offered at market, while a 作品, a work, revealed its maker's 品質, inner quality, to the world.

Common words & phrases

• 品质 quality · character
• 商品 commodity · goods
• 作品 work · opus
• 食品 food · foodstuff
• 品味 to taste · to savor

Read the story behind the character

In the modern world: You scan 商品 — commodities — online, checking each 品質, quality and character, before buying a phone. At the museum a 作品, an art work, shows the painter's soul, and a foodie 品味, savors, a fine broth at a night market. 食品, foodstuffs, fill the supermarket shelves, and we judge a restaurant by the 品質 of its 食品 more than by its decor.

Why this character belongs on skin

Three mouths in a row, and the ancients called it judgment — what is tasted, what is spoken, what is ranked. 品 is grade and it is virtue; the quality of jade and the quality of a man are weighed by the same hand. Confucius measured the gentleman by his 品, his flavor, his unforced rightness. To set this on your skin is to be answerable to a standard higher than appetite. It is the quiet aristocracy of conduct. Let it rest over the heart or the throat, where what you consume and what you say are one. The world sells personality; this mark asks for character, the thing that survives the burning of reputation. Wear it as a vow spoken to no one but yourself — that you will be of a certain make, even when no one watches, even when the price of it is solitude. Quality is a long obedience.