The Calligrapher — Wáng Ānshí 王安石

Song statesman and reformer famed for his vigorous running script.

Song calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《楞严经旨要》. Song dynasty

Cultural Story

Li Bai, seeing a friend off, wrote 揮手自茲去, waved a hand and went from there, the horses neighing apart. 挥 is the broad sweep of the arm that says farewell and also dismissal, the gesture bigger than the word it replaces, and the horses understood the sweep before the friend did, for animals read the arm better than the poem.

Common words & phrases

• 挥手 wave hand
• 指挥 command · conduct
• 发挥 bring into play · develop
• 挥霍 squander · waste
• 挥舞 wave · brandish

Read the story behind the character

A conductor 揮舞s the baton; a wastrel 揮霍s his father's money; a leader 發揮s an idea. The waved hand is a baton, a cheque, a speech now. The farewell Li Bai threw across the road is the same motion that spends a fortune or opens a meeting, and the father's money left the room on the very same sweep that waved the friend away.

Why this character belongs on skin

The arm that lifts need not strike to rule. To brandish is to declare presence — the general's baton that sends a thousand men left without a word, the hand that scatters coins or doubts with equal grace. The character is the wave, the flourish, the command issued from the wrist. The Christians speak of the shepherd's rod; the warrior of the banner raised. But there is also the letting-go in a wave — the farewell flung at a disappearing shore. To command and to release are one motion, the same confidence answering two moments. Carry 挥 where your will is written — the forearm that points the room, the hand that opens. The ink is the echo of a gesture you were born making. Wave, and the world rearranges.