The Calligrapher — Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之

The 'Sage of Calligraphy'; his running script has set the standard for 1,700 years.

Eastern Jin calligrapher (303–361), master of running script/cursive script/regular script — the Sage of Calligraphy; his Orchid Pavilion Preface is the most celebrated work in the tradition, and nearly every later master traces lineage to his hand. Eastern Jin dynasty

Cultural Story

The 'Deer Cry' sings, 'I have good wine to 宴 my honored guests,' the Zhou rite of feasting allies. History gives the 鸿门宴, a banquet that nearly killed Liu Bang. The graph sets a roof over a woman at rest — the meal as repose shared, and as trap. The board could bless or betray.

Common words & phrases

• 宴会 banquet · feast · party
• 宴请 entertain · host · invite
• 宴席 banquet · feast
• 晚宴 dinner · banquet
• 宴客 entertain guests

Read the story behind the character

Hotels host 宴会 for weddings, and firms 宴请 clients over seafood. Gala 晚宴 tables sell by sponsorship, while homes 宴客 at Spring Festival. The deer-cry feast now books a ballroom and a banquet hall — the repose shared, occasionally still a deal dressed as a meal.

Why this character belongs on skin

The table is laid, the wine is red, and for one evening the hunger and the loneliness are both abolished. 宴 is the feast, the banquet under the roof where strangers become kin across the shared dish. The Confucians made the meal a school of right relation; Christ broke bread and called it a kingdom; every hearth culture knows the table as the original church. To ink this is to honor belonging, the warm animal relief of being fed among the living. It is not gluttony but gratitude made visible. Wear it where your own hand rests, a reminder that you were meant for the circle, the laughter, the second helping offered without shame. The world is cold and the portion small, but this mark insists otherwise: that you have been invited, that the seat beside you is kept warm, and that to feast well is its own quiet form of prayer.