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

慕 is longing aimed upward. Mencius said a man should 慕 his parents in youth and the righteous in age — desire in the form of admiration. The heart with 莫, a marsh, is affection that gathers. It is the wish to be like, the envy that admits the other deserves it.

Common words & phrases

• 羡慕 envy · admire
• 爱慕 adore · love
• 仰慕 admire · respect
• 慕名 attracted by reputation
• 思慕 miss · long for

Read the story behind the character

慕 is the admiring want: 羡慕 the friend's apartment, 爱慕 the person across the room, 仰慕 the name on the book. 慕名 is the queue outside the famous noodle shop. It names the desire that looks up, the wanting that carries a little reverence with it.

Why this character belongs on skin

The character 慕 begins with 苗—a seedling reaching—set over a heart. That is yearning precisely: not possession, but the green pull of a thing toward what it is not yet. You 慕 a master from the back row of the concert hall; you 慕 someone across a dinner table, saying nothing, the candle doing the talking. Longing of this kind is considered noble in Chinese—慕 connotes respect folded into desire, the student's ache for the teacher, the way the moon 慕s the water it can never hold and yet keeps shining there anyway. The Song poets built whole careers on this feeling, and so, in secret, does everyone who has ever wanted without grabbing. There is a tenderness in admitting such hunger. Worn on the skin, it becomes a quiet confession: that you still yearn upward, seedling-hearted, toward whatever has not yet said yes.