The Calligrapher — Chén Jìrú 陈继儒

Ming literati master of elegant running script.

Ming calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《妮古录》. Ming dynasty

Cultural Story

獵 joins 犬 with 巤 and depicts dogs driving game; in antiquity 狩猎 was a royal rite as much as a meal, training warriors and Feeding rites. 詩經 and 楚辭 brim with hunts, and emperors rode out with hawks and hounds, the 猎物's hide offered up to ancestral spirits.

Common words & phrases

• 猎人 hunter
• 打猎 hunt · go hunting
• 猎物 prey · quarry
• 狩猎 hunting
• 猎枪 hunting rifle

Read the story behind the character

A 猎人 (hunter) in the north still tracks deer, though most 打猎 (hunting) now happens on screens. Video games turn players into predators chasing 猎物 (prey), and 狩猎 (hunting) trips are advertised as adventure tourism. The 猎枪 (hunting rifle) rests in rural cabinets, a relic of older survival.

Why this character belongs on skin

The hunt is the oldest conversation between desire and distance. 猎 sets the beast radical beside the idea of the chase, and something in the blood still answers—the way you pursued the first love across a city, the way you tracked a vocation through years of no reply. To hunt is not cruelty; it is attention made violent, the focus that says this one thing is worth the running. The Daoist hunts only the self; the warrior hunts the enemy; the lover hunts a glance. All are forms of the same ache to close the gap. To ink 猎 is to mark yourself as someone who goes after what he wants instead of waiting to be chosen. Let this character ride your forearm or your thigh as a quiet oath: I pursue. The quarry may escape, but the chasing made me who I am.