The Calligrapher — Huái Sù 怀素

Tang monk and wild-cursive virtuoso, Zhang Xu's equal in 'drunk' cursive.

Tang calligrapher (737–799), master of cursive script — the Tang 'drunk monk' of wild cursive who wrote masterpieces at astonishing speed. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

Emperor Wu of Han walled in a royal park so vast it swallowed three counties, stocked with exotic beasts from tribute missions, and court poets competed to describe it. Behind the splendor lay the older function of every park and garden enclosure: a place where the ruler could still pretend the chase was simple and the world unenclosed.

Common words & phrases

• 文苑 literary circles
• 艺苑 art circles
• 苑囿 enclosed park · menagerie
• 宫苑 palace garden

Read the story behind the character

A residential compound in Beijing is named Parkland Garden in silver characters over the gate, a literary supplement calls its author interviews a garden of letters, and an art fair brands its sculpture section an art garden. A retiree walking past the old imperial park gate jokes that her housing estate outcharges the emperor.

Why this character belongs on skin

Behind the palace wall, a walled park where the rare birds are kept and the poets are suffered to wander—yuàn is the preserve, the cultivated wild, the place set apart for what is precious and a little dangerous. Literary circles took the name, the garden of minds. The character is grass and a distant enclosure, a boundary drawn around beauty so it can breathe without being trampled. We all need a yuàn: the room, the friendship, the inner court where the uncommon is allowed. Wear it where you keep your rare things—the inner arm, the side—a quiet enclosure tattooed on the skin, saying not everything in me is for the public. Here the strange birds live. This is my garden. Enter gently.