The Calligrapher — Huáng Tíngjiān 黄庭坚

Song master of elongated, radical running and cursive script.

Song calligrapher (1045–1105), master of running script/cursive script — Song master of long, sweeping, deliberately stretched running strokes. Song dynasty

Cultural Story

侧 is the side. A Tang poem tells of looking from the 侧面 of the peak; the 左侧 holds the seat of honor at the old table. To 侧卧 by the window was the scholar's noon rest. A 侧门 lets the servant slip through unseen. The character turns the body half away from the front.

Common words & phrases

• 侧面 side · profile
• 左侧 left side
• 右侧 right side
• 侧门 side door
• 侧卧 lie on one's side

Read the story behind the character

A listing photo shows the car's 侧面; the 左侧 lane closes for the morning. At the inn a 侧门 opens to the alley, and a tired child 侧卧 on the sofa. Sides, profiles, and quiet exits — this word marks the half-turned view we use whenever we dodge the front door.

Why this character belongs on skin

Turn your face just so and the light finds the part of you the front never shows — this is 侧, the side, the inclination, the angle that reveals what the straight-on view conceals. To 侧身 is to turn the body aside, to make room, to slip through a door too narrow for pride. The painters of the old courts knew that a profile held more truth than a portrait; the Daoist knew that to lean is sometimes the only honest posture. There is intimacy in the side — it is what a lover sees at midnight, what the friend earns after years. Wear 侧 along the rib, the hidden flank, a mark that admits you are not all front. We are sides and shadows as much as faces. Ink it as a quiet confession: that the part of you turned away is also the part worth knowing. The side view is where the real face lives.