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

In the salons of Wei and Jin the gentlemen practiced qing tan, pure conversation, debating the void and the sage late into the night with cups in hand. The character tan rode that loose, brilliant talk, equal parts wit and metaphysics, and a man's reputation could rise on a single fine exchange. The pages of Shi Shuo Xin Yu still echo those rooms where talk was a form of status.

Common words & phrases

• 谈话 talk · conversation · speech
• 谈判 negotiate · negotiation · talks
• 讨论 discuss · discussion · debate
• 交谈 converse · chat · talk
• 面谈 face-to-face talk · interview
• 谈天 chat · talk idly · gossip

Read the story behind the character

Two delegates tan pan a trade deal behind closed doors, while colleagues tan lun the budget in the meeting room. A neighbor stops to jiao tan at the gate, and old friends tan tian over tea with no purpose at all. The character tan still runs the whole range from hard negotiation to idle gossip.

Why this character belongs on skin

The fire has burned low and two people are still talking, the kind of talking that is really a way of staying near each other. This character 谈 joins words with a sound of warmth, as if conversation were speech kept at the temperature of friendship. We confuse talking with information; the ancients knew it as the slow weaving of a bond, the Confucian rites of the table, the Buddhist dialogue that cracks open the mind. A warrior plans in few words; a lover talks to keep the night from ending. To carry this word is to claim conversation as a craft, the art of being present to another voice without rehearsing your reply. Let it sit where your own breath moves, a quiet mark that you would rather sit and speak than win. The ink is an invitation, worn plainly, to whoever passes: stay a while. The best things in a life were said after everyone else had gone to sleep.