The Calligrapher — Jiāo Hóng 焦竑

Ming scholar and running-script calligrapher in the Su Shi manner.

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

Cultural Story

The Cowherd of legend, the 牛郎 who tends his ox along the celestial river, waits each year for the one night the magpies bridge the sky to his weaver wife. Their parting made 郎 the tender word for a young man loved from afar. In the imperial court the same character also named the 郎中 who stood in attendance, a youth of office as well as of the heart.

Common words & phrases

• 新郎 bridegroom · groom
• 郎中 doctor · physician
• 牛郎 cowherd · Cowherd (star)
• 侍郎 vice minister · assistant minister

Read the story behind the character

At a banquet hall the 新郎 stands at the door in a rented suit, greeting each table as the band warms up, while across town a 郎中 at a clinic takes a pulse and writes a herbal slip. The character now spans the groom at his wedding and the doctor at his bench, the young man of rite and the young man of remedy in a single old word.

Why this character belongs on skin

In the old songs 郎 was the young man at the door, the lover, the bridegroom the girl watched from behind the curtain — a word soaked in longing. It also named the gentleman-official, the 侍郎 who served with honor. The radical is the mound, the height a man grows to. To wear 郎 is to carry the tender masculinity of one who can be both courtier and devoted husband, fierce and gentle by turn. It is the romance of becoming a man without losing the boy who loved first. Let this mark rest near the heart that still races at a knock. The ink is the lover who never stops arriving, and the door, tattooed, stays open. He is the boy you were, and the man you became, held in one mark.