The Calligrapher — Kē Jiǔsī 柯九思

Yuan painter-calligrapher renowned for his robust running script.

Yuan calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《老人星赋》. Yuan dynasty

Cultural Story

In the classical tradition: 喂 pairs 口 with 畏 and means to feed and the call 'hey.' A mother 餵養, fed and raised, her children through famine, 餵食, fed, the stock at dawn, and 餵飽, fed full, the traveler at the gate. As 'hey' it hailed a passerby — 喂! — the oldest street greeting. The character joins nourishment and attention, the act of giving food or a shout to draw another near.

Common words & phrases

• 喂养 feed · raise
• 喂食 feed
• 喂饭 feed (rice)
• 喂饱 feed full

Read the story behind the character

In the modern world: Mom 餵養 — feeds and raises — the cat, and you 餵食, feed, the goldfish each morning, then 餵飽, feed full, the dog before work. A friend calls 喂! — hey! — across the café to get your attention. At the clinic a nurse 喂s the patient through a tube; 喂 is the daily give-and-call of care, from the bowl to the shout that says 'I'm here.'

Why this character belongs on skin

喂 began as a mouth at work. The character sets a mouth beside 畏, the ancient picture of fear — a hand raised before something vast — and its first meaning was to feed, to put food into another body: a child, an animal, an elder, a guest. Then the telephone arrived, and somewhere in the twentieth century 喂 became the word we speak into the unknown before we know who is there. Hello, said to a possible stranger or a possible ghost. Think of what the word actually does: every call, every door answered, starts with an offering of the voice — a small feeding of silence with sound. The Buddhists taught that giving food is the first mercy, older than doctrine. To wear 喂 is to keep that mercy daily-sized: to be the one who answers, who feeds, who says the open word into darkness and waits, unafraid, for whatever answers back.