The Calligrapher — Liǔ Gōngquán 柳公权

Tang regular-script master famed for 'bones' of strength; rival to Yan Zhenqing.

Tang calligrapher (778–865), master of regular script — Tang master of bone-strength regular script, paired forever with Yan Zhenqing as 'Yan sinew, Liu bone'. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

The road that will not go straight gives the character 迂, winding and roundabout, and by extension a mind that takes the long way round. 迂回 is the tactic of flanking rather than charging; 迂腐 the pedantry of a man who quotes the ancients at the wrong moment. The word holds both the clever detour and the foolish one, the bend in the path and the bend in the thinking that will not straighten.

Common words & phrases

• 迂回 roundabout · tortuous
• 迂腐 pedantic
• 迂阔 impractical

Read the story behind the character

A hiker takes the 迂回 trail to avoid the washed-out bridge, and a debater uses 迂回 to corner his opponent without a direct claim. An old teacher is called 迂腐 for insisting on rules the room has forgotten, and 迂阔 for plans no budget will allow. The character that curved the road now curves the argument and the temperament — the long way that is sometimes wisdom and sometimes only stubbornness.

Why this character belongs on skin

The straight road is for messengers and fools. Yū is the long way round — the circuitous path, the man who thinks in loops, the detour that becomes the point. There is a charge in the old tongue against the roundabout one: he is the pedant, the one who won't get to it. But the roundabout road is where you meet yourself; the shortcut only delivers you, unchanged, to the door. To wear yū is to confess you are not in a hurry to arrive, that the wandering was the journey's actual content. It is a quiet rebellion against efficiency, a vow to take the path that bends. Let this mark rest where you have strayed and found the better thing, the scar that is really a map.