The Calligrapher — Liú Yōng 刘墉

Qing minister famed for rounded, 'cotton-hidden-iron' running script.

Qing calligrapher (), master of regular script/running script — known for 浓墨宰相. Qing dynasty

Cultural Story

鱼 is a clean pictograph of a fish—head, eye, body, and forked tail drawn in bone and bronze. The 《説文解字》 calls it 水虫也, "a water creature," the ancestor of every fish word that follows.

Common words & phrases

• 钓鱼 fishing · angle · go fishing
• 金鱼 goldfish
• 鱼汤 fish soup
• 鱼肉 fish meat · flesh of fish
• 鲜鱼 fresh fish
• 鱼竿 fishing rod · fishing pole

Read the story behind the character

鱼 is fish, everywhere: children 钓鱼 with a 鱼竿, keep 金鱼 in bowls, and eat 鱼汤 and 鱼肉. Markets sell 鲜鱼 by the slab. From aquariums to feasts, the character swims through daily life, diet, and the weekend angler's quiet hobby.

Why this character belongs on skin

In Chinese, the word for fish sounds like the word for surplus — and so a room full of 鱼 paintings means a house that will never want for more. But the deeper image is older: a fish moving through water with no thought of moving, free because it has found its element. To ink this character is to wish yourself abundance, yes, but also to wish yourself that easier swimming — the life where you stop struggling against the current and discover the current was always carrying you. Zhuangzi's fish forgot the hook because it forgot the fear. Carry 鱼 and you carry a small, slippery luck, the kind that multiplies. Let there be more than enough. Let it flow. Let yourself be the creature who belongs entirely to the water.