The Calligrapher — Mǐ Fú 米芾

Song eccentric genius of dynamic, 'flying' running script.

Song calligrapher (1051–1107), master of running script — Song eccentric genius ('crazy Zhang, idiot Mi') whose running script alternates discipline with glee. Song dynasty

Cultural Story

供 is to set before. A temple 供奉 an image on the altar; sons 供养 their aged parents by law. In court a man 供认 the deed and signs his 供词. To 提供 grain to the state was a farmer's duty. The character moves between the gods, the family, and the judge.

Common words & phrases

• 提供 provide · supply · offer
• 供应 supply · provide · furnish
• 供养 support · provide for · serve
• 供认 confess · plead guilty
• 供奉 consecrate · enshrine · offer
• 供词 confession · testimony · statement

Read the story behind the character

The app 提供 a map of the route; a warehouse 供应 the store. A son 供养 his mother's care, and a suspect 供认 on camera. The shrine 供奉 fruit at new year. Supplying, feeding, confessing — this word serves the shop, the family, and the court without changing its shape.

Why this character belongs on skin

Before the altar the hands lay down what they can spare — fruit, incense, a bowl of clean water — and the word for it is 供. To offer, to supply, to keep another fed. The same character feeds the dead and the living; the son who 供养 his aging mother performs the oldest economy of the species, the debt repaid in rice and presence. Buddhism speaks of offering without hope of return, the open hand that asks the universe nothing back. There is a ferocity in true generosity — it costs you, and you do it anyway. If you have ever given past the point of comfort, you know this mark. Wear 供 near the palm, where you give and receive, a quiet testament that your life has been spent in the supplying of others. The bowl held out is also a bowl filled. Let it be your skin's confession: that to offer was never the small part of you, but the truest.