The Calligrapher — Shì Yànxiū 释彦修

Five Dynasties monk whose cursive follows Zhang Xu, seen in his Luoyang poems stele.

Five Dynasties calligrapher (), master of cursive script — known for 《草书诗》. Five Dynasties period

Cultural Story

隆 shows the hill radical 阝 with the right of 降. The Shuowen gives to swell, to rise high. It described a mound bulging upward, then prosperity and solemn grandeur. Rituals were 隆重 (solemn), and a thriving market 兴隆 (prosperous) in classical accounts.

Common words & phrases

• 隆重 grand · solemn · ceremonious · stately
• 兴隆 prosperous · thriving · flourishing · booming
• 隆盛 flourishing · prosperous · grand · thriving
• 隆起 bulge · swell · rise · protrude
• 克隆 clone · cloning · duplicate · replicate

Read the story behind the character

A 隆重 (grand) ceremony welcomes dignitaries, and shops hope to stay 兴隆 (prosperous). An era may be 隆盛 (flourishing), while muscle 隆起 (bulges). Oddly 克隆 (clone) shares the sound. The character conveys rising abundance and dignity.

Why this character belongs on skin

The drum swells, the earth is heaped high for the grave of a king, and the sound rises — that is the character for grandeur, for the swelling and the prosperous, the thing that grows until it cannot be ignored. The sage's virtue is described as ever-increasing; the harvest that comes after the long rain is long. To be prosperous is not merely to have — it is to swell with life, to be full in the way a pregnant field is full. You have known the season of increase, the year the work finally compounded, the love that deepened instead of thinning. Wear this word as a blessing pressed into the skin: may it continue to rise. Not the vulgar plenty but the noble fullness, the隆 of a life that built something and watched it stand. Let it mark you as a person the good years found deserving, and may the swelling not stop at the body but reach the character beneath.