The Calligrapher — Wáng Cí 王慈

Southern Qi calligrapher son of Wang Sengqian; master of cursive in the Wang family line

南朝齐 calligrapher (), master of cursive script — known for 王僧虔之子. Southern Qi dynasty (Southern Dynasties)

Cultural Story

浑 means originally muddy, then whole, undifferentiated. The Zhuang zi loves 浑 uncarved simplicity, while a 浑 age is one clouded by noise. 浑厚 praises sturdy art, and 浑然 the seamless union of things. The word holds both the clouded and the complete at once, a single unbroken mass.

Common words & phrases

• 浑浊 muddy · turbid
• 浑身 all over · whole body
• 浑厚 simple and vigorous
• 浑然 completely · one whole
• 浑水摸鱼 fish in troubled waters

Read the story behind the character

Stir a pond and the water turns 浑浊 (muddy, turbid); after a fall you feel sore 浑身 (all over, whole body). We admire 浑厚 (simple and vigorous) calligraphy and speak of a 浑然 (completely) forgetting of time in flow. Tricksters 浑水摸鱼 (fish in troubled waters) when others are distracted.

Why this character belongs on skin

Before the cutting, there was the undivided. The character means both muddy and whole, and the ancients heard in it the original oneness, the soup of the world before names were poured in. To be whole is to be unbroken, unashamed, the person who has not been sliced into pieces by too much knowing. The Daoist prizes the uncarved block; the child is undivided because he has not yet learned to separate himself from the rain. We spend our lives refining ourselves into fragments, and call it growing up. To wear this word is to defend the undivided self, the muddy wholeness that wisdom tries to clarify away. You are not a list of parts. Let the ink be the roundness under your skin, the part of you that refuses the knife. The world will sort you soon enough. Until then, be whole. The uncut stone holds every statue at once.