The Calligrapher — Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之

The 'Sage of Calligraphy'; his running script has set the standard for 1,700 years.

Eastern Jin calligrapher (303–361), master of running script/cursive script/regular script — the Sage of Calligraphy; his Orchid Pavilion Preface is the most celebrated work in the tradition, and nearly every later master traces lineage to his hand. Eastern Jin dynasty

Cultural Story

晚 is the day's decline. 黄昏 the blue hour; 晚饭 the bowl after work. 晚报 the evening sheet; 晚霞 the clouds on fire. 晚年 the calm close of life. The word is the late and the last — the meal, the glow, the years. The Shuowen sees the sun bent down. A single character for the end that comes daily and once.

Common words & phrases

• 晚上 evening · night
• 晚饭 dinner · supper
• 晚报 evening newspaper
• 晚霞 evening glow · sunset clouds
• 晚年 old age · later years
• 夜晚 night

Read the story behind the character

晚上 is the scroll; 晚饭 the takeout. 晚报 the kiosk; 晚霞 the photo. 晚年 the plan; 夜晚 the dark. The word runs the feed and the future — the night in, the old age. From the delivery to the horizon, 晚 is the late light and the late life, the evening that returns and the ending that does not, both called by one falling stroke.

Why this character belongs on skin

The day leans toward its close and something in us forgives the hours we wasted. Evening is the honest part of time, when the work is done or abandoned and only the quiet remains. The character sets the sun near a man, the light low, the long shadow of himself the only companion. Confucius, near his own end, lamented the failing day; the poets drank to it, to the late warmth. To bear it is to accept the later chapter, the lovingly belated self who arrived after the noise. Let it rest where the light would last touch you, a gentle emblem of the evening soul. Ink it as a pledge to the late bloomers, proof that you came when you came, and that the setting sun found you unashamed, still standing in its long red consideration.