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

Shi originally meant to go somewhere — Zhuangzi's fable has the traveler bound for the near market taking only three meals. From going-to fit a place, the word slid into fitting itself: what suits, what is right.

Common words & phrases

• 适合 suit · fit · befit
• 适应 adapt · acclimatize · suit
• 适当 appropriate · suitable · proper
• 适用 apply · be suited · usable
• 合适 suitable · fitting · proper
• 舒适 comfortable · cozy · snug

Read the story behind the character

Shi measures modern fit: shihe (suit) the job or not, shiying (adapt) to the new city's winter, shidang (appropriate) dress for the banquet, shiyong (applicable) only indoors, the office chair finally shushi (comfortable). Zhuangzi's market-goer smiles in every commuter timing breakfast to the train.

Why this character belongs on skin

The shoe meets the foot and there is no friction, no thought, only the easy going—this is to fit, to be suited, to arrive where you were always meant to be. The character carries the sound of a knocking and the sense of going toward, as if the right place were something you walk into and the door simply closes behind. The Daoist speaks of 适 as the ease of the sage who flows with what is, who suffers no chafing against the world's grain; the Buddhists call the same peace the end of striving. There is a redemption in arrival, the relief of having found the shape you fill. To wear this mark is to declare a hard-won comfort, a life that finally fits. Let it rest where the body bends, at the knee or the small of the back. The ink is the one thing that fits you perfectly, a permanent ease you carry against every uneasy hour.