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

《説文解字》defines 雞 as “知時畜也” (the time-keeping domestic animal), a phono-semantic compound from the short-tail bird radical 隹 with the sound 奚. Raised since Neolithic times, the rooster's dawn crow made it the natural alarm of the village, and its place in sacrifice and the zodiac sealed its role in daily life.

Common words & phrases

• 鸡蛋 egg · hen's egg
• 公鸡 rooster · cock
• 母鸡 hen · mother chicken
• 鸡肉 chicken meat · poultry
• 炸鸡 fried chicken
• 鸡毛 chicken feather · trifle

Read the story behind the character

Every breakfast starts with 鸡蛋 (hen's egg), while the 公鸡 (rooster) still crows at farms and the 母鸡 (hen) broods. We eat 鸡肉 (chicken meat), queue for 炸鸡 (fried chicken), and call a trifling matter 鸡毛 (chicken feather). From market to meme, 鸡 remains the world's most familiar poultry.

Why this character belongs on skin

There is a small creature that owns the morning. 鸡 is the chicken, the rooster whose cry splits the dark and tells the world to rise. The ancients rose at its voice to practice the sword while others slept — 闻鸡起舞, the dawn discipline of those who would not waste the day. Humble, yes, pecking in the dirt, but the 鸡 asks nothing of heaven and gives the sun its alarm. We laugh at the barnyard bird and miss the lesson: courage need not be large to be loud, and the one who wakes first often walks furthest. Carry it and you keep the farmyard honesty, the daily cry that says begin. Let it rest on your skin as the rooster that wakes the better you. The ink is your dawn.