The Calligrapher — Wèi Fūrén 卫夫人

Jin woman calligrapher and teacher of Wang Xizhi; author of the 'Brush Array' (Bizhen) treatise.

Jin calligrapher (272–349), master of regular script — Lady Wei, the teacher of Wang Xizhi and one of the first famous women calligraphers. Jin dynasty

Cultural Story

波 is the water's skin rippling; the 說文 says wave. The 楚辭 rides the 波涛 of the Xiang. A scholar's life hits a 风波 at court. Poets trace 波纹 spreading from a single tossed stone on a quiet, mirror-still lake at dusk.

Common words & phrases

• 波浪 wave
• 水波 water wave · ripple
• 波动 fluctuation · to fluctuate · wave motion
• 风波 disturbance · trouble · storm
• 波纹 ripple · corrugation
• 波涛 great waves · billows

Read the story behind the character

The 波浪 (waves) rock the ferry at sea. A stone makes 水波 (ripples) on the pond. Stock prices show 波动 (fluctuation) daily. The family 风波 (disturbance) ended with a quiet apology. He watched 波涛 (billows) crash as the typhoon approached the coast.

Why this character belongs on skin

A single line travels the whole length of the sea and never once leaves the surface. 波 is the wave, the recurring motion that is never the same water twice. The Buddhists saw in the wave the illusion of permanence, forms rising and falling on one unchanging deep. To surf it, to ride it, to be it: the warrior learns that pressure comes in sets and passes; the lover learns that feeling, too, is a wave and not a shore. A tattoo of 波 belongs along the forearm, a curve that moves when you move. It tells the stranger you are not solid, and that this is your strength. The ocean repeats. You are one of its sentences. Ride what comes, surrender to what passes, and the sea will keep your name long after the shore forgets it.