The Calligrapher — Xī Chāo 郗超

Eastern Jin statesman and calligrapher of cursive script, follower of the two Wangs.

Eastern Jin calligrapher (), master of cursive script — known for 郗愔之子. Eastern Jin dynasty

Cultural Story

隊, ancestor of 队, sets a falling shape beneath the mound radical 阝 and originally meant to fall or tumble from a height, 從高隕也. Armies “fell” upon the enemy in formation, and the word came to mean a body of troops and, later, any group moving as one. The sense of a column dropping into place gave the modern meaning of a team or line.

Common words & phrases

• 队伍 team · troops
• 排队 queue · line up
• 队长 captain · team leader
• 球队 ball team
• 军队 army

Read the story behind the character

Today 队 is everywhere: a 队伍 is a troop or procession, we 排队 to line up for tickets, a 队长 leads the group, a 球队 is a ball team, and 军队 the army itself. From school field trips to national parades, 队 names any cluster moving with a shared purpose. The old image of falling into formation survives whenever people fall into line behind a leader.

Why this character belongs on skin

A mound and a line of men—队 is the column, the company, the band that moves as one toward whatever waits. The character once showed people fallen into ranks; now it is any group bound by a common direction, soldiers or friends or the strangers who happen to walk the same street at dawn. To be in a 队 is to surrender a little isolation for the warmth of the shared march. A tattoo of this character is for the loyal, the one who shows up, who stands in the line others can lean on. It says you are not alone, and that somewhere your people form a column behind you. Let it run along the arm or the side. The ranks close. Whoever you are with, you move together, and the moving is the bond.