The Calligrapher — Xíng Tóng 邢侗

Ming calligrapher of elegant running script, paired as 'North Xing'.

Ming calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 晚明四家之一. Ming dynasty

Cultural Story

泳 means to swim, to move through water; the 說文 gives to swim. The 詩經 tells of crossing by 泳 the stream. In the 禮記, youths learned 游泳 as a gentleman's skill. Court records praise a brave 泳 who saved a drowning official's son.

Common words & phrases

• 游泳 swim · swimming
• 泳池 swimming pool
• 泳衣 swimsuit
• 仰泳 backstroke
• 蝶泳 butterfly stroke

Read the story behind the character

Kids 游泳 (swim) at the 泳池 (swimming pool) in summer. She packs a 泳衣 (swimsuit) for the beach. He trains 仰泳 (backstroke) for the meet. The coach drills 蝶泳 (butterfly stroke) till arms burn. A tourist 泳 (swims) out to the raft at dawn.

Why this character belongs on skin

You leave the land and the air and enter the second world, where breath is a thing you carry and the arms become oars. 泳 is to swim, the long diagonal stroke through a medium that does not want to hold you. The ancients praised it as endurance, the crossing of the great rivers by those with nowhere to be carried. To swim is to trust the water with your weight, to move by surrender more than force. A tattoo of 泳 belongs on the shoulder, the muscle that pulls you through. It says you have been in over your head and chosen to keep moving. The shore is someone else's worry. You are the stroke. Each pull is a small refusal of gravity, a proof that you were built for the deeper element and not the safe one.