The Calligrapher — Xú Hào 徐浩

Tang master of robust regular script, paired with Yan Zhenqing as 'Yan-Xu'; wrote imperial edicts.

Tang calligrapher (703–782), master of regular script — known for 《不空和尚碑》. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

親 showed a man peering at the mourner's coffin, to be present at the rites, the root of kin, intimate. The 說文 reads it as to be close, to witness. 父親 and 母親 are the parents you bury and honor; 親戚 the wide net of relations the ancestral hall recorded. The character is presence at the moment that matters, the body that shows up, the bond made by standing near.

Common words & phrases

• 亲戚 relative · kinsfolk · kin
• 亲切 warm · kind · cordial · friendly
• 亲自 personally · in person · oneself
• 亲密 close · intimate · familiar
• 父亲 father · dad
• 母亲 mother · mom

Read the story behind the character

亲戚 is the reunion you cannot skip; 亲切 the warmth of the hometown dialect. 亲自 is the boss who shows instead of delegating; 亲密 the relationship you post about. 父亲 and 母亲 are the parents in every school form. The character names the close and the blood, the presence that defines intimacy. It still means showing up, at the grave, at the door, at the bed, the nearness that makes a relation real.

Why this character belongs on skin

亲 is what makes someone 亲人 — not the relatives on the form, but the people who are really yours. Intimate, close, the ones who have seen you undone and leaned in rather than away. For so many of us the word had to be rebuilt from scratch: the family that dissolved and the family that formed in its place, the friends who became the emergency contacts, the person who knows the sound you make when you're trying not to cry. 亲 is that nearness, claimed. It is also the tenderness of being known without armor, of being called by a name only your people use. Ink it where you can press a thumb when the old loneliness visits. Let it testify: you have kin. Not by accident of birth, but by the slower, braver road of being chosen and choosing back. 亲 is the proof the road was worth it.