The Calligrapher — Yà Qī 亚栖

Tang monk calligrapher of cursive script, heir to Zhang Xu's manner.

Tang calligrapher (), master of cursive script — known for 禅僧书家. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

古 was the old. Ma Zhiyuan's lyric set a traveler on "an old road, west wind, a lean horse" -- 古道西风瘦马 -- at dusk's end. The 古诗十九首 sang of parting and impermanence; the 古迹 are the stones those singers knew. The word reached backward to what had already aged, the road and the ruin and the verse that outlasted both.

Common words & phrases

• 古代 ancient · ancient times · antiquity
• 古老 ancient · old · time-honored · aged
• 古人 ancient people · the ancients · forefathers
• 古典 classical · classic · traditional
• 古迹 historic site · relic · ancient remains
• 古书 ancient book · old book · ancient text

Read the story behind the character

A tour bus stops at the 古迹; a collector bids on a 古书 at the auction. The 古典 concert sells out; a student reads 古人 to learn the old measures. The 古代 wing of the museum stays crowded through the holiday. The word does the work of antiquity -- the site, the book, the music, the people long dead -- gathered under one plain sign of age.

Why this character belongs on skin

古 is old — ancient, the time before memory, the ten joined to the mouth that speaks what the ancestors said. To wear 古 is to lean into the deep well, to admit you are younger than the things you love. The Confucian honored it; the Daoist dissolved into it. There is a comfort in the ancient, a relief from the pressure to be new. We are obsessed with the next thing; this character points the other way, to the stone tools, the first fires, the long quiet that made us. To carry 古 is to say your roots matter, that you are the late chapter of a very old book. Place it where you feel small against time. Let it steady you: nothing you face is unprecedented. The old ones endured. So you will, in your turn, become ancient too.