The Calligrapher — Yǒng Xīng 永瑆

Qing prince famed for elegant regular script in the Zhao-Ouyang manner.

Qing calligrapher (), master of regular script — known for 成亲王. Qing dynasty

Cultural Story

In the 'Three Kingdoms' tale of the 煮酒论英雄, Cao Cao tells Liu Bei that only the two of them deserve the name 英雄, while warlords who merely hold land are dust. The word 雄 here means not size but the force to bend an age. The 雄伟 walls of a frontier town and a ruler's 雄心 both drew on that same old charge of masculine, world-shaping power.

Common words & phrases

• 英雄 hero
• 雄伟 majestic · grand
• 雄壮 powerful · majestic
• 雄心 ambition · great aspiration
• 雄厚 abundant · solid

Read the story behind the character

An engineer stands at the base of a 雄伟 new bridge, its towers rising where the old ferry used to cross. The firm's 雄厚 capital carried the project through two price spikes, and the lead architect still speaks of the 雄心 that started it on a napkin. On the site board the word 英雄 hangs as a joke over the foreman who has not taken a day off in months.

Why this character belongs on skin

There is a moment at the crest of a hard climb when the wind changes and you stand taller without deciding to. 雄 carries that swell in its bones—the left half means wing, the right means strength, and together they name the majestic, the heroic, the unapologetically masculine. It lives in 雄鹰, the great hawk riding a thermal, and in 雄心, ambition as wide as a valley. The Chinese called their heroes 英雄, and the old warriors knew that this was never about noise; the hawk hunts in silence, but no one mistakes it for prey. Confucius said a great man stands firm without being rigid. This is the character for that stance—shoulders open, jaw set, purpose unhurried. Ink it where you can feel it pulse when you need to remember what you are built for, and let it answer for you when words would be too loud.