The Calligrapher — Yú Hé 俞和

Yuan calligrapher of refined regular and running-cursive script.

Yuan calligrapher (), master of regular script/running-cursive — known for 学赵孟頫. Yuan dynasty

Cultural Story

The form set a spring and a shape, 况, a state of things, and 'moreover'. The Odes ask 况 how a friend fares afar. The memos of the Han court opened with 情况, the facts on the ground. To say 何况 was to add weight to a case already made. The word ranked the world before it linked it.

Common words & phrases

• 情况 situation · circumstances
• 状况 condition · state
• 况且 moreover · besides
• 实况 actual situation · live
• 现状 current situation · status quo
• 何况 let alone · much less

Read the story behind the character

A report states the 情况 plainly; the 状况 of the patient is stable. The note adds 况且, the train is late. The feed shows 实况 of the match; the 现状 of the road is a dig. The word 何况 means let alone; the clerk uses it to close a point no one disputes.

Why this character belongs on skin

And besides — there is the matter of how things actually stand. Kuàng is the deeper condition beneath the surface report, the 'moreover' that corrects a pretty story with a plainer truth. The old scholars used it to press a point home: the river is wide, and moreover, it is cold; the year was hard, and moreover, it was not the hardest. It is the word of someone who insists on seeing the whole weather before speaking. To live with kuàng is to refuse easy comfort, to hold the fuller picture even when it weighs. There is a Buddhist honesty in it — the situation is the situation, and resisting its shape is its own suffering. To carry this character is to vow that you will face the moreover of your life without flinching. Let it lie along the inner arm, where you read your own fortunes, a quiet mark that you looked at the truth and stayed.