The Calligrapher — Yú Jí 虞集

Yuan official calligrapher of refined regular script.

Yuan calligrapher (), master of regular script — known for 《垂纶亭记》. Yuan dynasty

Cultural Story

犁 is the plow that turns the soil, a 牛 ox pulling the blade. The Classics celebrate 犁地 plowing as the root of civilization; a 木犁 wooden plow fed a family for generations. The 犁牛 plow ox was the farmer's partner, and 拉犁 pulling a plow the season's first labor. The char is the furrow from which all meals quietly rose.

Common words & phrases

• 犁地 plow the field
• 犁杖 plow
• 木犁 wooden plow
• 犁牛 plow ox
• 拉犁 pull a plow

Read the story behind the character

A farmer 犁地 plows the field with a 木犁 wooden plow or a tractor, and a 犁牛 plow ox still works the terraces. We say 拉犁 pulling a plow is backbreaking, and city kids meet the 犁杖 plow only in picture books. Though machines 犁 the land now, the char stays the symbol of honest toil that feeds everyone at the table.

Why this character belongs on skin

The plow is the first honest machine—a blade that opens the earth so life can begin inside it. Drawn by ox or man, it turns what was flat and dead into furrows where seed can fall and hide and rise. A farmer's year begins here; so, the Daoists might say, does a self. You cannot plant on unbroken ground. To plow is to accept the cutting, the turning over of what lay comfortable and concealed. The warrior breaks his own soil before any battle; the penitent turns the heart. To ink this is to admit you are still working the land of yourself, still drawing the blade through what needs to change. You are not finished ground. You are the furrow and the one who cuts it, patient with the season. Let it mark the part of you that refuses to lie fallow—that trusts the wound of the plow to be the beginning of everything green.