The Calligrapher — Yǔ Yì 庾翼

Jin general and calligrapher of cursive script who once rivaled Wang Xizhi.

Jin calligrapher (), master of cursive script — known for 与王羲之齐名. Jin dynasty

Cultural Story

叙 was to set in order and to tell. 叙旧 was to sit with an old friend and arrange the years between you. The historians 叙 the events in sequence, as the Spring and Autumn annals did, one court after another. The word joined the arranging of facts to the recounting of them, a ledger and a story in the same stroke.

Common words & phrases

• 叙述 narrate · recount · describe
• 记叙 narrate · describe
• 叙说 tell · narrate
• 叙旧 reminisce · talk of old times
• 面叙 meet and talk
• 共叙 share a conversation

Read the story behind the character

A witness 叙述 what she saw; a pupil 造句 to practice the word. Two schoolmates 叙旧 over a long dinner; a host and guest 面叙 before the contract. Colleagues 共叙 the project's start at the reunion. The word does the work of telling and of ordering -- the account given, the old times recalled, the meeting face to face where matters are laid in their proper line.

Why this character belongs on skin

Every scar is a sentence waiting for the rest of the story. 叙 is the telling — the character for setting things in order, for narrating the chaos into meaning. The ancients used it when one friend laid bare his heart to another; 叙旧, to renew an old bond by recounting it. There is intimacy in the word, the sense that to be known is to be spoken. Buddhist or Christian, the confession is the same urge: say it, and it becomes bearable. To wear 叙 is to refuse silence about the life you have lived. It is the mark of one who trusts his own arc. Put it where your hand can find it, and remember that you are the author, not the page. The ink is only the latest line in a long account you are still writing, still brave enough to read aloud to whoever earns the right to listen.