The Calligrapher — Zhào Mèngfǔ 赵孟頫

Yuan master whose elegant regular and running script revived classical tradition.

Yuan calligrapher (1254–1322), master of regular script/running script/cursive script — Yuan reviver of classical elegance who could write any script beautifully and did. Yuan dynasty

Cultural Story

饫 (yù) combines 食 with the phonetic 夭. 《説文解字》 gives 宴食也, “to eat at a banquet,” a full and leisurely meal. It conveyed the ease of guests satisfied at a generous, private feast of the ancients.

Common words & phrases

• 饫足 satiated · fully satisfied
• 饫闻 have heard much

Read the story behind the character

饫 now reads as thoroughly satiated. One may feel 饫足 (fully satisfied) after a long meal, and a person 饫闻 (has heard much) has been so often told a tale that it no longer surprises. The character keeps a literary, full flavor.

Why this character belongs on skin

饫 is the word for the end of a great meal—not eating, but having eaten: sated, leaning back, the table littered and the candles low. Classical texts speak of 饫宴, the banquets where alliances softened and grudges were drowned, and the Book of Songs uses the state of fullness as an image of ceremonial completeness. Every tradition knows this hour. The Mediterranean calls it la dolce vita; the Chinese poets call it the good part of the poem, after the striving. There is philosophy in fullness too. To be sated without greed—to stop at the edge of pleasure rather than past it—is one of the oldest definitions of the gentleman. Hunger is honest; so is knowing when you've had enough. 饫 is a sensual character, undeniably: it names the languor of the well-fed, the warm weight of satisfaction in the limbs. Worn on the skin, it is a promise to enjoy things properly. Not to nibble at life, but to sit down, taste everything, and then—wisely—lean back.