The Calligrapher — Zhèng Fú 郑簠

Qing clerical-script pioneer who revived Han steles, hailed 'first in clerical of all ages'.

Qing calligrapher (), master of clerical script — known for 清隶复兴先驱. Qing dynasty

Cultural Story

亦 is a person with two marks at the armpits, also, likewise, the old demonstrative that pointed to a second instance. The 論語 uses it to add, 不亦乐乎. 亦步亦趋, from the 莊子, is the follower who matches the master step for step. The character is the echo-word, the so too that keeps a comparison alive. It is the armpit-ticks marking the same on both sides.

Common words & phrases

• 亦然 also so · likewise
• 亦步亦趋 imitate closely · follow
• 人云亦云 echo others
• 亦复 also · again

Read the story behind the character

亦然 is the likewise of a written list; 亦步亦趋 the criticism, a yes-man who copies every move. 人云亦云 is the parrot, the person with no opinion of his own. 亦复 is the rarer also. The character is bookish now; speech uses 也. It survives in proverbial rebukes and formal parallels, the old also that still marks the imitator and the echo, the armpit marks ticking both sides of a point.

Why this character belongs on skin

This character is a person with two strokes marking the shoulders — the original word for armpit, which came to mean the joining, the 'and also' of things. 亦 is the quiet particle that refuses exclusivity; it says you can be both. Brave and afraid. Saint and sinner. Rooted and wandering. The West demands a single self, but the truest lives are coordinated contradictions worn at once. To wear 亦 is to stop choosing between the halves. A tattoo of this word belongs where two things meet on the body — the center line, the place a scar crosses another — a small punctuation of 'and.' Let it mark the truth that you contain the opposites without apology. You were not made to be one clean note; you were made to be a chord, and the resonance is the only honest music you have.