11 Jun 09
A few spottings of the “Tao” character while I was in Hong Kong. The word is somewhat ubiquitous, since it can mean “road”, “path”, or “way”, and so marks road signs everywhere. This is the same character that I got tattooed on my right wrist.
It’s interesting to see how different Chinese characters can look, whether they’re engraved, painted, written, or stamped.
Neat. I looked at it with an eye to which strokes come in what order, pretty interesting. 13 strokes at least! I think I could write it now.
Yeah, it’s usually 12 strokes I think (the last and second-last strokes are usually combined, but for some reason it’s sometimes split). Lots of Chinese writing follows rules of which strokes and direction to write, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you knew how to write it just by looking at it.
It’s such a beautiful character. It’s structured while fluid. Like the Tao itself.
It makes you wonder: did the word come first, or the idea?