Wei wu wei; act without acting is a Daoist aphorism here written by the Chinese artist Li Yuan-Chia. I never saw him practicing his calligraphy but I do know that he did not use the traditional ink stick and stone. He used instead a large bottle of indian ink as purchased from Thurnam's in Carlisle. Paper for practice was provided by old newspapers which were then used to light his stove.Whether this frugality would be classed as a Daoist characteristic I do not know. One presumes that would be the case; showing off doesn't fit with the image of self sufficiency and frugality such as Li exemplified.
And frugal he certainly was: a visitor, calling by arrangement on a winter evening might find the house in darkness. But he answered the door pointing out that one did not need light to think by. Li did not usually go far from home but sometimes went out on his scooter-with a kind of home-made apron fixed around his legs to protect himself from the breeze.
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