The Calligrapher — Bó Shàozhī 薄绍之

Liu Song calligrapher paired with Yang Xin as 'Yang-Bo', famed for running and cursive script

南朝宋 calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 与羊欣并称. Liu Song dynasty (Southern Dynasties)

Cultural Story

弹 is the pellet flung and the string plucked. To 弹琴 was to wake the lute, and 弹劾 to impeach a minister — to fling the charge that knocks him from his seat. One word holds the recital and the accusation, the music and the stone, both things set in motion by a finger.

Common words & phrases

• 子弹 bullet · cartridge
• 弹性 elasticity · flexibility · spring
• 弹簧 spring · coil
• 弹琴 play the piano · play stringed instrument
• 导弹 missile
• 弹劾 impeach · accuse

Read the story behind the character

子弹 is the round a soldier carries, 导弹 the arc a news map draws, 弹性 the bounce a mattress ad sells, 弹琴 the kid's evening practice, 弹劾 the vote that ends a president. The pluck is a policy and a piano; we fling and we play, often not knowing which we are doing.

Why this character belongs on skin

A small metal seed leaves the chamber at a speed the eye cannot follow, and a life that was a whole universe of thoughts collapses into a single hole. The bullet is the modern arrow, the terse argument of war. Yet the same character also means the pellet, the pellet of the slingshot, the pellet the musician flicks from a string to make a note sing. Destruction and music share one syllable. The warrior and the player both release something small that changes everything downstream. You have fired words you could not take back, and you have loosed kindnesses that changed a room. To wear this word is to respect the small thing's weight — what you send out travels further than you see. Let it mark your skin as a warning and a vow: I measure what I release, for the pellet remembers the hand that threw it, and so does the world.