The Calligrapher — Yǒng Xīng 永瑆

Qing prince famed for elegant regular script in the Zhao-Ouyang manner.

Qing calligrapher (), master of regular script — known for 成亲王. Qing dynasty

Cultural Story

倒 is to fall. The 史记 tells of a wall that 倒塌 in the quake; a man may 倒下 in the field. To be 倒霉 is the bad turn no one planned, and a shop may 倒闭 its doors. To 倒车 is to send the cart back. The character is the thing that loses its standing.

Common words & phrases

• 倒下 fall down · collapse
• 倒塌 collapse · crumble
• 倒霉 unlucky · out of luck
• 倒闭 close down · go bankrupt
• 倒车 reverse a car · back up

Read the story behind the character

A cyclist 倒下 on the wet track; the old mill 倒塌 in the storm. The shop ran 倒霉 and then 倒闭, and a driver must 倒车 into the narrow slot. Falling, failing, reversing — this word runs the road, the ruin, and the small lot where the car backs in.

Why this character belongs on skin

The cup inverted gives nothing; the fallen warrior, if he rises, knows more than the one who never knelt. The character is a person turned head to foot, the world upside down, the order reversed — and the ancients used it for both the spilled jar and the humble bow. There is a Buddhist wisdom in the reversal: only the vessel turned over can be filled anew, only the proud man laid low can finally learn. We fear the fall as if it were the end, when often it is the only door. To wear this is to make peace with inversion, with the season when everything you trusted is reversed and you must begin again from the floor. Let it sit on your skin as a talisman against terror — that being turned over is not being destroyed, that the jar emptied by the breaking is at least honest, and that what stands upright after the turning was worth more than what stood before.