The Calligrapher — Chǔ Suíliáng 褚遂良

Tang chancellor and regular-script master of elegant, balanced strokes.

Tang calligrapher (596–658), master of regular script — Tang master of graceful, tensile regular script favored by the imperial court. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

殉 meant to die for a cause, and in the oldest practice it was 殉葬 burial with the dead, when servants or objects followed a lord into the tomb. The Shuowen reads it as following in death, but later ages turned it noble: to 殉国 was to die for one's country, to 殉职 to die at one's post, and to 殉情 to die for love. The character weighed devotion against sacrifice.

Common words & phrases

• 殉职 die at one's post
• 殉国 die for one's country
• 殉情 die for love
• 殉葬 buried with the dead

Read the story behind the character

Today 殉 names the highest sacrifice: a firefighter 殉职 dies at his post, a soldier 殉国 dies for the country, and a tragedy speaks of 殉情 dying for love. Museums explain the ancient custom of 殉葬 burial with the dead. From a hero's epitaph to a love story, 殉 marks the moment someone gives everything, the ultimate price of loyalty and passion.

Why this character belongs on skin

Love asks for something before it gives anything back. The character is to die for a cause, to be buried with it, to follow a thing into the grave because nothing else was imaginable. The ancient kings took their servants and their horses with them; the lovers of legend leapt the flames together. The Christians called it martyrdom, the witness paid in blood; the Daoists might call it simply being true past the point of survival. To choose this as ink is to name the thing you would not live without, the person or principle for which the cost stops mattering. It is a dangerous tattoo, the kind that asks a question you cannot take back. Wear it only if you mean it. Let it rest against the ribs like a kept secret, a small admission that some parts of you were always willing to burn rather than bend.