The Calligrapher — Zhào Mèngfǔ 赵孟頫

Yuan master whose elegant regular and running script revived classical tradition.

Yuan calligrapher (1254–1322), master of regular script/running script/cursive script — Yuan reviver of classical elegance who could write any script beautifully and did. Yuan dynasty

Cultural Story

Laozi wrote that things are often 損ed to be helped and helped to be 損ed, the wheel's spoke and the vessel's hollow both made by taking away. 损 is the loss that is also a making, the chapter where the Daoist praises the empty, and the potter who cut the clay away trusted the hollow more than the lump that remained beside it.

Common words & phrases

• 损失 loss · lose · damage
• 损害 harm · damage · injure · impair
• 损坏 damage · break · spoil · ruin
• 破损 broken · damaged · worn
• 损伤 hurt · harm · damage · injure
• 磨损 wear · abrasion · attrition

Read the story behind the character

A flood 損失s the crop; a blow 損害s the name; a cup is 破損; a sole is 磨損 thin. The hollow that helps is a crack now. The taking-away the Daoist blessed is the same, whether it shapes a wheel or simply wears a shoe to the thread, and the worn sole is only the hollow, walked into being one step at a time.

Why this character belongs on skin

The vase slips and the rim chips; the word for that small ruin is this — the harm, the damage, the wearing away that time performs on everything held dear. The Daoist calls the worn blade the truest one, for what survives loss has been measured by it. But this also names the cynic who damages others for sport, the tongue that breaks what it cannot build. To carry this character is to know both the wound and the wounding, the crack that lets the light in and the hand that makes it. Nothing whole stays whole. Ink this and you accept the chipped edge as a record, not a shame — the vase that broke and was loved anyway, the life that lost and kept its grace.