The Calligrapher — Zhōng Shàojīng 钟绍京

Tang calligrapher famed for the regular-script Lingfei Jing.

Tang calligrapher (), master of regular script — known for 《灵飞经》. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

Tao Yuanming wrote his own 挽歌, songs for the dead sung while still alive, the cart creaking to the grave and the singer unashamed. 挽 is the pulled-back rope of the funeral bier, the dirge sung to slow the procession. The poet made his own ending music, and the neighbors who heard him practice the death-song thought him either very brave or very drunk.

Common words & phrases

• 挽救 save · remedy
• 挽回 retrieve · recover
• 挽留 persuade to stay
• 挽联 elegiac couplet
• 手挽手 hand in hand

Read the story behind the character

A doctor 挽救s a life; a host 挽留s a guest; a funeral bears 挽聯, elegiac couplets; lovers walk 手挽手. The bier's rope is a plea and a linked arm now. The song for the dead is the same pull, whether holding back death, a guest, or a beloved, and the linked arm is only the rope, tied to a living wrist.

Why this character belongs on skin

Draw the bowstring to your cheek and feel the whole sky hold its breath. Wǎn is the pull — not the release, the gathering of force and feeling before the arrow knows its flight. A daughter挽留 her dying father with a hand on his sleeve, begging the hour to stay. The oar挽 the river backward, the mourner挽 the coffin through rain. In every sense it is the gesture of keeping, of drawing close what the world would let slip. The Dao says what is drawn tight will loosen; the warrior knows the bow must be released to mean anything. Yet we tattoo wǎn to honor the holding — the love that refuses to open its fist. Let it sit on your forearm like a drawn cord, the quiet muscle of everything you have refused to lose.