The Calligrapher — Lù Jī 陆机

Jin calligrapher of clerical-cursive script, author of the Pingfu Letter (Pingfu tie), earliest surviving work.

Jin calligrapher (), master of cursive script — known for 《平复帖》（存世最早墨迹）. Jin dynasty

Cultural Story

舌 is the tongue, the 说文 says, the organ in the mouth by which we speak and taste. It is small but dangerous: the 诗经 mocks 巧舌如簧, tongues smooth as reed-pipes, and the 三国演义 stages 诸葛亮's 舌战, his verbal battle, against a whole hall of critics. Poets watched the 火舌, the tongue of flame, lick at burning lamps and burning cities alike.

Common words & phrases

• 舌头 tongue
• 舌尖 tongue tip · tip of tongue
• 唇舌 lips and tongue · words · persuasion
• 舌战 verbal battle · debate · argue
• 火舌 tongue of flame · flame lick

Read the story behind the character

You burn your 舌尖, the tip of your tongue, on the soup and spend dinner tasting nothing. At the debate final your teammate's 舌头 earns the trophy — pure 舌战, verbal combat, three rounds without a pause. The candle gutters, its 火舌, flame tongue, stretching, and your sister proves that 唇舌, lips and tongue, her powers of persuasion, can get anyone to do the dishes.

Why this character belongs on skin

The tongue is the most dangerous thing you own — small, soft, and capable of ending a life or beginning one. 舌 is that muscle, the old picture of the tongue itself laid out flat, the instrument of taste and of truth and of ruin. With it you have lied, sung, pleaded, betrayed, blessed. The West gave it a serpent's name and a devil's reputation, but it is also the thing that says I love you before the body knows how. To wear 舌 is to own your speech, the sweetness and the sharpness both. It is the ink for the one who has been hurt by words and has decided to wield them better, who tastes the world before judging it. Say less, the mark implies, but mean every syllable. The tongue is small. What it carries is not.