The Calligrapher — Péi Xiū 裴休

Tang chancellor and calligrapher; author of the Guifeng Stele in regular script.

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

Cultural Story

抛 is to fling away, a word the riverside partings made their own — 抛却 the ties a monk leaves behind. The hand with 九, the many, is the casting of a multitude. It is the abandon that frees and the discard that loses, the throw that lets go.

Common words & phrases

• 抛弃 abandon · discard · cast off
• 抛开 cast aside · lay aside · discard
• 抛锚 drop anchor · break down · stall
• 抛出 throw out · cast out · dump
• 抛售 sell off · dump · unload

Read the story behind the character

抛 is the dump and the drop: 抛弃 the partner, 抛开 the plan, 抛锚 the car stopped, 抛出 the statement, 抛售 the shares unloaded. It names the letting-go from the heart to the portfolio, the cast that abandons and the one that offloads.

Why this character belongs on skin

There is a particular relief in an open hand. 抛 is the gesture of letting go—to throw, to cast off, to abandon what the fist has clenched too long. Its root is the hand releasing weight into the air, the stone skipping from the shore, the letter dropped into the current. We are taught to hold, to accumulate, to grip our losses like talismans. But 抛 is the other wisdom: that some things are meant to be thrown, not kept. The grudge. The old name. The version of yourself that no longer fits. To wear it is to mark a release you survived—the moment you finally opened your fingers. It is not surrender. It is choice. The ink becomes a small arc in the air, a reminder that freedom often looks like something leaving you, falling away, and gone.