The Calligrapher — Shǐ Wéizé 史惟则

Tang master of seal and eight-division clerical script (bafen); one of Four Tang clerical masters.

Tang calligrapher (), master of seal script/八分 — known for 《大智禅师碑》. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

A spoken character, 摔 is the hard fall and the harder throw-down, the warrior 摔ing the captured banner in the dust. The books said 墮 or 擲; 摔 is the clumsier, heavier drop, the one the body knows before the book names it, and the banner in the dust was the only surrender the warrior's lord ever trusted, because the dust did not lie about who had won.

Common words & phrases

• 摔倒 fall down
• 摔跤 wrestling · fall
• 摔打 beat · temper
• 摔碎 smash
• 摔交 wrestle

Read the story behind the character

A child 摔倒s; two men 摔跤, wrestle; a mother 摔打s the quilt to soften it; a cup is 摔碎. The banner is a cup now. The hard drop is the same, whether it ends a bout, breaks a vessel, or merely tempers a blanket against the winter a grandmother already foresees, and the cup is only the banner, cheaper and easier to sweep.

Why this character belongs on skin

Nobody plans to learn 摔. The horse throws you into the gravel; the ice gives way; the marriage ends in a sound like crockery. The character has 手 at its heart—a hand striking out as the body goes down, which is exactly what a falling person does: reach, claw, fail. Yet wrestlers carry this word proudly, because to 摔跤 is also to master the fall, to take an opponent to the ground with skill. Falling, in other words, is a technique. The Zen teacher drops his student to see whether the student can land; the toddler falls ten thousand times and calls it learning to walk. What humiliates you today is the same momentum that will someday put something down cleanly, on your terms. This is not a tattoo for the broken. It is a tattoo for the person still getting up, wearing the crash like a medal.