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

:The Book of Odes warns of the 火坑 of bad counsel, and the Ming law codes list 坑害 as a crime of entrapment. A 土坑 dug for storage could also be a trap. The character is earth hollowed out — the hole that holds, hides, or harms, depending on who digs it.

Common words & phrases

• 土坑 earth pit
• 火坑 fire pit · abyss
• 泥坑 mud pit
• 坑害 entrap · harm
• 坑洞 pit · hole

Read the story behind the character

The 土坑 holds the season's potatoes. A 火坑 of debt traps the borrower. He stepped in a 泥坑 on the path. The ad is a 坑害 scheme for the elderly. The 坑洞 in the road bends the bicyclist's wheel. A villager fills the 坑 before the festival.

Why this character belongs on skin

Not every hole in the ground was dug by nature. 坑 is the pit—a hollow, a trap, the pitfall someone digs and you step into blind. Its earth opens beneath the careless foot. We know these traps intimately: the promise that curdles, the road that drops, the trust given to the wrong hand. Yet 坑 is also the trench we dig together to stand in, shoulder to shoulder, against the weather. The character carries both the fall and the foxhole. To mark it is to admit you have been fooled, and that the fooling taught you the shape of the world. It is a humble, even comic, seal—the scar that laughs at itself. Wear it where the lesson lives, a small reminder that you fell, you rose, and you now watch the ground more kindly.