The Calligrapher — Lù Jiǎnzhī 陆柬之

Tang calligrapher and nephew of Yu Shinan; his running-script 'Essay on Literature' survives

Tang calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《文赋》. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

In the old novels a 跌 is a fall, the character joining foot and 失, to lose one's footing, the root of 跌倒 and 跌落. In 水浒传 a hero is 跌下 his horse at a crucial turn, and the reader feels the ground rise. The word has since widened to 暴跌, a market's plunge, where no body hits earth at all.

Common words & phrases

• 跌倒 fall down
• 跌落 fall · drop
• 跌价 price drop
• 跌跤 stumble
• 暴跌 plunge

Read the story behind the character

At a subway stair, an elder 跌倒, falls, and a shopper winces as a stock 跌价, drops in price, on the ticker. A child 跌跤, stumbles, on the playground while a currency 暴跌, plunges, overnight. From a bruised knee to a vanished fortune, 跌 measures every way a thing goes down faster than planned. The plunge of a price carries the same shock as a body hitting the ground.

Why this character belongs on skin

No one inked this character by accident, and that is exactly its appeal. 跌 means to fall — to stumble, to drop, to lose the footing you were so sure of. Chinese medicine uses it for falls and fractures, the bruising fact of a body meeting the ground. But the language also gives us 跌宕 — falling and rising — the phrase critics use for a great story, a great life, a melody that earns its resolution by first descending into trouble. Daoism never flinched from this: the valley is where water gathers, the stubbed toe is where attention finally lives. What fell can be seen honestly for the first time. There is no glamour in the tumble itself; the glamour is in the getting up, and in the strange tenderness toward other fallen people that only the floor can teach. To wear 跌 is to make peace with the ground.