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

The turn of language is 辞, the word and the act of laying it down — to 辞别, to take leave. The great anthology 楚辞, 'Words of Chu,' gathered the songs of Qu Yuan, who 辞 the court rather than bend to a ruler he could not respect. A 辞典 is a treasury of words; 修辞 the art of arranging them; 辞职 the formal laying-down of a post held too long.

Common words & phrases

• 辞职 to resign · to quit
• 词语 words · terms · expressions
• 修辞 rhetoric · figure of speech
• 辞典 dictionary · lexicon
• 辞别 to bid farewell · to take leave
• 告辞 to take leave · to say goodbye

Read the story behind the character

An employee 辞职 by email and clears her desk; a speaker chooses his 词语 with care and reaches for 修辞 to land the point. She 辞别 the team at the door and 告辞 before the meeting drags on. The ancient anthology's name now sits on a 辞典 shelf, the character moving from Qu Yuan's exile to the ordinary grammar of quitting, speaking well, and saying a clean goodbye.

Why this character belongs on skin

One character holds two of the hardest things a person does. 辞 is tongue radical plus 辛, bitter—language with pain in its roots, and no wonder: it means both speech and departure. 辞藻 are the flowers of rhetoric; 辞职 is to resign, to quit; 辞别 is to bid farewell, tongue pressed to bitterness, the goodbye actually said out loud. The 楚辞, the Songs of Chu, are China's most heartbroken poetry—Qu Yuan walking into exile, composing verses to a river. Every tradition knows the weight of the final speech: last words, the dying benediction, the lover at the station choosing the sentence they'll both keep forever. Words and leaving belong together because leaving is when words finally matter. This character is that weight, worn deliberately: whatever you must say—farewell, resignation, truth—say it beautifully. Then let the words be the goodbye, and let the body walk on free.