登
to scale (a height); to ascend; to mount; to publish or record; to enter (e.g. in a register); to press down with the foot; to step or tread on; to put on (shoes or trousers) (dialect); to be gathered and taken to the threshing ground (old)
Closest English meanings
to ascend·to mount·to register·to publish
The Calligrapher — Sū Língzhī 苏灵芝
Tang running-script master and prolific stele-writer, ranked with Li Yong and Yan Zhenqing.
Tang calligrapher (), master of running script — known for 《易州铁像颂》. Tang dynasty
Cultural Story
Shuowen: 登 is to mount a chariot, foot pressed to the wheel-hub. Poets made ascent a career — climbing the stork tower, Du Fu's high terraces, temple stairs on the Double Ninth. And what goes up must be recorded: hence 登 for registers, rosters, proclamations and the imperial gazette.
Common words & phrases
- 登山 mountain climbing · to climb
- 登记 to register · registration
- 登录 to log in · to log on
- 登机 to board · to board plane
- 刊登 to publish · to carry
Read the story behind the character
Everything now begins with 登录 (log in) and ends with 登机 (boarding): QR codes, boarding passes, phone verification. You 登记 (register) at hotels, gyms and vaccine clinics; your rant gets 刊登 (published) in an online column; and every weekend, hikers go 登山 (mountain climbing) at dawn.
Why this character belongs on skin
Two feet at the bottom, a pair of outstretched hands doubled above—登, the climb drawn as a body committing: grip, push, breathe, repeat. The pious 登高 of the Double Ninth, poets ascending towers to see farther and feel more; the sage's staircase; Moses going up; Everest going up; the whole human reflex to rise and look. 登 also means to publish, to be entered in the record—ascension and inscription in one act, the climb that leaves a name. There is hunger in this character, clean and ancient. Ink 登 on the forearm where your own hands can almost touch it, a vertical promise: feet here, hands there, and the unashamed appetite for the next ledge. Up is a direction, not a dream.
Own this character
Purchase delivers the original SVG of this glyph, brushed by Sū Língzhī 苏灵芝, ready to place on skin, paper, or screen.