拓 (tà) · to make a rubbing of an inscription or carving

Meanings

1 to make a rubbing of an inscription or carving
2 to take an ink impression from stone or bronze

Characters

拓

tà

to make a rubbing of an inscription or carving

Examples

HSK 7-9

他用宣纸和墨拓下了这段碑文。

Tā yòng xuānzhǐ hé mò tàxià le zhè duàn bēiwén.

He used rice paper and ink to take a rubbing of this passage of the inscription.

HSK 7-9

这幅拓片是从唐代的石刻上拓的。

Zhè fú tàpiàn shì cóng Tángdài de shíkè shàng tà de.

This rubbing was taken from a Tang dynasty stone carving.

HSK 7-9

博物馆请专家拓了这块石碑。

Bówùguǎn qǐng zhuānjiā tà le zhè kuài shíbēi.

The museum asked specialists to take a rubbing of this stone tablet.

Tips

usage

This reading only shows up in the vocabulary of rubbings: 拓本 a rubbing, 拓片 a sheet taken from a tablet, 拓印 to take one. Everywhere else the character is tuò, to open up.

culture

A rubbing is made by pressing damp paper into a carved surface and tapping ink over it, so the cut strokes come out white on black. Before photography this was how famous calligraphy circulated, and a good 拓本 of an old stele was collected like a painting.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form of 手)

Left-side hand radical, the three-stroke form of 手. It marks the physical work behind this reading: laying paper over the stone and tapping ink across it by hand. The same radical runs through 打 to hit and 按 to press.

phonetic

石 shí

stone

Right side 石 stone, historically the phonetic, with shí drifting to both readings of the character. Under 拓 it doubles as the object itself: the carved stone the impression is lifted off, as in 拓片.