The Calligrapher — Yán Zhēnqīng 颜真卿

Tang master of robust regular script; co-creator of the enduring 'Yan style'.

Tang calligrapher (709–784), master of regular script/running script — the Tang moral paragon whose upright, muscular regular script became the model of Chinese integrity in writing. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

仗 is 人 with 丈, a man with a long weapon, to fight, and by extension to rely upon. The 說文 reads it as to hold a weapon, to rely on. 打仗 is the campaign; 仗义 the chivalry of the 水滸傳 hero who defends the wronged. 仗势 is the bully's confidence in his patron's name. The character is the weapon and the backing, the force you hold and the force you lean on.

Common words & phrases

• 打仗 to fight · war · battle
• 仗义 to uphold justice · chivalrous
• 仗势 to rely on power · to throw one's weight
• 胜仗 victory · winning battle

Read the story behind the character

打仗 is the war and the family quarrel; 仗义 is the friend who shows up and the donor who covers the bill. 仗势 is the crony and the corrupt official; 胜仗 the win the general claims. The character names force and backing, the battle, the justice done with a blade, the power borrowed from a bigger name. It still means both the fight and the reliance, the man with the long weapon and the man with the long reach.

Why this character belongs on skin

You lean on what you believe. 仗 is that leaning — to rely upon, to wield, to fight with the conviction that your cause is right. It is the weapon raised, and the righteousness behind the raising; 仗义, to stand by justice because your spine says you must. The character joins a man with the long staff of war, the thing you hold when the ground is contested. To wear 仗 is to declare allegiance to a fight worth having, to admit you are not neutral, that some walls must be defended. We all carry a staff of one kind. Ink it where your grip tightens. Let it be the mark of the one who shows up — who leans into the battle, trusts the cause, and will not, under any weather, lay the weight down.