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

價 is 人 with 賈, the worth set on a thing, the market value a man assigns. The 說文 reads 賈 as the merchant, the price. 價格 was what the stall cried; 價值 what a thing was worth beyond coin. The character is the number pinned to the object, the meeting point of desire and coin, the merchant's verdict made public.

Common words & phrases

• 价格 price · cost
• 价值 value · worth
• 代价 cost · price · price paid
• 物价 prices · price level
• 评价 evaluate · appraise · assess
• 降价 reduce price · mark down

Read the story behind the character

价格 is the tag and the index; 价值 the worth argued in a meeting. 代价 is the cost paid later; 物价 the inflation complaint. 评价 is the rating you leave; 降价 the sale that draws the crowd. The character names the number on the thing, the price, the value, the cost of the mistake. It still means the worth a man sets, now scanned at a register instead of cried across a stall.

Why this character belongs on skin

Everything costs something, and 价 is the character that names the cost. It is price, value, the worth a thing earns by what was given for it. The left side is words; the right, a boundary line — value is what we say when we draw the line. For a Western reader it echoes the old line that glory has its price, that every freedom was bought in coin we did not see. A tattoo of 价 is not about money. It is about knowing your own worth and the cost of the things you hold. The warrior, the lover, the exile — each carries a price paid in silence. Wear it as a question you have already answered: what is this life worth, and what have you paid? The mark sits close to the bone, where value is kept.