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

In Tang usage 僅 often still meant "nearly" or "almost" rather than "only" — a garrison 仅百人 could be a force of close to a hundred, not a bare few. The word narrowed over the centuries to its modern "merely." To read a Tang line rightly, one must hear 僅 as abundance on the brink, not scarcity after it.

Common words & phrases

• 不仅 not only
• 仅仅 merely · only
• 仅存 only remaining
• 仅只 only

Read the story behind the character

The 仅存 copy of the letter sits in the archive; the rule applies 不仅 to staff but to guests. The 仅仅 of it is this: one chance, one room, one train. The word still means the small remaining or the single case — the last ticket, the lone survivor — the narrowing of possibility to what is left when everything else is spent.