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

叁 is the formal, fraud-proof shape of three. On ledgers and contracts the court required the "capital forms" -- 壹贰叁肆 -- so a clerk could not alter a 三 into an 八. The practice is traced to the early Ming, after the Guo Huan case exposed fortunes lost to a changed stroke. The extra strokes were a lock on the number.

Common words & phrases

• 叁元 three yuan
• 叁拾 thirty

Read the story behind the character

A cashier writes 叁 on the deposit slip; a lease prints 叁拾 days and the tenant signs. In a bank the capital forms appear on the promissory note, never the plain 三. The word is the same count in a safer dress -- used wherever a figure must survive scrutiny. It meets the eye on checks, contracts, and the occasional formal invitation, stiff and unmistakable.