The Calligrapher — Chǔ Suíliáng 褚遂良

Tang chancellor and regular-script master of elegant, balanced strokes.

Tang calligrapher (596–658), master of regular script — Tang master of graceful, tensile regular script favored by the imperial court. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

Han Yu, in his "Discourse on Teachers," wrote that the teacher exists "to transmit the Way, to impart learning, to resolve doubt" — 传道受业解惑. The "Records of the Historian" began the 列传, the biographies that carried each life down the ages. The word 傳 was the hand that passed a thing from one age to the next.

Common words & phrases

• 传统 tradition
• 传播 spread · disseminate
• 传说 legend · tradition
• 传记 biography
• 传授 teach · impart

Read the story behind the character

A grandmother 传授 a recipe over video; a post 传播 the news before it is checked. The 传说 of the old well still sells the tea, and a shelf holds a 传记 of the founder. The word still means passing on — a skill, a story, a life — the relay of sense from one hand and century to the next.