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

A pinch-word, 捏 is the fingers closing on a small soft thing, the clay or the dough. The literary books said 撮; 捏 is the potter's and the liar's verb both, the hand that shapes what was not there before, and the potter and the liar use the identical grip, which is why the same word can make a cup or a fact.

Common words & phrases

• 捏造 fabricate · concoct · fake
• 捏紧 pinch tight · grip
• 捏住 pinch · hold between fingers
• 捏泥人 make clay figures

Read the story behind the character

A liar 捏造s a story; a child 捏泥人, moulds clay figures; a grip is 捏緊. The potter's pinch is a slander now. The fingers closing on the soft thing are the same, whether forming a toy horse or a fact that never happened, and the clay figure and the lie both harden if you leave them long enough.

Why this character belongs on skin

Between thumb and forefinger the clay becomes a bird; the potter's pinch is the first act of all making. This is the kneading, the small pressure that shapes the formless into form — and also the fabrication, the lie pinched out of nothing to fit a need. The Buddha molded from earth a body of compassion; the liar molds a truth convenient to the powerful. One pinch gives life, one pinch steals it. To carry this character is to know your hands make worlds or illusions, often both at once. The sculptor and the forger share the same fingers. Ink it and you confess the double power of the touch — that what you shape you also can deceive with. Press gently. The world is soft under the thumb.