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 spoken character, 攙 is the arm linked under another's to keep him upright, the son 攙扶ing the drunk father home. The books said 扶; 攙 is the intimate support, the one offered without ceremony between bodies that know each other, and the father who leaned was, for once, lighter than the son had feared and heavier than he would admit.

Common words & phrases

• 搀扶 support · help
• 搀杂 mix · adulterate
• 搀和 mix

Read the story behind the character

A nurse 攙扶s the patient; a cook 攙雜s the flour; you 攙和 in the talk. The drunk father is a ward now. The linked arm is the same, whether it steadies a step, thins a batter, or merely joins a conversation the speaker was not invited to improve, and the ward is only the father, sober and strapped to a stricter kind of leaning.

Why this character belongs on skin

The old woman's weight leans into the grandchild's shoulder, and the two of them cross the courtyard as one uncertain animal, laughing at the slowness of it. To support is to take another's unsteadiness into your own balance, to say without words that you will not let the pavement win. The healers of the village put their arm beneath the feverish and walked them to the well; the friend at the funeral does the same with grief. We think strength is standing alone, but the truer strength is the elbow offered without being asked. Wear this for the hands that held you upright when your own forgot how, and for the promise to do the same. The supported and the supporter cross together. Neither reaches the door alone.