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

攒 is the slow pile. Peasants 攒钱 against the hard winter; the magpie 攒 the twigs for the nest. 攒 is patience made visible — coins in a tin, scraps in a chest. The Ming novelists love a crowd that 攒动, jostling at the fair. It is the verb of the hoarder and the ant, the small arithmetic of want met by waiting.

Common words & phrases

• 攒钱 save money
• 积攒 accumulate · save up
• 攒动 jostle · crowd moving
• 攒聚 gather · cluster
• 攒射 converging fire

Read the story behind the character

You 攒钱 for the phone; the fans 攒动 behind the barrier at the concert. 积攒 is what the coupon-clipper does; 攒射 the converging fire in the war film. On the phone a girl 攒 the stickers into an album. The word still measures thrift and crush alike, the crowd and the coin jar. The saved and the swarm, one verb.