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

氢 is a modern character, coined in the 19th century from 气 (gas) plus 輕 (light), 'the light gas.' It has no ancient classical life; its story is scientific. When chemists isolated the lightest element, they named it 氫氣 — fittingly, since hydrogen is the lightest substance known, rising fast in any container.

Common words & phrases

• 氢气 hydrogen gas
• 氢弹 hydrogen bomb
• 氢化 hydrogenation
• 氢氧化 hydroxide

Read the story behind the character

氢 powers the future: 氫氣 (hydrogen gas) fills fuel-cell cars, the 氫彈 (hydrogen bomb) is a weapon of terrible force, and 氫化 (hydrogenation) turns oils solid in food factories. 氫氧化 (hydroxide) is a basic compound in chemistry class. The character is pure modern science, lighter than air.

Why this character belongs on skin

The lightest thing in the world is also the one that fuels the sun, and this is its character—the gas radical paired with the word for light, the element so thin it rises and escapes us, and yet it burns at the heart of every star. Modern science named it the first, the simplest atom, one proton and a courage to be alone. The Daoists would have loved its lesson: that the gentlest, most upward thing is also the most ancient power, that emptiness lifts. There is a freedom in the light, the refusal to be weighed down by the heavy world. To carry this mark is to claim the rising part of yourself, the part that will not stay buried. Let it rest high on the body, near the breath. The ink is a sliver of the sun's own fuel, a small lightness you keep against the pull of the ground, for life.