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

涨 means water rising and swelling, the tide and the flood. The Shi jing notes rivers that 涨 in spring, and gazetteers recorded 涨 waters that breached the dikes. By analogy prices and passions 涨 too. The word is ascent, the surface climbing past its ordinary, safe line on the bank.

Common words & phrases

• 涨价 price rise · price hike
• 上涨 rise · go up
• 涨潮 rising tide · high tide
• 暴涨 surge · skyrocket

Read the story behind the character

We grumble when rent 涨价 (price rise, price hike) again, and watch the river 上涨 (rise, go up) after storms. At the coast the sea 涨潮 (rising tide, high tide) covers the flats, and a viral video can 暴涨 (surge, skyrocket) in views overnight, water and attention both climbing fast.

Why this character belongs on skin

Something in you is rising, and you can feel it before you can name it. A river after the rains, the slow swell against the pilings, the way the chest fills when feeling comes back from far away—that is 涨. It is increase, the upward claim of water that will not be contained in yesterday's banks. The Buddhists speak of the tide of birth and death; the lover speaks of wanting that will not subside. To wear this is to honor the part of you that grows past its old limits, that refuses the low waterline of a smaller life. It is not rage, it is abundance. Let it sit where your pulse is nearest the surface, a quiet bragging of the soul: that you are fuller than you were, that the flood is yours, and that you are not afraid of it.