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

纵 meant to loose a horse from its tether, to let things run. Warring States diplomats made it strategy: 合纵, the vertical alliance of the six states north-south against Qin, against 连横, the horizontal ties Qin spun west-east. Scrolls and chessboards alike were ruled by 纵横 lines, and a 纵横家 was someone who read the whole board.

Common words & phrases

• 纵横 vertical and horizontal · free and unrestrained
• 放纵 to indulge · unrestrained
• 纵然 even if · even though
• 操纵 to control · to manipulate · to operate
• 纵深 depth · deep penetration

Read the story behind the character

The horse is loose in daily speech. Traffic flows 纵横, crisscross, through the overpass; a spoiled teenager is 放纵, indulged, by doting grandparents. A trader 操纵, manipulates, prices; a general maps the 纵深, depth, of a defense line; and the stubborn traveler goes on foot 纵然, even if, rain is forecast all week.

Why this character belongs on skin

There is a word in the old tongue for what your body has always known before anyone gave you permission: 纵, to loose the reins and let the horse run. The ancients spoke of 纵横, moving freely in every direction, a life with no wall at the edge of the map. You were told to hold the line, to stay within, to make yourself small and legible. But 纵 is the opposite prayer. It is the night you stopped apologizing for the way you laugh too loud, the love you refused to shrink, the self you finally let gallop. To be queer has always been an act of letting loose — refusing the harness they handed you, choosing the open field. Ink this one where only you can see it, or where everyone can. Either way it says the same thing: I am done holding back. The reins are mine now. I run.