The Calligrapher — Chǔ Suíliáng 褚遂良

Tang chancellor and regular-script master of elegant, balanced strokes.

Tang calligrapher (596–658), master of regular script — Tang master of graceful, tensile regular script favored by the imperial court. Tang dynasty

Etymology & Meaning · 字义溯源

### Soundnǎng — nǎng (3rd tone). Often a bound morpheme — needs a partner word ### Original meaningNǎng (3rd tone). The Shuowen Jiezi is brief and exact: 「曩，曏也。从日，襄聲」 — 'formerly', from 日 with 襄 as phonetic, and 段玉裁's note simply supplies the line from 《爾雅·釋言》 it answers to. The Kangxi entry gives the working definition and the citations: 《爾雅·釋言》 「曩，曏也」, with the gloss 「在今而道既往，或曰曩，或曰曏」 — 'speaking now of what has gone by, one says 曩 or one says 曏'. So 曩 is precisely the word for the past as the past is spoken of from here: 《左傳·襄二十四年》 「曩者志入而已」 ('a while ago it was only a matter of getting in'), 《國語·晉語》 「曩而言戲乎」 ('was that said in jest just now?'), 《楚辭·九章》 「猶有曩之態也」 ('still the manner of former days'). 《爾雅·釋詁》 gives a longer reach: 「曩，久也」 — 'long ago'. The word's most humane appearance is in 柳宗元 《捕蛇者說》: 「曩與吾祖居者，今其室十無一焉」 — of the families that lived here with my grandfather, not one in ten remains. Kangxi 21 画 (日部 + 17) — one of the heaviest common graphs in the language; the naming tables read Fire (火). ### The structure (形聲 · 从日，襄聲 — day (日) with 襄 as phonetic; a time-word written in the day-series, like 曏 and 暇)①日rìsun / daytime measured by daylight, as in 曏 and 暇②襄xiāngto raise / to assistthe phonetic; it contributes sound, not sense③曏xiǎnga short while agothe near twin: 《尔雅》 says one may use either word for the past④曩者nǎngzhěformerly, a while backthe form the histories actually use ### In use todayItemReading / meaningNoteReadingnǎng (3rd tone)single syllableCore senseformerly, of old《尔雅·释诂》 pushes it further: 久也, 'long ago'Grammarliterary time-adverb曩者 · 曩日 · 曩昔 · 曩時 · 曩年Tattoo fitcaution — an adverb, not an image; and 21 strokes will clog at small sizesconsider 昔 (8 画) or 往 for the same idea ### Closest words in English — and what each misses - Past — 過去 holds 'the past' as a noun; 曩 is an adverb meaning 'formerly', and modifies rather than names - Memory — 憶／念 hold 'to remember'; 曩 points at a time, not at an act of mind - Ancient — 古／昔 hold 'ancient, of old'; 曩 can mean only as far back as the speaker's own yesterday - Nostalgia — nostalgia is a feeling; 曩 is a plain temporal marker with no sentiment built inAn honest note on grammar. Literary time-adverb — 曩者, 曩日, 曩昔, 曩時; it modifies rather than names, and does not occur in modern speechWhere a Western reader can stand: 曩 (nǎng) means 'formerly' — the past as you speak of it from where you now are. The oldest gloss puts it exactly: 在今而道既往, 'speaking now of what has gone by'. Its most moving appearance is in Liu Zongyuan's essay on the snake-catchers: of the households that lived beside my grandfathe

Cultural Story

曩 is the long-ago. 曩日 the days gone; 曩者 'formerly,' the historian's hinge. 曩昔 the past the exile names. The word is memory with distance — the then set well back, the years the chronicler reaches for. The Shuowen sees the sun and the old. A single character for the far behind, the 'of old' that opens the tale.

Where a Western reader can stand: 曩 means 'formerly' or 'of old' - the classical Chinese adverb for the past. It is a time-word, not a picture or a virtue, so it has nothing to depict and reads oddly alone. At 21 strokes it needs size to stay legible. As a tattoo it is a memorial tense - 'formerly' - worn with what is being remembered, never as 'memory' itself.

Common words & phrases

• 曩日 former days
• 曩者 formerly · before
• 曩昔 in the past

Read the story behind the character

曩日 is the literary 'former days'; 曩者 the formal 'before.' 曩昔 the rare 'in the past.' You will not say it in talk. The word survives in the memorial and the classical line — the old times invoked. From the elegy to the footnote, 曩 is the far then, the 'of old' the scholar reaches for when the present is not enough to explain the now.