The Calligrapher — Huáng Dàozhōu 黄道周

Ming loyalist whose upright regular script matched his character.

Ming calligrapher (1585–1646), master of regular script/running script — late-Ming loyalist martyr whose compressed, stormy script mirrors his life. Ming dynasty

Cultural Story

The zeng was the ancient steamer, a clay pot with a perforated floor set over boiling water — the original steamed rice and millet. Pedants counted its holes; philosophers used it. Meng Min dropped a zeng in the market and walked on without looking back: done is done, no use weeping over it.

Common words & phrases

• 饭甑 rice steamer
• 甑子 steamer basket
• 破甑 broken steamer · things past recall

Read the story behind the character

Southwest China still steams breakfast in a wooden 甑子, rice steamer, and restaurants sell zeng-cooked rice as heritage. The phrase 破甑, a broken steamer, survives for things not worth a backward glance — practical advice in a proverb-shaped pot.