蠲
(literary) to remit; to exempt; (literary) millipede; (literary) to manifest; (literary) to cleanse
Closest English meanings
to abolish·to exempt·to remit
The Calligrapher — Ōuyáng Xún 欧阳询
Tang regular-script master whose 'Ouyang style' is a basic learning model.
Tang calligrapher (557–641), master of regular script/running script — Tang codifier of regular script; crisp, architectural strokes you could measure with a ruler. Tang dynasty
Cultural Story
The Qing throne issued juanmian edicts that remitted a province's land tax after flood or famine, the characters stamped in vermilion across the yellow memorial. To juan was to wipe a debt clean, an act of grace measured in cancelled silver. The phrase recurs through the reigns as the ruler's most practical mercy.
Common words & phrases
- 蠲免 exempt (from tax) · remit
- 蠲除 abolish · eliminate
Read the story behind the character
At the township clinic a notice announces the juanchu of a registration fee for the elderly, and a family finds a medical bill partly juanmian by the local relief fund. The character appears wherever a charge is lifted rather than paid, in policy memos and charity posters alike, a small official word for being let off what one owed.
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