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

二 is the line doubled, two, the first split after one, the number the 易經 sets against itself as yin and yang, the paired forces. A man with 二心 served two masters; the 論語 warns against it. The character is the simplest arithmetic and the oldest suspicion: that things come in pairs, and a pair can mean division, a second loyalty, a second thought.

Common words & phrases

• 二手 second-hand
• 二话 demur · objection
• 二心 disloyalty · half-heartedness
• 二胡 erhu · two-string fiddle
• 二月 February
• 二战 World War II

Read the story behind the character

二手 is the car and the phone; 二话 is what you do not give, 没二话. 二心 is the treason and the doubt; 二胡 the two-string fiddle at the opera. 二月 is the cold month; 二战 the history chapter. The number is plain counting, but it keeps the old shadow of doubling, the secondhand, the second loyalty, the two strings that somehow sing one sorrow.