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

When the short-lived Xin dynasty of Wang Mang fell, later historians branded it the 伪朝, the false regime, and rewrote his reforms as 伪. The word 偽 carried the verdict of illegitimacy — a claim to the throne that posterity refused. To call a thing 伪 was to strike it from the roll of the rightful, a historian's quiet execution.

Common words & phrases

• 伪装 disguise · camouflage
• 伪劣 fake and inferior
• 伪善 hypocritical
• 伪造 forge · falsify

Read the story behind the character

A shop sells 伪劣 phone chargers that melt; a suspect 伪造 a signature on the form. The diplomat's 伪装 hides the microphone, and the priest's 伪善 is exposed online. The word still tags the fake and the feigned — a forged note, a hollow smile — the counterfeits that markets and courts spend every day trying to unmask.