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

Han Yu, in his "Discourse on Teachers," wrote that the teacher exists "to transmit the Way, to impart learning, to resolve doubt" — 传道受业解惑. The "Records of the Historian" began the 列传, the biographies that carried each life down the ages. The word 傳 was the hand that passed a thing from one age to the next.

Common words & phrases

• 传统 tradition
• 传播 spread · disseminate
• 传说 legend · tradition
• 传记 biography
• 传授 teach · impart

Read the story behind the character

A grandmother 传授 a recipe over video; a post 传播 the news before it is checked. The 传说 of the old well still sells the tea, and a shelf holds a 传记 of the founder. The word still means passing on — a skill, a story, a life — the relay of sense from one hand and century to the next.