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

On the oracle bones of the Shang, the diviner heated a turtle shell until it cracked, and read the 兆 — the fissure's shape — as the ancestor's answer to a question of rain or war. The word 兆 was the sign itself, the omen written in a split. From that crack came the sense of any portent before the event.

Common words & phrases

• 预兆 omen · sign · premonition
• 征兆 omen · indication · symptom
• 兆头 omen · sign
• 吉兆 good omen · auspicious sign
• 兆赫 megahertz

Read the story behind the character

A farmer reads the sky for a 预兆 of rain; the doctor notes the 征兆 of relapse. The match is a 吉兆 for the season, and the 兆头 feels wrong at the gate. The word still means the sign before — an omen, a symptom — the early mark by which a person guesses what the next day will bring.