務
affair; business; matter; to be engaged in; to attend to; by all means
Closest English meanings
to attend to·business·duty
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
The Analects advises “君子務本” — the gentleman attends to the root, not the show. 務 is the steady application: 事務 are the affairs that must be met, 任務 the assigned mission. Under the Tang the 市舺使 ran foreign trade at Guangzhou; the word has always meant the work that will not wait.
Common words & phrases
- 服務 service · to serve
- 任務 task · mission
- 務必 must · be sure to
- 事務 affairs · business
Read the story behind the character
A phone app pings 務必 before a meeting; 服務 desks fill every train station, and 服務区 the rest stops on the highway. A soldier receives a 任務 at dawn, and an HR system tags 事務 as done or overdue. The character now runs from a teenager's chore chart to a nation's five-year plan.
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