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

另 meant separate, set apart. Late imperial clerks kept a 另册, a second register for those outside the accepted order -- the vagrant, the outlaw, the man to be watched. To 另立 was to raise a rival court, as the southern regimes did against the north. The word marked the thing pulled out of the main list and set on its own.

Common words & phrases

• 另外 besides · another · in addition
• 另类 alternative · unconventional
• 另行 separately · otherwise
• 另选 choose another

Read the story behind the character

A listener calls the music 另类, outside the chart; the office says it will 另行 notify the staff. A planner 另选 a date when the hall is booked. The word does the work of the aside -- the alternative, the separate notice, the other choice. It pulls a thing from the common row and sets it where it stands by itself, different or merely deferred.