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 Odes stack the 草垛 against the winter, and the border tower showed its 垛口 — the crenels a defender shot through. The character is earth and a pile; a 垛 was what you heaped for feed or notched for war, the storage and the fortification in one raised shape.

Common words & phrases

• 草垛 haystack
• 垛口 crenel · battlement opening

Read the story behind the character

The 草垛 leans by the barn. The wall's 垛口 is worn smooth. A farmer builds the 垛 before the snow. The 垛 of hay feeds the cows. The old tower keeps its 垛口 though the gate is gone. A child climbs the 垛 and falls into the scratchy straw.

Why this character belongs on skin

A wall is a kind of honesty. Say what you will defend and build the rampart to the height of the claim. The character is the buttress, the stacked stone of the parapet where the archer stands — a pile made deliberate, a ground held. In the old wars a man knew his wall and died within its shadow rather than beyond it. There is peace in having an edge, a place the world stops. Confucius might call it propriety; the soldier calls it home. Carry 垛 where you have drawn your line — the shoulder blade, the braced rib — and let it be the small fortification under your skin. You do not owe the world your every side. Some of you is a wall, and the wall is allowed to stand.