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

怎 is the how of the puzzled, a word that ripened in the spoken tongue of the Song and Yuan, too late for the classics. It carries none of the bronze's gravity — only the plain human stuck at a step, asking the room which way the thing is to be done.

Common words & phrases

• 怎么 how · why
• 怎样 how · what kind
• 怎么办 what to do
• 怎能 how can

Read the story behind the character

怎么 is the question under every confusion, 怎样 the form's blank, 怎么办 the panic at 2 a.m., 怎能 the protest at an injustice. The bronze is a dictionary now; the puzzle is constant. We ask the how a hundred times a day, and the word, though young, has earned its place by never once pretending to know.