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

A binding word, 捆 is the rope around the faggot, the straw pressed and tied for the market. The literary books said 縛 or 束; 捆 is the farmer's knot, the sound of a hemp cord pulled tight around a load that would otherwise spill, and the faggot that stayed bound was the one the buyer trusted to survive the road.

Common words & phrases

• 捆绑 tie up · bind
• 捆扎 bind · pack
• 一捆 a bundle

Read the story behind the character

You 捆綁 the thief; a 捆紮 of hay; 一捆 of books on the floor. The farmer's knot is a restraint and a parcel now. The cord pulled tight is the same, whether it holds a load of straw or a man who should not be loose, and the books on the floor are only the faggot, re-bound in cloth and good intentions.

Why this character belongs on skin

Rope the firewood into a burden you can carry on one shoulder, and the scattered becomes singular, the chaos becomes a load. This is the binding — of the faggot, of the prisoner's wrists, of two lives declared one before witnesses. The same cord that holds the harvest holds the captive; binding is never innocent. Yet the monk binds his robe against the cold, and the lover binds his fortune to another's name by choice. To ink this is to admit you have been tied and have tied, that freedom and bondage share a knot. Some bindings are cages; some are the only reason we stand. Let the skin wear the cord honestly — the tie you chose, and the tie that chose you, and the difference between them, which is the whole of a life.