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 spoken character, 搓 is the two hands working against each other, the hemp 搓ed into rope, the winter 搓 of cold palms for warmth. The books said 揉; 搓 is the twinned rub, the one that makes a thing by wearing two surfaces together, and the rope that held the winter stores was really just two cold palms, refusing to admit the cold by refusing to stop moving.

Common words & phrases

• 搓手 rub hands
• 搓揉 knead · rub
• 搓洗 scrub · wash by rubbing
• 搓弄 fiddle with · twist

Read the story behind the character

You 搓手 against the cold; a washer 搓揉s the cloth; a boy 搓洗s the shirt; a man 搓弄s his coin. The hemp is a shirt now. The twinned rub is the same, whether it spins a rope, cleans a collar, or merely turns a small worry over and over between the thumbs, and the coin is only the hemp, round and struck with a different kind of authority.

Why this character belongs on skin

Between the palms the cold washes to warmth, the seed to sprout, the trembling to steadiness; the hands learn each other by friction. To rub is the oldest comfort we give ourselves and others—the mother warming the child's frozen foot, the soldier working feeling back into numb fingers by the embers. The Daoists spoke of circulating the breath by rubbing the gates of the body until the closed doors opened. We are softened by what we work against; the rope burned into cord, the raw made usable by the repeated turn. To wear this is to honor the patient labor of the hands, the small fire made by motion when no fire else is near. Some warmth is earned only by the rubbing. Keep the hands moving. The cold is patient, but so are you.