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

绰 meant silk ample and flowing, more cloth than the body strictly needed, and from that generosity came grace. The Zhuangzi paints the immortal of Guye mountain with skin like snow and a figure 绰约若处子, gracefully supple as a maiden, and later poets kept 绰约 for any beauty that moved with unforced ease. Ample fabric, ample bearing, ample means: one thread of meaning.

Common words & phrases

• 绰号 nickname
• 阔绰 lavish · extravagant
• 绰绰有余 more than enough · ample

Read the story behind the character

Chuò is playful and practical. Every class has its 绰号, nicknames, from 老大 to Professor Formula; a lavish spender is called 阔绰, big-spending, when the bill lands. Students confirm that an hour to finish a ten-minute task is 绰绰有余, more than enough time, and fashion pages praise a loose cut as 绰 graceful over the shoulders.

Why this character belongs on skin

Ample. That is the first and truest sense of 绰 — room to spare, a generosity of space. The old phrase 绰绰有余 says you have more than enough, with margin left over, like a sleeve cut wide enough to hide a hand or a life lived with breath to spare. The character carries water on one side and a sense of slow release on the other, as if abundance were something that flows rather than clenches. To wear 绰 is to reject the cramped, the anxious, the edge-to-edge existence we are sold. It is the mark of someone who keeps reserves — of patience, of kindness, of time — and does not spend them all at once. The warriors of old valued the general who moved with 绰, unhurried because he had planned for more than the battle required. Ink it where you can touch it in a tight moment, a small reminder to stay wide, stay loose, stay unafraid of the extra. Grace is just room, and you have plenty.