Shīrén Zāng Kèjiā shì xiàndài míngētǐ shī de dàjiā.
The poet Zang Kejia is a modern master of folk-style verse.
Tips
usage
Modern use survives almost exclusively in 臧否 ('to judge good and bad / pass critical judgment') - a literary verb beloved by editorial writers and biographers. The phrase 臧否人物 is the standard set expression. Both characters are tricky to pronounce - 否 here takes its rarer third-tone reading.
register
Literary register only. The 'good' sense is essentially fossilized in 臧否 - never used in conversation.
culture
An old Spring-and-Autumn-era surname tracing to 鲁国, the state of Lu - 臧文仲 and 臧武仲 are recurring names in the 《左传》. Modern bearer 臧克家 (1905-2004) was one of the founding poets of new-style Chinese verse.
Components
ideograph
臧zāng
good; conceal
Compound: 戕 (a halberd radical, here functioning as the phonetic) wraps around 臣 (a downward-looking eye / subordinate). The original sense was 'to capture / store away in safety' - extended to 'kept safe = good / virtuous'. This 'store away' meaning later got its own dedicated character 藏 (with grass radical added). Indexed under Kangxi #131 臣.
Filed under radical 臣 (chén, #131) by convention. 臣 is not a separate component in 臧, so no strokes are highlighted.
In Pop Culture
臧克家Zāng Kèjiā
Zang Kejia
20th-century poet (1905-2004), a leading voice of plain-language folk-style Chinese verse; his 《有的人》 remains a high-school staple.
