Upon hearing of his death, Emperor Daizong closed the assembly for five days and conferred the posthumous title "Wenzhong" () on Yan Zhenqing. He was also widely mourned by the army and the people, and a temple was constructed to commemorate him. In the Song Dynasty, the temple was moved to Shandong and from then on became a key tourist attraction. Yan Zhenqing is popularly held as the only calligrapher who paralleled Wang Xizhi, the "calligraphy sage" (). He specialized in the regular ("kaishu" 楷書) and cursive ("caoshu" 草書) scripts, though he also mastered other styles. His style of regular script, often called Yan script ("Yanti" 顏體), brought Chinese calligraphy to a new realm, emphasizing strength, boldness, and grandness. Like most of the master calligraphers, Yan Zhenqing learnt his skill from various calligraphers, and the development of his personal style can be basically divided into three stages. Most calligraphers agree Yan Zhenqing's early stage lasted until his fifties. During these years, Yan Zhenqing tried out different techniques and started to develop his personal genre. When he was young, he studied calligraphy under the famous calligraphers Zhang Xu and Chu Suiliang. Zhang Xu was skilled in "Cao" Script, which emphasizes the overall composition and flow; Chu Suiliang, on the other hand, was renowned for his graceful and refined "Kai" Script. Yan Zhenqing also drew inspiration from the "Wei Bei" () Style, which originated from Northern nomad minorities and focused on strength and simplicity. In 752, he wrote one of his best-known pieces, "Duobao Pagoda Stele" (). The stele has 34 lines, each containing 66 characters, and it was written for Emperor Xuanzong who at the time was an extremely pious Buddhist. The style of the calligraphy was close to that of the early Tang calligraphers, who emphasized elegance and "fancifulness"; yet it also pursued composure and firmness in its brush strokes, structuring characters on powerful frames with tender management on brushline. In 758, he also wrote the influential calligraphy piece "Draft of a Requiem to My Nephew" ().