The Calligrapher — Ōuyáng Xún 欧阳询

Tang regular-script master whose 'Ouyang style' is a basic learning model.

Tang calligrapher (557–641), master of regular script/running script — Tang codifier of regular script; crisp, architectural strokes you could measure with a ruler. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

陪 combines the hill radical 阝 with 咅. The Shuowen gives it as to accompany, originally a subordinate walking beside a superior. In Zhou ritual attendants 陪 stood with the lord; later 陪葬 meant goods or people accompanying the dead into the tomb.

Common words & phrases

• 陪伴 accompany · keep company · companionship
• 陪同 accompany · escort · with
• 陪客 accompany a guest · guest companion
• 陪葬 buried with · accompany in burial
• 陪护 nurse · attend · accompany in care

Read the story behind the character

Friends 陪伴 (keep company) the lonely, and guides 陪同 (accompany) tourists. A host 陪客 (accompanies a guest), and families 陪葬 (bury with) heirlooms. Nurses 陪护 (attend) patients by bedside. The character fills everyday acts of staying beside another.

Why this character belongs on skin

There is a kind of love that says nothing and stays. The kettle cools on the stove; the night lengthens; still you remain, a warmth at the edge of another's silence. In the old script, the character sets a person beside another, the mound-radical of earth, the standing figure, the mouth that does not leave. It is not rescue, not fixing, not the hero's entrance. It is the quieter vow: I will not be elsewhere. The Dao teaches that water accompanies the riverbed without argument, and so does devotion. You do not conquer the storm by shouting at it; you sit with the one who fears it. To wear this character is to choose presence over performance, the long room over the loud gesture. Some loves are fireworks. This one is the chair that is always pulled close. Let it mark the place on your skin where you decided to stay.