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

欠 began as a yawn. The Shuowen pictures it as a person opening the mouth to 悟, breathing out in tiredness, so 哈欠 is a yawn and 欠身 a polite lean forward as one stirs. Over centuries the character also came to mean a shortfall — what you lack or owe — so 欠债 is debt and 欠缺 is a gap. One small figure thus holds both drowsiness and debt.

Common words & phrases

• 欠债 owe debt · debt
• 欠款 debt · money owed
• 欠缺 lack · short of
• 哈欠 yawn
• 欠身 lean forward (polite)

Read the story behind the character

Everyday Chinese is full of 欠: a friend 欠债 owes you money from last dinner, a project shows 欠缺 a lack of planning, and someone stifles a 哈欠 yawn in a boring meeting. We 欠身 lean forward to greet a guest, and a child owes an apology for a broken toy. From a sleepy stretch to a bank alert, 欠 marks the little deficits and drowsy moments of ordinary life.

Why this character belongs on skin

Open the mouth and the word is already there—欠 is the yawn and the debt at once, the body's honest admission that something is missing. To 欠 is to owe, to lack, to lean toward what you do not yet possess. The lover who cannot sleep, the immigrant sending money home, the artist chasing a line that won't come—all are 欠, suspended in the gravity of want. Christianity named it longing for the divine; the Buddhists named it thirst. This character wears both without shame. A tattoo of 欠 is not a wound but a compass, pointing always toward the next thing worth reaching for. It says you are not finished, not full, not arrived—and that the ache is itself a kind of fidelity. Wear it where your pulse is loudest, and let the wanting keep you alive.