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

Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian lean constantly on the word wei to mark reported speech, writing huo wei, someone said, before a rumor or a court whisper. The character wei is the historian's hinge, the pivot between event and voice, naming who called a thing what. Through the chapters wei introduces emperors, assassins, and cooks with the same plain tag of saying.

Common words & phrases

• 所谓 so-called · what is called
• 称谓 appellation · title
• 谓语 predicate
• 何谓 what is meant by

Read the story behind the character

A grammar book labels wei yu the predicate, the part that says something about the subject, and a dictionary lists cheng wei for a title of address. A reader meets suo wei, the so-called, in a skeptical headline, and asks he wei before a strange term. The character wei still does its old grammatical work of naming and saying.

Why this character belongs on skin

A thing is not a thing until someone names it. The sage calls water soft and it becomes the gentle that wears the mountain; the poet calls the beloved 'my country' and a war begins. This character is the act of saying — to call, to refer, to declare what something is. Confucius insisted on the rectification of names, that a ruler must be truly a ruler, for language is the first contract of order. In the Gospel, the word was with God and the word was God; to name is to create. You who choose this ink are naming yourself, claiming an identity the world tried to refuse you. Say it plainly on your skin: this is who I am. Not the rumor, not the role, but the true designation. The character is small, the claiming enormous. Wear it like a signature only you can sign.