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

The 道德经 teaches 知足不辱, 知止不殆, that one who 足, is content, meets no shame, and one who stops invites no danger. 足 began as the foot, the body's base, and grew to mean enough, sufficiency. 足球, the foot's game, and 满足, contentment, share that single root of standing firm. The foot that stands firm became the mind that knows when to stop.

Common words & phrases

• 足够 enough · sufficient
• 满足 satisfy · content
• 足球 football · soccer
• 脚步 footstep · pace
• 十足 full · complete
• 手足 brothers · hands and feet

Read the story behind the character

At a pitch, children kick a 足球, football, while a worker counts 足够, enough, saved for a bike and a parent feels 满足, content, at a meal. A runner's 脚步, footstep, and a brother called 手足, hands and feet, tie the word to the body. Laozi's contentment now scores a goal. The game and the contentment share one base, the body's own foundation.

Why this character belongs on skin

Two meanings walk together in one small character: the foot that carries you, and the enough that stops you. 足 is the leg beneath the body and the sufficiency beneath the soul—what is sufficient, what is full, what needs no more. The West split these into journey and contentment and lost the thread between them; the Chinese kept them in a single bone. To have walked far enough to stop—that is the whole spiritual arc, the pilgrimage and the peace at its end. Wear 足 and you confess both hungers: the restless one that put on the boots, and the wise one that knew when to sit. It is the warrior's march and the sage's pause in one mark. Let it rest on the ankle or the wrist, a small reminder that the road was never the point. Arrival was. And you have arrived.