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

With its twin 踌, the character 躇 becomes 踌躇, the word for hesitation made bodily — a person pacing, weighing, unwilling to commit a step. The foot radical betrays the source: doubt that shows up first in the feet, which will not move until the mind agrees. To 躇步 is to walk and waver at once, the oldest portrait of a hard decision slowly forming.

Common words & phrases

• 踌躇 hesitate · pace · reluctant
• 躇步 pace up and down

Read the story behind the character

A graduate 踌躇 outside the interview door, 躇步 toward it and back, rehearsing the line she cannot quite believe. The hiring manager inside sees nothing of the war; he only knows she is late. The character that once described a minister's dread of the throne now fits a teenager with two university offers and no idea which life to walk into first, or when.