欧阳询下马观碑 ouyang xun dismounts his horse to admire a stele

唐朝初年有一个书法家叫 [[ Ouyang Xun 欧阳询 ]]。他写的字自成一体，人们叫“欧体”。

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, there was a calligrapher called Ouyang Xun. His style of writing is so distinct that people named it after him, calling it “Ou Ti”, or Ou Style.

有一次欧阳询和他的儿子 [[ Ouyang Tong 欧阳通 ]]一起去拜访一个朋友，路过一座古墓。墓前竖着一块很大的石碑，石碑上的字迹刚劲有力，引得欧阳询立刻下马仔细观看。原来这碑文是晋代大书法家索靖【sǔo jìng】写的。欧阳询一边念着碑文，一边还在手心上比比划划，学着这种字的写法，好久好久才恋恋不舍地离去。

One day, Ouyang Xun and his son, Ouyang Tong, were on their way to visit a friend when they passed the site of an ancient grave. In front of the tomb stood a monumental stone stele: the strokes of the characters carved into the stele were so powerful and emotive that Ouyang Xun was irresistibly drawn towards them. He dismounted his steed to examine the stele up close. As it turned out, the characters of the stele had been written by the famous Jin dynasty calligrapher, Suo Jing. As he read the inscription, Ouyang Xun moved his finger across his palm, retracing the strokes of each character. It was a long time before he reluctantly left.

可是刚走不远，欧阳询突然对儿子说：“孩子，你先去吧！我还要回去看看碑文，因为有好几个字的写法，我又忘了。”

They hadn’t gotten very far when Ouyang Xun turned to his son and blurted out: “Son, you go on without me! I still need to take a look at that stele, because I’ve forgotten how some of those characters were written.”

欧阳通不高兴地说：“以后再去看吧。要不，我替您去一趟，把那几个字描下来，给您带回去，行吗？”

Ouyang Tong was annoyed: “Can’t you go and look later? How about this: I’ll go back and trace those characters and bring them to you. OK?”

欧阳询认真的说：“不行啊！我的脾气你是知道的，不把这几个字记牢，我是连饭都吃不下的。你代替不了我。你去描字，只能描出字的形体，而描不出字的神态。”

Ouyang Xun took on a serious tone: “No way! You know what I’m like: if I don’t get those characters memorized I won’t be able to eat properly. If you go and trace the characters, at most you’ll convey the shapes of the characters but there’s no way you’ll be able to capture their spirit.”

说完，欧阳询匆匆转身往回去了。他站在碑前，看了又看，学了又学。站累了，就坐下来，继续学着。到了晚上，他干脆就在附近找了个地方住下，一连住了三天，直到把字学好了，才回家去。

With that, Ouyang Xun turned and left. He stood in front of the stele, taking in every minute detail, mulling it over in his mind. When he got tired of standing he sat down and continued to study the inscription. As night drew close, he found lodging nearby. For the next three days and three nights, he studied the stele until he had absorbed its contents. Only then did he return home.

#欧阳询 #欧阳通 #古碑 #书法家故事 #唐朝 #索靖 #SuoJing #Stele #OuyangXun #OuyangTong #StoriesAboutCalligraphers

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