As a child, he lived with his mother and sister in dire poverty. Lacking money to buy brushes, his mother taught him to write by stroking characters in the sand with reed stems.
從小跟著母親和妹妹貧苦的過日子，由於沒有錢買紙筆，於是母親只好折荻為筆在沙地上教歐陽修寫字。