51．攴【攵】部 action by using hands
推to push敲to knock
Jia Dao贾岛 was a great Poet who lived in the Tang Dynasty.
One day, he wrote a poem that began:鸟宿池边树，僧敲月下门(birds are resting on the tree by the pond, the monk is knocking on the door in the moonlight). At first, he was not quite sure whether he should use the character 推or敲for the second line. He was so focused on his lines as he was walked down the street, that he accidently ran into a government official’s carriage. During that era this was a horrible offense.
Fortunately, the official in the carriage was Han Yu韩愈, one of the great scholars of the Tang Dynasty. After Jia Dao explained the reason he had walked into the carriage, Han Yu not only forgave Jia Dao but also helped him figure out which word, 推or敲, was better for the poem. After some thought Han Yu suggested using 敲, because 敲could evoke an aural image of sound, which could emphasize the silence of the night by contrast.
Now we use 推敲to describe weighing one’s words or doing things after careful deliberation.
