Wang Xizhi was a great calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He transformed the simple calligraphy style of the Han and Wei dynasties into a beautiful and strong calligraphy style after the Jin Dynasty.

His running script copybook "Lanting Preface" is his masterpiece. It is hailed as "the best running script in the world" by the calligraphy circle and has fascinated countless calligraphers for thousands of years. Wang Xizhi was therefore revered as the "Sage of Calligraphy" by later generations.

Tang Taizong Li Shimin advocated Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style. He personally wrote the "Biography of Wang Xizhi" for "Book of Jin", collected, copied and appreciated Wang Xizhi's original works, and copied many copies of "Lanting Preface" and gave them to ministers. In the history of Chinese calligraphy, there are only a few emperors who advocated the calligraphy of one person with the dignity of 950,000 yen.

In the Song Dynasty, Jiang Kui loved "Lanting Preface" and studied it every day, often writing down his insights on it. There is a postscript that says: "I have been studying "Lanting" for more than 20 years without getting anywhere. I watched it under the lamp this evening, and I have quite a bit of enlightenment." It took more than 20 years to get started, which shows the difficulty of interpretation: more than 1,600 years Countless calligraphers have worked tirelessly to interpret it, and why don't they want to delve deeper into Xizhi's secrets, but in the end they can only get a piece of it.

Therefore, "Lanting Preface" can be said to be a labyrinth created by outstanding calligraphy wisdom.

Wang Xizhi (303-361), courtesy name Yishao, was born in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

His ancestral home is Langya (now Linyi, Shandong). After moving south in the late Western Jin Dynasty, he settled in Shanyin, Kuaiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), so he became a Shaoxing native.

Wang Xizhi’s former residence is located in Jiezhu Temple at the foot of Jishan Mountain in Shaoxing City. In Shao, he served as the internal history of Kuaiji and rose to the rank of general of the Youjun army, so he was known as the king of the Youjun army in the world. During his tenure, he was honest and upright, caring about the sufferings of the people, and was a pragmatic and upright official who served the people. At the same time, he often enjoyed writing books and raising geese.

After resigning in his later years and retiring, he wandered among the mountains and rivers. He died at the age of 59 and was buried in Waterfall Mountain, Jinting Town, Shengzhou City.

Xizhi gave birth to seven sons, all of whom had book titles. The youngest son presented it to him and obtained the true biography of Xi. His calligraphy was not inferior to that of Naiweng, and he was known as the "little king" in the world.

Wang Xizhi became a disciple of the female calligrapher Mrs. Wei and his uncle Wu Guang when he was 7 years old. He studied hard and practiced hard. Later, he studied calligraphers such as Li Si, Zhong Yao, Cai Yong, Zhang Chang, etc., and learned from the strengths of others to find his own path. , self-contained.

Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy works are very rich. It is said that Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty collected 15,000 pages of his calligraphy. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty visited Wang Xizhi and obtained 3,600 pages of his calligraphy. Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty still preserved 240 pages of his calligraphy works. Thirteen papers. The ink marks handed down from generation to generation are as few as morning stars, and none of the original ones remain. In addition to "Lanting Preface", the famous ones include "Guannu Tie", "Seventeen Tie", "Two Xie Tie", "Fengju Tie", "Auntie's Tie", "Kuaixue Shiqing Tie", "Le Xue Tie" Yi Lun", "Huang Ting Jing", etc.

His famous cursive script "Quick Snow Shiqing Tie" with Tang hooks and hooks is now collected by the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. "Kuai Xue Shi Qing Tie", "Kuai Snow Shi Qing Tie", Wang Xi's "Bo Yuan Tie" and Wang Xianzhi's "Mid-Autumn Tie" are rare treasures. Together they are called "Three Treasures" (rare). They were hidden in Yangxin during the Qianlong period. The "Sanxi Hall" in the Nuan Pavilion in the west of the hall.

The main characteristics of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy are peaceful and natural, euphemistic and implicit, elegant and graceful. Later generations commented: "Floating like floating clouds, as graceful as a frightening dragon." Wang Xizhi's calligraphy is exquisite and beautiful, which is very beautiful to watch. In short, he introduced Chinese character writing from practicality to a state that pays attention to technique and taste, which marked that calligraphers not only discovered the beauty of calligraphy, but also could express the beauty of calligraphy.

The most influential calligraphy of Wang Xizhi is "Lanting Preface", which is also an eternal legend in the history of calligraphy:

There is a custom in the Eastern Jin Dynasty that on March 3rd of the lunar calendar every year, people must Go to the river and play to get rid of the bad luck. Eight years before his death, that is, on the third day of March in the ninth year of Yonghe in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 353), Wang Xizhi, then the internal history of Kuaiji and the general of the Right Army, invited forty-one literati including Xie An and Sun Chuo to gather at a gathering. In the Orchid Pavilion in Jishanyin, there is a meandering stream to drink wine and compose poems.

The Qushui Feast, also known as the Qushui Banquet, involves 42 celebrities sitting by the stream. The boy puts the wine glasses into the stream and moves them with the wind. In any position, that person has to compose a poem. If he cannot compose it, he will be punished by drinking three glasses of wine.

While everyone was intoxicated with the aftertaste of the wine and poetry, someone suggested that the thirty-seven poems written that day should be compiled into a collection. This is the "Orchid Pavilion Collection". At this time, many scholars recommended Wang Xizhi to write a "Preface to the Lanting Collection". Wang Xizhi was in a state of drunkenness, and he stroked his pen freely on the silkworm paper, completing the work in one go. This is the world-famous "Lanting Preface".

Preface, ***28 lines, 324 words. The preface describes the beauty of the landscape around Lanting and the joy of the party, expressing the author's sentiment that good times do not last long and life and death are impermanent.

The next day, after Wang Xizhi sobered up, he was still not finished with his thoughts. He wrote the preface over again with a brush on paper, but he felt that it was not as good as the original text. He didn't believe it, so he re-wrote it several times, but still couldn't get the essence of the original text. Only then did he realize that this preface was already the pinnacle of his life, and that his calligraphy art had been fully developed in this preface.

Wang Xizhi’s greatest achievement was to change the simple calligraphy style of the Han and Wei dynasties into a calligraphy style with exquisite brushwork and beautiful style, and pioneered the beautiful and smooth cursive calligraphy.

In particular, the running script "Preface to Orchid Pavilion" is like flowing clouds and flowing water, free and elegant, with delicate bones, beautiful pointillism, alternating density and density, and clever white and white cloth. It contains extremely rich artistic beauty within the size.

No matter horizontally, vertically, dotted, left, hooked, folded or pressed, it can be said that the skill of using the pen to make the sharpest strokes is the best. There are three hundred and twenty-four characters in "Lanting Preface", and each character has a different posture and turns freely.

Wang Xizhi's superb style is not only reflected in the heterogeneity of different characters, but also more prominently in the heterogeneity of heavy characters. For example, the 20 characters "Zhi" in the names have different shapes and aesthetics, and none of them are similar. Mi Fu in the Song Dynasty said in his poem "Lanting": "Twenty-eight lines, three hundred characters, the character 'Zhi' has no similarity at most. One draft."

The important words include "thing", "wei", "yi", "suo", "xin", "yang", "qi", "chang", "bu" and "jin" , "Lan", "Huai", "Xing", "Hou", etc. are all ingenious and have their own wonderful compositions.

Before Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Xizhi's calligraphy was praised by Liang Xiaoyan in "Ancient and Modern Calligraphers' Comments on the Good and Bad": "Wang Xizhi's calligraphy is majestic and majestic, like a dragon jumping over the Tianmen, a tiger crouching on the Phoenix Tower, so all dynasties It is a treasure that will always be used as a lesson."

Dong Qichang wrote in "Essays on Painting a Zen Room": "The composition of Youjun's "Lanting Xu" is the best in ancient and modern times, and its characters are all reflected, or Whether small or large, it all follows the rules, so it is a divine product." Xie Jin said in "Chun Yu Miscellanies": "The writing of Youjun's Xu Lanting is perfect, and it is especially good at layout. It is called adding one point. If it is too long, it will lose one point if it is too short."

Wang Xizhi's world-famous reputation is closely related to the high praise of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty cherished "Lanting Preface" very much, and the Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty praised it for "pointing and dragging". The craftsmanship is exquisite and the cutting is wonderful.”

Taizong of the Tang Dynasty wrote a biography for Wang Xizhi: "After careful study of the past and the present, research and refinement of seal scripts, they are perfect, but Wang Yi is the only one who has less! Observe his work of tapping and dragging, the cutting is wonderful, the smoke is falling and dew The knot looks like it is broken but still connected, like a phoenix and a dragon, it is like a slant but straight. You can't even notice it if you play with it, and you can't understand the end of it if you copy it with your heart. It's just like this person. That's enough."

Wang Xizhi regarded "Lanting Preface" as a family heirloom and passed it down from generation to generation until it reached the seventh generation of the Wang family, Sun Zhiyong. However, Zhiyong became a monk for some unknown reason and naturally had no heirs after his death, so he passed the copy of the ancestral legend to his disciple, Monk Biancai.

In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin collected a large number of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy treasures and often studied them. He admired the original "Lanting Preface" even more, and offered heavy rewards for many times, but to no avail. Later, it was discovered that the original copy of "Lanting Preface" was in the hands of a monk named Biancai in Kuaiji. This led to a story that Tang Taizong deceived "Lanting Preface" and the original copy was buried with Emperor Taizong in Zhaoling.

This story adds to the legendary and mysterious atmosphere of "Lanting Preface". There are two versions of the story of Orchid Pavilion recorded by the Tang Dynasty:

Liu Wei's "Jia Hua of the Sui and Tang Dynasties" records: "Wang Youjun's "Preface to Orchid Pavilion", Liang Dynasty, was out of town. Chen Tianjia was acquired by the monks... Guo Shi After his death, his disciple Seng Biancai obtained it. When Taizong was the queen of Qin, he was surprised to see that the rubbing was sold at a high price, and "Lanting" was finally missing. He went to Yuezhou to obtain it, and entered the Qin government in the fourth year of Wude. In the tenth year of Zhenguan, he copied ten copies and gave them to his ministers. When the emperor died, Chu Suiliang wrote: "Lanting was valued by the late emperor and cannot be kept." ’ So he kept it secret in Zhaoling. "

"Taiping Guangji" contains very different records from He Yanzhi's "Lanting Ji".

He Wen said that during Zhenguan, Taizong studied the two kings' books and imitated the original works. After all, "Lanting" was not found. Later, he was summoned by Biancai three times, but Fang Xuanling pretended that the book had been lost and his whereabouts were unknown.

Xiao Yi, the censor, was recommended. Yi concealed his identity, disguised himself as a down-and-out scholar, and fell in love with him, playing chess, chanting, discussing calligraphy and painting, and became friends throughout the year. Later, Biancai showed off his possessions and showed his authentic "Lanting" hanging on the roof beam. "Lanting" became Xiao Yi's name. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he privately took this post and sent it back to Chang'an.

Taizong ordered the copies to be given to the prince, kings and ministers. Before he died, he said to Li Zhi: "I want to ask for something from you. You are sincere and filial. How can you go against my heart?" also? What do you think? "So, the authentic copy of "Lanting" was buried in Zhaoling. He Yanzhi Ziyun,

The above story was narrated personally by Yuan Yuan, a disciple of Wen Biancai, at the former residence of Zen Master Zhiyong in Yongxing Temple. Liu and He said that the plot is suspenseful . It is generally believed that He said that it is inaccurate, and that Liu's statement is accurate and credible. Although the plots of the two are different, the original "Lanting Preface" was buried in Zhaoling.

This is the same. According to the "New History of the Five Dynasties·Biography of Wen Tao", Wen Tao, the governor of Yaozhou in the Later Liang Dynasty, once robbed the Zhaoling Mausoleum: "Tao walked down the road and saw the palace system. It was magnificent and no different from the human world, with the main bedroom in the middle and east and west. There is a stone bed in the compartment, and in the stone letter on the bed is an iron box, which contains the books of the previous life and the handwriting of King Zhong. The paper and ink are as new as new. Tao took them and passed them on to the world. ”

According to this record, the authentic copy of "Lanting" was found again in the hands of "the thief who robbed the mausoleum" Wen Tao. In addition, Cai Ting of the Song Dynasty said in a postscript that when the "Lanting Preface" was buried together, It was exchanged for a fake copy by Li Shimin's sisters, and the original copy of "Lanting" has been lost to the world since then. Its whereabouts are even more of a mystery.

Tang Taizong obtained "Lanting". After that, he ordered Feng Chengsu, a famous calligrapher in Hongwen Hall, and Yu Shinan and Chu Suiliang to copy several copies and give them to his relatives and ministers. After Taizong died, he was buried with the original copy. "Preface" is no longer the original work of Wang Xi. There are many types of copies handed down, some are wood and stone editions, some are copies, or some are copies. The famous one is "Dingwu Lanting", which is said to be a copy by Ouyang Xun, because it was found in Ding, Hebei during the Northern Song Dynasty. It was named after Wu (now Zhengding, Hebei).

Taizong of the Tang Dynasty ordered Feng Chengsu to make a copy of the "Lanting Preface" by Feng Chengsu. Since his copy had the small seal of "Shenlong" from the Tang Dynasty, he named it "Lanting Preface" to the Shenlong version to distinguish it from the "Lanting Preface". Other Tang copies.

The ink color of this book is the most vivid, it is vivid on the paper, the imitation is exquisite, the silk thread is used to reflect the tape, and every detail is revealed. There are hundreds of words in the text, and there are no words that do not need to be threaded. , its brushwork, ink style, style, and charm are all reflected, and we can basically get a glimpse of the style of Xizhi's original work. It is recognized as the best copy and is regarded as a treasure.

The paper copy of "Lanting Preface" copied by Feng Chengsu is now in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing. It is 24.5 cm high and 69.9 cm wide. This copy was once in the imperial palace of Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty. It was acquired by Guo Tianxi in the early Yuan Dynasty and later returned to a major collector. Xiang Yuanbian, Qianlong returned to the imperial palace.