The No. 1 book in the world, "Preface to the Lanting Collection" is Wang Xizhi's masterpiece.
Wang Xizhi (303-361, 321-379), courtesy name Yishao, Han nationality, was a famous calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and was known as the "Sage of Calligraphy". His ancestral home was Langya (now Linyi, Shandong). He later moved to Shanyin, Huiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), and lived in seclusion in Jinting, Shan County in his later years. He successively served as secretary Ying, general Ningyuan, governor of Jiangzhou, and later as internal history of Kuaiji, leading the right general. His calligraphy is good at Li, Cao, Kai, Xing and other styles. He studies the styles carefully, imitates them with his heart and hands, draws on the strengths of others, prepares various styles, and cultivates them in one furnace. He breaks away from the writing style of Han and Wei Dynasties and becomes his own style with far-reaching influence. The style is peaceful and natural, the writing style is euphemistic and subtle, and it is beautiful and graceful. His representative work "Lanting Preface" is known as "the best running script in the world". In the history of calligraphy, he and his son Wang Xianzhi are collectively known as the "Two Kings".
The time goes forward to March 3, the ninth year of Yonghe (AD 353) of Emperor Mu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Wang Xizhi, Xie An, Sun Chuo and other 41 senior military and political officials gathered in Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province). ) Lanting "cultivating evil spirits", everyone wrote poems at the meeting, and Wang Xizhi wrote a manuscript preface to their poems. "Preface to Orchid Pavilion" describes the beauty of the landscape around Orchid Pavilion and the joy of the party, expressing the author's feelings about the impermanence of life and death.
The preface is clear, concise and profound, which represents Wang Xizhi’s prose style. And its sentences are exquisite, clear and catchy. It is a masterpiece of ancient parallel prose. "Preface to the Lanting Collection" has advantages in several aspects of parallel prose. In terms of syntax, the antitheses are neat and the meanings of the sentences are parallel, such as "All the virtuous people have arrived, and the young and old have gathered together", "Look up at the size of the temple. Look down at the prosperity of the categories", "Maybe take the arms of all the people and talk to each other in the same room. ; Or because of the entrustment, let go of the waves." The two are opposite each other, the sound and rhyme are harmonious, there are no traces of chiseling, and the language is fresh, simple and natural. The text that belongs to the discussion part is also very concise and expressive. In terms of allusions, it only uses simple and easy-to-recite allusions such as "Qi Peng Shang" and "Xiu Chuezhi". Such simple writing is in line with the Eastern Jin Dynasty's carvings. sentence, in sharp contrast to the flashy writing style.
This article reflects Wang Xizhi’s positive outlook on life, which is in sharp contrast to the inaction advocated by Lao-Zhuang’s theory.