Shangyu Tie is a work written by Wang Xizhi in his later years. At that time, Wang Xizhi was 53 years old, because the life span of ancient people was relatively short, and 53 years old is an old man in our modern times. At that time, Wang Xizhi received an invitation to a friend's party. Ancient literati just liked a group of literati to gather in one place to play and write poems. Wang Xizhi was very excited to receive the invitation.
However, on the night before the appointed day, Wang Xizhi suddenly had a severe stomachache, so he wrote "Shangyu Post" and gave it to his friends for "asking for leave". In Shangyu Post, Wang Xizhi wrote down in detail the reasons why he couldn't attend the party and expressed regret.
Shangyu Post: You can learn from books. I have a stomachache at night and can't bear to see you. I hate it! Wang Xizhi is a very observant person. From the day he didn't keep the appointment and asked for leave to write Shangyu Tie, we can see that Wang Xizhi, who is 53 years old, is in poor health, but Shangyu Tie still has high historical value and calligraphy value, which is of great value to both historians and calligraphy circles.
Shangyu Iron is famous in all previous dynasties. It was often copied in the Tang Dynasty, collected by Jixian Academy, the best official institution in the Tang Dynasty, and collected by the Imperial Palace in the Song Dynasty. In other dynasties, Shangyu Iron was collected in the top collection museum, and then presented to Shanghai Museum on 1969, but it was wrongly identified as a fake by Shanghai Museum and then thrown into the trash can.
Later, Wan found that Wan, who worked in the museum, was very interested in this "suicide note" written by Wang Xizhi and took it home to collect it. Later on 1975, Xie, a master of calligraphy and painting, identified this "suicide note" as an original. Although it was copied by a calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, it is still priceless and has now become the treasure of the Shanghai Museum.