How did Wang Xianzhi become a calligrapher?

According to legend, Wang Xianzhi began to learn calligraphy at the age of seven or eight, and his first teacher was naturally his father Wang Xizhi. By the time he was a teenager, Wang Xianzhi thought his handwriting was already very good. So he ran to ask his father, "I only need to practice for another three years at my present level, right?" Wang Xizhi just smiled and didn't answer. His mother shook her head and said it was not enough.

Wang Xianzhi then asked: "That five years is always ok." As a result, my mother still shook her head and finally offered it in a hurry. When she asked how long it would take to practice calligraphy, her father went to the window and pointed to a row of vats in the yard and said, as long as you dye the water in eighteen vats in the yard, maybe your handwriting will be practiced.

So Wang Xianzhi began to practice calligraphy day and night for five years. One day, he showed his father his masterpiece, but he didn't answer. Instead, he added a little under the word "big" and it became the word "too". Father didn't speak, and gloomily showed his work to his mother. His mother looked at it for a long time and said, "My son has been practicing calligraphy for so long, and this is the only one like your father."

On the one hand, the point my mother refers to is actually the point my father just added. I felt very ashamed at once, so I began to practice calligraphy more diligently. I don't know how long it took. He finally learned something and became a great calligrapher.

Extended data

Wang Xianzhi's family studies hard. His poetry and calligraphy is a rising star in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. His cursive script is as skillful, graceful and romantic as his father Wang Xizhi, and his father and son are called two kings.

Wang Xianzhi's cursive script is even more valuable. Yu Zhuo once said: "The cursive script was handed down from Zhang Zhi in the Han Dynasty, just a wonderful person and a slave."

Wang Xianzhi's ink remains are rarely preserved, and the quantity is far less than that of Wang Xizhi. Wang Xianzhi's works in the imperial palace "only exist" because Emperor Taizong condescended to provide them instead of buying them. Calligraphy in the early Song Dynasty emphasized "two kings". Song Taizong and Zhao Guangyi attached great importance to calligraphy, bought Mo Bao, a famous ancient emperor, and ordered Wang Shuzhu to copy ten volumes. This is the famous Spring Flower Pavilion.

During the reign of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Huizong's calligraphy surpassed Wang Xianzhi's, and Xuanhe Pu Shu's collection of Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy increased to more than 80. However, most of these ink books have not been preserved, and the remaining ink books are no more than seven, and they are all manuscripts. There are still some original prints in the past dynasties.

Wang Xianzhi cursive script Mo Bao has a duck head pill tie and a Mid-Autumn Festival tie, both of which are imitations of the Tang Dynasty. His duck head pill tie is a cursive script with 15 * * * written in silk.

Wu Qizhen praised this post in the Book of Calligraphy and Painting in the Qing Dynasty, saying: "(This post) calligraphy is elegant and straight, amazingly beautiful, naturally interesting, and it is the supreme product."

Wang Xianzhi's Mid-Autumn Festival Post is a cursive script, with 22 characters of * * *, a new look and a piece of feather, which is rare in the world. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty listed it as a "national treasure".

Baidu Encyclopedia-Wang Xianzhi