Lanting is an ancient scenic spot in the shade of Huiji Mountain in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, where there are mountains, forests and bamboos, and there are winding waters around Lanting, which has attracted many tourists since ancient times. Wang Xizhi's calligraphy has the greatest influence: Preface to the Lanting Pavilion, which is also a legendary story in the history of calligraphy. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a custom that people had to go to the river on the third day of March in the lunar calendar every year, so as to pray for good luck and eliminate misfortune, which was called "repairing the temple".
On the third day of March in the 9th year of Yonghe in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (A.D. 353), Wang Xizhi, who was then the civil history general of Huiji and the general of the right army, invited forty-one literati, including Xie An and Sun Chuo, to gather in the Lanting in the Shanyin of Huiji, drinking and writing poems. Qushui flowing, also known as Qushui banquet. The invited person sits by the stream, and Nunnery puts the feather full of wine into the stream, and moves with the wind. If the feather stops at whose position, the person will have to compose a poem. If it cannot be done, it will be fined three times. While everyone was intoxicated with the aftertaste of the beautiful wine-scented poems, someone suggested that it was better to compile 37 poems made that day into a collection, which is Lanting Collection. At this time, many scholars pushed Wang Xizhi to write a preface to Lanting Collection. Wang Xizhi was full of wine, and he started to write freely on silkworm paper in one go. Wrote the world-famous Preface to Lanting. The preface narrates the beauty of the landscape around Lanting and the joy of the party, expressing the author's feelings that life and death are impermanent. The next day, Wang Xizhi was still unfinished after waking up from a hangover. He bent over his desk and rewrote the preface on paper, but he felt that he was not as exquisite as the original. Not convinced, he repeated the book several times in a row, but still failed to grasp the essence of the original text. At this time, he realized that this preface was the pinnacle of his life, and his calligraphy art was fully developed in this preface. I can't help feeling: this god helps the ear, why can't I do it? At this time, all kinds of anecdotes were circulated in Preface to Lanting. Wang Xizhi himself cherished it as a family heirloom and passed it on to his seventh generation Sun Zhiyong.
Zhiyong became a monk and loved calligraphy very much. Before he died, he passed the Preface to Lanting to his disciple, Monk Bian Cai. Monk Bian Cai is also very good at calligraphy. He knows the value of Preface to the Lanting Pavilion and regards it as a treasure, which is hidden in a hole specially carved on the beam of his bedroom. Li Shimin loved calligraphy, especially Wang Xizhi's handwriting. He heard that Wang Xizhi's calligraphy treasure "Preface to the Lanting Pavilion" was in the place of the distinguished monk, so he sent people to ask for it many times. The distinguished monk always said that he didn't know the whereabouts of the original. Li Shimin see stubbornly or not, then change to outwit. He sent Xiao Yi, the censor, to dress up as a scholar, to get close to the discerning talents and look for opportunities to obtain the Preface to Lanting. Xiao Yi is also very good at calligraphy, and has a very speculative talk with the talented monk. After the close relationship between them, Xiao Yi deliberately took out several pieces of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy works for the monks to appreciate. After reading it, he said disapprovingly, it's true, but it's not good. It's not bad that I have an original copy. Xiao Yi asked what post it was, and he was told mysteriously that it was the original work of The Lanting Preface. Xiao Yi pretended not to believe that this post had disappeared. Bian Cai took the original from the roof beam and showed it to Xiao Yi. When Xiao Yi saw it, it was really the original of The Orchid Pavilion Preface, and immediately put it in his sleeve. At the same time, Bian Cai showed the relevant letters of Emperor Taizong. Only at this time can we know that we are fooled. I was very sad that I lost my original work. I soon became depressed and became ill, and died in less than a year.