Calligraphy in history began to decline slowly from the end of Tang Dynasty. Although it declined at the end of the Tang Dynasty, it was not until the Northern Song Dynasty that the calligraphy at that time was influenced by the calligraphy of the Tang Dynasty, so that it did not form an independent calligraphy style. The Northern Song Dynasty, from Song Taizu to Song Zhenzong, was the primary stage of the development of calligraphy in the Song Dynasty, which was later adopted? Shangyi? The influence of calligraphy style made the calligraphy in Song Dynasty go through a real transition period. It was also during this period that many representative calligraphers appeared, such as Guo Zhongshu, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin and Fan Zhongyan.
Fan Zhongyan was a scholar in Song Zhenzong era. He has made many achievements in his life. At that time, he was not only a writer and politician, but also a very famous calligrapher. But Fan Zhongyan's calligraphy was not very famous in the Song Dynasty, because he was most famous for his literature. However, Fan Zhongyan's calligraphy works were also excellent at that time. Fan Zhongyan has been studying Wang Xizhi's lower case work "On Yue Yi" and imitating it very much. So Fan Zhongyan later wrote his own calligraphy work Zanzan.
Zan is an essay written by Fan Zhongyan for his friends. The whole article is only 97 words, but this work has won the charm of Wang Xizhi. After seeing it, Huang Tingjian also spoke highly of this work. Finally, this work was collected by Zhang Boju.