Wang Xizhi (32 1~379), whose real name was Shao Yi, was born in Linyi (now Shandong Linyi) and later moved to Yin Shan (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang). He was a great calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and was honored as a "book saint" by later generations. He comes from a calligrapher's family. When Wang Xizhi was 7 years old, he studied under the female calligrapher Wei Shuo. Later, he became a general of the right army, and he was called Wang Youjun. Wang Xizhi made great contributions to China's calligraphy. He transformed Zhong You's horizontal posture, which was similar to the official script, into a square and slightly longer posture, thus making the regular script, which was still very simple at that time, become more beautiful. This change is one of the most important signs of the transition from official script to regular script, which gave birth to the embryos of all regular script writers in the Tang Dynasty and became the basic style of writing regular script in later generations. His running script Preface to Lanting Collection is known as "the best running script in the world". China's calligraphy art is the highest achievement in his works, and he has reached his personal peak. His representative works include Preface to Lanting, Mourning Post, Sunny Snow Post, Le Yi Lun and so on.
Portrait of Wang Xizhi