Preface to Wang Xizhi's Lanting
Only Wang Zhi's Preface to Lanting.
Xi Xi
Preface to Lanting Collection is also called Preface to Lanting Collection, Preface to Lanting, Preface to He Lin, Preface to Zan and Zan Tie. On March 3rd, the 9th year of Yonghe in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 353), 4/kloc-0 military and political dignitaries such as Wang Xizhi, Xie An and Sun Chuo "wrote poems" in Yinshan Lanting (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang). At the meeting, Wang Xizhi wrote a preface for their poems. The Preface to the Orchid Pavilion narrates the beauty of the landscape around the Orchid Pavilion and the joy of the party, and expresses the author's feelings about the impermanence of life and death.
Preface to Lanting is a running script, but we can feel the completeness of the opening method in the Eastern Jin Dynasty from its beautiful running script font, and the opening strength is implied in the beautiful running script. The regular script in the Southern Dynasties has been very developed, but from the original version of Xizhi, its outstanding achievements are obviously in line and grass. Compared with the Han, Wei and Western Jin Dynasties, Wang Xizhi's calligraphy style is characterized by exquisite brushwork and changeable structure. In the past, all his calligraphy styles followed the path of Gu Zhuo, such as Pingfu Post, but Wang Xizhi was able to lead his calligraphy skills from being purely unnatural to paying more attention to aesthetic feeling, reaching a delicate state, which was "charming" compared with Gu Zhuo. Combining this charming book style with the beautiful scenery described in Preface to Lanting, there is a subtle realm of harmony between man and nature. The author expresses his pleasure in mountains, lush forests and bamboo cultivation and is very entertaining. When gathering with friends and enjoying the scenery, I feel sad or happy, and sigh that life is short. Its beautiful moments are not frequent, scenes blend, literary thoughts erupt, and books are written on a whim, leaving a masterpiece for our national culture. The beauty of Preface to Lanting lies in the harmonious combination of natural formal beauty and human emotional beauty. It seems that there is a natural charm, and the pen runs like water, entering the highest realm of calligraphy. It is said that Xizhi wrote several times later, and it is impossible to reach this state again. This is the secret of art.
The calligraphy of Preface to Lanting conforms to the most basic aesthetic view of traditional calligraphy, that is, "literary but not flashy, qualitative but not wild, not vigorous and vigorous, gentle and elegant". His brushwork combines rigidity with softness, his lines are flexible, his stippling is concise, his book style is based on dispersion, and he has the aesthetic feeling of respect, concession and comparison, which has become a model of "the beauty of neutralization". Appreciating the Preface to Lanting will give you an extraordinary artistic enjoyment.