The Eastern Jin Dynasty where Wang Xizhi lived was an era where family status was important and father-fighting was popular. At that time, the clan system was prevalent, and the clans and clans enjoyed great political and economic privileges. As long as they were children of the clans, they could be directly awarded official positions without going through promotion and inspection. Wang Xizhi was fortunate enough to be born into the Wang family, where "kings and horses dominate the world". He did not have to worry about livelihood and work since he was a child, which made his artistic cells unfettered and developed fission-wise, especially in calligraphy.
According to historical records, Wang Xizhi’s family has a long history of learning. His father Wang Kuang and many of his uncles are experts in the field of calligraphy and painting. Wang Xizhi was influenced by his family and loved calligraphy since childhood. At the age of seven, Wang Xizhi became a disciple of the famous calligrapher Mrs. Wei and began to study calligraphy specifically.
Mrs. Wei is a student of Zhong Yao (the founder of Xiaokai script), a famous calligrapher in the Cao Wei period. She is good at official script and regular script, and has complete methods. Shadow; also like red lotus reflecting water, green marsh floating clouds. "Wang Xizhi copied Wei Shu until he was twelve years old. Although he was very good at it, he was not very satisfied.
Later, Wang Xizhi admired all the famous calligraphers since the Han and Wei dynasties. He studied Zhang Zhi in cursive calligraphy and Zhong Yao in Zheng calligraphy. Wei Bifeng finally became his own family and was known as the "Sage of Calligraphy". It is said that one time the emperor wanted to go to the northern suburbs to offer sacrifices and asked Wang Xizhi to write the congratulations on a wooden board and then let craftsmen carve them. Unexpectedly, the craftsman whittled away layer after layer of the wooden board, and found that Wang Xizhi's calligraphy ink had penetrated deep into the wooden board. It was only after cutting three-thirds of the depth that he found the bottom (this is where the idiom "three-thirds into the wood" comes from).
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, marriage was based on family status. At that time, Taiwei Xi (xī) Jian had a daughter who was only 28 years old. She was born with talents and good looks, and Xi Jian regarded her as the apple of his eye. When Xi Jian saw that his daughter had reached the age of marriage, he wanted to find her an in-law. After filtering through his mind high-level government officials, celebrities and other heavyweights, he finally settled on Prime Minister Wang Dao. Xi Jian said to Director Wang: "My daughter has reached the age of looking for a partner. Our two families have a good relationship. How about finding someone of similar age in your family to form a strong alliance?" Director Wang readily agreed. , so Xi Jian sent someone to interview and choose his son-in-law. When the children of the Wang family heard that the Taiwei had come to choose a son-in-law, they all made great efforts, dressed up carefully, and came out to meet each other, hoping that Que Ping would be chosen. The people in Taiwei's Mansion saw that all the Wang family's children were sitting upright with reserved expressions, except for a young man lying on his back on the bed in the east, indifferent, so they reported the situation to Taiwei Xi Jian. After Xi Jian heard about it, he felt that the man lying on the bed was very stylish, so he decided on the spot that he was the one.
Wang Xizhi became the prince's son-in-law. Coupled with his talents and background, it was not difficult to become an official. Therefore, he became secretary Lang as soon as he became an official, and successively served as General Ningyuan, Governor of Jiangzhou, etc. Position. However, although Wang Xizhi was very talented, he was not very generous. There was a man named Wang Shu, who had the same surname as Wang Xizhi but a different clan. He was born with extraordinary appearance and little reputation, and he was as famous as Wang Xizhi. Wang Xizhi had always looked down on Wang Shu, but Wang Shu later became more popular both as a person and as an official, and was promoted faster than Wang Xizhi. Wang Xizhi was filled with jealousy and always wanted to seek an opportunity to teach Wang Shu a lesson.
When Wang Shu was serving as the internal history of Kuaiji, his mother died, so he resigned from his official post and returned home to observe mourning. Coincidentally, the person who succeeded Wang Shu was Wang Xizhi. At that time, Wang Shu was attending a funeral in Kuaiji. As a local governor, Wang Xizhi was supposed to go to express his condolences (usually three times). Wang Xizhi, on the other hand, not only went there once, but also turned around and left without saluting forward or telling Wang Xizhi something like "I'm sorry for the change".
Fortunately, when Wang Shu's three-year period of filial piety expired, things turned around and he was promoted to the governor of Yangzhou and became Wang Xizhi's immediate superior (Kuiji County was under the rule of Yangzhou). When Wang Xizhi heard the news, he was like a thunderbolt from the clear sky. He was afraid that Wang Shu would retaliate against him, but he didn't want to resign and hide, so he had a whim and reported to the court, asking if he could separate Jiangji County from Yangzhou and upgrade it to Yuezhou so that he could be on an equal footing with Wang Shu.
As a result, Wang Xizhi won the Best Joke Award of the Year. Wang Shu originally wanted to make peace with Wang Xizhi, but when he saw that he went too far every time and showed no intention of repenting, he decided to fight back. In the name of inspection work, he went to Kuaiji County to reprimand Wang Xizhi for his political mistakes. Wang Xizhi couldn't stand having others wear small shoes for him, so he resigned and left Kuaiji County.