The position of calligraphy in the history of China art is just like the position of architecture in the history of western art, and the change of its style is enough to reflect the development of the whole art. Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Lanting Pavilion is a cultural symbol of China, which well illustrates the specific mechanism and relationship between the spiritual tradition and its material existence. In the art history of China, almost no other works have comparable status and influence.
Extended data:
Calligraphy appreciation:
On the art of painting and calligraphy in wei and jin dynasties. People always associate it with the aesthetic taste of "the debate between form and spirit", which has developed from "both form and spirit" to "the separation of form and spirit" and emphasizes nature. According to heaven, this is the relationship between formal expression and spiritual connotation in art, which is both "elegance" of Taoism and "literature" of Confucianism.
The artistic feature of China's traditional calligraphy and painting is the combination of beauty and simplicity. Later, it rose to the state of "getting carried away", which made the art of calligraphy and painting turn from the external expression in the objective world to the expression of people's inner spiritual world. This is the aesthetic taste of the pursuit of "rhyme" in the calligraphy art of the Jin Dynasty.
Judging from the ink of the circulating Jin books, Jin people like rhyme, which is mainly manifested in the beauty of nature, harmony and agility. Wang Xizhi was an outstanding representative of calligraphy in the Jin Dynasty, and later generations honored him as a "book sage", and his calligraphy post "Preface to Lanting" was also honored as "the first cursive script in the world".