The three major calligraphy calligraphy works in China are "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Collection", "Manuscript of Memorials to My Nephew" and "Huangzhou Cold Food Calligraphy".
1. The best running script in the world - Wang Xizhi's "Preface to the Lanting Collection"
April 22, 353 AD (the third day of March in the ninth year of Yonghe, Jin Dynasty, 1661 years ago) Years), Wang Xizhi, then the internal historian of Kuaiji, and forty-one friends including Xie An and Sun Chuo gathered at Lanting in Shanyin of Kuaiji to drink and compose poems.
Wang Xizhi compiled these poems into a collection and wrote a preface to describe the incident of drinking Qushui and express the inner feelings caused by it. This preface is the "Preface to the Lanting Collection". He also wrote a "Preface to the Lanting Collection".
Taizong of the Tang Dynasty admired him so much that he personally wrote the "Biography of Wang Xizhi" in the "Book of Jin" and praised him as "perfect and perfect". Copy copies were also given to dignitaries and close ministers, and they were buried with the original works.
The full text of "Lanting Preface" has 28 lines and 324 words. The whole text is charming and elegant, and the words are exquisite. The stippling is like a dance, like the help of gods and men. It has been regarded as the best in the calligraphy circles of the past dynasties. Mi Fu, a great calligrapher in the Song Dynasty, called it "the first calligraphy in Chinese running script".
Anyone who learns cursive calligraphy in future generations will fall in love with Lanting and be unable to extricate themselves. The dancing-like calligraphy of "Lanting Preface" really makes calligraphers like us in the future generation marvel at Wang Xizhi's superb calligraphy skills and Wang Xizhi's literary talent as smooth as water.
2. The second best running script in the world - Yan Zhenqing's "Manuscript for Nephew"
"Manuscript for Nephew" is a draft for memorializing his nephew Yan Jiming. ***Twenty-three lines, two hundred and thirty-four words. This manuscript traces the story of Yan Gaoqing, the governor of Changshan, and his son's family, who stood up and resisted resolutely during the rebellion in Anlu Mountain. As a result, "the father was trapped and the son died, and the nest overturned the eggs." There is a surge of emotion in the writing throughout the article, the calligraphy is majestic, the vertical strokes are bold, and everything is done in one go.
And this manuscript was written in a state of extreme grief and indignation, regardless of the clumsiness of the pen and ink. Therefore, the words fluctuate with the calligrapher's mood, which is purely a natural expression of the calligrapher's spirit and daily workmanship. This is rare in the entire history of calligraphy, so the "Manuscript of Memorial to My Nephew" is one of the original ink works of great historical and artistic value.
3. The third best running script in the world - Su Shi's "Huangzhou Cold Food Post"
Su Shi was forty-five years old. He was ostracized by the New Party because of the "Wutai Poetry Case", the largest literary prison in the Song Dynasty. He was demoted to Huangzhou (now Huanggang, Hubei Province) as deputy envoy of Tuanlian. He felt lonely mentally, depressed and frustrated in life. In the fifth year of Yuanfeng (AD 1082), he improvised these two cold food poems and wrote "Han Shi Tie".
"Han Shi Tie" is the representative work of Su Shi's running script. This is a poem of joy and excitement, which is the sigh of life written by Su Shi on the Cold Food Festival in the third year after he was demoted to Huangzhou. The poem is desolate and sentimental, expressing Su Shi's melancholy and loneliness at this time.
The calligraphy of this poem was inspired by this mood and situation. The calligraphy throughout the text is full of ups and downs, radiant and unrestrained, without any rash strokes. "Huangzhou Cold Food Poems" has a great influence on the history of calligraphy. It is called "the third running script in the world" and is also the best among Su Shi's calligraphy works.
Extended information
The emergence and prosperity of running script
Running script developed on the basis of regular script and is a font between regular script and cursive script. It was created to make up for the slow writing speed of regular script and the difficulty of legibility of cursive script. "Xing" means "walking", so it is not as sloppy as cursive script, nor as straight as regular script. In essence, it is the cursiveization of regular script or the regularization of cursive script.
The running script appeared at about the same time as the eight-point regular script, and its form is also very close to the eight-point regular script and later official scripts. This is equivalent to changing (Zhang) cursive script from official script - deriving other branches from "zhengti characters". In addition to the official script, the "Orthodox" characters of the Huanling Dynasty were followed by the "eight-point regular script", so people think that the running script is another branch of the "eight-point regular script".
In fact, it is the same as other calligraphy styles. It was originally created by ordinary mass writers. As long as the eight-point script is made more similar to other calligraphy and loses the trend of official script, it will become running script. , we can see it everywhere in the bamboo slips generally unearthed in the late Han Dynasty.
In the late Han Dynasty, running script was not widely used.
It was not until the emergence of Wang Xizhi of the Jin Dynasty that it became popular. Running script came into the hands of Wang Xizhi, who perfectly combined its practicality and artistry. This created the Southern School's running script art that has shined through the ages and became the most influential school in the history of calligraphy. The "Preface to the Lanting Collection", known as the best running script in the world, was also written by Wang Xizhi.