Preface to Lanting develops from "having both form and spirit" to "separating form and spirit", emphasizing 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".
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The Preface to the Lanting Pavilion, with 28 lines and 324 words, is charming and elegant, with exquisite words and dancing, which seems to help the gods and men. It has been regarded as a masterpiece in the calligraphy circles of past dynasties. Mi Fei, a great calligrapher in Song Dynasty, called it "the first post of China's running script".
Anyone who studies running script in the future will fall in love with Lanting. The graceful and dancing brushwork of Preface to Lanting really makes our younger generation sigh and admire Wang Xizhi's superb calligraphy skills and fluent literary talent.
The original work is buried in Zhaoling, and there are manuscripts handed down from generation to generation and temporary copies, among which Dragon Book is the best. The pen in this post is mainly centered, with wings between strokes, which is slender and light, or a broken pen Lian Bi. The overall layout is patchy, with unique, beautiful and moving infinite charm. "This post has a lofty position in the history of calligraphy in China.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Preface to Lanting