On the third day of March 9th, Emperor Yonghe of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, 50-year-old Wang Xizhi, Xie An, Sun Chuo and other relatives and friends came to Lanting, a place close to mountains and rivers, and held a funeral by the water according to the custom at that time. During the dinner, everyone drank wine and wrote poems, and finally Wang Xizhi made a preface. Wang Xizhi began to write in a drunken state, exhibited papers, and left behind masterpieces of calligraphy and articles that nourished later generations, which became a monument in the history of calligraphy and literature in China.
This calligraphy work "Preface to Lanting Collection" is an impromptu manuscript of Wang Xizhi, with many traces of alteration. It is said that Wang Xizhi wrote many times later, and his spirit was not so high. This work marks the maturity of Chinese characters and the perfection of writing, including Wang Xizhi's preciseness, Shu Lang's personality and talent. His brushwork and lines are vivid, and the font structure and composition changes have reached an unparalleled height. Of the 324 words in the full text, only the word "zhi" appears in 20 places, and none of them are the same, but they all achieve the harmony and unity of the overall charm. In the early Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, admired the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi's father and son, and cheated this Preface to Lanting Collection from Wang Xizhi's descendants in an indecent way. After his death, he took Wang Xizhi's original work to his grave. At present, the best version is the double hook silhouette of Feng Chengsu in Tang Dynasty. Because it is stamped with the seal of Zhongzong Shenlong Year, also known as Shenlong Book, it has become a classic model for learning calligraphy in past dynasties. Dong Zan, a master of painting and calligraphy in the Ming Dynasty, said, "The composition is the first in ancient and modern times."
The Draft for the Sacrifice of a Nephew written by Yan Zhenqing in Tang Dynasty is called "the second running script in the world". Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Lanting Pavilion reveals the elegance of drinking and having a spring outing, while Yan Zhenqing's "Sacrifice to a Nephew" is full of grief and indignation at the loss of relatives. "The Manuscript for Sacrificing Nephew" is an essay on Yan Zhenqing's discovery of the bodies of his cousin Yan Gaoqing and his nephew Yan Jiming who died defending Changshan after recovering the lost land of Changshan plundered by rebels. Yan Zhenqing was in a relatively calm mood when he first started writing "Sacrificing a Nephew Draft". He said the date first and then identified himself. Then, he revealed his sentimental memories and praised my nephew Ji Ming's talent when he was young. When he wrote that "the thief failed to save him, the lonely city besieged him, and his father's nest was splashed with eggs", Yan Zhenqing's hatred of selfish villains and the sadness of his younger brother and nephew could no longer control his mood, and the calligraphy lines were heavy and sad.
In the third year of his exile in Huangzhou, Su Shi wrote Huangzhou cold food poems, which were praised by later generations as the third running script in the world. Su Shi's calligraphy study followed the ethos of the Tang Dynasty. In his early days, he learned more than two kings. Later I fell in love with Yan Zhenqing's simple and honest calligraphy style. Most of his handwriting is flat, wide and fat. Huang Tingjian, a contemporary calligrapher, joked that Su Shi's calligraphy is a "stone crushing toad" style, and Huangzhou's cold food poems also represent this feature of Su Shi's calligraphy style. However, Huangzhou cold food poems are rare works with great emotional fluctuation and strong sense of rhythm in Su Shi's calligraphy.
To appreciate this work, we should not abandon its content but only look at calligraphy. The poem of sadness and indignation of Xi Chun is the emotional basis of this calligraphy. Judging from his works, Su Shi was very calm when he started writing. He told me flatly, "I have eaten cold food three times since I came to Huangzhou." The writing is steady and the words are rigorous, but there is also a beautiful atmosphere that does not reveal any sadness, such as the bass prelude of a symphony. When he wrote, "Cook cold dishes in an open place, break the stove and wet the reeds. Su Shi could no longer restrain his grief and indignation when he saw the black paper, and his rare emotional exposure and personality publicity appeared in calligraphy. He changed the implication that his usual brushwork hides the needle in cotton, and put down the word "Wei" and the word "paper" continuously with the side center, which made him full of anger, especially pulling the last word of the word "paper" down with the center, as if it were written from a peaceful mood. With the change of mood, the word became bigger and bigger. When he wrote "Broken Kitchen", there was a climax of grief and indignation. There is only one word at the end of the last line, which also produces a calm beauty after the storm. In composition, it also echoes the first three lines, making the whole work look ups and downs, crazy but not wild.