The historical position of Preface to Lanting should not be long, but short. When you have finished your answer, you can say it yourself, but quickly and well.

It describes the spectacular scene of his gathering with many dignitaries and literati in the past dynasties in Lanting and Xiuzhi, and expresses the sigh of life and death. Under the mountain, by the sea of Maolin Bamboo, take a sip of wine, splash ink and write poems, and make a preface for everyone. The article is fresh and beautiful, and the calligraphy is elegant and generous. It has been regarded as the top grade by the book circles of past dynasties. Mi Fei, a great calligrapher in Song Dynasty, called it "the first post of China's running script". Therefore, Wang Xizhi was also honored as a "book saint" by later generations.

The artistic value of Preface to Lanting is not only reflected in its exquisite pen and ink skills and complete composition, but also in the profundity of cultural and emotional expression integrated with the author. Preface to Lanting possesses all the aesthetic factors of calligraphy from calligrapher, calligraphy, content and form. Under the ideological and cultural background of metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties, scholars' comments, scholars' appreciation of algae, and the collapse of Confucian classics in Han Dynasty, Preface to Lanting, as the "first running book in the world", completely got rid of the sub-artistic position of calligraphy attached to words and serving decoration for thousands of years and became the best classic to express personality, poetic feelings and humanistic value choices. Wang Xizhi, who was revered as a "book saint" by later generations, shocked people with his genius-like artistic creativity, showing his lofty self-esteem, arrogant personality charm and broad-minded feelings beyond life and death.