On the third day of March in the 9th year of Yonghe in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (A.D. 353), Wang Xizhi, then the general of Huiji Literature and History and the Right Army, invited 41 scholars, including Xie An and Sun Chuo, to get together at the Lanting in Huiji, sit quietly and drink and write poems. Qushui flowing, also known as Qushui Banquet. The invited people were sitting by the stream, and buddhist nun put the feathers full of wine into the stream and moved with the wind. If the feather stops at someone's place, this person will have to write a poem. If you can't do it, you will be fined three times. When everyone was intoxicated with the aftertaste of the wonderful wine-scented poems, it was suggested that 37 poems written that day should be compiled into a collection, which is the Preface to Lanting Collection. At this time, many scholars urged Wang Xizhi to write Preface to Lanting Collection. Wang Xizhi was full of wine and rice, and began to write freely on silkworm paper in one go. He wrote the world-famous Preface to Lanting Collection. The preface narrates the beauty of the landscape around Lanting and the joy of gathering, and expresses the author's feelings of impermanence of life and death. The next day, Wang Xizhi woke up with a hangover. He squatted on the table and rewrote the preface on the paper, but he felt that it was not as exquisite as the original. Not convinced, he repeatedly read the book several times in a row, but still failed to grasp the essence of the original text. Only then did he realize that this preface was the pinnacle of his life, and his calligraphy art was fully developed in this preface. I can't help feeling: Why can't I help my ears this day? At this time, there are all kinds of anecdotes circulating in the preface to Lanting Collection. Wang Xizhi himself treasured it as a family heirloom and passed it on to his seventh generation Sun Zhiyong.
Zhiyong became a monk and loved calligraphy very much. Before he died, he passed the Preface to Lanting Collection to his disciple Cai Bian. Monks in Cai Bian are also good at calligraphy. He knew the value of the Preface to Lanting, regarded it as a treasure, and hid it in a hole specially carved on the beam of his bedroom. Li Shimin likes calligraphy, especially Wang Xizhi's. He heard that Wang Xizhi's calligraphy treasure "Preface to the Lanting Pavilion" was in this monk's place, so he sent people to ask for it many times. The outstanding monk always said that he didn't know the whereabouts of the original. Li Shimin see stubbornly don't believe, then change to outwit. He sent suggestion Xiao Yi to dress up as a scholar, and approached talented people with vision, looking for opportunities to get the Preface to Lanting. Xiao Yi was also very good at calligraphy and had a very speculative conversation with this talented monk. After their close relationship, Xiao Yi specially took out several calligraphy works of Wang Xizhi for the monks to enjoy. After reading it, he said disapprovingly, this is true, but it is not good. I have an original copy, which is not bad. Xiao Yi asked what this post was, and someone mysteriously told him that it was the original work of Preface to Lanting. Xiao Yi pretended not to believe that this post had disappeared. Cai Bian took the original from the roof beam and showed it to Xiao Yi. When Xiao Yi saw it, it was the original work of Preface to Lanting Collection, and it was immediately put into the sleeve. At the same time, Cai Bian produced the relevant letters of Emperor Taizong. Only then did I know that I had been cheated. I'm sad that I lost my original work. I soon became depressed and sick, and died within a year.