Wang Xizhi's calligraphy became famous all over the world when he was forty years old. All his books before his death were cherished by the world, and people rushed to collect them, including emperors of past dynasties. With their own rights and wealth, they bought a lot of Wang Xizhi's works. For example, Liu Song in the Northern and Southern Dynasties and Ming Dynasty, Liang Wudi and Emperor Taizong in the Tang Dynasty were the three emperors who bought the most king books in history, and they collected thousands of king books. However, the emperors' love and possession of Wang Xizhi's works led to a large number of concentrated destruction and loss of Wang Xizhi's original works, which became an important reason for Wang Zi in turbulent times besides war and disaster.
At the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Huan Xuan fled in defeat, and he threw all his treasures into the river. Liang Wudi collected a large number of Wang Shu in Liang Neifu. Jiangling fell, and Emperor Liang set fire to this collection. The generals in the Northern Zhou Dynasty were willing to "pack up their relics and escape", but they were unable to return to heaven. This is also the most serious time that Wang Shu was destroyed in history. Emperor Yang Di is also a king's book. When he was cruising, he didn't forget to take the king's book with him to read. Unfortunately, the ship sank and all the treasures he carried were wasted.
Emperor Taizong preferred Wang Zi. He respected Wang Shu exclusively and took various measures to establish Wang Xizhi's position as the "supreme calligraphy". He ordered the collection of a large number of royal books, and Mo Bao's masterpiece Preface to the Lanting Pavilion was also offered as a sacrifice after the death of Emperor Taizong, "driving immortals into the Xuan Palace". In the later Anshi Rebellion, a large number of imperial books collected in the palace of the Tang Dynasty were also "mostly abandoned".
After the Northern Song Dynasty, there were only a few Wang Shu collected by the Inner Government. After the difficulty of Jingkang, I sighed, "I crossed the river without a clock, and there was still a king." By the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Wang Xizhi's original works were rare. A paper entitled "Eye-catching Post on Fast Snow" written by Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty was mistaken for an original and regarded as a rare treasure. It turned out to be just a replica.
Few works have been handed down, and occasionally they are circulated among the treasures hidden by collectors, which is difficult for outsiders to appreciate. Naturally, it is not as famous as Preface to Lanting Collection.