The most outstanding works of art often contain abundant artistic beauty in a very small space. Preface to the Lanting Pavilion is a pocket-sized splendid calligraphy hall that stands in the ruler. Emperor Taizong praised it as "a little work, a wonderful cut." Huang Tingjian said that Yang said, "The Preface to Lanting is a grass, and Wang Youjun has been proud of his book all his life. After reading it repeatedly, it is not satisfactory." The Preface to the Lanting Pavilion is full of charming and vigorous brushwork, which runs through every detail. Slightly cut its horizontal painting, there are exposed front horizontal, with front horizontal, hanging head horizontal, down-picking horizontal, up-picking horizontal, side-by-side horizontal, etc., and adapt to the situation. Its vertical painting, or hanging needles, or jade tendons, or falling dew, or oblique vertical, or arc vertical, or with hooks, or curved heads, or double forks, or juxtaposition, each has its own wonderful. Its points include oblique point, front point, curved point, flat point, long point, hooked point, left and right point, up and down point, two points, three points, horizontal three points, right point and so on. Its skimming includes oblique skimming, straight skimming, short skimming, flat skimming, long curved skimming, arc skimming, back skimming, hooked skimming, curved skimming, parallel skimming and so on. Its pick, short or long, its fold, there are horizontal fold, vertical fold, oblique fold There are oblique strokes, flat strokes, back strokes, hook strokes, long strokes and falcon tails. Its hooks include vertical hook, vertical hook, oblique hook, horizontal hook, right hook, round hook, horizontal hook, left flat hook and back hook reduction. Regardless of horizontal, vertical, point, skimming, hooking, folding and pressing, it can be said that the pen is extremely wonderful. There are 324 words in Preface to the Lanting Pavilion, and each word is created by Wang Xizhi as a life image, which is full of flesh and blood, and endowed with their own temperament, spirit and charm: sitting, lying, walking, dancing or singing, although within a certain scale, all the talents are everywhere. Wang Xizhi's wealth of wisdom is not only manifested in the heterogeneity of different words, but also in the construction of heavy words. There are more than twenty "zhi" characters in the preface, none of which are the same, and each has its own unique charm. There are still some heavy words such as Shi, Wei, Yi, Suo, Xin, Yang, Qi, Chang, Bu, Jin, Lan, Huai, Xing and Hou, all of which are unique.
Dong Qichang wrote in "Essays on Painting Zen Rooms": "The narration of Lanting by the Right Army is the first in ancient and modern times, and its characters are all reflected in the tape, small or large, and they are all in line with the law, so it is a wonderful product." Later generations cherish the beauty of white cloth, and although the copyists inevitably infiltrate their own brushwork, no one has slightly changed their composition and white cloth. As Jie Jin said in "Miscellaneous Stories of Spring Rain": "The Syrian Lanting of the right army is beautiful in words, especially in layout. The so-called increase of one point is too long, and the loss of one point is too short." The composition of Preface to Lanting is like dancing with natural beauty, and the beauty of its dancing is unparalleled.
The cultivation of Lanting made Wang Xizhi realize the beauty of mountains and rivers, the mystery of the universe and the true meaning of life. In the realm of forgetting things and me, he wrote the preface to the collection of Lanting in one go. Because of his deep feelings, he was able to pay attention to the details and enjoy himself. Because of his meticulous brushwork, he can make the bottom of the pen look like flowing water and have both form and spirit; Moreover, because he has all kinds of beauty, he can make the writing of this manuscript finally reach the realm of elegance and harmony. In the face of this perfect work, although later famous artists tried their best to imitate it, they failed to get it all. Zhang Boyun of the Southern Tang Dynasty said: "Those who are good at dharma books will be integrated into the right army. If Yu Shinan gains his charm and loses his beauty, Ou Yangxun gains his strength and loses his tenderness, Chu Suiliang gains his intention and loses his change, and Xue Ji gains his clarity and loses his embarrassment. " And Wang Xizhi himself only wrote this masterpiece. Later, he wrote the Preface to the Lanting Pavilion again, which was not as wonderful as the original. Shen Yinmo said that "I was less at that time, and I was perfect", praising the Excellence of the Preface to the Lanting Pavilion, which was naturally beyond others' reach.
In the Song Dynasty, Jiang Kui loved Preface to the Lanting Pavilion. It is said that there are four copies of Preface to the Lanting Pavilion, which are inscribed by Huang Tingjian, Wang Jinzhi, Ge Ciyan and Shan Bingwen. He studied them every day and often wrote what he learned on them. There is a saying: "Gan Yu's years of learning Lanting have nowhere to go. I have learned something by watching it under the lamp tonight." It took more than 2 years to get an introduction, which shows the difficulty of interpretation: for more than 1,6 years, countless calligraphers have been tirelessly interpreting and reading, so they don't want to go deep into the hall of Xi, but in the end they can only get one. Therefore, Preface to Lanting can be said to be a maze created by outstanding calligraphy wisdom.
The Preface to the Lanting Pavilion was collected by the people in 27 years after Wang Xizhi's death. Later, Emperor Taizong managed to earn money from the people and died in Zhaoling. There are many kinds of handed down books, either wood and stone engravings, or copies, or temporary books. Famous people, such as Dingwu Lanting, were told that Ou Yangxun copied the stone and got its name because it was discovered in Dingwu, Hebei Province in the Northern Song Dynasty. Preface to the Lanting Pavilion in Luoyang Palace was handed down as the 19th copy of Chu Suiliang, which was given by Emperor Taizong to those who were high and honest. Chu Suiliang also circulated Preface to the Dragon Half-printed Lanting and Preface to Zhang Jinjie's Slave Lanting, because the former was half-printed with the word "Dragon" and the latter had the word "Zhang Jinjie's Slave Enterprising". There is also a copy of Feng Chengsu Hook of Hong Wen Pavilion dedicated by Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty, which is called "Dragon Pavilion". This book is the most vivid in ink and is regarded as a treasure. In addition, there are "Xue Ji Ben", "Give Pan Guifei Ben", "Ying Shang Ben", "Drowning Ben" and so on.
Although the original Lanting was buried in Zhaoling, its incarnation has been copied and engraved, and there are more than hundreds of books. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Zhao Wei first doubted the authenticity of Lanting, saying: "From the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the early Tang Dynasty, those who survived the inscription often had the meaning of official script, and it was only after Kaiyuan that it was pure today. Although the right army has become an official script, the ancient law should not be completely destroyed. Today's world is engraved, if it is not for the Tang Dynasty, it will be distorted. " During the Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty, Li Wentian thought that the text of Lanting was false and its book was forged by later generations. In 1965, there was a big debate about the authenticity of Lanting. Guo Moruo thought it was "fake", while Gao Ershi, the other party, refuted it. In 1973, Cultural Relics Publishing House compiled Arguments on Lanting, and collected 18 relevant papers. Since then, many works have discussed the authenticity of Lanting. Although Qian Zhongshu, a famous scholar, did not take part in the debate at that time, his thoughts and incisive opinions on the debate of Lanting were reflected in Guan Zui Bian published in 1979. In a letter published in the People's Daily on May 24, 1988, Qian Zhongshu pointed out more clearly: "Ruan Wenda's theory of' South Post and North Monument' is not the same as that of the Northern Monument; When Guo Moruo saw the South Monument, he said that the Preface to Lanting, which was handed down by the right army in the world, was not written in Jin and Song Dynasties, but would be falsely entrusted by later generations. It' s a good look at it, and it' s on the side of Wenda. " That is to say, they are all biased. This can inspire us to further explore this academic topic.
In short, we believe that the textual research on the authenticity of Lanting should focus not only on the cultural background at that time, but also on the innovative motivation and achievements of Wang Xi who became a generation of "book saints".