The most famous masterpiece of running script is Preface to Lanting written by Wang Xizhi, a calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Predecessors described it as "a dragon flying from heaven, a tiger lying in a phoenix" and praised it as "the best running script in the world".
Wang Xizhi, Shao Yiren, Han nationality, a famous calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, is known as the "book sage". His ancestral home is Langya (now Linyi, Shandong). Later, he moved to Wuxi and lived in Jinting County (now Zhejiang) in his later years.
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Preface to Lanting Collection is also called Preface to Lanting Collection, Preface to Lanting, Preface to He Lin, Preface to Zan and Zan Tie. The calligraphy post of Preface to Lanting embodies the highest realm of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy art, and the author's tolerance, spirit, mind and feelings are fully expressed in this work.
On March 3rd, the 9th year of Yonghe in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 353), 4/kloc-0 military and political dignitaries such as Wang Xizhi, Xie An and Sun Chuo "wrote poems" in Yinshan Lanting (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang). At the meeting, Wang Xizhi wrote a preface for their poems. The Preface to the Orchid Pavilion narrates the beauty of the landscape around the Orchid Pavilion and the joy of the party, and expresses the author's feelings about the impermanence of life and death.