Preface to Lanting is a book written by Wang Xizhi at the age of 47. It tells the story that Xihe and his good friend Yashi gathered in Lanting (now Lanting Town, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province) for a grand tour. This book is calm and full of vitality. It is said that Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty, loved his calligraphy and thought the Preface to Lanting was "perfect". After his death, he buried it in the mausoleum.
There has been a great debate about the authenticity of Preface to Lanting, and Li Shimin's tomb was almost dug. However, the artistic value of Preface to Lanting is generally acknowledged. Mi Songfei's poem said: "Mo Han is the most romantic in the world. Who doesn't love Yin Shan in Goose Pond? Although this book decays to Zhaoling, stone carving is particularly precious. "There are dozens of copies of calligraphers in past dynasties, which is also a rare cultural phenomenon in the history of calligraphy.
The calligraphy of Preface to Lanting conforms to the most basic aesthetic view of traditional calligraphy: "The style is not flashy, the quality is not wild, and the style is gentle." His brushwork combines rigidity with softness, his lines are flexible, his stippling is concise, his book style is based on dispersion, and he has the aesthetic feeling of respect, concession and comparison, which has become a model of "the beauty of neutralization". Appreciating the Preface to Lanting will give you an extraordinary artistic enjoyment.
Brief introduction of the author
Wang Xizhi (303-36 1, 32 1-379), a calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, has few words. I am from Langya (now Linyi, Shandong) and live in Yin Shan (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang). The officers of the right army generals will review the internal history and be called "Wang Youjun". He came from a noble family in the Jin Dynasty. When Wang Xizhi was twelve years old, his father taught him the theory of brushwork. "If you use an outline, you will realize something."
When I was a child, I studied calligraphy under the famous female calligrapher Mrs. Wei. Later, he visited the famous mountains in You Jiang, where he learned from foreigners, learned from foreigners, and learned from Zhong You. Observing and learning "how to combine multiple methods to prepare a family" has reached the height of "more expensive than others, the best in ancient and modern times".