Date of birth
AD 303, year 321
Date of death
AD 361, year 379
Wang Xizhi (303-361, 321-379), courtesy name Yishao, Han nationality, was a famous calligrapher during the Eastern Jin Dynasty and was known as the "Sage of Calligraphy". His ancestral home was Langya (now Linyi, Shandong). He later moved to Shanyin, Huiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), and lived in seclusion in Jinting, Shan County in his later years. He successively served as secretary Ying, general Ningyuan, governor of Jiangzhou, and later as internal history of Kuaiji, leading the right general. His calligraphy is good at Li, Cao, Kai, Xing and other styles. He studies the styles carefully, imitates them with his heart and hands, draws on the strengths of others, prepares various styles, and cultivates them in one furnace. He breaks away from the writing style of Han and Wei Dynasties and becomes his own style with far-reaching influence. The style is peaceful and natural, the writing style is euphemistic and subtle, and it is beautiful and graceful. His representative work "Lanting Preface" is known as "the best running script in the world". In the history of calligraphy, he and his son Wang Xianzhi are collectively known as the "Two Kings".