Many people know that "the best running script in the world" is the work of Wang Xizhi, a great calligrapher of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, named "Preface to the Lanting Collection". Many people have memorized this article when they were students, but if they learn it as calligraphy, many people will miss it. So, knowing the first script, do you know the second script in the world? This article looks more like a draft than the "Preface to the Lanting Collection", but such a draft can be ranked second. Why?
The book was published in 758, the first year of Emperor Suzong of Tang Dynasty. It consists of two pieces of paper, 28.2 cm long and 72.3 cm wide. It is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. This manuscript is a draft of a eulogy written by Yan Zhenqing for his nephew Ji Ming. It recounts the deaths of Yan Gaoqing and his son, the prefect of Changshan, who resisted during the Anshi Rebellion.
Yan Zhenqing is a native of Lintong, Shaanxi, and his ancestral home is Linyi, Shandong. During the Anshi Rebellion, Yan Zhenqing actively resisted the thieves. Later, he became the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, the Prince of Taishi, and was named the founder of Lu Jun, known as "Yan". He is honest and honest, and dares to speak and act. From 762 to 779 AD, the prime minister sent the elderly Yan Zhenqing to persuade the warlord Li Xilie to submit to the court, but he was killed by Li Xilie.
This is the first draft of an "original" article. The circle is transformed and covered with smoke. The brush is exposed and hidden, the ink is smooth or dry when the pen is moved, the structure is gathered and dispersed, and the fonts are of different sizes, all are made by hand.
When Yan Zhenqing wrote the "Manuscript of Memorial to My Nephew", he was in a state of "unintentional writing". He was full of grief and anger, with thousands of thoughts, complaints, and repeated deletions. Yan Zhenqing did not expect that all kinds of lifelike writing styles were competing to write. Unexpectedly, this manuscript written by Hu Yajie, a wealthy woman from the capital, would be more attractive in the eyes of future generations than his carefully constructed inscription.
Zhang Yan’s postscript at the end of the volume tells the secret of why this calligraphy is so wonderful: writing a letter of appointment is not as good as writing a letter, and writing a letter is not as good as writing on scratch paper. Because the appointment letter is an official document, it must be written in regular script, and it is bound after all; because of the temporary emotions, the letter is quite open; but the draft of the article has no intention of calligraphy at all, it can be said that "forgetting the hands and forgetting the heart". It is this natural expression that calligraphy traces become the pen and ink image of the soul.
After this post, there is another inscription that is rare in Shu, saying: "Yan Zhenqing's "Manuscript of Sacrifice to My Nephew" is the second best running script in the world."