Wang Xizhi loves geese
Original text: Wang Xizhi loves geese: It is a household name among the people. According to the "Book of Jin·Biography of Wang Xizhi", there was an old lady in Kuaiji who raised a good goose. Wang Xizhi sent someone to buy it, but the old lady refused to sell it. Wang Xizhi invited his friends to watch it. When the old woman heard that Wang Xizhi was coming, she killed the goose to entertain him. When Wang Xizhi arrived, she saw that the goose was dead and sighed all day long. There is also an old Taoist priest in Yuhuangguan, Shanyin County, who hopes to get a copy of "Huang Ting Jing" written by Wang Xizhi. But Mr. Youjun is famous all over the world, how can he sell the favor of an old Taoist priest? Fortunately, he learned that Wang Xizhi loved geese, so he carefully raised a batch of fine-bred white geese and kept them free every day where Wang Xizhi and his friends went out for a picnic. Wang Xizhi finally "accidentally" met these white geese. He was very surprised and wanted to buy the white geese. The Taoist said, "As long as you write me a "Huang Ting Sutra", I will give all the geese to you." Wang Xizhi was delighted. After writing, the goose came back from the cage, extremely happy.
Translation Wang Xizhi loved geese. There was an old woman in Kuaiji (now Shaoxing) who raised a goose that was good at croaking. Wang Xizhi asked to buy it but did not get it, so he drove with his relatives and friends to watch it.
When the old woman heard that Wang Xizhi was coming, she killed the goose and cooked it to serve Wang Xizhi. Wang Xizhi sighed for a whole day.
There was also a Taoist priest from Shanyin (today's Shaoxing) who liked to raise geese. Wang Xi went to watch it before. He was very happy and insisted on buying these geese back. The Taoist priest said: "As long as you can copy the Tao Te Ching for me, I will definitely give you the whole flock of geese."
Wang Xizhi happily finished writing, put the geese in a cage and took them home, feeling Very happy. Such was his willfulness and frankness.
Appendix:
This piece of calligraphy is known as the second most famous calligraphy of Youjun in the world. Because of this allusion, later generations called "Huang Ting Jing" "Huang Ge Tie" . Li Bai quoted this allusion when he wrote in "Send Congratulations to the Guests Returning to Yue" that "when the Shanyin scholars meet each other, they should write "Huangting for white goose".
Wang Xizhi likes to raise geese, which is certainly an elegant thing for literati and cultivates sentiments. More importantly, he understands the mystery of calligraphy from the geese's body, walking, swimming and other postures, and understands the art of calligraphy. The principles of holding and operating a pen. He believes that when holding a pen, the index finger should be raised and slightly bent like a goose's head, and when using the pen, it should be like a goose's paw moving water, so that the spirit can be concentrated on the tip of the pen.
Another time, he went to a student's house and saw that their low wooden table was clean and smooth, so he started writing on it, half in regular script and half in cursive. Later, the student's father accidentally scratched off these words, and his student regretted it for several days. His calligraphy was very valued by the world at that time, and there were many things like that. Wang Xizhi often claimed: "Compared with Zhong Yao's, my calligraphy can be said to be on par; compared with Zhang Zhi's cursive script, it is as high as wild geese." He once wrote to someone: "In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhi learned calligraphy in a pond. The water in the pond has turned black. If people in the world are as addicted to calligraphy as he is, they are not necessarily worse than him."