This post has been highly praised by previous readers. For example, Huang Bosi of the Song Dynasty said: "This post is about the dragon in Shao Yi's book." Zhu Xi said, "He plays with the meaning of his brushwork, calmly expresses it, and has a detached atmosphere. He is not bound to the law and does not seek to escape from the law. The so-called one flows out from his own mind one by one." Some people think that this post "the brushwork has an ancient quality and has the legacy of seal script" meaning". These reviews are very fair. In particular, they are written calmly and without the constraints of the law, as if they flow naturally from one's own chest, which is the most profound and accurate. Sun Guoting once said: "Now that Zijing (Wang Xianzhi) has passed away, everyone must work hard to mark the form." That is to say, Wang Xizhi and others deliberately used force when writing to show that they have their own artistic style. In this way On the contrary, the natural beauty of writing is lost. This kind of contrastive comment is very enlightening for calligraphy appreciation.
Cursive script is one of the calligraphy styles that Wang Xizhi is good at. Before Wang Xizhi, Zhang Cao was already very mature. Judging from some unearthed materials handed down from the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Jincao had developed to a certain extent during this period, and of course it was not completely separated from Zhangcao. Wang Xizhi summarized the achievements of his predecessors, and based on learning from Zhang Zhi and other calligraphers before the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he changed the simple calligraphy style of the Han and Wei dynasties and created Yanmei Liuben's cursive script, which established a basic standard for today's cursive script. This makes the boundary between Jincao and Zhangcao clear, and they become two calligraphy styles. The structure of his modern cursive script becomes free and flexible according to the writing style, which fully embodies the characteristics of cursive script of "deleting out the difficult and saving the complex, and losing and restoring to the simple". From a practical point of view, this makes it easier to increase the speed of writing, make the writing more continuous, the strokes broken and the meaning connected, and the artistry of writing is also enhanced. Its shape is vertical and horizontal, the hooks and loops are coiled, the expression is calm, and it has the beauty of endless changes. The strokes have transformed Zhang Hui's "suppressing the left and raising the right" style of waves, and replaced them with smooth and natural strokes that rise and fall. brush strokes.
Because Wang Xizhi made great contributions to calligraphy, his handwriting was regarded as a treasure by all generations after his death. Therefore, among the calligraphers of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he left the most works. The cursive scripts we can see now include "July 1 Tie", "Hanqie Tie", "Chu Yue Tie", "Yuanhuan Tie", "Shangyu Tie", "Changfeng Tie", "You" "Mu Tie", "This Tie", "Da Dao Tie", "Xing Rang Tie", etc. are all copies from the Tang and Song Dynasties. Judging from these copies, which are closest to the originals, the styles vary. Among them, "Hanqie Tie" and "Yuanhuan Tie" still have the meaning of Zhang Cao, and the stipples are clumsy and mostly irrelevant; "Chu Yue Tie", "Shangyu Tie", "Youmu Tie" and "Xing Rang Tie" are written briskly. , flows beautifully and naturally; while "Dao Tie" is unrestrained and galloping, flickering like the wind. Most of Wang Xizhi's cursive calligraphy works are handed down to this day in the form of engraved calligraphy. Among them, the cursive scripts in "Seventeen Calligraphies" and "Chunhua Pavilion Calligraphy" have greater influence.