When Wang Xianzhi was a child, he was smart and acted like an adult. He is arrogant and bold. Once, he went to see Xie An with his brother and Wang. When the two brothers met Xie An, they mostly talked about vulgar and homely things. In addition to meet and say hello, Wang Xianzhi didn't cut in. After they left, the guests present asked Xie An, who is the best of the Wang brothers? Xie An said that the younger the better. When the guest asked why, Xie An said, "A wise man is silent, so he knows his goodness because he says little."
Wang Xianzhi once shared a room with Wang Huizhi. One night, a fire broke out in the room Wang Huizhi didn't even wear shoes, so he ran away in a hurry. Wang Xianzhi looked calm and unhurriedly called a servant to help him.
Xie An appreciated it very much, hired him as a long history, and then named him "General Wei". Xie An once asked Wang Xianzhi, "How does your handwriting compare with your father?" Wang Xianzhi replied: "Not the same." Xie An said, "It's not like this outside." Wang Xianzhi replied: "Where do others know?" It shows his heroic and uninhibited personality.
Wang Xianzhi studied calligraphy with his father when he was seven or eight years old. Once, Wang Xizhi stole his brush from behind, but he didn't take it off. He said with emotion: "This child will become famous in the future." Wang Xizhi knows from his firm handwriting that he is really absorbed in writing and devoted himself to books, which is very valuable for a child.
Although Wang Xianzhi studied with his father and inherited the family law, he was not satisfied with it, but traced back to the source and directly studied the calligraphy of Zhong You and Zhang Zhi, because Wang Xizhi himself also absorbed nutrition from the calligraphy of Zhong You and Zhang Zhi.
It is precisely because Wang Xianzhi can break through the rules of family law and trace back to the source that he can inherit and develop Wang Xizhi's calligraphy. This is one of the reasons why Wang Xizhi's sons are good at calligraphy, and Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy is the highest and most influential. Not only that, he also learned Qin Zhuan's brushwork, which is his beauty.
Wang Xianzhi's regular script calligraphy and painting are delicate and charming, with powerful, thin and hard strokes, broad strokes and desolate but not tacky expressions. It can be said that by the time of Wang Xianzhi, regular script had become relatively pure.
Wang Xianzhi's running script and cursive script are beginners of my father and later Zhang Zhi. He not only compatible with the strengths of the two schools, but also created a whole other than running script and cursive script with his own talent and knowledge. This kind of writing has both cursive simplicity and cursive twists and turns, which is what we call cursive today. The running script and cursive script in the Eastern Jin Dynasty were generally Cao Zhang style, but the creation of Wang Xianzhi's new book style was indeed a bold move at that time, which was difficult for many people to accept. Xie An, for example, appreciates Wang Xianzhi very much, but hates his cursive script. However, the changes in Wang Xianzhi have stood the test of the times, and people gradually pay attention to them. It is in line with aesthetic taste and has high practical value, so its influence is growing.
Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy is deeply influenced by his father Wang Xizhi. Later, Wang Xianzhi's artistic creation gradually matured and finally formed his own unique artistic style. For a century and a half from the late Jin Dynasty to the Liang Dynasty, Wang Xianzhi's influence once surpassed his father's.
Wang Xizhi's regular script incorporates the different strokes of seal script in Qin and Han dynasties that he has seen all his life, so it looks ancient and thin. In contrast, Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy is full of beauty and elegance, which is quite secular.
In cursive script, although Wang Xizhi called it grass, his words were more independent and he did not completely get rid of Cao Zhang's brushwork. Wang Xianzhi combined the continuous momentum of modern cursive script with the fluency and convenience of running script, and created a relatively convenient running script, thus adapting to the requirements of social development and finally completing the transformation from Cao Zhang to modern cursive script. Wang Xianzhi's flowing "a book" directly opened the precedent of weeds art in Tang Dynasty.
Wang Xianzhi played an important role in the development of regular script, modern cursive script and cursive script, which is recognized by later generations. Therefore, he and his father are called "Two Kings", and his calligraphy is collectively called "Wang Ti".