Wang Xizhi, known as the "sage of books", was born in the Jin Dynasty. He began to practice calligraphy at the age of seven, and later created a new style on the basis of Qin and Han calligraphy. His works are peaceful and natural, and he is a calligrapher who links the past with the future.
Wang Xizhi's original works are few, and all we see are replicas. Wang Xizhi is good at writing, running script, cursive script, flying white and so on. For example, the regular script Le Yi Lun, Huang Ting Jing, Seventeen cursive posts, menstruation post of running script, Qing post when it snows, funeral post, etc. His running script Preface to Lanting Collection is the most representative.
In the 9th year of Yonghe in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (353), on the third day of the third lunar month, when Wang Xizhi and Xie An, Sun Chuo and other 4/kloc-0 people were in Lanting, Shaoxing (an activity to drive away diseases and ominous), everyone drank and wrote poems, which were included in the anthology, and Xi made an impromptu preface. This is the famous Preface to Lanting. This post is a draft with 28 lines and 324 words. Described the scene of the collection of literati at that time. Because the author was in high spirits and was very proud of his writing. It is said that I couldn't write anymore. Among them, there are more than twenty "zhi" characters, which are written in different ways. Mi Fei in Song Dynasty called it "the best running script in the world". According to legend, Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty, collected the Preface to Lanting before his death and was buried in Zhaoling after his death. What's left is just a copy of others.
Ou Yangxun, a native of Tang Dynasty, was influenced by Wang Xizhi of Jin Dynasty. He absorbed the advantages of inscriptions in the Northern Dynasties and other calligraphers in the Tang Dynasty, and formed a "bold" and "steady" calligraphy style.
Yan Zhenqing is also a native of the Tang Dynasty. His calligraphy is vigorous and innovative. Liu Gongquan was a calligrapher as famous as Yan Zhenqing in Tang Dynasty. His works are greatly influenced by Wang Xizhi and Yan Zhenqing, and their styles are exquisite and beautiful.
Su Shi was a great writer in the Song Dynasty, with profound knowledge and vigorous and bold calligraphy. He did not stick to the rules of the previous generation of calligraphers and advocated "impermanence of calligraphy" At the same time, he also advocates that calligraphy can only be improved if it is learned and knowledgeable.
Zhang Xu, a great calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, was famous for his cursive script, and was called "the sage of grass".
Su Shi is also good at regular script, and he is also called "Song Sijia" with Huang Tingjian, Mi Fei and Cai Xiang. Zeng studied under the famous artists of Jin, Tang and Five Dynasties, and worshipped Wang Sengqian, Li Yong, Xu Hao, Yan Zhenqing and Yang Ningshi, and became a family of his own.
Mi Fei studied calligraphy the most in his life, and his greatest achievement was running script.