The preface to Wang Xizhi’s Lanting Collection is written in running script. The preface to the Lanting Collection is from China's Jin Dynasty (AD 353). Wang Xizhi, the calligrapher, met friends at the foot of Lanzhu Mountain in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and wrote "the best running script in the world", also known as "Lanting Preface", "Linhe Preface", "禊" "Tie", "Preface to Orchid Pavilion Poems on March 3rd", etc.
Taizong of the Tang Dynasty highly praised Wang Xizhi's preface to the Lanting Collection. He personally wrote the "Biography of Wang Xizhi" in the "Book of Jin" and praised it as "perfect and perfect". Copies of the work were also given to nobles, relatives and ministers, and they were buried with the original works.
A brief introduction to Wang Xizhi’s preface to the Lanting Collection.
The full text of "Lanting Preface" has 28 lines and 324 words. The whole text is charming and elegant, and the words are exquisite. The stippling is like a dance, like the help of gods and men. It has been regarded as the best in the calligraphy circles of the past dynasties. Mi Fu, a great calligrapher in the Song Dynasty, called it "the first calligraphy in Chinese running script". Anyone who learns calligraphy in future generations will fall in love with Lanting and be unable to extricate themselves.