When Wang Xizhi 13 years old, he happened to find that his father had a calligraphy book of Shuo, and he stole it. His father worried that he was too young to keep the secret of the family heirloom and promised that he would teach when he grew up. Unexpectedly, Wang Xizhi knelt down and asked his father to allow him to study now. His father was very moved and finally agreed to his request.
Wang Xizhi practiced calligraphy very hard, even eating and walking, and he really kept practicing. Without pen and paper, he scratched on his body, and over time, his clothes were cut. Sometimes I practice my handwriting to the point of forgetfulness. Once, he forgot to eat when he practiced calligraphy, and his family sent the meal to the study. He didn't even think about it. He dipped it in ink and ate it. He still thought it was delicious. It was already dark when the family found out.
Wang Xizhi often writes in the pool, so he washes the inkstone in the pool. After a long time, he ran out of ink, so he was called "Mo Chi". At present, Lanting in Shaoxing, Xigu Mountain in Yongjia, Zhejiang, Guizong Temple in Lushan and other places have places of interest known as "Mo Chi".
Wang Xizhi's calligraphy art and industrious spirit are praised by the world. Legend has it that Wang Xizhi's marriage was decided by this. Wang Dao, Wang Xizhi's uncle, was the prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He and his contemporary teacher Xijian are good friends, and Xijian has a beautiful daughter. One day, Jane told Wang Dao that he wanted to choose a satisfactory son-in-law for his daughter among his sons and nephews. Wang Dao immediately agreed to be selected by him. Wang Dao came home and told your sons and nephews about it. My sons and nephews have long heard that Miss Xi's family is virtuous and beautiful, and they all want her. It is rare for a family to choose a husband, and nephews are busy dressing up. Wang Xiangzhi, however, didn't ask about it, and still lay on the bed in the east wing and devoted himself to the art of calligraphy. After seeing Wang Dao's nephew, the Xi family went back and said to Jian, "The Wangs are all nice, but they know that choosing a husband is a bit stiff and unnatural." Only the son of the east wing doesn't mind lying in bed, just gesticulating on the table with his hand. After hearing this, the county magistrate said happily, "The son of Dongchuang must be Wang Xizhi, who has made great achievements in calligraphy. The son is deeply hidden and devoted to his studies. Is my future son-in-law. " So she married her daughter to the king. Wang Dao's other sons and nephews were envious and called him "Dong Chuang's son-in-law". From then on, "Dong Chuang" became the laudatory name of son-in-law.
In order to practice calligraphy well, wherever he went, he always waded through mountains and rivers, explored ancient inscriptions and accumulated a lot of calligraphy materials. In his study, in the yard, at the gate and even outside the toilet, he has stools and pens, ink, paper and inkstones. Whenever he thinks of a well-structured word, he immediately writes it on paper. When he practiced calligraphy, he thought hard and even forgot to eat and sleep.
He believes that raising geese can not only cultivate sentiment, but also understand the truth of calligraphy from some gestures of geese. One morning, Wang Xizhi and his son Wang Xianzhi took a boat tour of Shaoxing. When they arrived near Xianshui Village, they saw a flock of white geese on the shore, staggering and dawdling. Wang Xizhi was fascinated by these white geese and wanted to buy them home. Wang Xizhi asked the Taoist priest nearby, hoping that the Taoist priest could sell him the goose. The Taoist priest said, "If the right army adults want it, please write a Taoist health book" Huang Ting Jing "for me! Wang Xizhi longed for geese and readily agreed to the conditions put forward by the Taoist priest. This is the story of "Wang Xizhi gave the White Goose Book".
In the spring of 353 AD, Wang Xizhi, who served as the guard of Huiji County, gathered more than 30 friends and his son, and more than 40 people went to the suburbs to hold a ceremony to celebrate their retirement. Taking a break was a folk custom in Jiangnan at that time. Every spring, people go to the river to pick orchids to drive away bad luck. On this day, Xie An, Xie Wan, Sun Chuo and other celebrities were invited to meet in Lanting at the foot of Huiji Mountain. They put a small dish with wine glasses in the stream, and the small dish went down the river. Whoever stops in front of it will write poems or punish wine. This is an elegant wine list. On this day, * * * 26 people wrote poems on the spot, and Wang Xizhi took advantage of drunkenness to write a preface for everyone's poems, which is "Preface to the Lanting Pavilion".
The next day, sober Wang Xizhi wrote Preface to Lanting several times, but he couldn't write yesterday's style anyway.
There are more idioms on him than that. It is said that on one occasion, he wrote his words on a board and gave them to a sculptor for carving. The man cut the board with a knife, only to find that his handwriting was printed two-thirds deep in the board. This is the origin of the idiom "cut to the chase".