As early as fifteen years ago, the newspaper sent me to Beijing to interview a famous calligrapher, Mr. Wang Yixin, who was known as the "Living Banqiao in Beijing". At that time, the late famous calligrapher, accompanied by our Beijing office, went to Wang Lao's former residence in Gulou Street. Upon arrival, Wang Lao warmly received us and showed us the original letter from Chen Lifu, the former Kuomintang of Taiwan Province Province. I learned from the letter that Wang Lao and Chen Lifu have long been close friends, and Chen Lifu highly praised Wang Lao's Banqiao style. Praise the calligraphy of Wang Yixin, the "lively Banqiao in Beijing": "He is very accomplished, just like the famous painter Zheng Banqiao in Qing Dynasty". And said, "What can the world gain today?" After I returned to the newspaper office, I wrote a report entitled "The Exchange of Calligraphy and Painting between Chen Lifu, a Kuomintang Veteran, and Wang Yixin, a Banqiao in Beijing".
Subsequently, a delegation composed of, Mrs. Xu Beihong, Liao and others went to Shandong and was warmly received by the Shandong Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government. Wang Lao immediately wrote the poem "Yellow River Estuary" in the hotel where he stayed. Shandong Provincial Party Committee carved its book on a stone tablet as a permanent memorial. After I published this trip as a news report, it caused great repercussions in the society.
At that time, although Mr. Wang Yixin was in his later years, he highly admired Zheng Banqiao's personality, calligraphy and artistic products. He specializes in "Banqiao style". In practice, painstaking exploration has realized that the ancient law is innovative and the new law has the ancient meaning. Wang Lao's calligraphy has a solid foundation, vigorous and natural, concise stippling, ups and downs, magnificent momentum and unique style, forming a unique artistic beauty. Calligrapher Shu Tong praised his calligraphy art as "interesting outside the law". Hua Guofeng and Huang Zhen wrote an inscription for it in Wang Yixin's Calligraphy, praising it as a good book worth collecting. Wang Lao also gave me the copybook he published as a souvenir.
Time flies, and fifteen years have passed in an instant. I once went to Zhao Yan Cultural Market to write an inscription for calligrapher Mo Hao, during which a book lover who loves calligraphy talked about Mr. Wang Lao at dinner. The reader said that he knew Mr. Wang Lao's daughter and had given him Wang Lao's works. During the conversation, there was no mention of other recent developments about Wang Lao at all, only that Wang Lao was 93 years old this year.
During the Spring Festival in 2008, I called Mr. Shang's wife and asked about his residence. As a result, I learned that Mr. Shang had left us. In recent years, Mr. Wang Lao moved to a high-rise residence far away from the urban area, leaving no mailing address. At that time, I transferred from Entrepreneur to Shijiazhuang Daily, and we have been out of touch since then. Now I know that Mr. Wang Yixin has left us, and I feel very sad. I wrote this article to express my thoughts.