Wang Xizhi (303 A.D. 361), the word Yi Shao, because he had been the general of the Right Army of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, also known as the "Wang Right Army", was a native of Linyi (now Linyi, Shandong).
When it comes to Wang Xizhi, calligraphers of all dynasties have admired his "Lanting Collection Preface" and called it the first line of calligraphy in the world. The advent of this "Lanting Collection Order" cannot but be said to be the result of the right time, place, and people.
First of all, the day is good, Wang Xi's work, the day of the "Lanting Collection Preface" is the third day of the third lunar month in 353 AD, this kind of day is easy to move people's feelings.
The second is that the place is well chosen, Lanting is in Huiji Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang) by a river, surrounded by green mountains and green waters, birds and flowers everywhere, a good place to go refreshingly.
Finally, and most importantly, Wang Xizhi is in a good mental state. In the spring-filled Lanting, he drank wine with Xie An and more than 40 other literati and scholars, recited poems and wrote books, so that Wang Xizhi temporarily forgot his troubles and forgot the pain that he had never encountered.
Wang Xizhi originally wanted to contribute to the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River. During his tenure as Huiji's internal history, when he encountered a famine year, he took the initiative to open a warehouse and release grain, and often wrote to the imperial court, asking to reduce the burden of the people, and knew the benefits, but he was not valued by the imperial court, so he had to devote his energy to calligraphy.
On this day, he was in high spirits and drank a lot of wine. Others advised him not to drink and handed him everyone's poetry collections. Wang Xizhi immediately wrote a preface to the poetry collection, which is the famous "Lanting Collection Preface".
After the preface was written, everyone was stunned, the whole article was 28 lines, 324 characters, and the words were powerful and chic. The whole article records the grand occasion of the day, and it is very rare to express the heart directly and without pretentiousness. Someone in the crowd said: "The calligraphy of the Right Army, everyone says, 'floating like a floating cloud, like a frightened dragon', I can see it today, and it really deserves its name." ”
Another person said: "This book is charming, vigorous, beautiful, fresh, pure and natural, and can be called the first book in the world." ”
An old man said: "In this book, there are the most 'zhi' words, there are two crosses, and the words are unique, none of them are the same, rare, rare." ”
Since then, how many people have begged to buy the authentic works of "Lanting Collection of Poems", but they have all been rejected by Wang Xizhi. He later left it to his children and grandchildren.
At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Tang Taizong Li Shimin obtained the handwriting, regarded it as a national treasure, called on everyone to study, and ordered people to copy copies to the ministers, and from then on, almost all scholars had to copy Wang Xizhi.
It is a pity that after the death of Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, the handwriting of the "Lanting Collection of Poems" was buried as a burial item, and it was later stolen, and only a copy was circulated in later generations. Today's Palace Museum has Feng Cheng's sketch of the "Orchid Pavilion Collection Preface", the capital Beihai Park's "Sanxi Hall", and some stone carvings of Wang Xizhi's authentic works, which have become the heirloom treasures of our country.
Wang Xizhi's handwriting was very famous at that time. It is said that there was a Taoist priest in Shanyin who wanted to ask Wang Xizhi to write a "Huang Ting Jing".
After he prepared the silk paper, he asked around about Wang Xizhi's hobbies, and finally raised a group of very cute white geese.
One day, Wang Xizhi passed by by by boat and saw a group of white geese frolicking in the river with their heads held high, their feathers were white and elegant, and Wang Xizhi was stunned.
Wang Xizhi got off the boat, looked for the owner everywhere, searched all the way to find the Taoist priest, and asked to buy this group of geese.
The Taoist priest said, "This goose is my treasure and cannot be sold, but if you exchange it for a scripture, then you can negotiate." ”
When Wang Xiyi heard this, he immediately agreed, and immediately wrote a volume of "Huang Tingjing" in half a day, so the Taoist priest put the group of geese in a cage and let Wang Xizhi take it away with the boat. This is the story of "the book becomes a white goose" that was later sung.
Why does Wang Xizhi prefer white geese? It turned out that he emphasized that writing should be "intentional and specialized", that is, to concentrate and correct posture, so that the five fingers can be used freely and very effectively. His method of holding the pen is to require the index finger to be hooked high, the big finger is placed between the index finger and the middle finger, so that the index finger is slightly bent like a goose's head, the ring finger is hooked inward, against the lower end of the pen tube, and the little finger is close to the ring finger. The barrel of the pen must be upright, and the finger should be solid and the palm should be empty. When carrying the pen, it should be like a goose with two palms to pull water hard. Therefore, the white goose is so favored because of the result of Wang Xizhi's study of calligraphy.
Bao Shichen, a calligrapher in the Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "The whole body is energetic to the end, and the two feet will be safe first." Realize the water potential of the goose flock, and know that it is difficult to work together with five fingers. That is the anecdote of Wang Xizhi's love for geese.
Wang Xizhi also has many anecdotes, such as the origin of the "ink pool".
In his life, Wang Xizhi left countless "ink pools". He learned to write from his uncle at the age of 7, and then learned calligraphy from Mrs. Wei, a female calligrapher, and learned the calligraphy of the Zhong Xuan School, which was popular at that time. Under the guidance of his father Wang Kuang, he studied the theoretical monograph "Pen Theory". Wang Xizhi studied calligraphy very hard, and it is said that the water in the pond in the back garden of his house was blackened by his shabu-shabu.
At the age of 23, Wang Xizhi served as the Taishou of Linchuan (now west of Linchuan County, Jiangxi). In his spare time, he often goes to the suburbs of Xinchengshan to read and write. In less than half a year, the pond in front of the house was blackened again. To this day, there is still an "ink pool" at the foot of Xincheng Mountain.
Wang Xizhi's wife Xi and seven sons are good at calligraphy, especially the youngest son Wang Xianzhi is outstanding. Wang Xizhi is known as the "Calligraphy Sage", Wang Xianzhi is known as the "Little Sage", and the two are called the "Two Kings" in the history of calligraphy.
Wang Xizhi absorbed the essence of calligraphy since the Han and Wei dynasties, and got rid of the Han and Wei style of calligraphy, in the rigorous structure, with the pen open and handsome, opened up a unique artistic conception, in the history of calligraphy to establish epoch-making achievements, become the precious spiritual wealth of our Chinese nation.