Wang Xizhi
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Wang Xizhi (; ; 303 AD361 AD) was a Chinese calligrapher, politician, general and writer during the Jin dynasty. He was best known for his mastery of
Chinese calligraphy Chinese calligraphy is the writing of Chinese characters as an art form, combining purely visual art and interpretation of the literary meaning. This type of expression has been widely practiced in China and has been generally held in high est ...
. Wang is sometimes regarded as the greatest Chinese calligrapher in Chinese history, and was a master of all forms of Chinese calligraphy, especially the
running script Semi-cursive script (), also known as running hand script, is a style of calligraphy which emerged in China during the Han dynasty (3rd century BC – 3rd century AD). The style is used to write Chinese characters and is abbreviated slightly w ...
. He is known as one of the Four Talented Calligraphers () in Chinese calligraphy.
Emperor Taizong of Tang Emperor Taizong of Tang (28January 59810July 649), previously Prince of Qin, personal name Li Shimin, was the second emperor of the Tang dynasty of China, ruling from 626 to 649. He is traditionally regarded as a co-founder of the dynasty ...
admired his works so much that Wang's work, the ''Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion'' (or ''Lantingji Xu'') was said to be buried with the emperor in his
mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...
. His artistic talent continues to be held in high esteem in modern
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, and remains an influential figure in
East Asian calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
, particularly
Japanese calligraphy also called is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. Written Japanese was originally based on Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japanese syllabaries resulted in intrin ...
.


Biography

Born in Linyi,
Langya Commandery Langya Commandery ( zh, , ) was a commandery in historical China from Qin dynasty to Tang dynasty, located in present-day southeast Shandong and northeast Jiangsu. The commandery was established in Qin dynasty on the former territories of Qi. Fro ...
(modern Linyi, Shandong), Wang belonged to the powerful and prominent
Wang clan of Langya The Wang clan of Langya (or Langye) () was a Chinese clan which gained political prominence during the Han Dynasty and became one of the most powerful non-imperial clans during the Eastern Jin period. History Jin dynasty During the Western Jin p ...
. In his youth, the
War of the Eight Princes The War of the Eight Princes, Rebellion of the Eight Kings, or Rebellion of the Eight Princes () was a series of civil wars among kings/princes (Chinese: ''wáng'' 王) of the Chinese Jin dynasty from 291 to 306 AD. The key point of contention in ...
and subsequent invasions of the
Five Barbarians The Five Barbarians, or Wu Hu (), is a Chinese historical exonym for five ancient non-Han peoples who immigrated to northern China in the Eastern Han dynasty, and then overthrew the Western Jin dynasty and established their own kingdoms in the ...
led to turmoil in northern China and the Western Jin's collapse; as such the ten-year-old Wang Xizhi moved south with his clan, and spent most of his life in present-day
Shaoxing Shaoxing (; ) is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. It was formerly known as Kuaiji and Shanyin and abbreviated in Chinese as (''Yuè'') from the area's former inhabitants. ...
and
Wenzhou Wenzhou (pronounced ; Wenzhounese: Yuziou y33–11 tɕiɤu33–32 ), historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People's Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east o ...
of modern-day
Zhejiang province Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiangs ...
. Wang Xizhi is particularly remembered for one of his hobbies, that of rearing
geese A goose (plural, : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family (biology), family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera ''Anser (bird), Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some o ...
. Legend has it that he learned that the key to how to turn his wrist whilst writing was to observe how geese moved their necks. He loved geese very much. He looked at the geese splashing in the river in a daze. Later, he comprehended the principle of calligraphy from the movements of the geese, which helped his calligraphy skills. There is a small porcelain cup depicting Wang Xizhi "walking geese" in the China Gallery of the
Asian Civilisations Museum The Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) is an institution which forms a part of the four museums in Singapore, the other three being the Peranakan Museum at Old Tao Nan School, the National Museum of Singapore and the Singapore Art Museum. It is ...
in
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. The other side of the cup depicts a scholar "taking a zither to a friend". He used to practice writing near a pond, and when he finished, he would wash his brush and ink-stone in the pond. Over time, the water of the whole pond turned black. This shows how much effort he has made into practicing calligraphy. When the emperor of the time went to the northern suburbs for sacrifice, he asked Wang Xizhi to write the words of blessing on a piece of wood and send workers to carve it. The engraver was shocked because Wang Xizhi's handwriting penetrated more than a third of the wood. He said admiringly "the character of the general of the right army is "Ru mu san fen", which is used to describe strong and powerful calligraphy works, and also to describe a thorough understanding of things. Wang Xizhi had seven children, all of whom were notable calligraphers. The most distinguished was his youngest son, Wang Xianzhi.


Works

He learned the art of calligraphy from Lady
Wei Shuo Wei Shuo (, 272–349), courtesy name Mouyi (茂猗), sobriquet He'nan (和南), commonly addressed just as Lady Wei (衛夫人), was a Chinese calligrapher of Eastern Jin, who established consequential rules about the regular script. Her fam ...
. He excelled in every script but was particularly skilled in
semi-cursive script Semi-cursive script (), also known as running hand script, is a style of calligraphy which emerged in China during the Han dynasty (3rd century BC – 3rd century AD). The style is used to write Chinese characters and is abbreviated slightly w ...
. His representative works include, in chronological order, ''Narration on Yue Yi '' (), ''The Yellow Court Classic'' (), ''Commentaries on the Portrait of Dongfang Shuo'' (), ''Admonitions to the Emperor from the Imperial Mentor'' (), ''Preface to the Collection of Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion'' (, also commonly known as ''Lantingji Xu''), and ''The Statement of Pledge ''(告誓文). Unfortunately, none of his original works remains today, and only models of them exist. Samples of Wang's handwriting can also be seen in classical Chinese calligraphic texts such as the ''Chunhua Imperial Archive of Calligraphy Exemplars'' (淳化閣帖). His most well-known work, ''Lantingji Xu'', is an introduction to a collection of poems written by several poets during a gathering at Lanting (near the town of Shaoxing) for the Spring Purification Festival. The original is now lost, but the work survives in a number of finely traced copies, with the earliest and most well regarded copy being the one made between c. 627650 by Feng Chengsu, and is located in the
Palace Museum The Palace Museum () is a huge national museum complex housed in the Forbidden City at the core of Beijing, China. With , the museum inherited the imperial royal palaces from the Ming and Qing dynasties of China and opened to the public in 192 ...
in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
. In 2010, a small
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
reproduction of one of Wang's calligraphy scrolls on silk with four lines was sold in China at an
auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...
for ¥308 million RMB ($48 million).


Mei Zhi Tie

"Mei Zhi Tie", is a copy featuring 17 characters written by Wang Xizhi. The name came from the word "meizhi" at the beginning of the article. It was first exhibited in 1973 at the "Showa Lanting Memorial Exhibition". The work does not include inscriptions and collection marks. It was exhibited by the "Chinese and Japanese Calligraphy Treasures Exhibition" on March 12, 2006 in
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
.


References


Footnotes


Works cited

* * Li, Siyong
"Wang Xizhi"
''
Encyclopedia of China The ''Encyclopedia of China'' () is the first large-entry modern encyclopedia in the Chinese language. The compilation began in 1978. Published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, the encyclopedia was issued one volume at a time, begin ...
'' (Chinese Literature Edition), 1st ed. * Khoo Seow Hwa and Penrose, Nancy L, ''Behind the Brushstrokes: Tales from Chinese Calligraphy''. Singapore: Graham Brash, 1993.


External links


Animation of Wang's Calligraphy
AniGraphy by Marion Tzui Yan. broken link
Wang Xizhi and his Calligraphy Gallery
at China Online Museum



by Professor Lu-sheng Chong * *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Xizhi 303 births 361 deaths 4th-century Chinese calligraphers 4th-century Chinese writers Artists from Shaoxing East Asian calligraphy Jin dynasty (266–420) politicians Jin dynasty (266–420) calligraphers Politicians from Shaoxing Writers from Shaoxing