The most expensive things are naturally priceless things, so precious that they cannot be measured by price. The two most expensive drafts in the world are Wang Xizhi's "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion" and #Yan Zhenqing's "Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript".
Although the extant Orchid Pavilion Preface is not Wang Xizhi's original work, it is already a priceless treasure in terms of its calligraphic value, let alone authentic.
It is very surprising that two pieces of calligraphy that are so precious are actually only two drafts. This is true of the "Orchid Pavilion Preface", and the same is true of the "Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript", but the draft of the "Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript" is more scrawled than the "Orchid Pavilion Preface".
Although the two calligraphy drafts are scrawled, the beauty of the two brushwork cannot be concealed. One shows the beauty of the inside, and the other shows the beauty of the outside.
Yuan Fu of the Yuan Dynasty said in the "General Discussion of Calligraphers in The Compilation of Calligraphy", "The right army uses the pen to twist and converge." From this, we know that Wang Xizhi makes good use of the inner brushwork, and the result of using this brushwork will make the structure of the word tighten and converge.
This is the inward beauty presented in the "Orchid Pavilion Preface".
To take an example in the "Orchid Pavilion Preface", the word "group", I added a red arrow to this word as a auxiliary line, and we will find that Wang Xizhi uses the inward brushwork, which obviously makes the structure of this word appear a convergence point, and the structure of the word is tightened.
Words written with this structure have a flowing and free beauty. This flowing and free font beauty is seamlessly combined with Wang Xizhi's flowing and free personality. Therefore, this beauty comes from Wang Xizhi's bones.
Let's take a look at Yan Zhenqing's "Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript" presented by Wai Tuomei.
Yan Zhenqing's penmanship is rounded, and he makes good use of the seal calligraphy brushwork, and the "Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript" presents the external beauty of the font structure. The structural characteristics of Yan Zhenqing's font are "flat painting wide knots", which is different from the font structure characteristics of Wang Xizhi's "oblique painting tight knots".
The font structure of the "flat painting wide knot" is that the font is square rather than thin, and the font has no obvious center point. The center is scattered, but the whole font is not scattered, giving people a stable and atmospheric beauty. This is the outward beauty of the "Sacrifice nephew manuscript".
Yan Zhenqing's "Self-Written Confession"
The characters in the "Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript" are relatively sloppy, and I use a few words in Yan Zhenqing's "Self-Written Confessions" to show you the characteristics of this font, and the font characteristics of this "flat painting and wide knot" do not seem to have a sense of elegance as Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface".
This kind of extended font structure presents a sense of stability and weight, and although the "Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript" is sloppy, it will still reveal the beauty of this stable atmosphere in the bones.
Conclusion:
You have to learn to appreciate the beauty of calligraphy from different angles. Ethereal is a kind of beauty, and steady and heavy is also a kind of beauty. Of course, the beauty of calligraphy is not only these two.
The higher the aesthetic level of calligraphy, the more calligraphic beauty you will see.
Original Author: Inkworm