As the "First Book of the World", the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" is very precious.
Mainly because no one in later generations could create calligraphy works of such a high level, even including Wang Xizhi.
The background of the creation of "Orchid Pavilion Preface" is: on the third day of March in the ninth year of Yonghe, when a group of cultural celebrities in the upper echelons of society, including Xie An, Sun Qi, and Wang Xizhi, more than forty big celebrities, flowed water, drank and composed poems in a place called Lanting.
While drinking, all the famous artists present wrote poems, and at this time it was proposed that the poems they composed should be compiled into a collection of poems to commemorate the gathering. After the poetry collection is compiled, a preface is required.
In the end, the writing of the preface was handed over to Wang Xizhi, a calligrapher and literary master. At that time, Wang Xizhi was already 51 years old, which could be described as highly respected, and he did not resign, so he wrote the world-famous "Orchid Pavilion Preface".
Because the Orchid Pavilion Preface is an improvisational work, there are many alterations in the authentic works. After Wang Xizhi woke up, he wanted to transcribe it again, but he could no longer write that kind of atmospheric layout and stroke realm.
As a result, Wang Xizhi was very satisfied with the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" written by Jiuxing and regarded it as an heirloom.
This work went all the way to the hands of Wang Xizhi's seventh grandson, Zhiyong, but something went wrong. Zhiyong was a monk who, on his deathbed, gave the true deeds to his disciple, the debater monk.
The debater monk regarded it as a treasure, and even specially chiseled a hole in the bedroom beam to house the Orchid Pavilion Preface.
At that time, it was the Taizong Dynasty of the early Tang Dynasty, and Tang Taizong Li Shimin was a hardcore fan of Wang Xizhi and liked Wang Xizhi's calligraphy very much. Therefore, he sent people to inquire about the whereabouts of the Orchid Pavilion Preface many times.
Tang Taizong also summoned the debater monk three times to ask about his whereabouts, but the debater monk pushed back and said that he did not know.
At this time, Fang Xuanling came up with an idea and recommended a person to Tang Taizong to supervise Yushi Xiaoyi. According to his will, Xiao Yi disguised himself as a fallen scholar to approach the debater monk, and finally tricked the Orchid Pavilion Preface into hand and handed it to Tang Taizong.
After losing the original manuscript of the Orchid Pavilion Preface, the debater monk was very sad. Soon he became depressed and died.
After Li Shimin received the "Orchid Pavilion Preface", he was very fond of it, and in his last will, he specially explained that the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" should be placed under his head. However, by the time of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, after the Five Dynasties Yaozhou Assassin Shi Wentao stole the Zhaoling Tomb, there was no "Orchid Pavilion Preface" on the list of unearthed treasures he wrote.
As a result, the original manuscript of the Orchid Pavilion Preface is most likely buried in Qianling. That is, in the joint tomb of Wu Zetian and Tang Gaozong.
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