"Out of drunken pen, the most innocent": Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface"

Author: Zhou Weiqiang

The "Orchid Pavilion Preface" is known as "the first line of the book under the world". The author of this calligraphy artifact, Wang Xizhi, was a native of Linyi (now part of Shandong). It can also be said that this is an artistic masterpiece created by a descendant of a family that moved from the north to the south during the Eastern Jin Dynasty of China between the green mountains and rivers in the south of the Jiangsu Province.

Lan Ting Ya Set Fu Baoshi / Painted

Wang Xizhi was 51 years old when he wrote this text, and his calligraphy style was perfect in the best of the world. It is a representative work of his mature period of calligraphy.

The year was the ninth year of Emperor Yonghe of Jin, 353 AD. The third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, the Shangwei Festival, the ancient custom, get the water's edge, sacrifice by the water, and remove the ominous, that is, the "repair of the zen matter" mentioned in this article.

On this day, the sky is clear, the wind is harmonious and smooth. At the foot of Lanzhu Mountain in Shanyin (present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang), 41 people, including Xie An, who was famous all over the world, Sun Qi, a "man of talent" who "threw the ground as a golden stone sound", Zhi Sui, a high-ranking monk with exquisite fame and reason, and Wang Xizhi and his son, sat on both sides of the stream. The stream meandered, and the cup filled with wine was placed on the stream by the "emcee" of this time, floating down the river from the upstream, and the wine glass stopped in front of whom, who had to drink and write poetry. The celebrities who attended this elegant gathering were very interested and wrote a total of 37 poems. The 37 poems were collected into a book, and everyone unanimously recommended The Preface written by Wang Xizhi, which led to this "Orchid Pavilion Preface" that has been passed down through the ages. In addition to this preface by Wang Xizhi, Sun Qi also wrote the "Preface to the Later Lanting", which also recounts this grand Yan collection, but the fame is not as loud as Xizhi's. Sun Shu is also a figure in the history of ancient Chinese prose who can retain his name.

I thought that Xizhi was slightly drunk at that time, silkworm cocoon paper, rat whisker pen, multiplying and swinging, in one breath, as if there was divine help. Therefore, the "Orchid Pavilion Preface", whether it is a text or a book, is natural and natural. Mr. Pan Boying said that "out of drunkenness, the most innocent". According to the Tang Dynasty He Yanzhi's "Records of the Lanting Pavilion", Xi Zhi woke up and wanted to repeat the writing, but he could not get the charm of the time. Or can this also be used as an example of the "Dionysian spirit" of art in China?

Unfortunately, such a supreme calligraphy masterpiece, the original traces have been martyred by Tang Taizong Li Shimin and brought into his tomb, we have no chance to see the real pen, and all we can see can only be a replica. The important surviving reproductions, Mr. Qi Gong's "Lanting Thekao" can be summarized in two main categories: one is the stone carvings that appeared in the Dingwu place of the Song Dynasty, and the other is the Tang Dynasty facsimile. Mr. Qi Gong sorted out the various books and various old sayings of the hereditary "Lanting Thesis", removed all kinds of suspicious statements and obviously appended irrelevant things, and gave a relatively concise and clear explanation to the replica of Wang Xizhi's "Lanting Thesis" that we see today: "Lanting Thesis" entered the imperial palace in the early Tang Dynasty, and many scribes copied and wrote it. Later, the true deeds were buried in zhaoling, and only the copy of the book was passed down in the world. During the Northern Song Dynasty, a stone carving was found in Dingwu, and the imitation was more refined than other engravings seen at that time, which was cherished by the literati at that time, and the Tang Dynasty imitation was also parallel to the Dingwu stone carving. Due to the repeated hammering of the Dingwu Ben, the pen edge is gradually bald, and the glyph is close to the plate weight; while the inkblot book of the imitation, the pen edge is turned, the performance is easier, and the glyph is closer to the flow than the Dingwu stone carving; posterity speculates, so the Dingwu stone carving is Ou (Yang Inquiry) Pro, and the other is Chu (Suiliang) Pro.

However, it has always been thought that the "Lan Ting Ti" circulated is not Wang Xizhi's handwriting. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Li Wentian of Shunde held this view. Li Wentian said that the ancient name of the Right Army is "Dragon Jumping Heavenly Gate, Tiger Lying Phoenix Que", so there is no Book of Right Army in the world, if there is, "it must be similar to the "Cuan Baozi Stele" and the "Cuan Long Yan Stele" and then can be, with the Eastern Jin Dynasty Qianshu and han Wei Lishu similar, the era for this, can not be Liang, Chen Hou body also. These eight words quoted by Li Wentian are from Emperor Liangwu's Book Review. Mr. Huang Yongnian also quoted sentences such as "Wang Youjun's Book Book" in Emperor Liangwu's "Book Review", and believed that the "Preface to Lanting" that we see today is a book of Liang Chenren. This is also a way of saying it. But these claims are not necessarily reliable. So it has not been able to occupy the mainstream in the history of calligraphy.

We look at Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface" calligraphy, ethereal, ethereal, natural, 28 lines and 324 characters, vertical and horizontal, even if the "zhi" character is repeated more than twenty times, it is extremely varied, and the words are the same and have different meanings. The "Biography of Wang Xi" in the Book of Jin comments on Xi Zhi's words, "The commentators call it a gesture, thinking that it is like a floating cloud, and it is like a frightening dragon", which is indeed a comment. Mr. Shen Yinmo, a modern person, said that the words of Xizhi are "rigid and healthy, flowing beauty and quietness" and "beautiful jade and zhenjian, treasure light connotation". Even if such a law book is not included in the name of Xi, why does it hinder its artistic value? But in the end, it is still Xizhi's handwriting.

Wang Xizhi is the ancestor of Xingshu, and the Orchid Pavilion Preface is a masterpiece of Wang Xizhi's book style maturity period. These two sentences can be used as the main expression of the value of the Orchid Pavilion Preface in the history of Chinese calligraphy art.

The "Orchid Pavilion Preface" collected by the Palace Museum is called "Shenlong Ben" because the volume has a small seal of the Tang Zhongzong Shenlong Year Number, which is said to be the Tang Dynasty Feng Chengsu Double Hook Outline Filler, paper. According to Mr. Qigong's classification, this should be regarded as a kind of "Tang Dynasty facsimile" system. Mr. Qi Gong's poem Yun "depends on the tang dynasty's bloodline, and the divine dragon small seal white linen note", Mr. Qi thinks that this "divine dragon book" is also faithfully copied in different places of the original ink color, "Among the various Lanting facsimiles that exist today, the best one should be pushed". As for whether it was copied by Feng Chengsu, it cannot be confirmed.

The Southern Dynasty Song Dynasty Liu Yiqing wrote "The New Language of the World", and one of the "Sixteenth Qi Envy" has a record of Wang Xizhi and the "Orchid Pavilion Preface":

Wang Youjun won the "Orchid Pavilion Collection Sequence" Fang "Jingu Poetry Sequence", and also used his enemy Shi Chong, and he was very happy.

This passage, to the effect that Wang Xizhi learned that someone compared the "Orchid Pavilion Collection" to the "Golden Valley Poetry Sequence", and compared himself to Shi Chong, showing a very happy look. Shi Chong's "Preface to the Poetry of Jingu" was written in the sixth year of the Reign of Emperor Yuankang of the Jin Dynasty, in 296 AD. Shi Chong, in his villa In Jingujian, Henan, invited thirty people to gather YaYan to send off wang Xue for the great general of Zhengxi. The people feasted day and night, drank wine and wrote poems, which were collected into a book of poems, and Shi Chong's "Preface to the Poetry of Jingu". Shi Chong, a pi person in the south of the Bohai Sea, Ying Wu has talent, Wu Yougong, Feng Anyang Township Marquis, good poetry, this poem preface is very famous. Therefore, Wang Xizhi "has a very happy color".

However, today's literary historians revere Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface" more than Shi Chong's "Jingu Poetry Preface". "Jingu Poetry Preface" is naturally also a good article, and it also represents the "new change" of the "preface" genre. However, historians believe that it was only in Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface" that the preface was completely independent of the traditional collection order and single text preface, becoming the "preface" of the scribe's unique poetic activities, and was extended in the Southern Dynasty, and then articles such as "gift order" also evolved along the direction set by Xi Zhi's text and then reached the New Lands. Mr. Li Shan wrote "General History of Chinese Prose: Volumes of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of Wei and Jin". Mr. Guo Preheng said that Xi Zhi's preface describes landscapes and landscapes, "the sky is clear, the wind is favorable and chang" has been a famous sentence that has been recited in history, "The prose reached the Han Dynasty, and began to have scene descriptions." In the Six Dynasties, in prose, it can also be said to be 'Landscape and Water Fangzi'. This article is an example." This is also the perspective of Xi Zhi's masterpiece from the perspective of the evolution of literary history.

Since Xi Zhi's "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion" has such a high literary and historical significance, and Xiao Tong, the prince of Southern Liang Zhaoming, who has a high sense of appreciation and excellent interest, why didn't he include this one when he compiled the "Selected Writings"? Mr. Qian Zhongshu's "Pipe Cone Compilation" analyzed this text, thinking that Xi Zhi's preface was "really idle, not thinking about it, few short stories, and heavy words", focusing on isolated single texts, naturally there are unsatisfactory points. It is also understandable that Prince Zhaoming did not record the Anthology. Mr. Qian Zhongshu also speculated: Xi Zhi "does not care about calligraphy, and the article is regarded as a residual matter?" "The meaning of Xi is in calligraphy, and writing articles is a residual matter other than calligraphy, and this speculation is also smooth. Of course, if we look at it from the perspective of the evolution of literary history or stylistic history, the assessment of xizhi's preface should naturally be different.

In the commentary written after the note I cited earlier, another version of the "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion" was included, the famous work "Linhe Shu", in addition to some differences in the text in the article, there were more sentences at the end: "Twenty-six people such as the right general Sima Taiyuan Sun ChengGong, such as the left, the former Yu Yao Linghui Xie Sheng and fifteen others, can not give poetry, and punish three buckets of wine each" several sentences. Literary historians speculate that xizhi did not have these few sentences when he wrote this preface, and when he compiled it into a volume, he added these sentences "in accordance with the body of the preface", but if Xizhi added these words to his calligraphy works, "there is a sense of burden.". This explanation makes sense and makes sense.

Xizhi's "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion" has the dual value of calligraphy history and literary history, although Xizhi's articles at that time were only a matter of convenience.

Wang Xizhi was born in the second year of Tai'an (303) of the Western Jin Dynasty and died in the fourth year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (379). The Langya Wang family, which he belonged to, migrated from the north to the south, has always been a famous family and has a high cultural accomplishment.

According to Pan Guangdan, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, China's first population migration in nearly two thousand years occurred, that is, the "Yongjia Nandu". As a result, "the most significant nature is the enrichment of talents and culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the enrichment of talents is obviously a major cause of cultural enrichment." It was this time that the Wang clan of Langya in Shandong came to the south. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wang Xizhi served as the Assassin of Jiangzhou, the General of the Right Army, and the History of Huiji, so he was also called "Wang Right Army". "Yongjia Dongdu", the large clan moved south, the developed Central Plains culture in the north also followed the northerners from the south settled in the south, and the southern and northern cultures made a great fusion in this era, which also promoted a vigorous development of Jiangnan culture. The "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion" can also be regarded as an outstanding contribution made by a Shandong person who moved to Jiangnan to Jiangnan culture. Jiangnan culture, after the Eastern Jin Dynasty, gradually surpassed the northern Central Plains, and the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties have been far ahead. In recent times, the west wind has gradually become eastward, and the south has once again taken the lead in the wind, absorbing Western culture and leading the new standard.

The former residence of the Wang family in Linyi, I visited seven or eight years ago. The Lanting Pavilion in Shaoxing has also been visited several times in recent years. In the place where the sages left their traces, looking at the green mountains from afar and thinking about the water, we can't help but feel sorry for it.

Guangming Daily ( 2022-04-08 16th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily