Wang Xianzhi (王献之), the seventh son of Wang Xizhi (王羲之), also known as Da Ling (大令). In the history of Chinese calligraphy, it is a god-like existence second only to Wang Xizhi.
Wang Xianzhi's "Thirteen Lines of the Jade Edition"
Wei Jin people are good at talking, like to judge the high and low characters, in the "World Speaking New Language Pinzao" there is such a record about Wang Xianzhi, Xie An asked Wang Xianzhi: Your calligraphy is better than your father, who is better? Wang Xianzhi replied, "It is different. Xie An asked again: Outsiders don't seem to see it that way. Wang Xianzhi said, "Outsiders know!" ”
Xie An is a close friend of Wang Xizhi, after Wang Xizhi's death, Wang Xianzhi can always be smooth, behind this Xie An is doing a lot of work. Of course, the dedication was also a reward for the reward, and when Xie An died, he wrote a letter to Emperor Xiaowu to appeal for Xie An's merits, fight for honor, and fight for fame, and finally prompted "Emperor Xiaowu to add a special ceremony to An".
Wang Xianzhi's "Bong To the Post"
Therefore, Xie An's questioning seems to be a joke played by an adult teasing a child. Just like today, adults often ask children: Who are you and your father better than?
However, at this time, Wang Xianzhi was already an adult, and his answer was completely in line with the unique personality of an artist. Originally, father and son were both masters of calligraphy, and everyone had their own style, and the art style was difficult to distinguish. Therefore, in ancient times, there was a saying that "Wen Wu is the first, Wu Wu is the second". Wang Xianzhi has his own pride in his calligraphy art.
Xie An is a politician who is accustomed to treating artistic creation with the order of first place and second place. Three hundred years later, Li Shimin is also like this, accustomed to the life-and-death struggle in the political circle, accustomed to looking at life from a win-win or losing perspective, but this perspective is often stretched in the field of aesthetics.
I often say that the field of art is like a table of food, Sichuan people like spicy, Guangdong people like light, northeast people like to eat chaotic stew, Shanghai people like thick oil red sauce, northwest people like to eat noodles, southern people like to eat rice. There are local delicacies in every place, and there is no one standard to measure who has the best wine and who is bad. Aesthetics are tolerant.
Wang Xizhi's calligraphy is classical, quiet, and convergent, mainly based on xingkai, calm and elegant.
"Poyang Thesis"
Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy has the arrogance and wildness characteristic of young people. Compared with Wang Xizhi, Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy has more changes in pen gestures, faster flow of lines, from walking grass to wild grass, writing is more free and unrestrained, creating a "one-stroke book" in the history of calligraphy, breaking the independent structure of Chinese characters, and paying more attention to the flow of qi between words and words.
Therefore, xie an did not understand this innovation at that time, nor did Li Shimin of Tang Taizong three hundred years later.
Tang Taizong strongly praised Wang Xizhi and belittled Wang Xianzhi, although he may have his own considerations, but in the eyes of outsiders, it was a bit inexplicable. Li Shimin went all out to search for Wang Xizhi's calligraphy works, and even used the despicable means of "Xiao Yi to earn Lanting" to occupy the Orchid Pavilion Preface.
The love of beauty, evolved into greed, pathetic.
Wang Xianzhi - Dongshan Pine Paste
When Tang Taizong Li Shimin grasped the power to control the world, it was also the slow beginning of prejudice.
Confucius said, "Gentlemen are harmonious but different, and villains are the same but not harmonious." Tang Taizong Li Shimin could not see the "difference" between Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi at the same time. The "difference" is the precious point of aesthetics, and the history of Chinese calligraphy is a history of continuous innovation.
Wang Xianzhi especially likes to take the initiative to write to others, a good hand of calligraphy is his pride, history records that he wrote for people, never stingy, others rushed to collect his calligraphy is his happiness. However, he can take the initiative to write, you can't ask him to write.
At that time, the newly built Taiji Hall in the Imperial City had just been completed, and some people proposed that Wang Xianzhi be the inscription of the main hall. But Wang Xianzhi did not hesitate to refuse. Writing calligraphy is Wang Xianzhi's pride: when I am willing to write, I can write as much as I want, but you can't ask me to write. It is recorded: "People have asked for books, but those who can rarely get them, although they are forced by the powerful, do not mind." ”
Thoughts
According to the literature, after Wang Xianzhi's death, from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Southern Dynasty Liang Period, his calligraphy works should be similar to Wang Xizhi's.
However, after Emperor Wu of Liang of the Southern Dynasty proposed at that time that "Zi Jing zhi is not easy to be less, and yu Yi is less than Yuan Chang", it was like a holy will, and the number of people who advocated Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy plummeted. By the time of Emperor Taizong of Tang, it was recorded that the number of wang xianzhi's writings was much smaller than that of Wang Xizhi, and the calligraphy and ink of Wang Xianzhi in Tang NeiFu "only survived".
Li Shimin's derogation of Wang Xianzhi affected the attitude towards Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy in the early Tang Dynasty, and by the late Tang Dynasty, the number of Wang Xianzhi's writings was further reduced, and the length and length of the Da Ling shu shu included in the "Essential Records of the Book of Law" were only eighteen. The calligraphy works of Wang Xianzhi collected by the "Chunhua Ge Ti" in the Northern Song Dynasty, after the falsification and preservation of the truth, are only more than forty posts.
Wang Xianzhi "Goose Flock"
Although it was not valued by Li Shimin, after Li Shimin's death, especially during the Sheng Tang and Middle Tang Dynasties, calligraphy aesthetics moved towards more personal expression, more romantic, more free swing, more wanton and wild style of calligraphy, Wang Xianzhi's publicity, and finally got more people's recognition, wild grass is the sublimation of Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy art.
Xie An of the same era did not understand Wang Xianzhi, Emperor Wu of Liang did not understand Wang Xianzhi more than a hundred years later, and Li Shimin did not understand Wang Xianzhi more than three hundred years later. And Wang Xianzhi's real confidant is the Northern Song Dynasty more than seven hundred years later, the same flamboyant and wild Mi Fu.