One day in the late spring of March in 353 AD, the sky was clear and the breeze was gentle, and in a pavilion on a mountain in San'in City, a large group of children of rich nobles entertained their lives, drank fine wine, and opened parties. Drinking and writing poetry has always been the Yaxing of the literati. With the help of wine, a large group of people danced and inked, and began to show their literary style. At this time, it was proposed to collect the poems made by the people into a collection, and one of them also wrote a preface to this collection.
The prologue is wonderful, but what makes this preface even more brilliant is the handwriting. This prologue is written with a strong pen, like the flow of clouds and water, which can be described as a frightening and graceful dragon. The handwriting of the prologue has also attracted later generations to follow suit. It became a peak for later generations to learn calligraphy. The person who wrote this preface was Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Wang Xizhi, everyone is certainly not unfamiliar. He is known as the "Sage of Books". This preface of his is his most outstanding masterpiece, The Preface to The Orchid Pavilion. People may know Wang Xizhi only this, knowing that he is a famous calligrapher. What everyone may not know is that Wang Xizhi's final death is also quite legendary.
Wang Xizhi was born in a famous aristocrat, and his ancestors were the Wang clan of the Langyawang clan. How powerful is the Langya Wang Clan? During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a saying that "the king and the horse share the whole world." "The king here refers to the Langya Wang family. After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, the imperial family crossed south to the south. With the support of Wang Xi's uncle Wang Dao and others, the Jin royal family was able to continue the emperor and establish the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Therefore, Wang Xizhi's family is naturally much more noble than other families.
Wang Xizhi was born with a golden spoon in a family under such conditions. Unlike other clumsy children, Wang Xizhi was born in such an environment, but he was quite artistic and had a frank style. Once, Xi Jian wanted to choose one of Wang Dao's sons and nephews as his son-in-law, and everyone else scrambled to dress themselves up, but Wang Xizhi was on the bed with his chest bare and his back, pretending to be indifferent. As a result, Xi Jian chose Wang Xizhi as his son-in-law, and thus gave birth to an idiom "East Bed Fast Son-in-Law".
Wang Xizhi has a talent for art, and when he was young, calligraphy was already very famous, and his neighbors and neighbors praised him. Wang Xizhi also took the post of general of the Right Army, which can really be described as proud of the spring equinox. At this point in life, what do you want? But Wang Xizhi was not satisfied with this, only because he was arrogant and always liked to compete with others. Once, he and Wang Shu of the same sect got on the bar.
Although Wang Shu was also born into a famous family, his innate conditions were not as good as Wang Xizhi's. Moreover, Wang Shu's status could not be equated with Wang Xizhi's. Wang Xizhi was already famous in Jinghua when he was a teenager, and Wang Shu was still stupid all day when he was established, and somehow, Wang Xizhi would compete with him.
Although Wang Shu's talent is not as good as Wang Xizhi's, in the official arena, he is smooth sailing, but Wang Xizhi seems to be struggling. The contradiction between the two may begin here.
Later, Wang Shu's mother died, and Wang Xizhi, who was 49 years old at the time, took over Wang Shu's position as huijian taishou. As a local governor, Wang Xizhi naturally had to go to Wang Shu's house to mourn. Wang Shu also made various preparations, cleaning the courtyard every day to welcome wang Xizhi's arrival. However, Wang Xizhi, who was nearly half a hundred years old, could not "forget his grievances", and when he came to the Spiritual Hall, he actually disrespected the etiquette system and humiliated Wang Shu on top of the Spiritual Hall. After going there once, Wang Xizhi never went to Wang Shu's house again, and Wang Shu deeply hated it.
Unexpectedly, Wang Xi's happiness at one time attracted bitter fruit. Three years later, Wang Shu became the Taishou of Yangzhou, and Hui ji happened to fall under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou, and he became a subordinate of Wang Shu. This was unacceptable to Wang Xizhiwan. So he proposed to the imperial court a method that he thought was the best of both worlds, that is, to transfer the audit to the rule of Yuezhou, but his men messed up the matter, and the imperial court naturally did not agree. For a time, Wang Xizhi was ridiculed by the people of the time.
Can't afford to hide? Wang Xizhi, who was resentful, felt more and more unfair the more he thought about it. In a fit of anger, he resigned from the government and returned to his hometown. What made Wang Xizhi even more angry was that his sons and grandchildren were not angry, and Wang Shu's son Wang Tanzhi had already achieved the official position of a waiter, but his own children had achieved nothing. The more Wang Xizhi thought about it, the more he did not taste it, and the anger did not come out, and over time, he finally got sick, and soon after, a generation of famous calligraphers passed away.
As for how Wang Xizhi died, there is also a saying that the neighbor next door knows that Wang Xizhi is a well-known calligrapher, but unfortunately, he does not have a copy of Wang Xizhi's works, and one day he wanted to ask Wang Xizhi to write some words. But Wang Xizhi was so tired that he had to politely refuse to write it again in two days. On the third day, the neighbors came, Wang Xizhi dipped enough pen and ink, unfolded the paper, waved a large pen, just wrote a horizontal, the pen fell from the hand, the whole body also leaned back, all-out rescue was ineffective, the great calligrapher bid farewell to this world.
Of course, both of these statements are just wild history, and they should not be true. Wang Xizhi's theory of being angry to death originated from "The World Speaks New Language", but this is only a novel, and the story in it is false and true, which needs to be distinguished by people. Regarding the cause of Wang Xizhi's death, there is no clear record in the history, and later generations speculate that it may be related to his long-term use of Dan medicine. The cause of Wang Xizhi's death is unknown, but the only thing that can be affirmed is his crucial position in the history of Chinese calligraphy.