Introduction to the Orchid Pavilion Preface: The stone wall of the Orchid Pavilion Preface. On the third day of March in the ninth year of Yonghe reign of Emperor Mu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 353), Wang Xizhi, Xie An, Sun Chuo and other 41 people went to the Lanting Pavilion in Shanyin (today's Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province) to do the wedding ceremony. Each of them had his own poems, which were compiled into the "Orchid Pavilion Collection". Wang Xizhi wrote a manuscript preface for it, called "Preface to the Lanting Collection". The preface describes the beauty of the mountains and rivers around Lanting and the joy of the party, expressing the author's feeling that good times do not last long and life and death are impermanent. The text of the Dharma calligraphy passed down from generation to generation has a total of 28 lines and 324 words. The composition, structure and writing style are all perfect. It was his proud work when he was fifty years old. Later generations commented that "Youjun's font is a change from the ancient method. Its majestic and elegant style comes from nature, so it is regarded as a follower in ancient and modern times." Therefore, calligraphers in the past dynasties have praised "Lanting Preface" as "the best running script in the world", and Mi Fu, a great calligrapher in the Song Dynasty, called it "the best running script in China".

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