Wang Xizhi's Orchid Pavilion Preface: Collected Ancient Poems

Author: Xu Qinghua (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Beginners in calligraphy must start by copying ancient steles and inscriptions, striving for strokes, structures, and styles to resemble the originals. Once copying is mastered, the desire to create one's own works often leads to failure. The transition from copying to creation is not easy to cross, and some may spend their entire lives failing to do so or may go astray. Selecting characters from the copied steles to form works is an excellent method, but the text in the works may not all be found in the copied steles. Even if found, piecing them together may not achieve coherence in size, weight, inclination, and mutual correspondence. For this reason, we decided to invite experienced calligraphers to edit and publish a series of couplets and poetic works composed of characters selected from historically renowned steles and inscriptions, using computer image processing technology to strive for the most perfect presentation to readers. Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Orchid Pavilion is renowned as the "Supreme Running Script in the World." In the early Tang Dynasty, it was discovered by Emperor Taizong Li Shimin, who ordered Zhao Mo and Jue Chengsu to make copies. This edition is selected from Feng Chengsu's copy. Wang's calligraphy is vigorous and elegant, with ever-changing forms yet remaining natural. For this reason, the editors spent months carefully considering and comparing the selected characters in each poem, ensuring both faithfulness to the original and the use of strokes from the original steles, with no. At the same time, they avoided rigid adherence, appropriately using computer technology for coordination, ultimately recreating the demeanor of the Sage of Calligraphy.