On The First Running Script in the World and Preface to Lanting from the Aesthetic Theory of Calligraphy

Commenting on Xihe's calligraphy style, the word "guilty" is often used to describe it. Shen pointed out in "On Calligraphy": "If you want to use the infighting method, you must first concentrate on the strokes on the paper, and constantly fluctuate up and down and move back and forth on the center line of each painting, so that the strokes will not overflow outside the painting, and you can be full of strength and perseverance." It can be seen that this is a firm and straight, beautiful and quiet book style. Emperor Taizong's famous Inscription of Jinci adopted the "infighting" method of emphasizing strength. This book hides the front with a round pen, which is full of strength and cohesion. In "Graphite Block Edition", Zhao Xin's evaluation of this monument is that "the holy teaching order and Lanting are free." Coincidentally, A Qing Dynasty Qian Daxin commented: "Calligraphy is very similar to the preface of Huairen's holy teachings, which deeply covers its heart and copies its hands." Comparing the same words in Jinci Ming and Huai Ren Ji Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Holy Teaching, the relationship between them is very obvious. Taking the word "Cheng" as an example (Figure 1), it is not difficult to find that the strokes of both words are "internal strokes" and the characters are very similar, except that the word "Cheng" in the inscription of Jinci is vivid and ups and downs, while the word "Cheng" in the preface to Shengtang is more straight. Take the word "zhe" as an example (Figure 2). The internal logic of its brushwork is basically the same, and they all emphasize the strength of bones. However, the word "zhe" in the Preface to the Holy Teaching emphasizes the brushwork, so it is more powerful. After the comparison, it can be clearly seen that Emperor Taizong took the method of calligraphy and structure from the west, but his attainments were not as good as those of the right army after all, which inevitably revealed the softness of calligraphy and the looseness of structure. In addition, the 38 "Zhi" characters in Jinci inscriptions have their own strengths and no similarities, which can really be compared with the changeable "Zhi" characters in Lanting. As far as the overall layout is concerned, Li Shu not only retains the characteristics of Wang Shu's poetic composition, but also reflects the neatness and density of the layout of the northern books, which makes it solemn, stable, beautiful, elegant, vigorous and enthusiastic, and forms the style characteristics of being rigid inside and soft outside, and communicating with the north and the south.