Yuanhuan

Wang Xizhi (style name Yishao), skilled at all kinds of script types, was known to later generations as the Sage of Calligraphy. This piece of calligraphy, also called Xingbie, is actually a precise copy made by outlines filled with ink. The method involved delicately tracing the strokes of the original and then carefully filling them with ink, representing one of the ways in which reproductions were made in ancient times. On the frontispiece at the right is a title slip in the slender gold script of the Song emperor Huizong (1082-1135) and the seals of his court. The scroll also features the Qunyu zhongmi and Mingchang yulan seals of the Jin dynasty emperor Zhangzong (1168-1208) as well as numerous collection seals of the following Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The contents are a letter written by Wang Xizhi to Zhou Fu (293-365), the Regional Inspector of Yizhou. The engraved Shiqi modelbook from the Tang dynasty also includes this letter, but the lines in that carving are stiffer and lacking the delicate variations of brushwork shown here. Having lost the appearance of Wang's original, the engraving cannot compare to the form and spirit of this superb tracing copy.