The best-known masterpiece in the history of Chinese calligraphy is indisputably composed and handwritten by Wang Xizhi (303-361). It is more than a calligraphic magnum opus. Scholars agree that the preface was something totally new in the history of literature and that it was the achievement of cultural exchange and convergence of the north and the south during that time.

Wang Xizhi penned this preface at the age of 51. It was the spring of 353AD. The springtime egarden party at the Orchid Pavilion in Lanzhu Hill, Shaoxing in eastern Zhejiang was attended by celebrated scholars. They sat along on either side a small stream, cups of wine floated. When a cup reached a scholar on the bank, the scholar picked up the cup and sipped the wine, and wrote a poem. Thirty-seven poems were composed at the party. The participating scholars agreed to put them into a collection. Wang was elected unanimously to write a preface to the collection. Wang was somewhat drunk. He composed the essay and handwrote it under the tipsy circumstances. It is said that, after he recovered from the drunkenness after the party, he failed to reproduce a copy as brilliant as the original one. 

The masterpiece we see today is all replicas. It is said that the original is buried in the mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The important ancient copies can be divided into two categories according to Qigong (1912-2005), a renowned calligrapher, artist, connoisseur, and sinologist. In one category are the copies made in the Tang Dynasty. These copies were made against the original by various prominent calligraphers of the time. A handwritten copy in the collection of the Palace Museum of Beijing is one of the copies made in the Tang Dynasty. It is said that it was an exact duplicate made over the original by Feng Chengsu of the Tang. Qigong thought it was the best of all the copies made in the Tang. But whether it was Feng who made the copy remains a moot question. In the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), rubbing from a stone tablet located in Dingwu was found. This is one of its kind in the second category. It was considered better than other rubbings of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). As rubbings were constantly made from the stone tablet, the carving wore out and rubbings gradually lost the brilliance of the early copies. Scholars of ancient times thought that the handwritten copies were by Zhu Suiliang and the masterpiece carved on the stone tablet was based on a copy made by Ouyang Xun. Both Zhu and Ouyang were great calligraphers of the Tang.

Though the preface wasn’t the first that blazed a new trail in the preface genre, it signified that Wang’s preface had totally broken away from the conventional. Before, prefaces and forewords were just part of a collection of prose or poetry. As of Wang’s preface, it became a stand-alone literary subgenre for literary events.

Wang Xizhi was an exemplary historical figure living in a time that northern people migrated massively to the south. His father and his uncles served emperors of Western Jin (215-316) and Eastern Jin (317-420). Wang himself served as a governor. During this time, a massive north-to-south migration occurred, the first of its kind in China for the past 2,000 years. It was during this massive migration that the Wang clan in Shandong moved to Jiangnan, also known as the south of the Yangtze River Delta. The migration led to a cultural fusion of the south and the north. It was during Eastern Jin that culture in Jiangnan prospered for the first time in history, leading to the prominent and leading role this region played culturally in the following major dynasties up to the early 20th century.

Wang Xizhi is a figure recorded in authored by Liu Yiqing (403-444). In this epoch-making book of anecdotes concerning celebrities of various dynasties, there are forty-four entries about Wang Xizhi.