《Kuaixue Shiqing Tie》 is a running script work created by calligrapher Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The full text consists of four lines and 28 characters. It is a letter written to his friend Zhang Hou, and its content is the author’s greetings to relatives and friends in a happy mood when the snow just cleared. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty cherished this work very much. He wrote more than 70 inscriptions with his own handwriting (with more than 170 seals), and accompanied it with a painting: “Lanting Guan Ge Tu”. This album is now in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
羲之頓首。快雪時晴。佳想安善。未果為結。力不次。王羲之頓首。山陰張侯。
According to the seals and documents, the existing copy is generally considered to be a fine copy from the Tang Dynasty. The main post is written in four lines of running script with 28 characters. The content briefly describes the mood after the heavy snow and greetings to relatives and friends. The structure consists of three sections: the introduction, the main text and the conclusion. Except for the characters “頓首” and “果為” which are written in cursive script, the whole text is mainly written in running script, with the rigorous brushwork of regular script, showing a leisurely and graceful demeanor and fluent and beautiful meaning. The Ming Dynasty connoisseur Zhan Jingfeng pointed out that the brushwork of this work is round, vigorous and elegant, and the style is leisurely, which has a profound influence on Zhao Mengfu’s running script. From the perspective of brushwork, this post is mostly written with round and blunt brushstrokes, and the dots, strokes, hooks and hooks are not sharp. The structure is stable and symmetrical, and the simple and restrained charm is revealed in the graceful posture.
《Kuaixue Shiqing Tie》was given to Prime Minister Wei Zheng in the early Tang Dynasty and passed on to Chu Suiliang. In the late Tang and early Song Dynasty, it was given to Su Yijian and passed on to Su Shunyuan and Su Shunqin, brothers, descendants of the Su family. Later, it was transferred to Mi Fu. It entered the palace of Emperor Gaozong in the early Southern Song Dynasty. It was collected by Zhu Cunliang in the Ming Dynasty, and later sold to Wang Xideng by a painting seller, and then passed to Wu Guoting and Liu Chengxi. After Liu died, it was returned to Wu Guoting. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was first owned by Zhang and then entered the Yuan Palace. It was later acquired by Feng Quan of Zhuolu. In the 11th year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign (1746), it entered the imperial palace, and Emperor Qianlong stored it in the greenhouse of the Hall of Mental Cultivation together with Wang Xianzhi’s “Mid-Autumn Letter” and Wang Xun’s “Boyuan Letter”. After the establishment of the Palace Museum in Beijing in 1925, 《Kuaixue Shiqing Tie》 became one of its old collections. After Japan invaded Northeast China, 《Kuaixue Shiqing Tie》 was moved south with the first batch of antiquities from the Palace Museum, and later transported to Anshun, Guizhou. In 1945, after Japan surrendered, 《Kuaixue Shiqing Tie》 was transferred to Nanjing. In early 1949, 《Kuaixue Shiqing Tie》 and many other precious cultural relics from the Palace Museum in Beijing were taken to Taiwan by the Kuomintang government, and have been collected in the National Palace Museum in Taipei ever since.
