王羲之和《兰亭序》
Wang Xizhi and the Orchid Pavilion Preface
Name: ________________ Date: ________
公元353年春天，农历三月初三，在今天浙江绍兴附近的兰亭，四十多位文人坐在一条小河的两边。有人把装满酒的杯子放进水里，让它顺着河水慢慢漂下去。杯子停在谁的面前，谁就要马上写一首诗；写不出来，就要喝下这杯酒。
那天大家一共写了三十七首诗。最后，大家请这次聚会的主人王羲之给这些诗写一篇序言。据说王羲之当时喝了不少酒，他拿起笔，一下子就写完了。这篇文章就是后来大名鼎鼎的《兰亭序》。
《兰亭序》一共只有三百二十四个字，可是很多人说，它是历史上最好的行书作品。最让人惊讶的是，文章里一共有二十个“之”字，王羲之竟然把每一个都写得不一样。传说第二天酒醒以后，他自己又重新写了好几遍，却怎么也写不出那天的感觉了。
王羲之生活在一千六百多年前的东晋。后来，人们叫他“书圣”，意思是写字写得最好的人。关于他，还有一个很有意思的故事。史书上记载，他特别喜欢鹅。有一次，他想买一位道士养的鹅，可是道士说不卖，只要王羲之帮他抄一本书，就把鹅全部送给他。王羲之毫不犹豫地答应了，抄完以后，他带着一群鹅，开开心心地回家了。
几百年以后，唐朝的皇帝唐太宗也成了王羲之的“粉丝”。他到处收集王羲之的作品，最想要的就是《兰亭序》。据说，这件作品当时在一位老和尚手里，老和尚怎么也不愿意交出来。于是，唐太宗派了一个聪明的大臣，假装成普通的读书人，去和那个和尚交朋友。两个人一起下棋、谈书法，成了好朋友。有一天，老和尚终于把《兰亭序》拿了出来，大臣就趁机把它带回了皇宫。
唐太宗得到《兰亭序》以后，非常珍惜。据说他死的时候，让人把它和自己一起放进了坟墓。从那以后，再也没有人见过真正的《兰亭序》。
那么，我们今天看到的是什么呢？是唐朝人照着原来的作品认真复制的。其中最有名的一件，今天保存在北京的故宫博物院。虽然只是复制品，人们看了，还是会被这些字的美打动。
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 首 | shǒu | first (as in 首次) |
| 聚会 | jùhuì | party; gathering; to get together |
| 篇 | piān | piece of writing; chapter |
| 当时 | dāngshí | then; at that time |
| 文章 | wénzhāng | article; essay |
| 作品 | zuòpǐn | work (of art or literature) |
| 重新 | chóngxīn | again; anew; afresh |
| 诗 | shī | poem; poetry; verse |
| 主人 | zhǔren | host; master; owner |
| 据说 | jùshuō | it is said; reportedly |
| 传说 | chuánshuō | legend; folklore |
| 记载 | jìzǎi | to record; to write down; record; account |
English (for the teacher)
In the spring of 353 AD, on the third day of the third lunar month, at the Orchid Pavilion near today’s Shaoxing in Zhejiang, more than forty men of letters sat along both banks of a stream. Someone put cups full of wine into the water and let them drift slowly downstream. Whoever a cup stopped in front of had to write a poem on the spot; if he couldn’t, he had to drink the cup.
That day they wrote thirty-seven poems in all. At the end, everyone asked the host of the gathering, Wang Xizhi, to write a preface for the poems. It is said that Wang Xizhi had drunk quite a lot by then; he picked up his brush and wrote it straight off. That piece is the famous Orchid Pavilion Preface.
The Preface has only 324 characters, but many people call it the finest work of running script in history. Most surprising of all, the character 之 appears twenty times, and Wang Xizhi wrote every one of them differently. Legend says that the next day, sober again, he rewrote it several times himself but could never capture the feeling of that day.
Wang Xizhi lived more than 1,600 years ago, in the Eastern Jin. Later people called him the “Sage of Calligraphy”, the person who wrote characters better than anyone. There is another fun story about him. The histories record that he loved geese. Once he wanted to buy geese a Taoist priest kept, but the priest wouldn’t sell; if Wang Xizhi copied out a book for him, though, he could have all the geese for free. Wang Xizhi agreed without hesitation, and when he had finished copying he went home happily with a flock of geese.
A few hundred years later, Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty became a Wang Xizhi “fan” too. He collected Wang’s works everywhere, and the one he wanted most was the Orchid Pavilion Preface. It is said that the piece was then in the hands of an old monk, who would not give it up whatever happened. So Taizong sent a clever official, disguised as an ordinary scholar, to make friends with the monk. The two played go and talked about calligraphy together and became good friends. One day the old monk finally brought out the Preface, and the official seized the chance to carry it back to the palace.
Once Taizong had it, he treasured it. It is said that when he died, he had it placed in his tomb with him. Since then, no one has ever seen the real Orchid Pavilion Preface.
So what is it that we see today? Careful copies that Tang dynasty people made from the original. The most famous of them is kept today in the Palace Museum in Beijing. Even though they are only copies, people who see them are still moved by the beauty of the characters.