Orchid Pavilion: The Excursion and Reflection
 
    The “Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Collection”, also known as the “Orchid Pavilion Preface”, was written by Wang Xizhi, who has been hailed as the greatest calligrapher of all time. The preface recounts a spring gathering in 353 at the Orchid Pavilion, where a collection of poems was compiled. Celebrated for its literary excellence and masterful calligraphy, the original work has been lost, but numerous reproductions and stone rubbings remain. Throughout history, countless calligraphers have emulated its elegant form and spirit, drawing significant artistic inspiration from it.
 
    The preface begins by describing the refreshing joy of a spring outing and the delight of engaging in one’s favorite activities. However, the tone shifts to a lamentation of life’s fleeting nature and the impermanence of all things. Wang Xizhi finds a connection with past writers, feeling their sorrow as his own, just as future readers will resonate with his words. Despite life’s fluctuations, there is an eternal bond between past and present, a shared human experience that endures through change.
 
    While this exhibition features the “Original Dingwu Version of the Orchid Pavilion Preface”, we hope viewers will look beyond Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy and the preface itself to explore the inscriptions and notes by renowned Song and Yuan artists such as Zhao Mengfu. In addition, selected artifacts from the Song and Yuan periods reflecting natural aesthetics are being displayed to evoke the literati’s vision of the Orchid Pavilion gathering. Nearly 1,700 years after the event, the enduring beauty of Wang Xizhi’s extraordinary calligraphy and literary work, together with the ongoing resonation of subsequent scholars, have created a timeless cultural classic.