Xiao Yi obtaining the Lanting Manuscript by trickery

Traditionally attributed to Qian Xuan 錢選 (late 13th century) · 16th century

Wen Zhengming was a painter, calligrapher, and scholar of the Ming dynasty. As a calligrapher, Wen Zhengming excelled in all the major scripts but most often practiced semicursive script, following the style of the master calligrapher, Wang Xizhi. Wang Xizhi (ca. 303-361) composed and wrote the Preface of the Lanting Gathering while with a number of eminent scholars and poets who drank wine as they worked along a winding brook surrounded by bamboo groves and mountains. The Preface became the most practiced and influential single piece of work in the entire history of calligraphy. Wen Zhengming wrote this version of the Preface when he was 84 years old, exactly 1200 years after Wang Xizhi had written the original composition.