Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之 (303–361), zì Yìshào 逸少, of Línyí 臨沂 in Lángyé 琅琊 (the great northern Wáng lineage that crossed south into the Eastern Jìn). Universally honoured as the Shūshèng 書聖 (“Sage of Calligraphy”) — the single most influential calligrapher in the Chinese tradition, whose work defined the canon of xíngshū 行書 (running script) and kǎishū 楷書 (standard script) and remained the model for every subsequent generation. Wilkinson §14.4 cites his Lántíng jí xù 蘭亭集序 (Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Collection) as “the most famous calligraphic work by China’s most famous calligrapher.”
CBDB id 25793 (dynasty 27 Eastern Jìn) records lifedates 321–379. The conventional and overwhelmingly preponderant scholarly dating, supported by Wilkinson §14.4 and standard Chinese reference works (e.g. Yú Hé 虞龢 Lùn shū biǎo; Jìn shū 80), is 303–361, followed here. The CBDB lifedates derive from a minority Sòng-period chronology and should be flagged as a discrepancy.
Native of the great northern Lángyé Wáng 琅琊王氏 lineage; nephew of the Eastern-Jìn founding minister Wáng Dǎo 王導 (276–339) and second-cousin to Wáng Dūn 王敦. Studied calligraphy in childhood with Lady Wèi 衛夫人 (衛鑠), then broadened his model to include Lǐ Sī 李斯, Cáo Xǐ 曹喜, Zhōng Yáo 鍾繇, Liáng Hú 梁鵠, Cài Yōng’s 蔡邕 Shíjīng, and Zhāng Chàng’s 張昶 Huáyuè bēi (this self-narrative is preserved in the Bǐzhèn tú hòu KR3h0093). Held offices: Mìshū láng 秘書郎, Jiāngzhōu cìshǐ 江州刺史 (briefly), Yòujūn jiāngjūn 右軍將軍 and Kuàijī nèishǐ 會稽內史 (whence the standard sobriquet Wáng Yòujūn 王右軍 by which he is referred to throughout the calligraphic tradition).
In Yǒnghé 9 (353/3/3), at the spring purification festival, he hosted the celebrated literary gathering at the Lántíng 蘭亭 (Orchid Pavilion) at Shānyīn 山陰 (Kuàijī 會稽); his draft preface to the resulting anthology, the Lántíng jí xù 蘭亭集序, in 28 lines and 324 characters of running script, became the founding canonical work of the Chinese calligraphic tradition. Táng Tàizōng was so enamoured of the Lántíng that he had it placed in his tomb at Zhāolíng; only later tracings (notably the Féng Chéngsù 馮承素 Shénlóng 神龍 tracing in the Palace Museum, Beijing) preserve its likeness.
Resigned office in 355 after a public quarrel with Wáng Shù 王述 and lived in retirement at Jīntíng 金庭 in Shàn 剡, dying in 361. His standard biography is Jìn shū 80. Substantial recent Western scholarship: Lothar Ledderose, Mi Fu and the Classical Tradition of Chinese Calligraphy (1979), and the contributions in Two Chinese Treatises on Calligraphy (Chang & Frankel, Yale 1995). For the use of vernacular Chinese in his letters see Lu, Jack, in Mair (ed.), SP 353 (2024), 5–30 (Wilkinson n. 27646).