How many characters does the “Lanting Xu” preface by Wang Xizhi contain? The standard text contains 324 characters.
The Lanting Xu, also called the Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion, was written by Wang Xizhi in 353 during a gathering at the Orchid Pavilion near present-day Shaoxing. The event brought literati together for drinking, poetry, and the winding-cup ceremony, in which cups of wine floated along a curving stream.
Wang’s preface reflects on springtime pleasure, friendship, the passage of time, and mortality. Its 324 characters are arranged in 28 columns in the traditional transmitted presentation. The work became a supreme model of running-script calligraphy, even though the original manuscript is believed to have disappeared.
Copies and tracing versions preserve its fame, but they also create a frequent source of confusion: surviving examples are not the original sheet written by Wang. The character zhi appears 20 times, and tradition especially celebrates the fact that Wang varied its form each time. The character count remains 324 for the standard text, despite debates about transmission and authenticity.