The famous calligraphy work known as the “Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion” is Lanting Xu.
Its Chinese name is Lantingji Xu, usually translated as “Orchid Pavilion Preface.” Wang Xizhi is traditionally credited with writing it in 353 CE, during the Eastern Jin dynasty, after a literary gathering at the Orchid Pavilion near present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Guests composed poems during a wine-floating game, and Wang wrote the preface for their collection.
The work is celebrated as a masterpiece of running, or semi-cursive, script. Its original is believed to have been lost, so surviving examples are copies, tracings, or rubbings. This sometimes causes confusion: Ji Wang Shengjiao Xu is another important calligraphic text associated with Wang Xizhi’s legacy, but it is not the Orchid Pavilion Preface. Huangting Jing and Shu Pu are also distinct calligraphic works.