After snow, a clear sky, and a note to a friend: Wang Xizhi says he is well and hopes the same of you. Twenty-eight characters carry the mood of a quiet afternoon seventeen centuries gone.
The original is lost; what survives is a Tang-dynasty tracing that the Qianlong emperor treasured above almost everything else, inscribing his own praise and keeping it at his pillow. Wang Xizhi’s ‘clearing after snow’ became the standard against which all later running script was measured.
The piece sits in Taipei now, small enough to hold in one hand, and still the most quoted weather report in the history of Chinese art.
Object details
| Name | Timely Clearing After Snowfall (Kuai Xue Shi Qing Tie) (快雪时晴帖) |
|---|---|
| Artefact no. | — |
| Technique | Ink on paper |
| Period | Eastern Jin (Tang-dynasty copy) |
| Collection | National Palace Museum, Taipei |
| Source | 台北故宫博物院 |
Image © National Palace Museum, Taipei. See the original in the museum collection.