书谱（节选三）
On the Fine Art of Chinese Calligraphy(selected)
[唐]孙过庭
By Sun Guoting
彼之四贤
Those Four Masters
夫自古之善书者，汉、魏有钟、张之绝，晋末称二王之妙。王義之云：“倾寻诸名书，钟、张信为绝伦，其余不足观。”可谓钟，张云没， 而義、献继之。又云：“吾书比之钟，张，钟当抗行，或谓过之。张草犹当雁行、 然张精熟，池水尽墨，假令寡人跣之若此，未必谢之。”此乃推张迈钟之意也。考其专撞，虽未果于前规；捩以兼通，故无惭于即事。
Since olden times, for names great in shu-fa, the Dynasties Han and Wei have given us Zhong and Zhang, and the later years of Jin, the two Wangs, father and son. ^Delving into the past masters；' declared Wang Xizhi,"I find Zhong and Zhang matchless indeed, but as to all the rest, I can see nothing of great value in them." Thus, after those two had passed on, Xizhi and Xianzhi continued in the tradition. To quote the elder Wang again:"My shu makes a fair rival to the works of Zhong and Zhang, or, as some would suyt even surpasses theirs* 1 he cao shu of Boying I consider, indeed, as an even match to that of mine, but that is because he had thoroughly given himself to it, so that, it was told, the pond whereby he practised his art became wholly darkened, by consent use, with his ink: had I cherished that style as dearly as he did, I don't see why I should not take the lead of him in it too"—meaning this, as is obvious, to be a compliment to Zhang as contrasted to his light dismissal of Zhong. For truly, in their own particular fields Xizhi might not be the equal of these earlier masters, yet in range and variety he bows to no one either in the past or iri recent times.
评者云：“彼之四贤，古今特绝；而今不逮古，古质而今妍。”
There are critics who say that those four masters have encountered as yet no peer throughout the ages; but among themselves, the earlier ones, moving in their lonely simplicity, are superior lo the later two, who are after, and are thus hampered by variety and elegance.