The most uncanny poet: Meng Haoran
"I sleep in spring without waking up, and hear birds singing everywhere. The sound of wind and rain at night, how much do you know about the falling flowers?" The author of this poem, Meng Haoran, was full of food since he was a child. He read poetry and books. When he was young, he refused to take scientific research in order to protest against the darkness of the imperial court, and lived in seclusion in Lumen Mountain, Hubei Province. After middle age, he wanted to pursue an official career but suffered repeated setbacks, and ended up living in the countryside in loneliness and hardship.
There is an evaluation of Meng Haoran, saying that he "is unwilling to live in seclusion but spends his whole life in seclusion." Some people even think that he "has been diligently pursuing the road of pursuing officialdom throughout his life." However, in the opinion of scholar Ye Jiaying, Meng Haoran's reclusiveness in his early years was not a pretense. From a poem by Li Bai, we can also see that Meng Haoran had a romantic, willful and comfortable side. Li Bai wrote in his poem: "I love Master Meng, and he is known all over the world. The beauty abandons the crown, and the white head lies in the pine clouds. The moon is drunk and the saint is in the sky, and the flowers are not interested in the king. The high mountains are safe, and I can only bow to the clear fragrance."
Perhaps because he was afraid of losing his life, Meng Haoran embarked on the road of seeking officialdom in his middle age. Ye Jiaying believes that the poet "abandoned the seclusion he had always adhered to and pursued another kind of completion of officialdom, and ultimately lost both officialdom and seclusion." We sometimes wonder, if Meng Haoran really became an official back then, would he be able to adapt to official life?
The most romantic poet: Wang Wei
The portrait of Wang Wei is taken from "The Painting Biography of the Bamboo Village of Yanxiaotang".
Compared with Meng Haoran's career and seclusion, Ye Jiaying said that Wang Wei had two benefits: he was born in a well-known family and actively sought official positions in his early years. . However, despite being an official, he always wanted to retire and lived in seclusion in Zhongnan Mountain and Wangchuan. When he was at Wangchuan Villa, he invited his friends to sing and sing, and completed a famous set of five-character quatrains describing scenes, "Wangchuan Collection".
However, Wang Wei's ability to hide both sides may be just an appearance. Ye Jiaying believes that deep in his heart, "there have always been a lot of contradictions and pains, but he never expressed them sincerely." In the twenty-fourth year of Kaiyuan, Zhang Jiuling resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by Li Linfu. The society gradually became darker. Although Wang Wei was depressed, he could not completely break with Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong, and was always in contradiction and compromise.
Because she could not be completely sincere, Ye Jiaying felt that Wang Wei was a person between famous people and everyone, while Qian Zhongshu said that Wang Wei was a second-rate poet. However, it cannot be denied that Wang Wei, who has a blue heart, is an elegant person and is good at romance, such as the song "Lovesickness" - "Red beans grow in the south, and when spring comes, a few branches will grow. I hope you can pick more, this is the most lovesick thing." It is still sung to this day.
The poet who has the most affection for his family and country: Wang Changling
Wang Changling is good at writing frontier poems with magnificent scenes.
"In the Qin Dynasty, the moon was bright and the Han Dynasty passed, and the people who marched thousands of miles have not returned. But the flying generals of Dragon City are here, and they will not teach Hu Ma to cross the Yin Mountains." This song "Crossing the Fortress" is a well-known work by Wang Changling, which expresses It expresses the poet's wish to use good generals to quell the war as soon as possible so that the people can live a stable life.
Wang Changling was called the "Seven Masters" by later generations. Shen Deqian in the Qing Dynasty praised "Longbiao Quatrains, which are deeply sentimental and resentful, with vague meanings, which make people unpredictable and endless." However, this famous frontier poet of the Tang Dynasty, who was known as "Poet Master Wang Jiangning" (Wang Changling was compared to Confucius in poetry) during his lifetime, has very few records of his life in history. "Old Tang Book, Vol. "One Hundred and Ninety" has only a fifty-one-word introduction, and "New Book of Tang·Biography of Wang Changling" has only a ninety-eight-word introduction.
Later generations only know roughly that Wang Changling had a rough life and was demoted many times: he was demoted to Lingnan, and then demoted to Jiangning Cheng. In the seventh year of Tianbao, he was demoted to Long Biaowei, so people called him Wang Jiangning or Wang Longbiao. After the Anshi Rebellion, Wang Changling left Longbiao and was killed by the governor Lu Qiuxiao in Anhui for unknown reasons. Some people speculate that Wang Changling may be wild and informal, so he was demoted many times. And his character eventually led to his death.
The most romantic poet: Li Bai
Portrait of Li Bai.
Perhaps no other poet can win so many reputations as Li Bai: Poet Immortal, Poet Hao, Wine Immortal, Banished Immortal, and Kuang Ke. After reading Li Bai's poems, He Zhizhang said: "My son, you can banish an immortal." He said that Li Bai was an immortal from heaven who was demoted to earth. The poet Li Bai is indeed arrogant. He boasted that when he was young, he had wielded a sword and "killed many people with his hands." When he was serving the imperial edict, he stretched out his feet in front of the emperor and asked Gao Lishi to take off his boots. He said, "An Neng is able to bend his eyebrows and bend his waist to serve the powerful, which makes me unhappy."
Most people in the world have only seen Li Bai’s arrogance, and who can truly appreciate or even cherish his unruly and "domineering"? Perhaps, only heroes know heroes. My good friend Du Fu once wrote a poem "Gift to Li Bai", which sketched out a vivid portrait of Li Bai: "Autumn comes to see each other, Shang Piaopeng, but before I feel ashamed of Ge Hong. Drinking and singing in vain, who is the hero of flying and domineering?" Du Fu wrote in his poem about Li Bai's failure in seeking official position and seeking seclusion. Perhaps for Li Bai, "drinking and singing wildly" was just an escape, which could not offset his sorrow of unfulfilled ambition and failure in life.
In 763, Li Bai died. Some people say that he died of illness, while others say that he drowned after being drunk and "falling into the water while holding the moon in his arms". The poet who likes to compare himself with the roc all his life, after struggling and leaping in the world, died in loneliness.
The most obscure poet: Li Shangyin
The portrait of Li Shangyin in "The Painting Biography of Yanxiaotang Zhuzhuang".
Li Shangyin, known as the "misty poet" of the Tang Dynasty, is probably most famous for his untitled poems, "It's hard to say goodbye when we meet, the east wind is powerless and the flowers are withered" "Last night's stars and last night's wind, On the west side of the painting building, on the east side of Guitang"... Xia Kun, a personality teacher, said when talking about Li Shangyin that the sad poet probably poured all his emotions into these untitled poems. They are "like a locked jewelry box. When the lid of the box is slightly opened, we can see a cool or warm glimmer through the gap, but the box can never be fully opened. We can only feel the untitled emotions from the occasional glimmer. , Untitled Beauty”.
Li Shangyin’s poetry has always been difficult to understand because of his frequent use of mythology and imaginative writing. Liang Qichao once said that he did not understand the literary meaning of poems such as "Jin Se", "Bicheng" and "Holy Maid Temple". It is normal for Liang Qichao to be puzzled. It is said that "Jinse" has always been interpreted in many ways: some people call it a mourning poem, some people say it is about party struggle, some people say "Jinse" is a woman's name, and some people say it is the poet's emotion. The official career is not smooth.
The most outspoken poet: Han Yu
A copy from the palace of the Qing Dynasty, a portrait of Han Yu.
In troubled times, some people use poetry to express their miserable lives, while others use words to fight against the hardships of the times. Different from the melodious and graceful style of many poets in the mid-Tang Dynasty, Han Yu's poems are "strange and dangerous" and full of momentum. Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan once opposed the parallel prose of the Six Dynasties and advocated the "ancient prose movement". The "Ancient Prose Movement" was not so much Han Yu's anxiety about style as it was his anxiety about politics.
Han Yu's outspokenness caused him to encounter setbacks in his official career: when he was serving as the censor, there was a severe drought in Guanzhong and the people suffered from famine. Han Yu wrote a letter requesting tax relief, but he was demoted to Yangshan Order; the whole country respected him. At the time of the Buddha, he wrote "On the Table of Buddha's Bones" to urge the emperor not to indulge too much, and even said that the bones of the Buddha are "rotten bones, full of evil and filth" and should be "thrown into water and fire, forever eradicating the roots, ending the world's doubts, and eradicating future generations." Confusion". As a result, Han Yu was almost killed, but with the help of his friends, he was given a lighter sentence and demoted to Chaozhou.
The poet with the lowest tears: Du Fu
It has almost become a major routine in the popular literary history to describe Du Fu as poor and rough as possible. We are used to meeting the frowning Du Fu in "Three Officials" and "Three Farewells", and appreciate the poet's anger and sorrow. However, this interpretation of Du Fu is biased. American sinologist Yuwen Suoan said: "In the tradition of Chinese poetry, Du Fu almost transcends judgment." When talking about Li Bai and Du Fu, the poet Xichuan said: "Li Bai's imagination comes from sea water and mirages, and Du Fu's imagination comes from the land. , the growth and decay of all things on the land. ”
As Xichuan said, Du Fu, who suffered from hunger and pain in the turbulent era, not only wrote about himself, but also cared about the people and the land under his feet. The poem expresses hatred of war and rebellion and the desire for a stable and better life. Liang Qichao said that Du Fu was a "sage of love" because "his eyes often looked at the lowest level of society. He could see the conditions of the poor people in this layer that others could not see; their emotions could not be conveyed by others. He spread it all." Liang Qichao said that almost a quarter of Du Fu's works are about crying and crying about current events.
The most charming poet: Du Mu
"The Biography of Talented Scholars of the Tang Dynasty" describes Du Mu, a romantic talent in the late Tang Dynasty: "Mu has a beautiful appearance, a good singing and dancing, and a very charming style that can't be contained." Du Mu, who was famous for his "Ode to Afang Palace" in his early years, served as an official in Yangzhou for ten years and visited various brothels in the area. It is said that after Du Mu's term of office expired, Huainan Jiedushi Niu Sengru produced thousands of "reports" at the farewell banquet that read "One night, Secretary Du stayed at a certain prostitute's house, nothing happened." Many years later, Du Mu wrote "Remembering" and mocked his past in Yangzhou: "I was in a down and out wine shop, my waist was slender and my palms were light. I dreamed of Yangzhou for ten years and won the reputation of a brothel."
Some people say The poem "Remembering" is a confession. Although Du Mu wrote it in a romantic way, it was not obscene. Some people even think that the poet had to put aside the practical knowledge of "managing chaos, wealth, and military affairs" in the turmoil and decline of internal and external troubles, and let fine wine and beautiful women become a good medicine to heal wounds and relieve pain.
The most pungent poet: Liu Zongyuan
A portrait of Liu Zongyuan.
In his early life, Liu Zongyuan had everything going smoothly: he was from a noble family and became a high school scholar at the age of twenty. Later, he was appreciated by Wang Shuwen and promoted along the way. At that time, Liu Zongyuan would never have thought that his originally brilliant career in politics would turn dim at the age of thirty-two.
As Tang Shunzong was deposed and the Wang Shuwen Group was liquidated, Liu Zongyuan was implicated and was demoted to Shaozhou Governor. On his way to the post, he was demoted to Yongzhou Sima. After staying in Yongzhou for eleven years, Liu Zongyuan was ordered to return to Beijing. Liu Zongyuan originally had great hopes for this call, but he was soon demoted to the governor of Liuzhou and eventually died in office in Liuzhou.
Liu Zongyuan was not only a poet, but as one of the "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties", he was also a great essayist. When he was in Yongzhou, he completed the famous travel prose "Eight Notes of Yongzhou". Liu Zongyuan's prose is thorough and incisive, whether it satirizes social ills or accuses injustice in the world.
While in Yongzhou, Liu Zongyuan also completed philosophical articles such as "On Feudalism", "Non-Guoyu", and "Tian Dui". In the article, he even criticized Dong Zhongshu, a great scholar of the Han Dynasty, for "obscene witches and blind history, and deceived future generations." His writing was pungent Sharp.
The most sympathetic poet: Bai Juyi
Collection of the Qing palace, portrait of Bai Juyi.
Bai Juyi, who wrote "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", the pinnacle of narrative poetry in the Tang Dynasty, divided his poems into four categories: allegory, leisure, sentimentality and miscellaneous rhymes. He mentioned in the famous "Yu Yuan Jiu Shu": "The ancients said: 'If you are poor, you can be good at yourself, and if you are prosperous, you can help the world.'... It is called an allegorical poem, and it also has the ambition to help; it is called a leisurely poem, and it is good alone. "Righteousness."
Bai Juyi actively advocated the New Yuefu Movement, advocating that "articles should be written according to the time, and songs and poems should be written according to the matter." The song "The Charcoal Seller" shows his deep concern for the suffering of the people. Infinite sympathy. Bai Juyi admired Du Fu very much and advocated using poetry to cry out for justice and the weak. The shadow of Du Fu can be seen in many of his poems. For example, Du Fu wrote, "The wine and meat smelled stinky in the Zhumen, and there were frozen bones on the road." Bai Juyi wrote, "Otherwise, at that time in Lu Shuitou, the dead body and soul would not be able to collect their bones. They should be like ghosts visiting their homes in Yunnan, weeping on the mass graves."
Bai Juyi has been in politics and an official for decades, and has always had ups and downs. In his later years, he lived a life of a recluse. However, as an official, Bai Juyi managed to "serve one term as an official and bring peace to the people." For example, when he was the governor of Hangzhou, he led a group of people to dig and build dams to raise the water level of the West Lake and irrigate thousands of hectares of farmland. When he left office, facing the people who came to see him off, he wrote a poem: "There is only one lake left to save you from the bad years.
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