1 There are many past events in the ancient capital
It was already evening when we set foot on this ancient Guanzhong city located in Qinchuan. The sunset in the Shaanxi plain is much later than in the south. The sky is still bright at seven o'clock in the afternoon, and it refuses to disappear leisurely.
I am standing on the Drum Tower on West Street, which is located in the center of Xi'an. It was built during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty and is a landmark building in Xi'an. Every evening, drums will be beaten inside the Ming city wall to tell the time, echoing the bell tower opposite to form "morning bells and evening drums". Over the long years, the sound of drums has come far away through time and space, reminding the world of the changes in dynasties and personnel.
Climbing up the stairs and leaning on the railings, you can have a panoramic view of the entire ancient city. Looking up, you can see the past events of the ancients under the vast sky, and looking down, you can see the hustle and bustle of today in Hui Street. The past and the modern are combined here to form a strange scene, which makes people suddenly feel like they don’t know what night it is today.
Starting from the Western Zhou Dynasty in 1057 BC, 13 dynasties including Qin, Han, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang established their capitals here, which lasted for 1140 years. The ancient capital of the Thirteen Dynasties cannot be described in thousands of words. It itself is a history book that can never be finished. You can approach it, touch it, and admire it, but you will never truly understand it. But hidden in the cracks of the book is the bright moon of the Han Dynasty and the glory of the Tang Dynasty. Its glimmer is enough to guide me through thousands of years of time and space to walk towards it, like approaching an elder who has faded from the glory of his life, cautiously and with excitement.
Leaning against the brick walls of the ancient city, the afterglow of the setting sun dyes this ancient city with a warm golden color. Feel its temperature with your hands. At that time, time and space fade away. Listening carefully, you seem to hear someone riding a horse in a green shirt and a crown.
This is the prosperous Chang'an, the Tang Dynasty.
2 Chang'an has deep ancient meaning
"Chang'an Avenue is narrow and sloping, with green oxen and white horses and seven-scented carriages.
Jade chariots run across the main hall, and golden whips come in droves. Xianghou's house.
There are thousands of bees playing with butterflies on the side of the door.
The windows on the complex road are decorated with phoenix wings.
From the sky in the Liang Family Painting Pavilion, the golden stems of Emperor Han are straight out.
We look at each other in front of the building, but we know each other when we meet on the street. "
Want to restore it? To see the bustling city of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, you must first read Lu Zhaolin's "The Ancient Meaning of Chang'an". When this poem was written, Lu Zhaolin was only 18 years old. He had just become a Jinshi and served as a literary official in the palace of Prince Deng, the younger brother of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin.
This young poet from the early Tang Dynasty was walking around Chang'an City as usual. He saw an endless stream of white-horse carriages of princes and nobles on the streets, flowers and birds dancing on both sides of the streets, and carved railings in the mansions. Painting pavilions tower into the clouds, teahouses and brothels flourish with singing and dancing. These dizzying scenes unfolded in front of the poet's eyes one after another, and were written into the lines of songs, truly constructing a magnificent picture of life in the imperial capital for future generations.
I want to mention here that the area within the Ming city wall is actually the capital city established by the Ming Dynasty. It is named Xi'an, which means the west is eternal and peaceful. Before the Ming Dynasty, this was called Chang'an, the location of the imperial city. The total area of ??Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty was about ten times the area within the city walls of Xi'an today. The city's layout was smooth, with numerous shops, prosperous markets, and prosperous industries. It was the economic and cultural center of China and even the world at that time.
Chang'an City consists of fourteen horizontal streets and eleven vertical streets. The most famous one is the main north-south vertical street - Zhuque Street, which is also the "Chang'an Avenue" written in Lu Zhaolin's poem. The street is 150 meters wide and 5020 meters long, and can accommodate eight carriages traveling side by side. Zhuque Street is located on the central axis of Chang'an City, dividing Chang'an City into east and west cities.
In Chang'an, where all nations came to visit, Zhuque Street was the only avenue into the inner city of Chang'an.
You can imagine that every day, as the drums of Chengtian Gate sound, the Mingde Gate at the south end of the street slowly opens, and all the people, barbarians and caravans from Central Asia and Persia outside the city begin to enter this place. An imperial city, with rolling carriages and horses, and a constant flow of people. What kind of lively scene would it be like? New York, Tokyo, and Paris are nothing. As early as the 7th century in the East, this place was already a well-deserved international metropolis.
Back then, when Lu Zhaolin was walking on the Zhuque Street, which was bustling with cars and horses, he must have been attracted to it when he saw the countless prosperity in the rolling world, but this attraction can easily lead people astray. The poet is finally the sober person in this bustle. So he said: "How can I die if I can become a mandarin duck? If I want to be a mandarin duck, I will not envy the immortals. A mandarin duck is so enviable. If both go and come, you will not see me."
How can there be a perfect destination for everything in the world? , you have never seen the love of two people staying together and flying together, just like this prosperous and prosperous age will eventually come to an end, it is something that makes people sigh.
Walking outside today's Zhuque Gate and heading south along the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, you can see that both sides of the road have long been replaced by various modern buildings. If you are willing to listen, the stone road covered by ancient locust trees and under the cool street lights may still silently tell some of the prosperity and grandeur of the past.
3 The prosperous age was full of romance
When people talk about the Tang Dynasty, most of them are based on the titles of Tang poems compiled and selected from Yang Shihong's "Tang Yin" in the Yuan Dynasty and Gao Yu's "Tang Poetry Collection" in the Ming Dynasty. It is divided into four periods: early, prosperous, middle and late.
The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty began with the rule of Zhenguan and ended with the Anshi Rebellion. The early Tang Dynasty occupied the most important period of 100 years, from Taizong Li Shimin, to Gaozong Li Zhi, to Queen Wu Zetian. Thanks to the governance strategies of these monarchs, the Chinese nation at that time was strong and graceful. , showing unprecedented vitality.
I like the early Tang Dynasty because it is the beginning of the foundation of the Tang Dynasty. It is the beginning of prosperity and romance, and there are hundreds of years to slowly polish it. In the early Tang Dynasty, there was still some lazy and willful attitude. He slowly got up from the past and the future, and he had the colorless demeanor of the Sixth Palace.
As the capital at that time, Chang'an City benefited from the cultural integration and open ideological trends after the Wuhua Rebellion. Many poets, bachelors, monks, and famous actors who were famous all over the world gathered in the city at that time. At that time, Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Meng Haoran and other big names in the Tang poetry world were not yet born, but a group of romantic talents such as Liu Xiyi, Zhang Ruoxu, Luo Binwang, Yang Jiong, Song Zhiwen and others had already been born under the sky of the Tang Dynasty. He created and led the cultural value orientation of the Tang Dynasty and laid a solid foundation for the glorious artistic achievements of the Tang Dynasty.
The city of Chang'an is endowed with irreplaceable charm precisely because of the many wonderful stories performed by these romantic figures. There are many geniuses in the Tang Dynasty, and there are so many interesting stories, so I will pick one or two interesting ones to share with you.
Chen Ziang, who wrote "Thinking of the deepness of heaven and earth, crying with sadness" is the most outstanding poet who made important contributions to the innovative theory of poetry in the early Tang Dynasty, and pioneered the allegorical style of Tang poetry. But when he was young, Chen Ziang was definitely a super cool second-generation rich man. He came to Chang'an from Shu, and he had a lot of talent but was not appreciated by others. One day, Chen Ziang went to the street and saw a harp seller charging thousands of coins for a hu harp, which attracted curious onlookers. He had an idea and bought the harp without saying a word, and asked everyone to come to Xuanyangli to listen to him play the harp tomorrow. The next day, many people heard the sound and came to see him. He picked up the huqin and said, "Chen Zi'ang, a native of Shu, has hundreds of texts, but no one knows about it. How should we pay attention to this lowly craftsmanship?" After saying this, he threw the precious huqin in front of everyone. had to be crushed and his poetry presented to all attendees. As a result, Chen Ziang "became famous all over the country within one day".
Aren’t you so handsome? From a modern perspective, Chen Ziang is definitely a wizard in the marketing world. Of course, such a vigorous personal show must first be based on your own rich talents and knowledge. You must have enough self-confidence to have the willful capital, right?
Turning back to the Four Heroes of the Early Tang Dynasty, except for the previously mentioned Lu Zhaolin, the remaining three are Wang Bo, King Luo Bin, and Yang Jiong. My favorite is Wang Bo. We all know that Wang Bo was the earliest to become famous among the Four Elites, and he won the Jinshi Award when he was less than twenty years old.
He was obviously also a willful young man who became famous at a young age. When he was an official in Prince Pei's palace, cockfighting was popular among the princes and ministers at that time, and what Wang Bo did most often was to accompany the prince in cockfighting. Just fight, you have to know that this is not a serious matter, right? However, he happened to write an "Essay on Chickens to Address the King of England", which resulted in Xuanzong being so angry that he was driven out of the palace.
Whether it is a crooked talent or a miraculous talent, in short, they are really talented. Many of his articles are often improvisational, easy-to-hand yet masterful masterpieces. Regarding his story, the most interesting thing is of course the origin of "Preface to Prince Teng's Pavilion". It is said that on the Double Ninth Festival in the second year of the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, Yan Boyu, the governor of Nanchang, rebuilt the Tengwang Pavilion, held a grand banquet, and invited scholars from far and near to write poems and prefaces for the Tengwang Pavilion. Wang Bo happened to be passing by, so he went to the banquet as well. Originally, Yan Gong planned this banquet to have his son-in-law Wu Zizhang write a preface in front of everyone to show off his literary talents to boost the family tradition. When preparing the preface, everyone present pretended to be humble because they knew the master's true intention. As a result, Wang Bo foolishly failed to understand the situation and volunteered to write the "Preface to Prince Teng's Pavilion" on the spot. Just imagine Wu Zizhang being turned into ashes by Wang Bo on the spot, and you will find it funny and interesting. There are geniuses in this world, even if you want to admit it.
This preface to the poem, written in parallel style, is bright and powerful, and reads like stars falling all over the sky. It can definitely be regarded as a classic among Tang poems. Every time I read this poem "The setting clouds and the solitary owl fly together, the autumn water and the long sky are the same color." I can't help but be deeply impressed by Wang Bo's literary talent. It's a pity that this peerless talent did not bring good luck to his life. Wang Bo was only 26 years old when he drowned in the South China Sea.
Among the four heroes of the early Tang Dynasty, except Yang Jiong, the other three died young and had a rough fate. This seems to have some inevitable connection with the times and personality. They became famous at a young age and were extremely talented. Their hearts were filled with fantasies and passion for gaining fame, but in the end they could only be trapped in the helpless reality of officialdom. This is the sorrow of many feudal literati.
"The shadows of Xianyun Pond are long, and things have changed and the stars have moved several autumns. Where is the emperor's son in the pavilion now? Outside the threshold, the Yangtze River flows freely."
Looking back at the vastness of the world, who is not a drop in the ocean? ?
4 Porcelain expresses character
During this trip to Xi’an, I spent a long time in the Xi’an Forest of Steles Museum. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a palace-level museum in the national calligraphy community. The collection of authentic calligraphy works inside is truly eye-opening. Wandering in the forest of steles, listening to the recorded explanations of the tour guide, touching each stroke on the forest of steles with your hands, you can feel every handwriting written by you flowing between your fingers. This is probably what the so-called art brings. Come to eternal vitality.
The great calligraphers of the early Tang Dynasty, like the poets, were definitely a star-studded era in Chinese history. Ouyang Xun, Yu Shinan, Chu Suiliang, Liu Songquan, Yan Zhenqing, etc., just pick one of them, they are all famous figures with great reputation.
But among so many big names, when it comes to the most interesting one, I think it should be Zhang Xu. To paraphrase a tour guide, this madman who was revered as the "Grass Saint" by later generations can definitely be called an idol figure in the art world of the Tang Dynasty, but he took the rock route. According to records in the "Old Book of Tang Dynasty", Zhang Xu was a drinker by nature. Whenever he was drunk, he would run wildly and write without writing. Sometimes when he got interested, he would dip his hair in ink, and then use his hair to write the book.
It has to be said that this unique artistic style has not been found in many people for five thousand years. But because he did have astonishing attainments in calligraphy, and his wild and uninhibited style didn't really affect anyone, the world just let him do whatever he wanted without restraining him by etiquette.
Having said that, think about it, geniuses always have many quirks. For example, Van Gogh cut off his own ears and gave them to his lover, and Schopenhauer never let anyone shave his hair. Without some distinctive behavior, you would be embarrassed to admit that you are a genius.
The story of Zhang Xu and Yan Zhenqing is also very interesting.
It is said that Yan Zhenqing admired Zhang Xu's name and decided to resign from his official position and become his disciple.
Yan Zhenqing, who comes from a well-known family and has a very strict family tradition, wants to be apprenticed to a wild and unruly man like Zhang Xu, which is a bit funny in itself. At this time, Zhang Xuji was a celebrity in Luoyang, living in the house of student Pei Jing. He held parties and drank with celebrities every day, and was too lazy to pay attention to this stupid young man from Chang'an. Faced with such scenes, Yan Zhenqing, who is upright by nature, often refuses to participate or not. He has no choice but to stand there in shock every day.
But people who love art always have perseverance and tenacity. No matter how much Zhang Xu ignored him, Yan Zhenqing would never let go. Later, he simply moved to Pei Jing's house and stayed there, pestering Zhang Xu every day to ask for tips on learning calligraphy.
Zhang Xu was tired of being pestered, so he only gave him four words: study hard and practice hard, there is no other way.
When Yan Zhenqing went to see Zhang Xu for the second time, Zhang Xu saw that Yan Zhenqing had really worked hard and finally passed on all his life experiences to him. It was not until Zhang Xuzhen's biography that Yan Zhenqing became truly enlightened in calligraphy, and only then did we see "Yan Ti" in later generations.
As crazy as Zhang Xu, you can say that he has talent, but what makes him famous in the world must be his persistence and fanaticism in calligraphy, and his perseverance in a specific field. In fact, any success can only come from this.
5 Chang'an Month
My last stop in Xi'an was to the Huaqing Palace in Lishan to listen to the performance of "Song of Everlasting Sorrow".
The Huaqing Palace is built with the mountain on its back and the Wei River on its side, and is built against the Lifeng Mountain. Towers, pavilions and halls are spread all over the Lishan Mountain. The scenery is beautiful and forms a whole. This palace was built in the early years of the Tang Dynasty and flourished during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty loved this Lishan Palace and would definitely come here to stay for a period of time every October.
At 7 o'clock in the evening, the moonlight began to rise in Lishan. It's getting late, the lights in Huaqing Palace are gradually lighting up, and willows are planted beside the pond in the garden. Wandering among the pavilions and pavilions, feeling the mountain breeze blowing, and listening to the music in my ears, it seems that the moonlight is the Chang'an moon back then.
In terms of performance alone, the performance of "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" can be said to be very exciting. This stage play directly eliminates many inappropriate plots in the story of Tang Minghuang and Yang Guifei, and beautifies the love between these two people into a magical, touching and pathos.
Let’s not discuss the authenticity of this love-hate relationship, but at the end of the performance, when the elderly Li Longji appeared on the stage, I still felt an indescribable feeling of sadness. . This kind of sadness is not due to the death of love, not because of the disappearance of a generation of beauties, but because you clearly see the elegance of a prosperous dynasty behind him. After the Anshi Rebellion, the glorious Tang Dynasty finally entered the annals of history and became a thing of the past.
When I visited the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, there was an entire exhibition hall dedicated to objects unearthed from the Tang Dynasty. The cultural relics about the Tang Dynasty displayed in it all represented that era. Each of these advanced civilizations can be regarded as a rare treasure in today’s eyes. After the Tang Dynasty, the history of Xi'an seems so simple that it can be summarized in one sentence.
What flourishes must eventually decline. This is the law that governs everything in the world. Although everyone can understand the truth, this still cannot stop future generations from recalling and remembering the glorious times that once happened here.
Zhang Ruoxu, a famous court poet in the early Tang Dynasty, once wrote a Yuefu poem "Spring River Flower Moonlight Night":
"Who by the river first sees the moon? When does the river moon shine on people for the first time? Life generations Infinitely, the river and the moon look alike every year. I don’t know who the river and the moon are waiting for, but I see the Yangtze River sending water. "As time goes by, the river and the moon move forward. It may seem heartless, but we must believe that in this world, there must be something that can last forever, such as the pursuit of art and the yearning for a better life.
Looking up at the full moon on Huaqing Pool, it seems to be the Chang'an moon back then. It is always full and missing, as calm as water, and seems to have seen countless joys and sorrows in the world.
Why don't we pour a pot of wine and drink together as three of us under this moon, in this flower room, and dream of returning to the Tang Dynasty.