Du Shenyan (about 645-78), a poet in Xiangyang in the early Tang Dynasty, has two more famous figures in his family: one is Du Yu, his eleventh ancestor and a famous Jin Dynasty star. He once guarded Xiangyang for seven years, and he had both military achievements and political achievements in Xiangyang, as well as an academic monograph "A Collection of Zuo's Biographies in the Spring and Autumn Period", which was revered by Xiangyang people at that time. The other is his first grandson, Du Fu, a great poet.
Du Fu, a family that has been loyal to Confucianism for generations and handed down poems and books, is supposed to have a gentle and honest family style. In addition, Du Fu always gives the impression that he is worried about the country and the people and is serious. People can't help but speculate that his grandfather should also be a gentle and humble gentleman, right? However, the description of Du Shenyan in historical records has completely subverted this impression.
According to the records in the books of the two Tang Dynasties and Biography of Talented Persons in the Tang Dynasty, Du Shenyan was a person who was arrogant and arrogant. A lot of what he said, in our view today, is simply bragging! Its most classic boast is:
My writing is Qu, Song is an official, and my writing is the north of Wang Xizhi.
It means that my article will definitely make Qu Yuan and Song Yu his subordinates, and my calligraphy even Wang Xizhi should bow down to me facing north. I have seen many conceited talents in Tang dynasty, but I have never seen such conceited ones. Is Li Bai arrogant enough? It's just a lot of big talk, such as "I'm full of heart" and "I try every word every day, and I can rely on my horse to wait for me". I didn't dare to directly name and challenge the ancient literary masters and calligraphy masters.
It's nothing to brag, but it's just a habit of a talented person with a flamboyant personality. The problem is that his boasting also harms others at the same time:
In the dry seal, Su Weidao is the assistant minister of the celestial official, and he judges and judges the words. After the trial, people said, "Su Weidao will die." People asked him why, and said, "When you see my sentence, you should be ashamed to death!"
During the period of Tang Gaozong's official seal, Su Weidao served as assistant minister of celestial officials, and Du Shenyan participated in the election of officials. After the trial, Du Shenyan went out and suddenly said to people, "Do you know? Su Weidao must die! " Everyone was shocked and asked him what was going on. Du Shenyan said, "When he saw the verdict I wrote, he would be ashamed and ashamed to death." How damaging it is for you to say that! He took Qu Yuan, Song Yu and Wang Xizhi as a footstool. They were all ancient people, and they could not dispute with him. But this Su Weidao was just as famous as him at that time, and the world was called "Four Friends of Articles" (the other two were Li Qiao and Cui Rong), so he mocked and humiliated his contemporary poets. Will we meet again later?
you may think that this may be a joke between scholars, so don't take it seriously, right? Then let's look at the following:
At the beginning, it was judged that children were very ill. What did Song Zhiwen, Wuping and other provinces do? They replied, "It's very natural that children suffer from each other. What are you talking about?" However, I am here, and I have been waiting for the public for a long time. It is a great comfort to die now, but I hate not seeing someone else.
When Du Shenyan was seriously ill, Song Zhiwen, Wu Ping and others went to visit him. Others kindly asked him how his illness was, and he replied, "I have suffered a lot from children. What else can I say! But I'm alive, and I'm always on your head, keeping you from getting out of your head. Now that I am dying, this is really the most gratifying thing for you, but I regret that I can't see my replacement! " Nature, which people revere as a god, is "a child of nature" in his mouth, which goes without saying; Song Zhiwen is a good friend who often sings with him and has a deep friendship. Both of them are bachelor's degrees in Xiuwenguan and colleagues in the same department. Besides, Song was also a famous poet in one's hand and one's hand at that time. I'm sorry, but even being his successor is not qualified. You know, when he was seriously ill, it seemed to be a confession. "People are dying, and their words are kind." He said it so sincerely and sincerely. Do you still have the heart to blame him for being arrogant and looking down on others?
is Song Zhiwen angry about this? In other words, is he convinced? After Du Shenyan's death, Song Zhiwen wrote an essay, "A Trial Speech for Du Xueshi". After talking about the "four outstanding figures in the early Tang Dynasty", there was a passage:
Only the spirit shines brightly, and the scholars are more brilliant; Words must be handsome, and words always make sense. It contains moist, if the wind is about to start, it will shake the dew in the spring forest; It is beautiful, like cool rain and semi-sunny, hanging sunlight in autumn water.
It means that Du Shenyan has obviously surpassed the philosophers of "Wang Yang Lu Luo". Du Fu's poems are beautiful in words and profound in meaning. They are full of moisture, just like the breeze in the dawn sowing nectar in the spring forest; It is brightly colored, just like the sunshine in Chu Qing shining autumn water after rain. Later, there are words such as "Wen Han * * Xu, the wind shows his face", "Knowing the close relationship between the stone and the stone, regretting the shallow friendship between the articles", expressing the regret of getting along well with Du Shenyan and not having a deeper exchange of poems. It seems that Du Shenyan is really convinced.
Another famous poet in the early Tang Dynasty also highly praised Du Shenyan. Chen Ziang thinks that Xu Gan, Chen Lin, Ying Yang and Liu Zhen, famous poets in Jian 'an period, and He Xun, Wang Rong, Shen Yue and Xie Tiao, outstanding writers in the Six Dynasties, are not enough to compete with Du Shenyan. Sun Tzu Du Fu once boasted again and again that "my ancestors' poems are ancient", "Poetry is my family's business" and "Take my family's poems as an example and sweep away the atmosphere". This simply regards writing poetry as his unique skill in the old Du family! The pride of having such a grandfather is beyond words. In this way, Du Shenyan's "bragging" does have some capital.
Du Shenyan left behind ten volumes of collected works, but only over forty poems have been handed down. His main achievement is embodied in the five-character poems, and he is regarded as the founder of the five-character poems. The most well-known is the song "An Early Spring Tour with Lu Cheng in Jinling", except "only to wanderers can come, ever new the shock of beauty". Of white cloud and red cloud dawning from the sea and of spring in the wild-plum and river-willow are especially praised. In other poems, such as "The sun is full of residual rain, clouds and overcast clouds send thunder in the evening", "The wind is raining continuously, the sun is holding the rainbow", "The sun is fading with the pod, and Chun Qing is wearing apricot flowers", etc., all of which reflect its ability to grasp the unpredictable scenery and subtle emotions.
Du Shenyan's literary talent was once appreciated by Wu Zetian. As a court poet in the Wu Hou era, he also wrote many poems that should be made, but those things that only cater to the holy will and whitewash the peace are doomed to have no long-term vitality; His really good poems still came from the experience of "ten years of being a poor official, and Wan Li went his own way". In his later years, when he was exiled to Fengzhou and passed through Xiangyang, he presented another excellent song:
Du Shenyan: Boarding Xiangyang City
When a passenger arrives in Sanqiu, he looks around the city.
Chu mountain goes out horizontally, and Han river meets the sky.
The crown is not new, and zhanghua is the old platform.
the scenery in the pool is different, and the road is full of dust.
The first couplet begins with the antithesis: In September, when the autumn is crisp, the poet boarded Xiangyang Tower and looked around, his mind suddenly opened up, as if the magnificent scenery of mountains and rivers had swept away the melancholy clouds in the wanderer's heart.
The couplet then describes the beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers in front of us: Wanshan, Qian Shan and Xianshan in the suburbs are strewn at random, just like pulling out of the ground; The vast Hanshui River winds around the mountains and turns to the southeast, as if the sky were back. This is indeed a unique sight of Xiangyang's landscape from the tower. The words "Chu" and "Hui" are all common verbs, but when they are combined with "Hengdi" and "Jietian" respectively, they have a strange vivid portrayal effect, showing the majestic beauty of mountains and rivers. Hu Zhenheng, a famous writer in Ming Dynasty, commented on this couplet and said: "Hong Yi is a tough guy, and Shao Ling's family style is graceful." That is to say, this kind of landscape painting is obviously Du Fu's housekeeping skill. You can know that Hu's statement is true by comparing Sun Tzu's "Waves between the rivers and the sky surge, and the clouds are blocked by the clouds and the ground is overcast" with Grandpa's "Chu Mountain goes out horizontally, and Han River meets the sky."
The Neck Couplet began to imagine and turned to nostalgia: "The crown cover is not a new one, and zhanghua is an old one" is not a scenic spot in sight. The crown cover was originally on the way to Yicheng in the south of Xian Mountain, and the site of Zhanghuatai is even farther away (there are stories about Qianjiang, Shashi and Jianli). It is invisible for poets to stand on the Xiangyang rostrum, so this is all an imaginary scene. The word "new" and "old" are embedded in two proper nouns respectively, which not only solves the problem that Zhang Huatai's direct entry into even sentences will lead to taboo, but also makes the sentence novel and unique, and the meaning of the sentence flows back and forth, which strengthens the heaviness of lamentation. In the "Guangaili", there is no such thing as a cloud of dignitaries, and "Zhanghuatai" only leaves traces of the past. All the splendor and wealth can't last long in the world, and the calm narrative reveals the injustice in the poet's chest.
The epilogue ends with a scene. There are many places of interest in Xiangyang, but the poet points out that "the scenery in Xichi is different", which is not only because of the excellent landscapes, pavilions and pavilions in Xijia Pond, but also because it is the place where Jin people are drunk and the former residence of writers who study hard. The poet did not directly show that he cherished the memory of his predecessors, but only said that the strange scenery of Xichi attracted many tourists. And this meaning is only through the side pen, describing the dusty road on the way home, setting off the grand occasion of traffic. It is not difficult to imagine the kind of confusion and melancholy that the poet in exile felt when he stood alone in Xiangyang City. Although Deng Xiangyang City was written in adversity, the familiar scenery in his hometown inspired the poet's true feelings, and his brushwork became vigorous, sweeping away the decadent style of palace poems that he was good at, showing an extraordinary style.
(originally published in Xiangyang Daily on December 4, 219)