Resigned twice and worshipped the famous teacher.
Yan Zhenqing is a native of Jingzhao Wannian (now Xi 'an, Shaanxi), and his ancestral home is Langya, Shandong (now Linyi, Shandong). He was born into a family of poets and calligraphers, and Yan Zhitui, the fifth ancestor, wrote the famous Yan Jiaxun. Unfortunately, when Yan Zhenqing was three years old, his father died, and his family life suddenly fell into poverty.
Yan Zhenqing inherited a good family culture gene. He likes reading very much and writes beautifully, but he has a special liking for calligraphy. This embarrassed mom. Eating is still a problem. Where can she afford so many pens and papers for him to practice writing?
Yan Zhenqing saw her mother's heart. One day, with a bowl and a brush in his hand, he happily said to his mother, "I have a pen and paper, which costs nothing." Don't worry! " Mother looked at him doubtfully. He said, "This bowl is an inkstone, this brush is a pen, and yellow mud can be used as ink!" " "He filled his bowl with mud, walked to the wall and began to write with a pen. After he finished writing, he washed away the handwriting with clear water and said, "This is paper! " "
Mother smiled, so Yan Zhenqing learned a good hand.
At the age of 26, Yan Zhenqing was admitted to Jinshi and became a captain of the imperial court. Later, he served as a county captain in Liquan (now Liquan County, Shaanxi Province) to manage local public security. This job is quite complicated. I get up early and get greedy for the dark, day and night, but Yan Zhenqing always finds time to practice calligraphy. People are full of praise when they see his calligraphy, but he is very upset because it is difficult to make progress without the guidance of famous teachers. He wants to be like a person, but he is a little embarrassed to think of his temper.
This man is called Zhang Xu, and he is good at cursive writing. He is eccentric and likes drinking best. He is one of the "Eight Immortals of Drinking" listed by Du Fu (the other seven are Li Bai, He, Li and Ruyang Wang Li? Cui Zongzhi, Su Jin, Jiao Sui). Zhang Xu, who was drunk, often clamored for crazy walking, then put pen to paper, and sometimes even dipped his hair in ink to write, so he was nicknamed "Zhang Dian" by his contemporaries.
Yan Zhenqing to show sincerity, resolutely resigned from his office, rushed to Luoyang, defected to Zhang Xu. Zhang Xu read his handwriting carefully and said, "Your handwriting is very good. Now that the country is employing people, you are the pillar of the country's future. How can you spend so much effort on writing? "
Words very tactfully, but Yan Zhenqing recognized the refusal. He didn't dare to insist, so he had to leave and return to Chang 'an. Before long, he got the opportunity to serve in the imperial court again, but he always failed to learn from Zhang Xu, so he resigned again. Zhang Xu was moved by his sincerity and nodded and accepted the apprentice.
However, to Yan Zhenqing's disappointment, in the first few months, Zhang Xu either gave him his handwriting and the copybooks of the previous generation of famous artists to "study hard", or took him to travel, go to the market, go to the theatre and "learn about nature" without giving him the know-how. One day, Yan Zhenqing couldn't help complaining to Zhang Xu: "I came to ask for advice to get the subtle secrets of your brushwork. Why just let me persist and understand? "
Zhang Xu said unhappily, "I saw the princess arguing with her husband and examining the brushwork. When I saw Gongsun dancing sword, I got the charm of ink. In addition to studying hard, learning from nature, what tricks are there! "
From Zhang Xu's words, Yan Zhenqing understood the way of learning, so he never looked for shortcuts. Instead, I study hard, try to figure out the brushwork of my predecessors, and condense the charm I have learned from nature into a generation of calligraphers.
Smash An Lushan's "Blitzkrieg"
After learning calligraphy well, Yan Zhenqing became an official again, and once supervised national history in North Korea. However, like many artists, he knows nothing about the world and blindly moves towards honesty and frankness. As a result, in the twelfth year of Tianbao (753), he was demoted to Pingyuan County (now Dezhou, Shandong Province) as a satrap. The poet saw him off and wrote worriedly: "The countryside faces Yan in the north, and the looting has not stopped." However, the most terrible thing in this place is not the bad climate, but An Lushan, who is holding her breath and preparing to rebel.
After taking office, Yan Zhenqing "abolished tyranny, despised petty traitors, got rid of treachery, and was loyal to the monarch and virtuous", which won the people's love. Gao Shi, a famous frontier poet, praised him for "holding high the pillow and raising the breeze after becoming an official." The rich have bowed their heads and fled to return to agriculture. "Of course, Yan Zhenqing knew An Lushan's ambition and took precautions quietly.
In the name of flood control, Yan Zhenqing built city walls, rushed weapons, collected able-bodied men and stored grain and grass. In order to avoid An Lushan's eyes and ears, he learned every day, dallied with the bright moon, and even personally compiled a phonological book "Rhyme Source Sea Mirror". An Lushan sent someone to inspect the work. While eating, drinking and having fun, he also improvised a word, which is the famous inscription "A Portrait of Dong Fangshuo Praises the Monument" that has been handed down to this day. An Lushan smiled and took Yan Zhenqing for a bookworm who could only dance and write.
In the 14th year of Tianbao (755), An Lushan rebelled and launched a surprise blitzkrieg against the Tang Dynasty. Wherever the rebels went, they kept orders, either opening the door to meet the enemy or abandoning the city to hide, and no one dared to fight. Before long, the rebels pushed through Tongguan, the last line of defense in the capital. Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, felt helpless and embarrassed. While fleeing from Sichuan in a hurry, he lamented: "Isn't there a loyal minister in the twenty-four counties of Hebei?"
At that time, Yan Zhenqing stepped forward and vowed to beg for thieves without waiting for the imperial edict. His 3,000 soldiers and horses soon expanded to 1 10,000, and made an agreement with Gao Yan, a clan brother in Changshan County (now Zhengding County, Hebei Province), to jointly fight against the rebels.
Plain county for a long time, Anshi rebellion sleepless, angry and anxious. After the capture of Luoyang, sent a paragraph to take Luoyang and Li together? Head, come to surrender to Yan Zhenqing: "Look, if you don't surrender, this is the end!"
Yan Zhenqing was unmoved and sneered, "I know Li? This is not his head. Somebody please. Cut this traitor down for me! "
The move suddenly stabilized the morale of the army, Hebei 17 counties surrendered to the court one after another, and Yan Zhenqing was promoted to commander-in-chief of the allied forces, with an army of 200,000. Zhao Yan was defeated and shocked greatly. In the fifteenth year of Tianbao (756), he commanded the allied forces to crush the rebels in Tangyi (now Liaocheng City, Shandong Province) and annihilate more than 20,000 people.
At that time, there were no elite troops in Yan Zhenqing, only improvised armed forces. But it won the first victory since the Anshi Rebellion, and the word "Yan Zhenqing" became a banner. Even the lineal general Liu Kenu in An Lushan's lair sent someone to contact him and prepare to surrender. Yan Zhenqing immediately sent someone to send him more military assets by water 10. In order to strengthen Liu Kenu's confidence, he also sent his only son who was under 10 as a hostage.
The surrender of Hebei counties and the battle of Tangyi cut off the contact between the rebels and their lair, so An Lushan had to stop attacking Tongguan and return to Hebei. Yan Zhenqing's move won valuable time for the rearmament of regular troops such as General Guo Ziyi and Gershohan. When Tang Xuanzong heard the news, he excitedly said to the people around him, "I don't know who the true feelings are." He does things so well! "
In this battle concerning the survival of the Tang Dynasty, the Yan family paid a heavy price, and more than 30 people died for their country. In the Battle of Changshan, Yan Zhenqing's brother Yan Gaoqing was outnumbered and captured by the enemy. An Lushan ordered him to be escorted to Luoyang for personal interrogation. Yan Gaoqing refused to surrender, and An Lushan cut off his son Yan Jiming's head in front of Yan Gaoqing. Yan Gaoqing righteously scolded the rebels. As a result, his tongue was broken by an iron hook and he was full of curses. Finally, he was brutally executed.
A few years later, Yan Zhenqing described the incident with indignation and wrote the famous "Manuscript for Sacrificing Nephew". This eulogy written in lines was completed in one go, and all hatred for the country and family was condensed at the fingertips. A few dry pens were formed because the pens were dry and neglected to dip in ink, which made people feel his desolate and tragic mood at that time. This work is praised as "the best calligraphy in the world" by later generations, and it is the only calligraphy treasure comparable to Wang Xizhi's Preface to Lanting. It is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.