Tang Xianzu is a figure listed in the official history and has a biography in the "History of the Ming Dynasty". However, the editor of the "History of the Ming Dynasty" did not include him in the Wenyuan biography, but as a political figure in a joint biography with Li Guan. According to the 19th year of Wanli, Emperor Shenzong used astronomical phenomena to order his ministers to reflect on their morality, and also issued an edict to reprimand the officials for not being "loyal." Tang Xianzu, who was the director of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites at the time, read the edict from the Di newspaper and immediately wrote "On the Assistant Ministers and Officials", taking various corruptions in the officialdom and the academic field as the entry point, and pointed the finger at the chief assistant Shen Shixing and related to the emperor My criticism aroused the anger of the highest ruling class. Shenzong told the cabinet: "Tang Xianzu wanted to disband the southern capital, failed to achieve his own ambitions, and dared to attack Yuan Fu under the pretext of state affairs. I should have been investigated seriously, but I will be given a lighter sentence." The Tang family was immediately demoted to Xuwen County Dianshi. In the 20th year of Wanli, Li Guan was also punished with the penalty of deregistration because of the ten charges of memorializing Shen Shixing and also impeaching Wang Xijue. As a historian's "mutual recognition" style of writing, "History of the Ming Dynasty·Yiwenzhi" records Tang Xianzu's "Collected Works of Yumingtang". In addition, the "Preface to the Biography of Wenyuan" says:
Li Mengyang and He Jingming advocated a restoration of the ancient times, with literature coming from Xijing and poetry from the mid-Tang Dynasty, abandoning everything... The poetry and prose of the Ming Dynasty changed in this way. During the Jiajing period, the likes of Wang Shenzhong and Tang Shun, as well as Wenzong Ou and Zeng, imitated their poems from those of the early Tang Dynasty. Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen were the masters of literary works in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and their poetry standards flourished in the Tang Dynasty. Wang and Li Zhi held their views and advocated peace with Mengyang and Jingming. After Gui Youguangpo came out, he appointed Sima and Ouyang as his own, and tried to exclude Li He. Xu Wei, Tang Xianzu, Yuan Hongdao, and Zhong Xing also contended for a while, so Zong Li, He, and Wang Li declined slightly.
The statement in the "History of the Ming Dynasty" that "each of them contended for a while" is vague. In fact, Tang Xianzu's literary activities were mainly during the Wanli period. At that time, Li Mengyang, He Jingming and others had passed away, and Li Pan The dragon has also passed away.
Tang Xianzu was born in the 29th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1550 AD). The Jiajing Dynasty lasted for 45 years, and the Longqing Dynasty established after it only lasted 6 years. Tang Xianzu was 21 years old in the fifth year of Longqing. Successful candidates in the examination. The following year, the dynasty changed and entered the Wanli period, when he was 22 years old. He became a Jinshi in the eleventh year of Wanli (AD 1583). He died in the forty-fourth year of Wanli (AD 1616). The main political, academic and creative activities of Tang Xianzu's life were all in the Wanli period.
When Tang Xianzu was two years old, the "first seven sons" (headed by Li Mengyang and He Jingming, including Xu Zhenqing, Bian Gong, Kang Hai, Wang Jiusi, and Wang Tingxiang) who were glorious in the literary circles of Chenghua and Hongzhi all passed away. . When Tang Xianzu was twenty years old, Li Panlong, the leader of the "Later Seven Sons", passed away. The "Seven Sons" before and after all took "literature must be from the Qin and Han Dynasties, poetry must be from the prosperous Tang Dynasty" as their main proposition, and they also took this as their main call. The ancients called it retro, but today people call it "retro movement."
The main activities of the "First Seven Sons" were during the Chenghua and Hongzhi years. In the middle period of the Jiajing period, the "Later Seven Sons" led by Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen, including Xie Zhen, Zong Chen, Liang Youyu, Xu Zhongxing, and Wu Guolun, followed, pushing the retro movement to a new stage. This movement lasted for about a hundred years and had a great influence. "History of the Ming Dynasty: Biography of Li Mengyang" says: "The world recommends Li, He, Wang and Li as the four great masters, and all strive to imitate their style." The ancients praised the ancient prose of Qin and Han Dynasty and the poetry of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, mainly focusing on their high style and charm. Depressed. As far as the Ming Dynasty was concerned, there were seven people and fourteen people, their creative practices were not consistent, and they even contradicted their specific opinions. However, the "retro" practice of Li Mengyang, one of their leaders, is obviously imitative and lacks creativity. Li Panlong's poems also have the disadvantage of pursuing formal imitation. Wang Shizhen praised Li Panlong's works as "not a single word was written after Han Dynasty, and there was not a word that was not written before Han Dynasty". This is actually a manifestation of the shortcomings. Wang Shizhen's poems and essays were originally in the same vein as those of the first seven sons, but among the latter seven sons, he was twelve years younger than Li Panlong. After Li Panlong's death, he lived for twenty years, and he seemed to regard himself as the leader of the alliance. But in his later years, he changed his views and practices. At this time, the "Three Yuan" policemen rose up and began to criticize the imitative habits and retro-retrospective ideas of the seven men before and after them.
The "Three Yuans" of the Public Security Bureau refers to Yuan Zongdao, Yuan Hongdao and Yuan Zhongdao, all from Hubei Public Security Bureau, known as the "Gongan School" in the world.
Among them, Yuan Hongdao is a backbone figure. He advocates the theory of "spiritual nature" and criticizes the retrograde school. Yuan Hongdao once said in Jiang Yingke's "Collection and Narrative of the Lost Suit":
Why does poetry need to be in the Tang Dynasty, and why does it need to be in its early and prosperous period? We should regard those who come from the spirit as true poetry. The husband's spiritual aperture is in the heart and resides in the environment. Whatever the environment touches, the heart can capture it; whatever the heart wants to spit out, the wrist can transport it. The heart can capture the environment, that is, ants, bees, and grasshoppers are all enough to express interest, and there is no need for "Ju Jiu" and "Zhao Yu"; the wrist can move the mind, that is, the humorous words and jokes are all based on perception, and there is no need for Dharma words and solemnities. If you use your heart to capture the environment and use your wrist to move your heart, then your soul and spirit will all reach perfection. This is called true poetry, and why is it necessary to be in the Tang Dynasty?
Yuan Hongdao’s literary ideas were actually influenced by Li Zhi. Li Zhi's famous article "The Theory of Childlike Innocence" says: "Why do poems need to be selected from ancient times? Why do essays need to be pre-Qin? It descended to the Six Dynasties, changed to modern style, changed to legend, changed to the courtyard version, became a drama, and became "The Romance of the West Chamber" ", "Water Margin", is the work of today; the teachings of saints by Taixian are ancient and modern, and they cannot be judged according to the times. "In his opinion, the more ancient the literary works are, the better they are. In the process of change and development, forms are constantly changed and good works appear. He also raised the status of novels and dramas very high, and listed "The Romance of the West Chamber" and "Water Margin" as "the most important texts of ancient and modern times". Li Zhi also vigorously attacked Taoism in "The Theory of Childlike Innocence" and even believed that "the Six Classics, Yu and Mencius are the foundation of Taoism and the source of falsehoods. It is absolutely clear that they cannot speak to childlike innocence." . Under the conditions at that time, the "childlike innocence theory" undoubtedly played a positive role in "anti-ancientism" and "anti-Taoism".
In his youth, Tang Xianzu criticized Li Mengyang, the "First Seven Sons", and Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen, the "Later Seven Sons", accusing them of "increasing or subtracting the literal text of Han history and Tang poetry" in their works. Later, he criticized the works of "Li Mengyang and below" as "fake literary works" and pointedly said, "The fake ones are quite famous... Their writing is related to the national system, so they can be crowned and deceived." Most academic circles currently believe that the seven scholars before and after The proposition that "literature must be compared to the Qin and Han Dynasties, and poetry must be in the prosperous Tang Dynasty" has a process of development and change. It also has its own historical significance in terms of countering the shortcomings of Song poetry and Yuan poetry and the "Taige style" of the Ming Dynasty. However, they have The absolutism and metaphysics shown in speech, the tendency to imitate in practice, and even the rebranding and plagiarism of predecessors' words are against the laws of literary creation. Tang Xianzu believed that "the articles of Han and Song dynasties are all extremely interesting." He also emphasized that the beauty of the article lies in the "natural aura" and not in the similarity of steps. These ideas of his had a certain influence on the public security faction that later raised the banner of anti-Nuogu. It can be said that in the process of returning to the ancient school, Tang Xianzu was an important figure from Li Zhi to the Gong'an school headed by Yuan Hongdao. Tang Xianzu's poems were influenced by the beautiful poetry style of the Six Dynasties in his early years. In order to resist the "poetry must flourish in the Tang Dynasty", he later pursued the difficult style of Song poetry when writing poems. These creative practices of his were not enough to compete with the retro style.
If we examine the characteristics of Tang Xianzu's literary ideas in conjunction with the artistic ideas of Li Zhi and the Gong'an School, we may find that they were actually influenced by Wang Yangming's philosophy of mind. The core of Wang Yangming's philosophy of mind is "subjectivity". "Idealism" (different from Zhu Xue's "objective idealism") actually requires that people's transcendent spirit be greatly promoted, and it also requires that people's self-consciousness be greatly promoted. Literary and artistic works especially value the creation of the subject. In this sense, literary and artistic creation and mental philosophy are most easily in harmony. Regarding this proposition, the research community has paid more and more attention to it after entering the 21st century, and its research achievements have become more and more in-depth.
Wang Yangming's "Xin Xue" can be traced back to Lu Jiuyuan's "Ming Xin" Xue in the Southern Song Dynasty, which is a faction in the Song Dynasty. Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism was originally derived from orthodox Confucianism. During its development, it had many names. Because Neo-Confucian figures also paid attention to the study of the talents and endowments of all things, that is, the study of "nature" and "fate", people in the Song and Yuan Dynasties also called it It's called "the study of life". The people of the Qing Dynasty also called Song Dynasty's learning "the study of human nature". The people of the Yuan Dynasty compiled the "History of the Song Dynasty" and set up the "Biography of Daoxue". In the Song Dynasty, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Zhu Xi and other great Neo-Confucian scholars all entered the biography. Therefore, the term "Daoxue" became popular in the Ming Dynasty, and actually refers to Neo-Confucianism. Tang Xianzu once had a strong yearning for Taoism and had writing practice in this area.
Li Yu, a dramatist in the early Qing Dynasty, said in "Xian Qing Ou Ji": "Tang Ruoshi is a talented person in the Ming Dynasty. Poems, essays, and rulers and tablets are all impressive, but his popularity is not limited to rulers, poems, and poems. In the play "Returning to the Soul", if Ruoshi did not write "Return to the Soul", then even if the Ruoshi existed at that time, what about future generations? "Return to the Soul" is also the biography of Ruoshi." This theory is considered paranoid by scholars. Li Yu died in the 19th year of Kangxi (1680 AD), more than 330 years ago. Li Yu asked in the article: "What will happen next?" It can be called a prophecy. Yes, later generations of scholars can study Tang Xianzu as a Neo-Confucian figure, but in terms of general acceptance and influence by later generations, there is no doubt that Tang Xianzu was an outstanding dramatist. Since he died in the same year as Shakespeare, his reputation is as good as Shakespeare's in the world.