2\ Historical background:
Wang Wei lived in the prosperous Tang Dynasty for most of his life. Like many historical figures, there have been different opinions about his date of birth and death. It is generally acknowledged that Wang Wei was born in the first year of Chang 'an (70 1), the same year as Li Bai, and died in the second year of Shangyuan in Su Yong (76 1) at the age of 6 1.
There is also controversy about Wang Wei's birthplace. One said that he was originally from Taiyuan (now Qixian County, Shanxi Province) and later moved to Yongji County, Shanxi Province. He was born in Qixian County, Taiyuan City, Zhou Pu. What is certain is that Wang Wei is from Shanxi.
Wang Wei was born in an official family. Although his father died young and his family background declined, he was well educated and could write poetry at the age of nine. At the age of fifteen, Wang Wei, a teenager, came to Chang 'an to seek fame and often traveled between Chang 'an and Luoyang.
From his hometown to the bustling imperial city, he experienced a trip to a foreign land he had never experienced before and met people he had never seen before. He was full of poetry. He wrote about the young rangers in Chang 'an, the old generals who have made contributions without pay, the ideals of serving the country and the homesickness of a foreign land ... These poems full of youthful passion and romance show the extraordinary talent of a teenager.
Young Wang Wei's poems spread quickly. "Old Tang Book" records the courtesy he received: "All powerful kings are greeted with banquets, and Wang Ning and Wang Xue treat them like teachers and friends."
In the ninth year of Kaiyuan (72 1), Wang Wei became a scholar and embarked on his official career.
There is an anecdote about Wang Wei's response: this spring, Wang Wei met the princess under the leadership of Li Fan, king of Qi. What kind of teenager is this? "Wonderful year, beautiful charm", "romantic meaning, harmonious language play". He played the pipa in a sad tone, and the house was moved by it, which attracted the princess's special respect for him. When he recited his poem, the princess was shocked. I didn't expect that all the excellent works I thought were very old were written by this young man! So the princess recommended 2 1 year-old Wang Wei to study.
This anecdote is not recorded in the official history and may not be true. However, Wang Wei's first official after Jinshi was really related to music-Tai Lecheng was in charge of national music and dance affairs.
"Thirty old men and fifty young scholars." In the Tang Dynasty, it was not easy to get into Jinshi, so that all the 50-year-old Jinshi were very young. At this time, Wang Wei was just in his early twenties, young and energetic.
However, Wei Wang, who has just entered the official career, hit the nail on the head. Because the actor jumped the yellow lion in the department, he was implicated and demoted. In the autumn of the ninth year of Kaiyuan, Wang Wei left Chang 'an and went to Jeju to join the army as a treasurer and a junior official in charge of the granary.
Jeju Island is located in the southwest of Renping, Shandong Province. Wang Wei stayed there for more than four years. His life is lonely and boring, but the beautiful natural scenery still attracts him. He often travels around Jeju, associating with local hermits and sages, and composing poems with them.
In the spring of the 14th year of Kaiyuan (726), Wang Wei resigned as treasurer and left Jeju. During the trip, he was attracted by the rural scenery in Shang Qi and lived here for two years.
Maybe he can't stand the loneliness of seclusion. In the seventeenth year of Kaiyuan (729), Wang Wei returned to Chang 'an to live in seclusion. When he returned to Chang 'an this time, he met the poet Meng Haoran. Meng Haoran came to Chang 'an to take the exam before, and stayed in Chang 'an after taking the second place. Meng returned to Xiangyang, and Wang Wei wrote a poem to bid farewell. The poem said: "Dumen is unwilling to go out and has been isolated from the world for a long time. Take this as a long-term strategy and advise you to go back to your hometown. " It means to persuade Meng Haoran to go back to his hometown and live in seclusion, so he doesn't have to work hard to come to Chang' an to try the official. This is because Wang Wei's own career and life are not satisfactory: the young high school thought it could make great achievements from now on, but it was relegated; Just like you are young, but idle at home, your heart is naturally not a taste.
In the 19th year of Kaiyuan (73 1), Wang Wei's wife died when Wang Weinian was only thirty-one. After that, he never remarried and spent the rest of his life alone.
In the 21st year of Kaiyuan (733), when Zhang Jiuling came to power, Wang Wei's political enthusiasm for cooling was rekindled. A year later, in the autumn, he went from Chang 'an to Luoyang, the eastern capital, and wrote a poem to Zhang Jiuling, praising Zhang for "not selling public tools, but moving for the people's livelihood" and boldly recommending himself: "Son of a bitch kneels himself, can he be registered?"
However, Wang Wei still has doubts about whether he can be appointed by Zhang Jiuling. So, after presenting a poem to Zhang Jiuling, he immediately went to Songshan to live in seclusion. Songshan is close to Luoyang, so you can wait.
Lucky arrival again, Zhang Jiuling accepted him gladly. In the 23rd year of Kaiyuan (735), on the recommendation of Zhang Jiuling, Wang Wei left Songshan and went to Luoyang, the capital of the East, to collect the remains and provide suggestions for the politicians. In the second year, he returned to Chang 'an with Xuanzong, and still served as the right gleaner.
However, history soon changed direction. In the 25th year of Kaiyuan (737), Zhang Jiuling was demoted as the secretariat of Jingzhou, and Li, who was secretive, gained the trust of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and mastered the state affairs. In the past, some officials who were reused by Zhang Jiuling were demoted and some died. In this chaos, Wang Wei's official position was promoted instead, and he moved to Hexi drug rehabilitation center in the autumn of this year to serve as the supervisor and judge of the drug rehabilitation center. He saved his life, but was expelled from Chang 'an, the center of power.
Wang Wei didn't say much about his feelings after another heavy blow. In the frontier fortress, he seems to have a feeling of high spirits. The endless desert, the strange and magnificent scenery attracted him, and the life in the frontier troops also warmed his enthusiasm when he was young. "The desert is lonely and straight, and the long river sets the yen", so the inspiration came. In less than a year, he left more than 30 frontier poems.
In the summer of the 26th year of Kaiyuan (738), 38-year-old Wang Wei returned to Chang 'an and continued to serve as an imperial adviser. Two years later, I was promoted to the court. This winter, he went south on business: from Chang 'an to Lingnan via Xiangyang, Yunzhou and Xiakou, and presided over the selection of local officials in Lingnan.
When passing through Xiangyang, Wang Wei hurried to visit his friend Meng Haoran. The news is that Meng Haoran died, and Wang Wei couldn't help crying. Meng Haoran is twelve years older than Wang. They not only have deep friendship, but also have many similarities in poetry creation. Later generations called them "Wang Meng" and listed them as the representatives of the pastoral poetry school in Tang Dynasty.
In the spring of the 27th year of Kaiyuan (739), Wang Wei returned to Chang 'an from Lingnan and began to live in seclusion in Zhong Nanshan, the southern suburb of Chang 'an in the second half of the year.
In the third year of Tianbao (744), Wang Wei bought Wangchuan Villa in Lantian, which belonged to Song, a poet in the early Tang Dynasty. After some transformation, Wangchuan Villa has become a quiet place for Wang Wei to stay away from the hubbub and enjoy the mountains and rivers. Pine trees and bright moons, white stones and clear springs, old trees and decaying willows, birds and mist all fascinated him. Since then, he often spends time here with his good friend Pei Di, enjoying the scenery and writing poems.
After that, Wang Wei successively served as an imperial advisor, treasurer's foreign minister and treasurer's doctor. He didn't want to go with the flow, but he couldn't completely retire from the mountains like Tao Yuanming, so he kept his freedom of mind in the muddy officialdom in this semi-official and semi-secluded way.
In the ninth year of Tianbao (750), Wang Wei lost his mother, Cui Shi, at the age of 50, and died in Wangchuan in the next two years. Cui Shi believed in Buddhism and studied under a generation of famous monks for more than 30 years. He has been eating brown vegetables and practicing meditation all his life, which has a great influence on Wang Wei. This can also be seen from Wang Wei's name. Wang Wei's name is Wei, and this word is touched. Among the Buddhist scriptures, there is a Vimalakīrti Sutra, in which Vimalakīrti, who has a deep understanding of universal wisdom, is a great Buddhist respected by Buddhism.
After Ding You's full service, Wang Wei became a doctor in the official department, and later worked as a doctor and minister in the cultural department. In his spare time, he still goes back to Wangchuan from time to time and wanders in the countryside.
Jade Debris, a poet edited by Wei Qingzhi in the Song Dynasty, commented on Wang Wei's "Autumn water is full of flowers, smiling against the wind", which can be said to be the most vivid and appropriate praise for Wang Wei in Wangchuan period-autumn water lotus flowers, which are not stained with mud, beautiful and refined, naturally beautiful, smiling against the wind, charming and charming. This period is also the peak of Wang Wei's poetry creation. A series of poems, such as Wang Wei's, have become a symbol in the history of China's poetry: the idyllic landscape poems, which have flourished for a time since Wei and Jin Dynasties, have been comprehensively summarized and significantly improved by Wang Wei.
Although Wang Weizhi is in the mountains and rivers, he is obsessed with Buddhism to avoid the world, but he is not alive, and he can't escape the world after all.
In the 14th year of Tianbao (755), An Lushan started an Anshi rebellion, which completely changed the fate of the Tang Dynasty. The following year, An Lushan marched into Chang 'an. Tang Xuanzong fled with his beloved princess and children and grandchildren. Wang Wei's followers are not as good as thieves. Although he pretended to be ill, he was still imprisoned in Bordet, Luoyang. Under the pressure of the sword, Wang Wei accepted the fake post for him.
This incident made Wang Wei feel deeply ashamed and criticized by later generations. Advocates of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty even thought that Wang Wei had a bad personality and even stopped reading his poems. Du Fu, a Tang Dynasty poet who was also captured by the rebels but escaped by luck, can better understand Wang Wei. He wrote a poem to defend it: "One disease leads to the Lord, only three years." Du Fu compared Wang Wei to Yu Xin, who was sent to the north to be an official in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, saying that they were forced to surrender, not voluntarily.
The fact is indeed as Du Fu said. There is Wang Wei's poem "Ning Bichi" as evidence: "Every family is sad, when will the official return to the sky?" Autumn leaves enter the palace and orchestral strings are played in the pool. "After An Lushan occupied Chang 'an, he gave a big banquet in Ningbichi, and called the children of Tang Xuanzong Liyuan to play music. Musician Lei Haiqing couldn't help feeling indignant. He broke his musical instrument while playing and wailed in the direction of Xuanzong, and was killed by An Lushan. Pei Di told the news to Wang Wei, who was imprisoned in Bordet. Wang Wei was deeply moved. Writing this poem shows his political attitude at that time.
It was this poem that later saved Wang Wei's life. In the second year of Zhide (757), Tang Jun successively recovered Chang 'an and Luoyang, and Wang Wei and other officials who surrendered to An Lushan were arrested. Because Tang Suzong read "Ningbi Shi" and knew that Wang Wei was still on the side of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei's younger brother Wang Jin was willing to redeem his younger brother with his official position, so Wang Wei was pardoned.
In the spring of the third year of Zhide (758), Wang Wei was reinstated as Prince Zhongyun, plus a bachelor's degree from Jixian Hall. Soon, he was promoted to be the son of the Prince and the Sheren of the Chinese Book. In autumn, I was appointed minister again. In the first year of Shang Dynasty (760), 60-year-old Wang Wei was appointed as a senior official, which was the highest official position he had obtained, so people called him "Wang Youcheng".
After the pardon, Wang Wei's official position rose again and again. At that time, poets Jia Zhi, Cen Can and Du Fu all sang with him, and Yanwu, a popular power minister, interacted with him. In the eyes of ordinary people, at this time, Wang Wei had a successful career and a proud life, but in fact, Wang Wei's political enthusiasm had already disappeared. He focused more on Buddhism and said, "Don't sell it to an empty net!" According to the biography of Wang Wei in the Old Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei in his later years "feasted for a dozen monks in the capital, taking metaphysical words as his pleasure. There is nothing in the lent except a teapot, a mortar, a classic case and a rope bed. After retiring from the DPRK, I burned incense and sat alone, focusing on meditation. "
In the spring of the second year of Shang and Yuan Dynasties (76 1), Wang Jin, Wang Wei's younger brother, ended the term of Zhou Shu's secretariat, but he was not dismissed by the court. Wang Wei went to the table, hoping to cut off his official position and put it back in the field in exchange for Wang Jin's return to Beijing. The Wang brothers have deep brotherhood, which can be seen. In July this year, Wang Wei died of illness. "Old Tang Book" records: "On my deathbed, in Fengxiang, I suddenly asked for a pen to write other books, and ordered people and relatives to write several other books. Many friends gave up the pen in order to cultivate their hearts. "
Wang Wei was buried in Wangchuan Villa, his favorite place before his death. Since then, he has been sleeping with Yue Mingqingfeng and Song Lin in the spring.
When he arrived in Tang Daizong, Dai Zhong liked Wang Wei's poems very much, praised Wang Wei as a "literate scholar in the world" and ordered Wang Jin to put his works into a book. This is a collection of poems by Wang Youcheng handed down, which contains more than 400 poems by Wang Wei.
In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, poetry was well prepared. Wang Wei knows everything in all kinds of poetic styles and can be called an all-rounder In the collection of Tang poems in the Ming Dynasty, Gao Yun thinks that Wang Wei is a famous figure in the Five Dynasties and Seven Dynasties, an authentic figure in the Five Dynasties with seven methods and five unique skills, and Wang Wei is the wing of the seven unique skills. In fact, Wang Wei's six-character poems, miscellaneous poems, Yuefu, Chuci and so on. Have deep attainments. Wang Wei's most influential and numerous five-character poems are called "five-character poets".
The style and artistic conception of Wang Wei's poems are obviously different in the early and late stages. Early poetry is full of lofty sentiments, enterprising spirit and impassioned emotions. Later, he turned to landscape and pastoral, expressing leisure or Buddhism. And his pastoral poems have the greatest influence on later generations. These poems are light but not thin, natural but not thick, with endless meanings, representing an ideal realm pursued by China's classical poems.
Zhao Diancheng, a poet in A Qing, wrote in his annotation to The Collection of Wang Youcheng: "A poet in the Tang Dynasty who calls it an original must push Wang Youcheng. At the same time, competitors such as Meng Xiangyang, Wei Suzhou and Liu Liuzhou failed to win the first prize. Meng Ge is thin, Wei Tijing is dull, and Liu Zhijing is agitated. However, you cheng is familiar with Zen, so he doesn't touch his back, which is sweet and transparent. The sound outside the air is also the shadow in the water. Fragrance is important to reality, fruit is to papaya, and wine is to health. It makes people ask for it from afar, but suddenly they can't get it, and they cover everything, but only agree with their ancestors. "
Wang Wei's achievements in the art of poetry are closely related to his "erudition and versatility". Proficient in music, once played for Taylor City. Calligraphy is both a long grass and an official; His talent for painting is particularly outstanding. He once boasted that "he was a poet before his death and his predecessors were painters", and later generations also regarded him as the ancestor of Nanzong School of Painting.
With his profound artistic accomplishment in painting and music, Wang Wei can capture the beauty and changes of nature more accurately and meticulously than ordinary people. In poetry, he also pays more attention to the harmony of composition and layout, words and colors, and forms a unique style of "painting in poetry" and "joy in poetry". It is in the mutual infiltration and germination of poetry, painting and rhyme that Wang Wei enriched and developed the lyric art of China's classical poetry.
Later generations revered Wang Wei as "Shi Fo", which ranks with Li Bai's "Poet Fairy" and Du Fu's "Poet Saint". Influenced by his mother, Wang Wei began to believe in Buddhism very early. Throughout his life, he had a profound understanding, practice and practice of Buddhism, especially Zen. Wang made friends with the monk. In his poems, there are more than ten Buddhist monks such as Daoguang Zen Master, Master, Yi Dao Zen Master, Master and Shenhui Zen Master. Because of his devotion to Nanzong Zen, at the request of God, Wang Wei also wrote the inscription of Huineng, the Zen master of the sixth ancestor, which became the most original material for studying Huineng's life. Wang Wei himself became the first poet to preach the theory of Nanzong in Tang Dynasty.
As Yuan Haowen said, "Poetry adds flowers to Zen, and Zen is a poet's jade knife." Wang Wei's achievements in poetry art largely benefited from the influence of Zen thought.
Zen Buddhism is a kind of Buddhism in China, which requires people to be free from worries, joys and sorrows, spotless and indifferent to all situations. Wang Wei is a Zen monk. He treats everything in the world with a Zen attitude, so he can observe the movement, life and stillness of everything in nature with a quiet and leisurely mood, and dive into the depths of nature, so as to see the subtle creatures that impetuous people easily ignore and the subtle changes that are difficult to detect. He likes to write about the quiet beauty of an empty mountain, the flowers blooming and falling, the moonlight and the shadow of a mountain forest, and he likes to use words such as "quiet", "far" and "leisure", as well as Buddhist terms such as "Zen", "silence" and "emptiness", all of which make his poems have a quiet and beautiful shape, a bright and clean state and a pleasant silence that other poets can't match.
Some Zen practice methods have something in common with China's poems. Both poetry and Zen need keen inner experience, both emphasize enlightenment and image, and both pursue meaning. Therefore, Yan Yu, a literary critic in the Song Dynasty, said: "Generally speaking, Zen is only wonderful, and poetry is also wonderful." Wang Wei's meditation is beneficial, and naturally he has a deep understanding of Wu Miao, a method of grasping the world. By integrating it into poetry, he created a unique realm of being born outside the image, entering the heart of poetry, and integrating poetic realm with Zen realm.
In the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras of the Tang Dynasty, the most famous poet at that time was Wang Wei, and Li Bai and Du Fu were not as good as him. At the end of Tianbao, Yin Kun compiled The Collection of He Shen, which listed Wang Wei as the first poet in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but did not mention Li Bai. Until Zhenyuan, Yuanhe, Li and Du ranked higher than Wang Wei in people's minds. The reasons for this phenomenon are quite complicated. But in any case, Wang Wei's poems are unique and far-reaching in China's classical poetry. Wen Yiduo, a modern scholar, once said, "Wang Wei has established a true tradition of China poetry for China's poetry." In other words, without reading Wang Wei, it is difficult to see the essence of China's poetry.