1. Meng Haoran
Meng Haoran (689-740) was a native of Xiangyang. According to the "Old Tang Book": "Hidden in Lumen Mountain, he adapted himself to poetry. At the age of forty, he came to visit the capital. He was supposed to be a Jinshi, but he was not selected." He failed to seek an official position. After wandering in Jianghuai and Wuyue for several years, he returned to Xiangyang. . When Zhang Jiuling was working as the governor of Jingzhou, he started to engage in this work, but it didn't last long and he returned to his hometown to live in seclusion.
Meng Haoran has always been an expert and a hermit in people's minds. Li Bai's "Gift to Meng Haoran" praised him: "A beauty abandons her crown, and her white head lies in the pine clouds." In fact, Meng Haoran was not a born hermit, and his heart was intertwined with the contradiction between officialdom and seclusion. He once expressed this in his poem "Yi Tonghao": "I hold a whip to admire my master, and I hold a chant to cherish my father. I am grateful and flick my hat, and I can stay in poverty." It can be seen that he is very eager to become an official. His early seclusion was influenced by the trend of the times. He studied behind closed doors and prepared for officialdom. However, after entering Chang'an at the age of 40, his career failed and his ideals suffered serious setbacks. He deeply realized the sadness of "people who are not talented enough to know their master and abandon them, and who are often sick and their old friends are neglected" ("Returning to the Hometown"). Finally, I was disappointed with the road to becoming an official, so I decided to return home. Go and start the life of a true hermit
. His "Farewell to Wang Wei" can very well explain this kind of psychological state of retreat as a last resort:
How can I wait for silence, and return to the sky. I want to find fragrant grass,
I regret not meeting my old friend. Who knows who is lying on the road? Good friends are rare in the world.
You should only stay lonely and cover up the gates of your hometown.
This poem is full of bitterness and resentment, and truly describes the state of mind of a failed candidate. Only in his later years did this injustice gradually dissipate in the scenery of lakes and mountains, and the poet's state of mind gradually became diluted. .
The main theme of Meng Haoran's poetry is landscape and pastoral, which is combined with the reclusive life to describe it. For example:
In the white clouds of the North Mountain, the hermit feels happy. Looking at each other and trying to climb high,
My heart will fly away with the wild goose. Worry arises in the dusk, happiness arises in the autumn.
I saw people returning to the village, crossing the sand to rest. The trees on the horizon are like shepherd's purses, and the boats on the riverside are like the moon. Why should I bring you wine to get drunk on the Double Ninth Festival?
"Autumn Climb Orchid Mountain to Send Five Pieces"
The bells in the mountain temple are ringing and it is already dark, and the Yuliang ferry is noisy. People followed the beach to Jiangcun.
I also took a boat back to Lumen. The moonlight at Lumen opened the smoke trees, and suddenly I came to Pang Gong's hiding place.
The pine path in Yanfei is long and lonely, with only lonely people coming and going.
"Song of Returning to Lumen at Night"
The scenery described by the author is tranquil and quiet, integrating with his self-image. Pinglinyuan Village, the boat moon by the river, the mountain temple at dusk, and the Yanfei pine path. Among the picturesque pine trees in Yancun, there is a hermit who is comfortable and detached. The whole poem conveys a kind of "clear atmosphere and lonely heart" (" "Tang Yin Gui Zhu" quotes Xu Xianzhong's words).
Meng Haoran has lived in seclusion for a long time and is familiar with the countryside and farmers. Therefore, his pastoral poems are full of rich flavor of life and local flavor:
The old friend has chickens and millet, Invite me to Tian's house. The green trees border the village, and the green mountains and hills slope outside. Open a pavilion and a garden, talk about mulberry and hemp over wine. When the Double Ninth Festival comes, there will be chrysanthemums. ("Passing the Old Friend's Village")
The beginning expresses the simplicity of the farmhouse, three or four sentences describe the tranquility of the environment, five or six sentences describe the harmony of the conversation, and the end describes the happiness of the mood. The poem is written in spoken language, but it expresses the beauty of the countryside and the purity of friendship very profoundly.
Meng Haoran is known as a pastoral poet, but in fact there are not many pastoral poems. Most of his poems are about landscapes and travel. For example:
The trees are falling and the geese are crossing south, and the wind is blowing up the river and it is cold. My home is in Xiangshuiqu, far away from Chuyun. The tears in the countryside are all gone, and the solitary sail can be seen in the sky. I want to ask questions, but the evening is long on the sea. ("Thinking of Returning on the River")
The falling trees rustle, the northern geese fly south, the journey is lonely, the world is long, the coldness of the mountains and rivers merges with the confusion of the journey.
The style of Meng Haoran's poetry can be summarized by the word "dilute". He likes to use plain and natural language to write about beautiful scenery and express his indifferent and comfortable mood. Shen Deqian commented that his poems are "light in language but not thin in taste" ("Tang Poems").
Wen Yiduo said: "Meng Haoran did not tightly build the poem into a couplet or sentence, but diluted it and evenly scattered it throughout the whole poem."
Meng Haoran also has many famous lines handed down from generation to generation. For example: "The clouds are light and the river is thin, the raindrops are sparse on the sycamore trees", "the wild sky is low and the trees are low, the river is clear and the moon is close to the people", "the steaming clouds are dreaming, and the waves are shaking Yueyang City", etc. His poem "Spring Dawn" is also very famous: "I sleep in spring without waking up, and I hear birds singing everywhere. The sound of wind and rain at night, I know how many flowers have fallen."
2. Wang Wei
Wang Wei (701-761), courtesy name Mojie, was born in Qi, Taiyuan (now Qi County, Shanxi). He was a precocious writer. He wrote famous works such as "A Daughter's Journey to Luoyang" and "Remembering Shandong Brothers on September 9th" when he was sixteen or seventeen years old. He is also a man of many talents, capable of poetry and painting, and proficient in music. After becoming a Jinshi in the ninth year of Kaiyuan (721), he served as Tai Lecheng and once roamed the north and south, accumulating material for the creation of a large number of landscape poems in the future. In the 22nd year of Kaiyuan (734), Prime Minister Zhang Jiuling promoted him to Youshiyi; in the 25th year of Kaiyuan (737), after Zhang Jiuling was demoted to the post of governor of Jing, the politics of the Tang Dynasty gradually turned dark, and Wang Wei also began to think about retiring. meaning. He once served as an envoy to the fortress and served as a judge in the deputy ambassador's tent of Hexi Jiedu, Liangzhou. The trip to the frontier fortress broadened his mind and he wrote many frontier fortress poems.
Around the age of forty, Wang Wei began to live a semi-official and semi-hidden life. At first he lived in seclusion in Zhongnan Mountain, and later at Wangchuan Villa in Lantian, he and his Taoist friend Pei Di "went on a floating boat, played the piano and composed poems", and ate and worshiped Buddha. During this period, many landscape and pastoral poems with high artistic achievements were created.
During the Anshi Rebellion, Wang Wei failed to follow Xuanzong and was captured by the rebels. Forced to do things. Later, Suzong of the Tang Dynasty returned to Beijing, and Wang Wei was demoted to Prince Zhongyun because he had received a false position. Soon after, he was promoted to Zhongshu Sheren, and later transferred to Youcheng, Shangshu. He died in the official position. During this period, Wang Wei experienced dangers, ups and downs, felt that life was impermanent, and fled to Buddhism wholeheartedly. "In his later years, he just likes to be quiet and doesn't care about anything." ("Rewarding Zhang Shaofu"). "How many sad things in life can't be dealt with if you don't turn to Buddhism" ("Sigh of Gray Hair"). These poems express the poet's mood at that time.
More than 400 of Wang Wei's poems have been preserved, which can be roughly divided into frontier knight poems and landscape pastoral poems. The former were mostly created in the early period, while the latter were mostly created in the middle and late period.
Wang Wei’s frontier fortress poems have a majestic and desolate heroic spirit, and are often written in combination with the spirit of the knight-errant. The protagonist may be "who knows the pain of the frontier court, even if he dies, he still smells the fragrance of the knight's bones" ( He is a handsome young man from "Four Poems for a Young Man" (Part 2), or a "veteran from Kansai" who has "experienced more than a hundred battles" and "Jieyan empty to the west of the sea" ("Longtou Yin"), most of them show The unique upward spirit and patriotic enthusiasm of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. For example:
A horse can move for ten miles, and a whip can be raised for five miles. The Protectorate's letter arrived, and the Huns surrounded Jiuquan. Snow is flying in Guanshan Mountain, and there is no smoke in the beacon garrison.
"Longxi Journey"
The situation is critical and the atmosphere is tense, but the soldiers' mood is enthusiastic, calm and full of confidence.
In March of the 25th year of Kaiyuan, Cui Weiyi, the deputy ambassador of Hexi Jiedu, defeated Tubo in Qinghai. At that time, Wang Wei went to the fortress as a supervisory censor to express his condolences, and wrote the famous article "Coming out of the fortress":
Outside the city of Juyan, people are hunting for geniuses, and the white grass is burning all over the sky.
Driving horses when the dusk clouds clear the moraine, it is good to shoot vultures on the plains in autumn.
Protect the Qiang lieutenant in the morning and ride the obstacles, and defeat the general crossing the Liao Dynasty at night.
With a jade target, a horn, a bow and a bead to rein in the horse, the Han family will give Huo whoring and Yao.
This poem first describes the Tubo's strength and aggressive momentum, and then describes the Tang army's grace and calmness, coping well, both offensive and defensive, to highlight the overwhelming momentum of the opponent.
Wang Wei is also good at using powerful strokes to outline the vast scenery of the frontier fortress, such as the first four sentences of "Send Liu Si to Anxi": "The Yangguan Road in the extreme area is filled with smoke and dust. In the third spring, there are wild geese, "Thousands of Miles A Few Travelers." The pen and ink are simple and vigorous, and the picture is vast and broad. In "The Envoy to the Fortress", "The solitary smoke is straight in the desert, and the sun is setting in the long river." These two sentences are particularly popular among people.
During his life, Wang Wei wrote a large number of pastoral poems about landscapes and rivers. Especially after middle age, the poet seemed to be too fond of the white stone springs beside the mountains and became indifferent to the human world.
But most of these landscapes and pastoral poems are full of healthy and bright atmosphere, showing high aesthetic taste. For example:
After the new rain in the empty mountains, the weather is late and autumn comes. The bright moon shines among the pines.
The upper stream of Qingquan Stone. The bamboo noises return to Huan Nu, and the lotus moves off the fishing boat.
Let the spring fragrance rest at will, and the kings and grandsons can stay.
"Dwelling in the Mountains in the Twilight of Autumn"
The poem is full of sound, light and color, including the sound of springs, the sound of pens, moonlight, water light, green pines, green bamboos, red lotuses, and white stones. There is a moonlight, a spring flowing, people returning, and a boat under the boat. All of this is arranged in a mountain village after dusk in autumn. The imagery is vivid and the realm is quiet, expressing the poet's noble feelings and pursuit of the ideal world. Another example:
The sweet-scented osmanthus falls when people are idle, the night is quiet and the spring mountains are empty. The moonrise scares the mountain birds, and they sing in the spring stream.
"Birdsong Stream"
The scenery in the poem is quiet but not dull, vivid but not noisy.
Among Wang Wei's later poems, the most famous are the twenty quatrains in "Wangchuan Collection". These poems are highly artistic, but the mood is cold and lonely.
No one can be seen in the empty mountain, but people can hear their voices. Returning to the deep forest, the light shines on the moss again. ("Deer Chai")
Sitting alone in the secluded bamboo, playing the piano and roaring loudly. People deep in the forest don't know that the bright moon comes to shine. ("Zhuli Pavilion")
In addition to the two major categories of themes analyzed above, the poet also has many lyrical masterpieces about farewell and reward, and praising love.
The morning rain in Weicheng? The lingering thorns? The sloughing and snoring? Long?
I advise you to drink another glass of wine and leave Yangguan in the west without any old friends.
"Weicheng Song"
Red beans grow in the southern country, and a few branches will appear in spring. I hope you will pick more of them, this is the most loved thing.
"Lovesickness"
There are few travelers at Yangliu Ferry, and Master Yi is rowing towards Linqi.
Only lovesickness is like the beauty of spring, sending you home from the south to the north of the Yangtze River.
"Sending Shen Zi back to Jiangdong"
The artistic achievements of Wang Wei's poetry are very high. Let's briefly discuss his landscape pastoral poems as an example.
First of all, Wang Wei's poems can not only describe the shapes, dynamics, and expressions of natural things in detail, but also pay attention to the harmony of the overall atmosphere. For example, in "Weichuan Tianjia", the first sentence is about the setting sun, the second sentence is about the return of cattle and sheep, the third and fourth sentences are about the wild old man and the shepherd boy, the seventh and eighth sentences are about the farmer returning home, and the last sentence is about himself thinking about returning. The poem generally creates a sense of return of all things.
Secondly, Wang Wei was not only a poet, but also a famous painter. He created the ink landscape painting method and was promoted by Dong Qichang of the Ming Dynasty as the founder of the Southern Sect of the painting world. His poems incorporated painting The creative principles, methods and styles have formed the characteristics of "painting in poetry" (Su Shi's "Shu Mojie Lantian Misty Rain Picture"). For example, his famous poems describing landscapes: "The lonely smoke is straight in the desert, and the sun sets over the long river." The author does not describe the process of sunset, but focuses on expressing the spatial position and shape of the "setting sun circle" and "red sun group", so that people can appreciate the eternity and vastness of time and space through this still picture. This is how to compose poetry through painting. "There is solitary mist in the distant village at the foot of the mountain, and a single tree on the horizon on the plateau. If You Cheng had not been a painter, he would not have come up with this saying." (Volume 2 of "Essays on Painting Zen Rooms") The painting method is incorporated into the poem, so in his writing, it flows out What is poetry is poetry, and when it is condensed, it is painting. Some of Wang Wei's poems omit verbs and simply arrange them with static spatial scenery, which creates a more obvious picture effect and achieves a high degree of spiritual unity within poetry and painting.
Thirdly, the language of Wang Wei's poems is simple and expressive. It does not require gorgeous words. It only needs a few strokes to describe the scene that is difficult to describe. Its style is composed of gorgeous And returned to plainness. For example, the first two sentences of "Pastoral Works in Spring" are "Spring doves are singing on the house, and apricot blossoms are white beside the village." The two common words "Ming" and "White" describe the vivid and sprouting scene of spring, and also express the poet's plainness. A quiet heart.
Other landscape and pastoral poets are not as successful as Wang Meng, and they don’t have many works left behind. Some of the more outstanding poems include: Chu Guangxi’s “Diaoyu Bay”: “When fishing in Green Bay in spring, the depth of spring can lead to chaos. The pond is clear and the water is shallow, and the lotuses are moving and the fish are scattered. At dusk, the boat is waiting for the green poplar bank. "Chang Jian's "Inscription on the Zen Temple Behind the Poshan Temple": "Entering the ancient temple in the early morning, the first sun shines on the high forest.
The winding path leads to a secluded place, and the Zen room is deep with flowers and trees. The light of the mountain is pleasing to the birds, and the shadow of the pond is empty of the human heart. All sounds are silent except for the sound of bells and chimes. "Zu's poem "Snow on Zhongnan Mountain": "The Yin mountains in Zhongnan are beautiful, and the snow is floating in the clouds. The forest shows its bright color, and the city becomes colder at dusk. ”