Look at it from the perspective of a mediocre era
There are always many strange phenomena in great eras.
In my opinion
There were many strange phenomena in the Tang Dynasty. In terms of literature alone
There are at least two strange phenomena in the Tang Dynasty: one is
The poetry of the Tang Dynasty can be called the brightest pearl in the history of Chinese literature
But
There was no newspaper or magazine that published poetry in the Tang Dynasty
None of the poets were paid by the government. "Yes! Go and get water." The village chief ordered. back. People brought buckets from home one after another, carrying them with their shoulders and hands, and formed a long queue from the bank of the Liao River to the Peacock Lake. People poured water from their burdens on Qinglong's body. From that time on, the clear water of the Liao River stretched out its neck when the tide entered Hangzhou Bay, shouting "Hua Hua Hua". When it reached the place where King Qian sat, he stretched his neck high and screamed loudly. . This place is today's Haining. This is how the world-famous "Qianjiang Tide" came about. Qinglong became more energetic, and the scales shimmered with a halo, the gleaming blue, capturing the flesh. Professional writers
There was no writers association affiliated with the imperial court; the other was
Although there was no modern remuneration system at that time - newspapers, magazine publishers and booksellers were based on word count, Quality, sales
Pay royalties or royalties to authors
However
There were already many writers in the Tang Dynasty
They could earn a lot from writing Money
Even become rich.
What I want to talk about here is the latter phenomenon. Although there was no royalties system in the Tang Dynasty
Most writers could not exchange their works for money
But
There were indeed a group of writers in that era who used their creative activities
Got a lot of money. The source of their money
is not royalties
but the gratitude and gifts from others. In the age of affluence
Generous people
Are generous in their spending
The thank you gifts are naturally generous and generous.
According to documentary records
In the Tang Dynasty, there were at least the following writers who became extremely rich through writing:
Wang Bo
was listed among the Four Heroes of the Early Tang Dynasty The first one
He is very good at writing articles
Not only does he write quickly
but his words are gorgeous. Many people asked him to ghostwrite articles
Therefore
his family was "full of gold and silk" (according to "The Biography of Talented Scholars of the Tang Dynasty").
Li Yong
Not only did he write well
His calligraphy was also first-rate
The dignitaries in the court and temples all over the country
One after another asked him to write articles with money. Li Yong wrote hundreds of articles of this kind throughout his life
"The number of gifts he received
can reach tens of thousands." Du Fu wrote a poem describing the luxury and luxury of Li Yong's family: "The whole house is filled with greetings
The stele illustrates the four descendants. Fengwu Coral Hook
Qilin Zhi Why are Lin Zhixian and Wanzhi County Do you want to fight for this case even if you want to break your skin? Cheng (a blanket) >
At that time it was generally accepted that
since ancient times
Because of the amount of money he earned from writing articles
no one could compare with Li Yong.
Han Yu is a master of articles
Many people ask him to write epitaphs
His income from "grave flattery" is very generous. Han Yu wrote an article "Ping Huaixi Stele"
Tang Xianzong rewarded Han Hong with a stone inscription of this article
Han Hong gave Han Yu five hundred pieces of silk as a gift. Han Yu wrote "Wang Yong's Stele"
Wang Yong's son gave Han Yu a saddled horse and a white jade belt. Liu Yuxi, Han Yu's good friend during his lifetime, wrote in the eulogy written after his death: "Gongdinghou Monument
Zhitunbiaoqian
As soon as the Sui Dynasty began to open subjects to recruit scholars, initially also To get talented people.
In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, scholars were the first to take regular examinations. But later, the "Xiu Cai Ke" was abolished, and Xiu Cai Ci became a general term for scholars. By the Song Dynasty, all those who passed the examinations of various prefectures, regardless of whether they passed or failed, could be called scholars. Therefore, he was known as "a scholar who is not worthy of distinction" at that time. The Price of Words
The chariot is as golden as a mountain. "
Huangfu wrote "The Monument of Fuxian Temple" for Pei Du. He quickly examined the body and found that Wang Dan had been poisoned. The hunchback said: "My lord, last night Wang Dan watched the monkey charmer all night long. In the skeleton drama, because he was familiar with Hu Dawa, Xiaomin let him live in Leigong Temple. Later, Wang Dan went to Dianqian Village to buy a jar of wine. A butcher named Zhang Mo drank it with him under the acacia tree. Qiu Renze thought of last night's play and said, "Who performed the skeleton play?" "The hunchback said, "Butcher Zhang was playing with another villager last night. Hu Dawa went back to his hometown and hasn't come back yet. "》
Pei Du gave him a lot of chariots, horses and silk lanterns
But Huangfu was still dissatisfied
He said: "The inscription is three thousand words
Three pieces of silk for each character
The gift is too little!" Pei Du then smiled and gave him nine thousand pieces of silk.
In addition to these people
Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan, Ouyang Xun, Xiao, Wei Guanzhi, Bai Juyi and others all received a lot of writing fees. Among them, Bai Juyi's poems were exported to North Korea
North Korean businessmen once received them. Use the money from selling Korean ginseng to buy new poems from Bai Juyi
In the Tang Dynasty, especially in the Li Ang Dynasty of Tang Wenzong
It was popular in Chang'an to find composition masters to write inscriptions and epitaphs
A lively market has formed. Once a dignitary dies
the doorstep of their home becomes like a bustling city
People shout loudly
Fighting. You want to buy an epitaph with an inscription
No matter whether the family of the deceased is willing to accept it, sometimes
If the descendants of the deceased cannot get the epitaph with an inscription from some master of composition
Will be regarded as unfilial by the world. Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen have been friends for decades.
Their love is more than flesh and blood. However, after Yuan Zhen's death
his family asked. After Bai Juyi wrote the epitaph
Yuan Zhen's family wanted to give Bai Juyi slaves, carriages and horses, silks and satins, silver saddles, jade belts and other items worth six to seven hundred thousand yuan. Bai Juyi was doubtful when he thought that he and the woman Yuan Xu had left had heard about it, but she still returned to the city and spread the news. On the first day of the lunar month, Huang Chao's army entered the city and saw only Ji Hu. The doors were hung with calamus and mugwort. In order to keep his promise to the woman, Huang Chao had no choice but to lead his troops away, so the whole city was spared. In order to commemorate this incident, everyone held a ceremony every Dragon Boat Festival. Xu Xiaoqing first hired masons to build a low wall to surround the well, and sent men to guard it. The villagers fetching water made a fuss, and Xu Xiaoqing stood up and said, "My family spent more than a hundred taels to dig this well." If I don't charge you money, how will this account be settled? Why should my family throw money away in vain? You don't pay for it and you want to drink water for free. How can such a good thing happen? It only costs a copper plate, which is the cheapest! "Zhen's relationship
strongly refused. The old man added: "But there are always horses with a thousand li in the world, but not always Bole! I checked in the underworld and found that you were not here in this life. I just heard a voice shouting: "The emperor has arrived!" Mao Yanshou was so frightened that he hurriedly knelt down to greet him. The emperor came here with the county government and saw that the tiles on the rooms of Mao Yanshou's house turned into a crowd. This big king was carefully selected from thousands of chicks and began intensive training at the age of one month. The training venue is mostly in river wetlands, where you can catch some frogs and worms as sparring partners. Their feed mainly consists of sesame seeds mixed with chili peppers, they drink rusty water, and they often rub their bodies with medicinal wine. If it was broken, he asked Mao Yanshou: "Where is the portrait of Wang Zhaojun you are looking for?" Mao Yanshou said with a sad face: "Your Majesty, we were deceived by that thief. I smashed all the green tiles on the room, and there is no portrait of Wang Zhaojun." Shadow. "If you are destined to pass the imperial examination, you will only be defeated again and again, and you will be defeated again and again!" "Yuan Zhen's family refused to agree in any case
and sent it to him several times. As a last resort, Bai Juyi had to accept it
and then donated it to a temple.
Since a market has been formed
there will be transactions
and there will be transactions that cannot be concluded. Emperor Muzong of the Tang Dynasty asked Xiao Ni to write an inscription for Wang Shizhen
Xiao Ni thought that Wang Shizhen had no deeds worth writing about, so the marriage was scheduled for the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month. Mr. Liu was somewhat strapped before getting married. Known as an upright official, he deliberately prepared more for his little daughter. A few bold theatergoers relit the pine lamp handles and lanterns, and the actors also filled the gas lamps with fear. Suddenly, another old man in the ancestral hall said to the girl: "There is a treasure cave on the top of the mountain, where the mountain god, tiger god and bear god live. The harmonica became a treasure when the bear god stole it. If you can find it, you can save it." Live your dead father and mother." The girl said, "I must go get the harmonica!" The old man said, "It is not easy to get to the top of the mountain. Not only are there tigers and black bears blocking the way, but there is also an old stone man guarding the entrance of the treasure cave. "He's here." The girl said, "As long as I can save my parents, I'll be willing to die!" The lights are bright. When something like this happened, the play couldn't go on, so everyone had no choice but to play gongs and drums until dawn. Dowry to be worthy of her miserable life and her dead parents. But he was honest and incorruptible, and he was short of money. Only when he was in urgent need did he realize what it meant to have more than enough ambition but not enough energy. Seeing that his friend was in financial embarrassment, Ji Yun did not hesitate. His original name was Zhang Bandian. Because he acted crazy and did not follow "right" principles, many people in the world called Zhang crazy, but he didn't think so at all. Dissatisfied, he simply changed the point to epilepsy, but his actions were indeed "epileptic". Funding. After much thought, Ji Da Yandian came up with another crooked idea, and he came up with a brilliant idea for Liu Zhongtang. Not only did the young lady’s marriage become a great success, it also created a story that will last for thousands of years. In the future, accepting gifts will violate your conscience
and be rejected. Wei Chuan tells the story of the late Ming Dynasty, when the court was fatuous, officials were corrupt, and corrupt officials were tyrannical. In the fish and meat village, the people lived in dire straits and struggled to survive. Guanzhi also categorically rejected Pei Jun's son's request for an epitaph
saying that he would rather starve to death than write an epitaph for him. When Du Fu settled in Chengdu
a neighbor and friend
once left home to make ends meet
to ask for writing The money for the inscription.
Browse the list of rich writers in the Tang Dynasty
It is not difficult to find a problem: Among the writers who gained a lot of wealth through writing
Of course there are many famous writers
p>However
Not all famous writers can gain wealth through writing. The best poets such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Li Shangyin and others did not receive any gifts. It can be seen that there is not necessarily a direct proportional relationship between the amount of wealth gained and artistic achievements.
Selected from "Wenyuan"
Writer Tang Dynasty