Wang Wei (699-759), courtesy name Mojie, was a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. He was an official and became Minister Youcheng. He was originally from Qi (now Qixian County, Shanxi) and moved to Puzhou (now Yongji, Shanxi). ), believed in Buddhism, and lived in Wangchuan Villa, Lantian, in his later years. He is good at painting figures, bamboos, and landscapes. People in the Tang Dynasty recorded two types of landscape features: one is similar to that of Li and his son, and the other is painted with broken ink. His famous work "Wangchuan Picture" is the latter. Unfortunately, no authentic work has been handed down to this day. The "Snowy Stream Picture" and "Jinan Fu Sheng Statue" that are said to be his are not authentic.
Wang Wei was rich in literary talent when he was a teenager. In the ninth year of Kaiyuan (721), he was awarded the rank of Jinshi and became Lecheng. For some reason, he was relegated to Sicang, Jeju to join the army. Later he returned to Chang'an. In the 22nd year of Kaiyuan, Zhang Jiuling was appointed Zhongshu Ling. Wang Wei was promoted to the position of Youshiyi. At that time, he wrote the poem "Xian Shi Xing Gong", which praised Zhang Jiuling's political ideas of opposing party establishment for personal gain and indiscriminate use of honorary rewards, which reflected his mood at that time demanding something to be done. In the twenty-fourth year (736), Zhang Jiuling resigned as prime minister. The following year he was demoted to the governor of Jing. Li Linfu was appointed Zhongshu Ling, which was a turning point in the Xuanzong period from a relatively clear political period to an increasingly dark one. Wang Wei was very frustrated by Zhang Jiuling's demotion, but he did not withdraw from officialdom. In the twenty-fifth year of Kaiyuan, he was sent to Hexi Province to serve as deputy ambassador Cui Xiyi. Later, he was appointed as the imperial censor Zhi Nanxuan. In Tianbaozhong, Wang Wei's official position was gradually promoted. Before the Anshi Rebellion, when officials were in trouble, he was tired and worried about the officialdom at that time, but on the other hand, he was still attached to his family and could not leave decisively. So he followed the customs and lived a semi-official and semi-hidden life for a long time.
He originally believed in Buddhism, but as his thoughts became increasingly negative, his Buddhist beliefs also developed. When he was young, he lived in the mountains and forests. After his middle age, he once lived in Zhongnan Mountain. Later, he got a job in Lantian and Wangchuan in Song Dynasty, so he and his friend Pei Diyou traveled there and had fun writing poems for each other. In the fifteenth year of Tianbao (756), Anshi's rebel army fell into Chang'an, Xuanzong entered Shu, and Wang Wei was captured by the rebels. After taking medicine and pretending to be ill, he was still sent to Luoyang and assigned to a pseudo-official position. After the two capitals were recovered, those who received false posts were sentenced in equal measure. He was praised by Su Zong for his poem "Ningbi Pond" in memory of the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, his brother Wang Jin had already reached a high official position and asked to be demoted to atone for his brother's sins, so he was only demoted. He was appointed Prince Zhongyun, and later moved to Gishizhong after Fu Lei, and eventually became Minister Youcheng.
Wang Wei’s poems are less than 400 in existence. Among them, the most representative of his creative features are poems depicting natural scenery such as mountains, rivers and pastoral areas, and singing about hermit life. Wang Wei's high achievements in depicting natural scenery made him unique in the poetry world of the prosperous Tang Dynasty and became a representative figure of the landscape pastoral poetry school. He inherited and developed the tradition of writing landscape poetry initiated by Xie Lingyun, and also absorbed the freshness and nature of Tao Yuanming's pastoral poetry, which brought the achievement of landscape pastoral poetry to a peak, and thus occupied an important position in the history of Chinese poetry. "Old Book of Tang·Biography of Wang Wei" says that during the reign of Emperor Daizong, Wang Jin compiled more than 400 poems by Wang Wei. Wang Jin's "Jin Wang Youcheng Ji Biao" also compiled 10 volumes of Wang Wei's poetry and prose. Shugutang originally had 10 volumes of the Southern Song Dynasty's Ma Sha version of "Collected Works of Wang Youcheng", which were later returned to Lu Xinyuan's Songlou. The Beijing Library has 10 volumes of the Song and Shu editions of "Collected Works of Wang Mojie", which were photocopied and published by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House in 1982. In the Yuan Dynasty, Liu Xuxi commented on "The Collection of Wang Youcheng" (Collected Poems) in 6 volumes, and the "Sibu Congkan" was copied based on it, which included works by Qian Qi, Lu Xiang, Cui Xingzong and others. Gu Qijing of the Ming Dynasty has 10 volumes of "Collected Poems of Tang Wang Youcheng" with 10 volumes and 4 volumes of attached essays. This is the earliest existing annotated version of Wang Wei's poems. "Wang Youcheng's Collection of Notes" by Zhao Diancheng of the Qing Dynasty is by far the better annotated version. In addition to explanatory notes on all the poems, it also includes comments, explanations of the poems whose authors are doubtful, and occasional textual research. It also collects information about Wang Wei's life and poetry and painting criticism as an appendix. In 1961, the Shanghai Editorial Office of Zhonghua Book Company revised and revised Zhao's annotated version, typed and published it. In addition, Zheng Zhenduo used the "Sibu Congkan" edition as the base, revised it with Zhao Diancheng's annotated edition and other four editions, and included it in the "World Library". Deeds can be seen in the new and old "Tang Shu" biography. Both Gu Qi Jing's annotated version and Zhao Diancheng's annotated version are accompanied by Wang Wei's chronology written by the annotator. Today's Chen Yi has an article "A Preliminary Study of Wang Wei's Life and Deeds", followed by a "Brief Chronology of Wang Wei" (contained in "Tang Poetry Series").
Du Fu (712-770), also known as Zimei, also known as Shaoling Yelao, was a great poet in the prosperous Tang Dynasty and was known as the "Sage of Poetry". Originally from Xiangyang, Hubei, born in Gong County, Henan. The grandson of Du Shenyi, a poet in the early Tang Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty, official Zuo collected the artifacts. After he entered Shu, his friend Yan Wu recommended him to be a staff officer of Jiannan Jiedu Mansion and a member of the school's Ministry of Industry. Therefore, later generations also called him Du Shiyi and Du Gongbu.
Du Fu and Li Bai are equally famous, and are known as "Li Du" in the world. The core of his thoughts is the Confucian thought of benevolent government. He had the grand ambition to "serve the emperors Yao and Shun, and then make customs pure". He loves life, loves the people, and loves the great rivers and mountains of the motherland. He hates evil and criticizes and exposes corruption in the court and dark phenomena in social life. He sympathized with the people and even fantasized about being willing to make self-sacrifice to relieve their suffering.
Du Fu was a great realist poet who wrote more than 1,400 poems in his life. His experience and poetry creation can be divided into four periods.
Liu Yuxi (772-842)
Zi Mengde, a native of Pengcheng (now Xuzhou, Jiangsu), is a descendant of the Huns. Poet and philosopher in the mid-Tang Dynasty. His family is a scholarly family with Confucianism passed down from generation to generation. He advocated political innovation and was one of the central figures in the political innovation activities of the Wang Shuwen School.
Liu Yuxi was influenced by both his ears and his eyes. In addition, he was talented, sensitive and eager to learn. He had learned from others since he was a child and had an extraordinary bearing.
At the age of nineteen, he traveled to Chang'an to study and wrote to the court. At the age of twenty-one, he and Liu Zongyuan passed the Jinshi examination. In the same year, he passed the erudite macroci subject.
Later, he was politically unhappy and was demoted to Sima of Langzhou. He did not surrender, but created with a positive and optimistic spirit, actively learned from folk songs, and wrote poems imitating folk songs such as "Cai Ling Xing".
After being ordered to return to the capital, Liu Yuxi offended the new nobles by his poem "Thousands of peaches and trees in Xuandu, all of which will be recorded after Liu Lang's departure" and was demoted to the governor of Lianzhou. He was later appointed as the governor of Jiangzhou, where he wrote a large number of "Zhuzhi Ci". There are many famous quotes and they are widely recited. In the summer of 824, he wrote the famous "Reminiscences of Xisai Mountain": "Wang Jin's boat disembarked from Yizhou, and the king of Jinling lost his spirit sadly. Qianxun's iron chain sank to the bottom of the river, and a banner fell out of the stone. Several times in this life, the past is sad, The mountain shape is still warm and cold. Today is the day when the world is home, so the trees are rustling and the trees are rustling in autumn. "This poem was praised by later literary critics as a masterpiece of Tang poetry with infinite meaning.
Later, after several transfers, Liu Yuxi was sent to Suzhou as the governor. At that time, there was a flood in Suzhou and hunger spread throughout the land. After he took office, he opened warehouses for famine relief, exempted taxes and reduced labor, and soon helped the people get out of the disaster and live a contented life. The people of Suzhou loved him and were grateful to him, so they named Wei Yingwu, Bai Juyi, who had served as governor in Suzhou, and him together as the "Three Heroes", and established the Sanxiantang. The emperor also praised his political achievements and gave him a purple gold fish bag.
Liu Yuxi returned to Luoyang in his later years, served as the prince's guest, socialized with friends and composed poems, living a leisurely life. After his death, he was posthumously awarded the title of Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.