One of them is Tang poetry.
This statement may not get much recognition. Many friends will say, "You can still read Tang poems abroad, and there are many good poems in other countries!" "
Therefore, I must say a few more words about this matter.
The Tang poetry in my heart is a whole existence. It exists in Qiangdi in Gucheng, between the Yellow River and white clouds, after the rain, the mountains are empty, and Xunyang is autumn. As soon as China people who are proficient in literature and ink see the relevant environment, they will immediately release the images hidden in their hearts and involve everything in front of them in the poetic realm.
The image in my heart has been hidden since I was very young. Maybe it was recited by parents, maybe it was read by the teacher, but it was the most beautiful one taught by predecessors. As long as parents and teachers teach each other in Tang poetry, they will naturally eliminate the generational boundaries and walk into nature with the younger generation in a detached manner.
Therefore, for China people, Tang poetry is an all-round aesthetic awakening: awakening the soul, awakening the mountains and rivers, awakening the cultural heritage and awakening the essence of existence.
Moreover, this awakening is not from abstract concepts at all, but from perceptual images and specific details. After time screening, this image and details have become the collective sensitive and universal discourse of a huge nation.
Sometimes, in a foreign country, we can see scenes like "the moon sets and we want to cry" and "fishing alone in the cold river", which reminds us, but the mysterious poetic realm attached to the overall aesthetic culture does not exist. It's like finding a cabin like your hometown in the distance, or an old man like your grandmother. Although I was happy for a while, I was deeply lost after a little research. What have you lost? I lost all the echo relationship closely connected with life and the truth that made me myself.
Of course, irreplaceable does not mean beautiful. However, Tang poetry is really a great beauty. In any case, it can elevate the soul to a pure and lofty realm. Looking back, this kind of mellow and high-energy was originally their own, or the secret biography of their ancestors, but it was usually buried by a lot of trivial matters. Tang poetry is like a jade pestle knocking at the door, jingling and buzzing, which suddenly opens our hearts and shows us a very beautiful self.
This seemingly ordinary self can actually complete the boldest imagination, the deepest thought, the most meticulous observation, the most meticulous listening, the most kind sympathy and the most free and easy transcendence according to the guidance of distant words.
This self, seemingly riddled with holes, can actually pitch with the mountains, roll with the white clouds and shine with the sea.
This seemingly low-educated self can keep up with such an elegant rhythm, such a sonorous rhyme and such a luxurious articulation.
This kind of self, no matter where, will be rare, but because of the Tang poetry, it has become a very popular normal existence in China.
It is for this reason that I said that I am reluctant to leave the birthplace of Tang poetry, and even willing to be reborn in China in my next life.
I am a person who travels all over the world, and I am no stranger to international cultural information. Of course, I know that poetry is everywhere, and I will not fall into the quagmire of narrow nationalism on this issue. However, just because I have seen a lot, I also have reason to make a fair judgment: just as China people are far behind some ethnic groups in the world in religious music and modern dance, Tang poetry is the lofty peak of human beings in the field of classical poetry, and it is difficult to find an object that can be compared with it.
two
In many literary history, when it comes to Tang poetry, the number of poets and poems will first prove that the Tang Dynasty is an "era of poetry".
That's all right, but it's important to understand that quantity is not the decisive factor. Just like this, even if everyone sings "karaoke" now, it can't prove that this is an era of music.
In terms of quantity, we all know that there are more than 49,000 poems in the whole Tang Dynasty, including more than 2,800 authors. Of course, this is not the whole of Tang poetry, but the Tang poetry that lasted 1000 years until the Qing Dynasty, but it is still a spectacular sight. The whole Tang poetry was written by Emperor Kangxi, but by Emperor Qianlong, the number of poems he wrote was similar to that of the whole Tang poetry. Because there are 4 1800 poems in Poems of Late Qing Dynasty besides his Complete Works of Leshan Hall, the remaining Poems of Imperial System, Poems of Full Rhyme and Poems of Yuanmingyuan. If you add them together, it will really make more than 2,800 authors a thousand years ago feel ashamed. However, if you look at the quality, which song can Qianlong produce?
Writing poems and compositions in a broad sense is the easiest thing in the world. Anyone who has learned to make sentences can scribble at will as long as they are opened. To this day, we can often see the collection of poems and essays published by many busy officials in contemporary times, which almost exceeds the world famous works in terms of words, thickness and binding, and I heard that they are still being produced in large quantities, but I can't persuade them. This reminds me of Qianlong again. He was obsessed with writing poems, and was applauded by all the officials in the Qing Dynasty every day. Finally, an official named Li boldly played and advised him not to show his ability to govern the country by writing poems. When Qianlong saw it, another quatrain immediately appeared-
Shen Xiu advised me not to be a poet,
I also know that poetry can't be made.
But for the rest of the party,
But what do you do in your spare time?
In this regard, Qian Zhongshu sarcastically said that Li originally wanted to use something to suppress Gan Long's desire to write poetry. Unexpectedly, instead of suppressing it, he even set it on fire, adding a fire instead.
From this bonfire party, we can also see Gan Long's poetic talent. But to be fair, although the poem is not well written, it is a little smoother and simpler than the poems of many officials now.
When it comes to Tang poetry, it seems that it can't correspond at all, but it can't be my fault. Who told the emperor to compete with the whole Tang poetry with his own number of poems?
In fact, Tang poetry is indisputable, even in the Song Dynasty, in the hands of some outstanding poets.
This is because there is an unprecedented manly style in Tang poetry. Even sadness is mighty, even twists and turns are thorough, even affairs are dry, and even argots are beautiful. This kind of weather has never completely appeared since the Tang Dynasty, so it is unique.
More importantly, this kind of weather has been inherited and waved by several really great poets, which has become a kind of personality and exudes endless body temperature to history.
three
First of all, of course, Li Bai.
Li Bai is always unexpected. It took me a long time to discover a secret, that is, our surprise for him came from his surprise, so it was a surprise delivery. He has been amazed at landscapes, human nature and himself all his life, which makes him naive. It is this naive surprise, or naive surprise, that deeply infects everyone.
We can still read his eyes when we read the ancient Shu Road, the Yellow River with nine twists and waterfalls in his poems. Some people are scared, some are stunned, some are puzzled and some are at a loss. It is this look, not the scenery, that first touches the reader. Then he looked at the scenery with his eyes and found that the scenery was really strange.
In fact, the reader's vision has changed at this time, and Li Bai is committed to transforming people's vision. Real great poets have always been like this, saying that they affect people's minds, but in fact they all start from transforming people's sensory system. Teach people how to look, how to listen, how to find and how to associate, and then there will be a deep-rooted * * * sound. When this * * * sound dies, the sensory system still exists.
Such Li Bai, even the human sensory system has been transformed by him, always makes everyone feel kind, but it is not. He refuses people to get too close to him, and is willing to keep a certain degree of strangeness between them. This is also the difference between him and some realistic poets.
Li Bai's strangeness is a whole. For example, he can never tell where he came from and where he went, which can only make people believe that he must come from a distant place that no one knows, and he will definitely go to a front that no one knows; He will definitely see the scenery that no one can imagine, and he will definitely create pen and ink that no one can imagine. ...
He also wrote a poem like "Looking up, I found it was moonlight, and then sinking, I suddenly remembered home", which can make anyone feel kind, but then a serious question appeared: If you are so homesick, why don't you go home forever? He has enough time and space to be free, and it is not difficult to go home occasionally. However, this poet, who wrote "China's first homesick poem", insisted on banishing himself to a foreign land, even refused to make any foreign land really friendly, and even began to travel with a little intimacy. It turns out that his life needs strangeness, and his life belongs to strangeness.
To this end, he is like a ship that is not tied, chasing strangers every day and keeping surprises in the pursuit. But the poet is different from the geographical explorer after all. He wants to integrate the strangeness into his body and mind and embrace his hometown. The first factor to help him complete this spiritual transformation is wine. "People are thousands of miles away, and they enjoy a cup of happiness" and "the owner can get drunk and don't know where he is", all of which reveal the mystery here. The second element to help him complete this spiritual transformation is poetry.
For friends, Li Bai also strives for maturity in life and survives in maturity. As an eternal hiker, he certainly likes to make friends. Seeing the oncoming rider, at first glance, he seems to be able to talk. He is already saluting with a whip. If we talk intimately and talk about poetry, we will become brothers, and we can eat and live together. After he made friends with Du Fu, he even reached the point of "getting drunk in autumn and walking hand in hand with the sun", which can be seen.
However, compared with Du Fu, he is not the most devoted and sincere friend. As soon as he said goodbye, he was about to blend into the strange mountains and rivers in a hurry, and he rode frequently between those mountains and rivers to meet his new good brother. He always wants to live forever, asking, it is difficult to regard friendship as a stable goal. He will ask new friends to accompany him to visit a reclusive Taoist. Finding that the Taoist priest was dead, he asked the next person who was worth going, and didn't let his friends continue to accompany him. Then, another poetic farewell, clouds and water, sails and shadows.
People have been talking about his friendship with Du Fu, thinking that Du Fu wrote many poems in memory of him, but he wrote very little. Some people explained that his poems were too fragmented, and there must be many poems that miss Du Fu. This is a kind wish, or it may be true. However, it should be noted that it is meaningless to force them to balance their friendship, because they are completely different people after all. Although different, it does not affect their equality and nobility in the field of friendship.
Just like the meeting between Dapeng and Hongyan. At that time, big wing danced and the mountains and rivers looked up. However, after their separation, Hongyan has been singing and whispering for this meeting, and Dapeng has been swimming in Nanpi Beihai without any obstacles. The difference is so big, but they are all wings and shadows in the sky.
four
Li Bai and Du Fu met in 744 AD. That year, Li Bai was forty-three years old and Du Fu was thirty-two, a difference of eleven years.
Many years ago, I had doubts about this age, because when I was a child reading Tang poetry, I always thought Du Fu was older than Li Bai. Li Bai is full of heroic spirit and innocence, and he can't imagine his old age; Du Fu, on the other hand, is gentle and mellow and an elder. How can it be the opposite age? It can be seen that the tone of life projected by artistic style will be transformed into different images of the times in readers' minds. This age image is often very different from the actual age.
In fact, Li Bai is not only eleven years older than Du Fu, but also a generation ahead of Du Fu in poetry. That is, they will represent two very different Tang dynasties before and after the Anshi Rebellion. Most of Li Bai's masterpieces were written before the Anshi Rebellion, while Du Fu's masterpieces were mainly produced after the Anshi Rebellion.
This different time identity separated by obvious boundary markers makes them feel strange when they meet. Li Bai was famous all over the world at that time, and Du Fu just made his mark. Du Fu has long been familiar with many famous sentences of Li Bai. At this time, when he saw a real person, his admiration was beyond words. A person who has achieved great social reputation often has a lightness and freedom that others can't imitate, and this style falls on Li Bai, which makes him doubly glorious. Du Fu in front of him is precisely the person who can feel this kind of expression most, so he was completely fascinated for an instant and was enveloped by Li Bai's poetic personality.
Li Bai's eyes lit up when he saw Du Fu. He never understood people very well, and he was often cheated, but that was officialdom and the street. If he is asked to point out a poet, it is difficult for him to see the mistake. Even if you don't know each other at all, you can make a judgment immediately as long as you recite a few songs and say a few words. Du Fu amazed him, so he soon became good friends. Of course, he could not predict that the young people in front of him would become the supreme monarch who was in charge of the poetry kingdom of Chinese civilization for thousands of years with him, and no one could covet it; But he has felt that the irresistible wind of genius is coming.
After a few drinks, they got on their horses and decided to go hunting together.
Their starting place is also their meeting place, in the southeast of Kaifeng City, Henan Province today, and the old place is called Liu Chen. Where to hunt? To the east, and then to the east, after Qixian, Suixian, Ningling and Shangqiu, from Shangqiu to the north, until today's Shandong border, there is a osawa wetland, which is where our two rare great poets hunt horses.
At that time, a famous poet Gao Shi went hunting with them. Gao Shi is three years younger than Li Bai and belongs to his peers. This poet, who can write such bold sentences as "Mochow has no bosom friend before, and everyone knows the monarch" and "Where are the plum blossoms, and the wind blows all over the mountain overnight", was "firewood everywhere" and "singing wildly" in this area at that time. In other words, he struggled to make a living at the bottom of society, with empty ambitions and boredom. I don't know how well he knew Du Fu at that time, but he must be very excited when he heard that Li Bai was coming. This is his land, and the ravines are well known. It is appropriate for him to accompany hunting.
Crowded around the three of them is a young poet who is not very famous, called Jia Zhi, who is six years younger than Du Fu and only 26 years old. Although he is young, he is a real local master, because it is more convenient for him to set off in front of the county commander of Shanxian County, north of this osawa wetland. I also read his poems specially for his planning this time. The style of writing is ok, but it lacks an atmosphere, especially compared with the great poet next to him that day, which is even more mediocre. Jia Zhi also brought some local people to join in the fun, and some of them can write poems.
Thus, a cavalry team was formed. In my imagination, Gao Shi leads the way. Followed by the cavalry protagonist Li Bai, accompanied by Jia Zhi; Du Fu is a little behind and often takes the first two steps.