Boyi and Shu Qi who "don't eat Zhou Su"
Boyi and Shu Qi were the earliest hermits. Their father, the monarch of the solitary bamboo kingdom, wanted to accept his third son, Shu Qi, as his successor, but Shu Qi insisted on giving his seat to his eldest brother, Boyi. Let go, neither of them acceded to the throne, and fled to Xiqiao together.
It is common for the ancients to kill each other for a throne. But these two Ren Jun really don't want to be kings. They want to hide in the mountains. From today's perspective, are they a little too pedantic? A country cannot live without a monarch for a day. Aren't their concessions tantamount to ignoring state responsibility? Although this hidden method is admirable in virtue, its behavior may not be commendable. Isn't it? Later, the whole territory of Shang Dynasty (including the isolated kingdom of Shang Dynasty, of course) was occupied by Jiang Ziya and Zhou Wenwang. If Jiang Ziya hadn't seen that these two men were mortal, the two brothers would have been killed by the sword. After the Zhou Dynasty, the two brothers refused to eat Zhou Su and starved to death in shouyangshan.
The real hermit, while his festival is touching, I still want to criticize these two people with Mr. Lu Xun's words: mourn their misfortune and anger them! This practice of praising and practicing a virtue to the extreme is not feasible and irregular in life. Even absurd or pedantic. It is also doomed that there are very few real hermits, as few as "specimens".
Tao Yuanming, "Five Doors of Rice Don't Bend"
Maybe you will ask: Isn't Tao Yuanming a real hermit?
Tao Yuanming is a real hermit after Boyi and Shu Qi. However, Tao Yuanming's ideal of seclusion did not exist long ago, or it was consistent. Like all literati, Tao Yuanming once had the ambition to make contributions. He first lived in seclusion when he was twenty-nine. At that time, he lived in seclusion as a small and medium-sized landlord and lived a comfortable life. After three years of not being confused and not worrying about his mother, he once again took the concept of "forty is not heard, not enough for fear" as an official.
After many years as an official, didn't Tao Yuanming bend his back for five buckets of rice? This is definitely not realistic. Only after the accumulation of humiliation again and again, that humiliation really made him unbearable. Finally, when pengze county took office and asked him to bow down and meet his boss, this requirement became the last straw to crush his endurance. He resolutely hung up the crown, assigned "to Xi" and left smartly. This time, he did the real "not confused". In this "not confused" and firmness, there is his true love for rural life after years of idleness. Only then did he become a real hermit.
The place where hermits lived in the past dynasties was Zhongnanshan. However, there are many fake hermits in Zhong Nanshan, and more people come here not to be hermits, but to improve their status through seclusion and flaunt their lofty, so as to wait for the mercy of the government or the imperial court. Seclusion is not the purpose of these hermits, but a shortcut for them to seek official positions. So people also call it "a shortcut to the south".
This once again proves eloquently that only a false hermit can make contributions.
Yuan Mei "Hidden in the City"
Yuan Mei was a real hermit, who lived in the downtown area during the reign of Ganjia in the Qing Dynasty.
No one in the world says that Yuan Mei is a hermit, just because Yuan Mei's "seclusion" is too artistic. It can be said that he was the first hermit in ancient China. He likes to be hidden, hidden and happy, hidden and chic, hidden and nourished.
Maybe you will ask, is seclusion still an art? Of course it is. The success of anything has superb art.
Let's look at the artistry of Yuan Mei's seclusion.
Yuan Mei did not live in seclusion in Shan Ye after his first resignation. But before he resigned, he bought an old villa in Jiangning, Nanjing, which was an official, and rebuilt and expanded it to build a private garden villa-Suiyuan.
Yuan Mei regards it as a secluded place in the future. This also shows that Yuan Mei is in officialdom and cares about the people.
After resigning for the second time, Yuan Mei lived in seclusion here with the garden, made three changes to it and wrote Six Notes on the Garden. How luxurious and comfortable is the garden? Yin Jishan, governor of Liangjiang, wanted to use it as the emperor's palace. This shows the degree of comfort and luxury. It's just that Yuan Mei didn't want to do it.
Yuan Mei changed the "tradition" that he had to live in seclusion in Shan Ye, and he lived in such a place. Jiangnan has always been a place where scholars gather together. Nanjing is the central hub of politics, economy and culture in Jiangnan, and it is also an important place for Jiangnan to have a provincial examination and the emperor's southern tour. During this period, Yuan Mei has obvious advantages.
It is also a romantic place in Qinhuai, rich and prosperous, with strong commercial atmosphere and secular customs in the south of the Yangtze River. Yuan Mei will naturally be infected. Actually, Yuan Mei likes these. Therefore, his reclusive life completely broke through the traditional life mode of intellectuals, that is, "if you are rich, you will help the world, and if you are poor, you will be immune to it." It is independent of the existing outlook on life and the concept of scholars, and has strong commercial and secular characteristics. He not only maintains his independence, but also keeps close contact with dignitaries, especially civil servants. He is different from a hermit and a cloth in the traditional sense. He gained more understanding and harmony in the world. Instead of pursuing the ideal of "being a gentleman and being flexible", he gained more sobriety and independence in politics.
Yuan Mei often holds large-scale cultural banquets in Suiyuan. At first, most of the visitors served officials, teachers and scholars, and later they developed into a cult, covering everything. As a result, anyone who has been to Nanjing will go to Suiyuan, and he is proud of having a trip here and having a once-in-a-lifetime relationship with Yuan Mei. The diversity and mobility of visitors are extremely beneficial to expanding the influence of Yuanmei. While making friends with powerful people and seeking support, Yuan Mei found real scribes to support him.
As for the trivial and ordinary things of being an official, he has long forgotten them, and he has forgotten them cleanly, without any nostalgia.
Isn't a person who completely gives up the idea of being an official, who is completely addicted to secular life, a real hermit?
Both Tao Yuanming and Yuan Mei decided to live in seclusion around the age of forty. But Yuan Mei woke up earlier and was firm earlier than Tao Yuanming. Yuan Mei in the imperial examination room, officialdom, is already in cao cao's heart in Korea. What he pursues is the name of the subject, which is different from many people. The purpose of others seeking branch names is very clear, that is, seeking officials. Yuan Mei is not. In the second volume of The Scholars, which was reconciled with Yao, he clearly expressed his attitude towards surnames:
No surname, can't go to North Korea; If you don't go to the DPRK, you can't get close to the heroes at home, and you can learn and hear widely; If you don't be an official, you can't climb the wonders of Sichuan and judge the changes in property. The article you wrote was just a cover-up, and people listened to you.
In layman's terms, Yuan Mei studied for a name to gain a qualification and social recognition. He is obsessed with the world of mortals, and his favorite thing is to make friends with heroes at home, climb mountains and explore wonders, and inspect the changes of products. Isn't a man who only aims at mountains, rivers, products and heroes a real hermit?
It's just that Yuan Mei doesn't want to be a "traditional" hermit of Boyi and Shu Qi style, and he doesn't want to be a folk scholar without a surname and official recognition.
Yuan Mei's idea has its own reasons.
In the whole feudal society, which works handed down by literati are not inextricably linked with the emperor or mainstream life? It is Liu Yong, who is "in opposition", who associates with geisha every day and seems not to live in the mainstream society. However, this is his indulgence after he was frustrated in the officialdom, and his lyrics also belong to "being ordered to write lyrics", so that "there are lyrics everywhere." If his lyrics are not "serving the purpose" and without the source of this mainstream society, his lyrics will not have such great communication power no matter how good they are.
Liu Yong indulges in debauchery, which is the indulgence after the frustration of officialdom. The heart is in officialdom, but the heart is in love. Yuan Mei is the opposite of him.
Cao Xueqin's parents and grandparents are close relatives of the emperor. However, after Cao Xueqin was robbed of money at the age of thirteen, he broke away from the mainstream society and lived a life of "porridge and wine are often credited to the whole family". Therefore, although he wrote the masterpiece A Dream of Red Mansions, his life experience was not recorded and passed down, which became a difficult mystery.
Yuan Mei and Cao Xueqin were born in the same year. Yuan Mei's genius lies in that he left the officialdom but enjoyed more resources than when he was in the officialdom, without the fatigue of common affairs when he was an official. Hanlin's background gave him the honor and wealth of top officials.
Yuan Mei's seclusion is a process of subtraction and addition. He reduced the trivia and etiquette of officialdom by resigning. The convenience and honor in officialdom depend on his qualifications and contacts, and he has been constantly obtained through holding cultural banquets, publishing his own works and "Poetry with the Garden", and traveling around and making friends with dignitaries. Yuan Mei's happiness is also a struggle. He became a big star step by step through struggle. Wherever he goes, onlookers trample down the bridge!
Yuan Mei was active and enterprising all his life, never pedantic and inflexible. He keeps a zero distance relationship with real life. His seclusion is a colorful art in itself, and his thought and practice of "hiding in the city" have deeply influenced countless contemporary people ~