Today we will talk about Yuan Zhen. When it comes to Yuan Zhen, most people in the world are willing to focus on his love history. His integrity as an official and his achievements in advocating the New Yuefu are often ignored.
Today's poem is a poem written by Yuan Zhen through the mouth of Yingying. It was because of this poem that Wang Shifu of the Yuan Dynasty compiled "The Story of Yingying" into the drama "The Romance of the West Chamber" and changed it into a drama. Happy ending.
Later, after research by Chen Yinke and other modern scholars, Zhang Sheng’s prototype was Yuan Zhen, and Cui Yingying was his cousin Cui Shuangwen, who was his first love. "The Story of Yingying" is actually an autobiographical novel, and Lu Xun also affirmed made this statement.
From this, Yuan Zhen has finally put on the hat of being a rebellious person, not to mention that in "The Story of Yingying", he also expressed this meaning in Zhang Sheng's tone: "Such beauties are a scourge." "Well, we can't control it, so we should give up." If Zhang Sheng were really the author, he would be unable to escape eternal infamy.
This is the Tang Dynasty with open folk customs. Yuan Zhen, who once served as prime minister, was still a poor poet at this time. Most talented people like to travel around mountains and rivers, and Yuan Zhen is also the same.
When he was visiting Puzhou when he was 23 years old, he got into a love affair, which was later reinterpreted several times and became "The Romance of the West Chamber" that has been passed down through the ages.
At that time, Yuan Zhen lived in Pujiu Temple in the east of Puzhou. There was a wealthy man named Cui who moved his family back to Chang'an. They passed by and lived in a temple. Just when there was a military riot in Puzhou, those people went around plundering property and beauties. The Cui family is orphaned and widowed, and has a lot of money. They are not familiar with the place here. The old lady looked around and saw that her house was the best target for robbery, and she was so frightened that she was in a state of panic all day long.
Yuan Zhen happened to have friendship with the Puzhou generals, so he wrote a letter asking them to protect the Cui family. Alas, the relationship between a man and a woman, even if it is a bad relationship, requires such a chance encounter.
At this time, Yuan Zhen did not know Cui Yingying at all, so this can be said to be a purely chivalrous act. As a result, the Cui family did not suffer any military disaster. The old lady thanked Yuan Zhen for saving his life and held a banquet in his honor.
During the dinner, Yuan Zhen met Miss Yingying of the Cui family. Just like the young boy Zhang Wuji who met Zhu Jiuzhen for the first time, he was immediately astonished. Meet the lady. Yuan Zhen had no choice but to find a breakthrough in Yingying's maid, Matchmaker. He kowtowed to her every day and told her how much he missed her and how he was in trouble.
Written two "Ancient Romantic Poems" and gave them to the matchmaker:
After Cui Yingying read his poems, she already fell in love with this talented man. It's no wonder that when I first saw Yuan Zhen's "Only the general will keep his eyes open all night long, and he will repay his life without raising his eyebrows" and "I look back lazily on the flowers, half of them are cultivators and half of them are kings", I also lamented how these sentences came from, and I was in a trance. Many days.
What's more, this talented man was so attentive to her and placed Yingying's name cleverly and naturally into these poems.
Cui Yingying's heartstrings were plucked instantly, and she asked the matchmaker to write back to Yuan Zhen a famous date poem "The Third and Fifth Night of the Bright Moon":
The next day is the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, Yuan Zhen Zhen dressed up and geared up, finally waited until night, climbed the wall and climbed an apricot tree to the west wing where Cui Yingying lived. The tree climbing over the wall is very suitable for the occasion. It is really "if you are lucky (apricot), why do you need a matchmaker (plum)".
Yuan Zhen rushed into the house excitedly, only to see Cui Yingying sitting upright. Instead of reaching out to hug her, she spoke righteously to Yuan Zhen. Yuan Zhen thought he could kiss Fangze tonight, but he was stunned for a long time and climbed over the wall back in despair. My heart felt cold after I went back.
Unexpectedly, things took a huge turn. One night a few days later, the matchmaker brought Cui Yingying over with a quilt and pillow in her arms. It turns out that Cui Yingying admired Yuan Zhen in her heart, but the girl was in love for the first time, and she couldn't help but regret it after they met. The matchmaker took the opportunity to fan the flames again, saying something like "it's easy to find a priceless treasure, but it's rare to find a man with a heart" every day, and then Cui Yingying fell in love with her under the moonlight. It's night, and the two of them accomplish good things.
Cui Yingying went back early the next morning. After more than ten days, there was no news at all. She was still full of contradictions and was afraid of being hurt.
In desperation, Yuan Zhen wrote thirty rhymes of "Huizhen Poetry" and asked the matchmaker to give it to Cui Yingying. After seeing it, Yingying completely surrendered and surrendered to Yuan Zhen's unique talent. She immediately asked Yuan Zhen to meet him in the west chamber in the evening.
"Flowers are not flowers, mist is not mist. It comes at midnight and goes at dawn." From then on, Yuan Zhen slept with beauty every night, feeling so unhappy. A few months later, Yuan Zhen went to Chang'an to take the exam and said goodbye to his beautiful lady in tears. Being successful in love is doomed to failure in the exam room?
Yuan Zhen thought that he could easily win the title of Toad Palace with his talent, but who would have thought that he would lose his reputation. He stayed in Chang'an. ????
Yuan Zhen wrote a letter to Cui Yingying in Chang'an, and Cui Yingying sent a lot of tokens when replying to the letter. A year later, Cui Yingying married someone else. Soon, Yuan Zhen also married a wealthy daughter.
Cui Yingying is also a strange woman. In ancient times, losing her virginity before marriage was a huge deal, but she had the courage to handle it. After waiting, she calmly married someone else. However, Yuan Zhen never forgot Yingying throughout his life. He wrote many poems and essays in memory of her:
Scenes of scenes, so warm and beautiful, have always appeared in his mind, and even twenty years later, they are still indelible.
After they were separated for several years, Yuan Zhen passed by Cui Yingying's husband's house and asked to meet him as his cousin.
Cui Yingying did not make the same mistake again and again. She refused to see Yuan Zhen and wrote a poem to him instead.
The tender time of "half-opening the house" waiting for the "beautiful woman to come" is a thing of the past. Now that you have someone in front of you, why are you provoking me, an abandoned person? A love that begins with a poem ends with a poem.