Frustration in the examination hall may make Yuan Hongdao feel a lot of self-injury. In his poems such as Flowers are Things, he lamented loneliness, depression and unhappiness. Under the influence of his eldest brother, Yuan Zongdao, Yuan Hongdao began to seek spiritual sustenance from Zen Buddhism, so as to release Confucianism and realize an epiphany. He wrote his own experience as "gold scraps" and visited Li Zhi in Macheng. The two of them chatted about Zen and got along well. Li Zhi praised him for his "knowledge and courage, both of which belong to chinese odyssey. People with true spirit can shoulder this heavy responsibility "and give a poem saying:" I also want to whip when I read Jun Jun's words of' golden crumbs'. I have heard about it for a long time, and there is no such thing as "old bitterness". " Enlightened by Li Zhi's deviant thought, Yuan Hongdao's eyes were wide open. "I knew I had been picking up what I said, sticking to the secular world and dying under the old saying, and I couldn't reveal anything." From then on, he was determined to change the style of poetry creation, "being a teacher for the heart, not a teacher for the heart;" You can turn to the ancients, not for them. Hair as a language, one by one from the heart ",and highlight independence. In the 20th year of Wanli (1592), Yuan Hongdao was a scholar, but he was not immediately appointed by the imperial court. However, the door of official career has entered, and the wish for many years has finally come true, and I am in a good mood. On the Shipu River in his hometown, Yuan Hongdao often meets with relatives and friends, recites poems and drinks, talks about Zen travel, and is carefree. At this time, he was deeply dissatisfied with the retro movement in the literary world and thought that poetry should be published at will and should not be imitated and bound. In "Answering Li Ziyou's Poems", Yuan Hongdao wrote: "When you ask an article, you should break your heart." "Grass ignorance push what, lee, smell will know. Although the shafts are the same, they are good teachers. Later, he was rich in literature and rhetoric. Spend a lot of money to hire a thin craftsman to wrap your feet to avoid ambiguity. Simulated thrift is narrow, arrogant and ridiculous. I want to be straight. Everything I say is a lie. There are no words in the contemporary era, but there are real poems in the alley. But I sold a pot of wine and took you to listen to bamboo branches. "In his view, retro works are not as good as folk songs.
In the 23rd year of Wanli (1595), Yuan Hongdao was elected as the county magistrate of Wuxian (now Jiangsu). When he was in office, he decided the case decisively, facilitating the people and benefiting the people, which was deeply welcomed by the local people. However, this has also led to the dissatisfaction of those in power. In addition, the official business is complicated and it is difficult to be at leisure. He feels that "the days of being an official are very hard, and it is especially hard to give orders. If you place an order, it will be ten thousand times more difficult, and it can't be straight. " Therefore, the next year he resigned under the pretext. In order to eliminate the unhappiness in his heart, Yuan Hongdao did not return to his hometown immediately after leaving Wuxian. Instead, he traveled all over the southeast places of interest, strolling between Wuxi, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Tonglu and Jiashan Xiushui in Shexian, and repaying his friends with poems such as Tao Wangling and Pan Jingsheng. For more than three months, "not a day goes by without traveling, not a day without enjoying traveling, not for a while without talking, not for a while without being easy to talk", "the theory of poetry has made great progress, the collection of poems has been rich, and the poetry has been broadened." Especially when reading Xu Wei's posthumous work Bian Que in Hangzhou, he was stunned by Xu Wei's poetic style of "talking and laughing at will", but he became more and more dissatisfied with the retro style of Li Panlong, Wang Shizhen and other "post-seven poets" and put forward the creative idea of "expressing his own spirit and not sticking to one pattern". He criticized the literary world shrouded by the retro school for stifling the vitality of creation, and pointed out that the changeable creative techniques of writers and poets in Qin and Han dynasties in the prosperous Tang Dynasty were a model for future generations to learn. Otherwise, just relying on "attacking imitation and affecting rhythm", poetry creation will be led into a dead end and become a mere formality, and poetry will not be able to express its ambitions. Yuan Hongdao pointedly pointed out that the retro school and its last stream of archaizing are like "the dregs of chewing dung, easy to get a fart, bullying the good by relying on the situation, and now Suzhou has taken refuge at home. "Remember a few familiar stories and you will be knowledgeable; In a few words, also known as a poet. Du Gongbu was tricked into hoarding Li Kongtong, an eight-inch three-point hat that everyone wears. Therefore, if you speak poetry, you will not get the peace of poetry! "
In addition to openly opposing the vulgar style of retro school, Yuan Hongdao also promoted the liberation of style with his own creative practice. His poems reflecting real life, such as Ode to a Ballad and Zhi Zhu Ci, are popular, fresh, beautiful and lively. He also wrote dozens of travel notes such as Tiger Hill, Lingyan, Xianghu Lake and West Lake, which are lyrical without the disadvantages of carving. "Everything overflows from the real source. Only by opening your eyes and sweeping away the king and the king, can the only people in the world know how to relax and find wisdom, and then they can clean up the disease of copying paintings. " Yuan Hongdao and his family visited the southeast and stayed in Yizheng for a period of time, where they wrote poems, talked with literary friends in the north and south, and publicized their "theory of spiritual nature". In the twenty-sixth year of Wanli (1598), he was appointed Professor Shun Tianfu (now Beijing). The following year, he went to Imperial College London as a teaching assistant. In the third year, does let the official department is responsible for.
After all, Beijing was the cultural center of the Ming Dynasty. In Beijing, Yuan Hongdao was able to display a rich collection of folk books, and formed a "grape party" with Xie, Xie, Xie's brother Yuan Zongdao and Xie's brother Yuan Zhongdao. He is very relaxed and happy to comment on poems in Guo Chong Temple in the west of the city. On the one hand, through extensive reading and discussion on making friends, I gradually corrected my previous tendency of "focusing on understanding" and overemphasizing myself. "He is very self-disciplined, so he can keep calm." On the other hand, his criticism of the last stream of retro school is more powerful and profound. Yuan Hongdao systematically analyzed the style of Tang and Song poetry, and thought: "Yuan, Bai, Europe and Su, together with Li, Du, Ban and Ma, really flew by like geese. Poe is particularly difficult to understand, and the macro fallacy means that there is no author before. And those who learn English, because poetry is not Tang and writing about Han's illness, why not blame Nanwei powder, but spit stone can't be effective! " He also said: "Song poetry is longer than style and shorter than rhyme, but it is for the sake of writing, dense with argument and neglected to use it." However, some of them surpassed the Qin and Han Dynasties and did not flourish in the Tang Dynasty. "This paper specifically refutes the view that literature must exist in Qin and Han Dynasties, and poetry must flourish in Tang Dynasty", which makes the style of writing be reversed. Qian later commented on Yuan Hongdao's influence, saying that he promoted the change of writing style, and made poetry and prose creation have vitality and "great achievements". In the 28th year of Wanli (1600), Yuan Hongdao took a leave of absence due to the death of his younger brother Yuan Zongdao. He built the "Liulang Pavilion" in the south of the police station, and spent all his time reciting poems and composing poems with his old friends. He also visited Wudang Mountain, Taoyuan County and other places of interest, and gave heartfelt admiration to the nature that attracted Daiyu. He also admired Tao Qian's understanding of life, seeking self-adaptation in lush forests and grasses, and "begging rather than regretting". Yuan Hongdao lived in Liulang Lake for six years and didn't return to Beijing until the thirty-fourth year of Wanli (1606).
After Yuan Hongdao returned to Beijing, he studied opera and novels. He praised Jin Ping Mei, Water Margin, Four Sounds Ape and other works, thinking that they can "aim high", break away from traditional stereotypes and create a new situation. Yuan Hongdao wrote Zheng Zheng, talking about wine culture and so on, and compared these novels and dramas with Confucian classics since Jiajing, giving a high evaluation. Soon, Yuan Hongdao moved to the official department to check the seal, and officials went to the official department to take the exam. He once presided over the rural examination in Shaanxi, and took advantage of the opportunity of visiting Songshan and Huashan to write down the travel notes and poems of "the fruit of sighing" with thick ink.
In the thirty-eighth year of Wanli (16 10), Yuan Hongdao returned to China in the year of official seal inspection. At this time, the police were in a flood, so they settled in Shashi and built the north building of inkstone, so that they could "rest and swim", entertain poetry and books and "relax" in their later years. However, he soon became ill and died suddenly on September 6th (65438+1October 20th) at the age of 43.