After Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, there has always been a knot in his heart, that is, his complex feelings for scholars.
He comes from a poor grassroots background and doesn't have much education. Fortunately, he is willing to study hard the day after tomorrow, which makes him able to read and write, so that he won't be laughed at by scholars all over the world.
After all, he is not a man who talks like a book. Compared with those gifted scholars, Zhu Yuanzhang still looks very tacky. It can be said that in front of scholars, Zhu Yuanzhang has an inferiority complex in his bones, which also makes him deeply dislike those scholars.
However, as an emperor, he naturally and profoundly understood that it was really impossible to leave these scholars in the process of governing the world. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang showed a very contradictory approach to the scholars, sometimes praising them, sometimes suppressing them, sometimes treating them as guests, and sometimes abandoning them as our shoes.
Especially when these scholars gather in the hall to recite poems against each other, it is as if many horses are galloping across the grass in his heart.
Of course, the literati at that time were also very taboo about showing off their literary talent in front of Zhu Yuanzhang. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang was a suspicious emperor, and an negligence could have killed him.
However, it is undeniable that there were many great talents who exported poems in the Ming Dynasty, such as Tang Bohu, whom we are familiar with, but even Tang Bohu failed to rank among the "Three Talents of the Ming Dynasty".
The three gifted scholars in Ming Dynasty refer to Jie Jin, Yang Shen and Xu Wei. In particular, Xu Wei is an all-rounder in Ming Dynasty. He is quite proficient in literature, drama, calligraphy and painting, poetry, music and even military affairs.
It can be said that there are few people who can crush Xu Wei in talent in the Ming Dynasty.
But once when Xu Wei went out for a walk, he met and laughed at several scholars. These scholars invited Xu Wei to write poems, but the first four sentences almost made everyone laugh, and they were even ridiculed as vulgar.
So what has Xu Wei done? Is Xu Wei's talent not worthy of the name?
But before we say that, we have to talk about a poem by Zhu Yuanzhang, because this poem by Xu Wei is exactly like Zhu Yuanzhang's. Let's look at it together.
On one occasion, before Zhu Yuanzhang went to court, the civil servants chattered that it was called "Hi". When Zhu Yuanzhang arrived, there was silence immediately. Fortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang was in a better mood that day, and he told his ministers that he wanted to write a poem, too. At this moment, he just heard the rooster crow, so he opened his mouth and wrote a poem about chickens:
After hearing these two sentences, the officials almost laughed.
Zhu Yuanzhang ignored the reaction of his ministers, and opened his mouth to say the third and fourth sentences. When these two sentences came out, the ministers couldn't laugh any more. The content was:
Obviously, these two poems of Zhu Yuanzhang were quite amazing, which directly expressed the incomparable imperial spirit to the fullest, and the momentum contained in the poems was quite majestic.
It's admirable that a son of heaven from the grass roots can write such poems, which greatly changes Zhu Yuanzhang's image among his ministers. After all, ordinary people really can't write such poems.
It's worth mentioning that Zhu Yuanzhang also started a strange poem for the gifted scholars of the Ming Dynasty. Later, many gifted scholars followed suit and wrote many strange poems that were somewhat ridiculous to future generations, including Xu Wei's strange poem about singing willow.
Xu Wei likes to paint landscapes, and he likes to travel around mountains and waters on weekdays. One day, when he was free, he went out to play and unconsciously came to a gazebo.
Some people dressed by scholars and scholars in the pavilion were chattering and chattering, so Xu Wei went to join in the fun. Only after he entered did he understand the focus of these people's discussion.
There are paintings on the stone table in the middle of the pavilion, and next to them are poems written by these scholars based on the paintings. What they are talking about is who has done these poems better.
But Xu Wei looked at it again and again, and was disappointed. Because there was no good sentence in it, he shook his head and sighed several times.
naturally, these scholars were very angry when they heard someone's denial, so they challenged Xu Wei and invited him to write a masterpiece. Xu Wei was not angry after listening to it. He had a painting entitled "A Farewell to the Liuting" in front of him. After thinking about it, Xu Wei wrote the first four sentences:
Scholars almost laughed when they saw these four sentences written by Xu Wei, and they all ridiculed the poetic customs written by Xu Wei.
In the face of ridicule, Xu Wei did not say a word, and then he started to write two sentences:
When people saw these two sentences, they immediately fell silent, and at this time there were several cuckoos in the mountains, and Xu Wei started to write the next few sentences:
After Xu Wei finished writing, he walked away, and these self-important scholars were impressed by his talent, after all, they sublimated behind.
through these two poems by Zhu Yuanzhang and Xu Wei, we can find that they have a common feature, that is, the previous poems are plain, the words are simple, and even the sentences are very clumsy.
However, the ending of the poem is suddenly reversed, which sublimates the sentence that was not a poem in an all-round way, and finally gives people a wonderful feeling that there is no way to return to doubt.
In fact, the poems written by Zhu Yuanzhang and Xu Wei have a special name in literature, that is, reverse poetry.
This type of poem pays attention to the plain opening and amazing ending, and uses the most common words to create an infinite artistic conception. If it is well written, it can naturally be described as a wonderful pen.
There are many such poems in history, and Tang Bohu and Zheng Banqiao also wrote them. Although these people wrote different themes, they all wrote them with amazing words, especially the last few words, which made people shocked.
Of course, anti-pulling poems also tell us a truth. You should never ridicule and laugh at others at will, especially when others haven't fully displayed their talents, otherwise it will only make you laugh and drop a stone on your own feet.
Since Xu Wei can be called one of the three great talents in the Ming Dynasty, his literary attainments are naturally worthy of the name. I just don't know if those talents who laughed at him will be ashamed after Xu Wei left ...
References: Ming History, Poetry Appreciation, etc.
(figure network, invasion and deletion)