Introduction: Liu Yuxi (772-842), courtesy name Mengde, Han nationality, native of Pengcheng in the Tang Dynasty, ancestral home in Luoyang, Tang Dynasty writer and philosopher, claimed to be a descendant of King Shan Jing of Hanzhong, and once served as a supervisor. Shi is a member of Wang Shuwen's political reform group. A famous poet in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, he was known as the "Poetry Hero". The following is a story about his life, welcome to read:
Life
Liu Yuxi, once served as the guest of the prince, and was known as the guest of Liu in the world. Together with Liu Zongyuan, he is also known as "Liu Liu". Together with Bai Juyi, he is collectively known as "Liu Bai". In the ninth year of Zhenyuan, he was promoted to Jinshi, entered the Bo Xue Hong Ci Department, worked in the Huainan shogunate, and became the supervisory censor. Wang Shuwen used things, introduced them into the ban, and discussed with him, and he followed everything he said. He was transferred to wailang, a member of the field camp, and sentenced to the salt and iron case. Shu Wen was defeated and was demoted as the governor of Langzhou. During his demotion, he met Bai Juyi in Yangzhou. Bai Juyi wrote "Drunken Gift to Liu Twenty-Eight Envoys", and Liu Yuxi wrote "Rewarding Lotte at the First Banquet in Yangzhou" to thank Bai Juyi. Then he demoted Sima Langzhou. When he is down and out, he doesn't talk to himself, and he often speaks satirically to remind himself of the distant future. The vulgar people are fond of witchcraft, and they try to follow the orders of the poets. Relying on his voice, he wrote more than ten chapters of "Bamboo Branch Poems" and sang them in the caves of Wuling River. After ten years of residence, he was called back. He will be placed in the Lang's office and used as the capital of Xuan Dynasty to watch the flowers and poems. She is angry and dissatisfied with the ruling, so he returns to Cibozhou. Pei Du took his mother as his advice and moved to Lianzhou and Kuizhou and Hezhou. After a long time, he was enlisted as a guest doctor. He also visited Xuandu to observe poetry and went to Dongdu. Du was still recommended as a doctor in the Ministry of Rites, and a scholar who collected talents. After his stay, he left Suzhou, moved to Ruzhou and Tongzhou, and moved to the Prince's Guest Branch. Yu Xi was good at poetry, especially in the late period. Unfortunately, he was deposed and was in a state of poverty, so he adapted himself to writing. He had a lot of exchanges with Bai Juyi. Juyi once recounted his poems and said: Liu Mengde from Pengcheng was a great poet. It has a sharp edge, and few dare to take it. It is also said that his poems should be protected by divine objects everywhere, and he is highly respected by celebrities. In Huichang, the school's Minister of Etiquette was inspected. At the age of seventy-two when he died, he was presented to the Minister of Household Affairs. The poetry collection consists of eighteen volumes, now compiled into twelve volumes.
Mr. Zhou Xinguo, a historian and collector in Changde, Hunan, records in "Wuling Treasures": Liu Yuxi was demoted to Sima of Langzhou and wrote the famous "Spring View of Shoucheng in Han Dynasty" during his demotion. In order to commemorate Sima Liu Yuxi of Langzhou, the Hunan Changde Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government now built the "Sima Tower" by Liuye Lake.
There are many disputes about Liu Yuxi’s ancestral home. Some say he is from Luoyang, some say he is from Pengcheng (now Xuzhou), some say he is from Dingzhou and Wuji, Zhongshan. According to relevant historical data, Liu Yuxi is a descendant of the Xiongnu. His seventh generation ancestor Liu Liang was an official in the Northern Wei Dynasty. He moved the capital to Luoyang with Emperor Xiaowen of Wei Dynasty and changed his surname to Han. His father, Liu Xu, moved east to Jiaxing to avoid the Anshi Rebellion. Liu Yuxi was born here. Therefore, Liu Yuxi's "family origin is Xingshang and his native place is Luoyang." Regarding the saying that he was a "Pengcheng native", after investigation, this statement came from the mouths of Bai Juyi, Quan Deyu and others. That was just following the custom of "people with the surname Maojin in Xianpengcheng" ("Shitong Yili") at that time. Therefore, the statement that "Liu Yuxi was from Pengcheng" is inaccurate.
To say that Liu Yuxi was from Dingzhou, Zhongshan and Zhongshan Wuji, we have to start with his seventh generation ancestor Liu Liang. During the Zhou and Han Dynasties, Dingzhou and Wuji were the territories of Jizhou, and Wuji was also the territory of Dingzhou. Liu Liang once served as the governor of Jizhou and the regular attendant of Sanqi. Later, the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty was moved to Luoyang, and Liu Liang's family also moved to Luoyang. According to the "Summary of the General Catalog of Sikuquanshu", the categories of collections and collections are as follows: "The original biography of Shu Yuxi is called a Pengcheng person, Gaiju County Wang, but in fact he is a Zhongshan Wuji person. This compilation is also called Zhongshan Collection, so he is called Zhongshan Collection." In addition, the Qing Dynasty's "Jifu Tongzhi", "Dictionary of Chinese Historical Figures" and "Dictionary of Chinese Historical Celebrities" are also published. After repeated verification and consultation with relevant experts, Liu Yuxi’s ancestral home was confirmed to be Wuji, which is well-founded.
Poetic style
Liu Yuxi and his poetic style are quite unique. He has a resolute character and a heroic spirit. During the years of exile when he was still suffering from many worries, he did feel heavy psychological distress and sang a series of lamentations of a lonely minister. But he never despaired, and had the soul of a fighter; he wrote "The Gentlemen Called from Langzhou to Peking Opera in the Tenth Year of Yuanhe", "Revisiting Xuandu Guan Quatrain", "A Hundred Tongues", "Gathering Mosquitoes" Poems such as "The Ballad", "Fei Yuan Cao" and "Hua Tuo Lun" repeatedly satirized and criticized political opponents, which led to repeated political repression and blows, but these repressions and blows aroused his stronger resentment and resistance. , and strengthened his poetic temperament from different aspects. He said: "I am from Shandong, and I have been filled with emotions throughout my life" ("Yizhu Shanhui Zen Master"). This kind of "emotion" not only adds to the charming charm of his poems, but also greatly enriches the depth and strength of his poems.
Liu Yuxi’s poems, whether they are short chapters or long, are all concise and lively, with a handsome style. There is a kind of wisdom of the philosopher and the sincerity of the poet permeating them, and they are full of artistic tension and majestic momentum. For example, "The old man is saddened by the early wind, and the birds of prey are stirred by the autumn frost. . . . I am not weakened by feeling, but I am able to stimulate my heart." (Part 2 of "Three Poems on the Study of Ruan Gongti"), "The hair on the grass beside the horse is twitching, and the blue clouds in the sky are drowsy and the eyes are open." "The sky and the earth are clear and you can look around, and I will help you with your illness on a high platform" ("The First Smell of the Autumn Wind"). Poems such as this are written in a high-spirited style and have an exciting style. They have the power to uplift and encourage people to improve. As for his seven-character quatrains, they are also unique [1], such as: "No slanderous words are as deep as the waves, no words are as deep as the waves, and no words are like the sinking sand. Although it is hard to search for thousands of pounds, you will blow away the wild sand before you can find gold." ("The Waves") "Nine Taosha Poems" No. 8) "The plum blossoms in the north of Saibei are played on the Qiang flute, and the poems on the osmanthus hills in Huainan. Please don't play the songs of the previous dynasty and listen to the new version of "Willow Branches".
"(Nine Poems on Willow Branches, Part 1) From a poetic point of view, these two works are concise, clear and easy to understand. But if you look at it through one layer, you will realize a kind of independent and unswerving style that is arrogant and independent. The feeling of welcoming and transcending suffering, the vitality of life and the optimistic spirit of abandoning the old and looking for the new, and the inner connotation of a persevering and noble personality. Another example is his famous "Autumn Poems": "We meet from ancient times." Autumn is sad and lonely, and I say that autumn is better than spring. A crane flies above the clouds in the clear sky, which brings poetry to the blue sky. The whole poem goes against the traditional sad view of autumn, praising autumn and giving autumn a sense of guidance for life. Strength expresses the poet's infinite yearning for freedom.
Liu Yuxi lived in Jiaxing with his father in his early years and often visited Jiao Jiao, a famous Zen monk and poet in Jiangnan. Ranhe Lingche, according to his autobiography in "The Collected Works of Master Che", said that at that time, he "used two pens and inkstones to accompany him in chanting, saying that children can be taught." This early experience had a profound impact on his later poetry creation. . So, what do Jiao Ran and Ling Che advocate for poetry? Jiao Ran's "Poetic Style" discusses poetry, paying special attention to two aspects. One is that he advocates hard thinking and exercise, requiring poets to return to nature after carefully tempering their words. He believes that this kind of nature is the ultimate in poetry; secondly, he attaches great importance to the realm of poetry with profound meaning and clear and uplifting charm. He believes that "if the setting is high, the body of the poem will be high; if the setting is elegant, the poem will be high-lifting." "The body is at ease". And this "state", that is, the artistic conception comes from the state of mind of the creative subject. "The true thoughts are in the dark, and the floating thoughts are reflected in the shadows" ("Reply to Yu Xiaoshu on Winter Night"), that is, the poet's subjective state of mind and aesthetic concepts are The most important thing is that Lingche has no poetry that has been handed down from generation to generation, but according to Quan Deyu's "Preface to the Sending of Master Lingche to Lushan for His Return to Wozhou", he "has no words left in his heart, and his old words are very easy, as if they cannot be spoken". He is always in a constant environment, and all the thoughts and worries of life cannot come to him... He knows that his mind does not wait for the environment to be quiet and quiet." It is also said that he often "flicks his square robe, sits in a light boat, walks along the mirror, and catches a beautiful sentence in silence, and then goes deep into the emptiness and worries. "Xiran", it can be seen that Lingche also attaches great importance to winning the ethereal and profound artistic conception in the silent observation of the subject, and the language also pursues nature. On the one hand, these views are influenced by the poetic styles of Dali and Zhenyuan, which pay attention to the refinement of words and leave no traces. On the one hand, it comes from the idea that Buddhism attaches great importance to "heart", that is, subjective experience. Liu Yuxi believed deeply in Buddhism and obtained Samadhi. Many years later, he also said that a person who writes poetry should "can understand a hundred thoughts with a few words, and can conquer ten thousand things by sitting on a horse." "Scenery" ("Dong's Wuling Collection"), the first sentence refers to the conciseness and implicitness of the language, and the second sentence refers to the subject's observation and meditation. Therefore, on the one hand, he attaches great importance to making the language of poetry both exquisite and natural through tempering and polishing. , and objected to the frequent use of uncommon words, and proposed that "the use of uncommon words in poetry must have a source...
The poems of future generations must be well-founded and should not be just arbitrary." ("Liu Guest's Speech Record" 》);
On the other hand, he attached great importance to the observation and meditation of the subject. He once said in "The Autumn Passed by Master Hongju Monastery and Returned to Jiangling Shiyin":
< p> If you can get rid of desire, the space will be empty, and all the scenery will enter; when you enter, there will be some leakage, which is the shape of the words... The situation is obtained by concentration, so the words are clear; the words are chosen by wisdom, so they are pure. Korea.Concentration is the observation that eliminates distracting thoughts, and wisdom is the acquisition of inspiration. Poems written in this way can contain richer connotations and have a deeper artistic conception. Therefore, most of Liu Yuxi's poems are naturally smooth, concise and refreshing, and at the same time have an open and open sense of time and space. For example, his famous lines such as "The new leaves in the fragrant forest urge the old leaves, and the waves in front of the flowing water give way to the waves behind" ("The Poetry of Dun, Uncle Hui, and the Three Gentlemen of Lotte Seeing the Sorrow"), "Shen Shen" Thousands of sails are passing by the side of the boat, and thousands of trees are springing in front of the diseased trees." ("Rewarding Lotte Seeing Gifts at the First Banquet in Yangzhou") is a kind of sentiment he came to after contemplating history and life. This kind of perception appears in the poem as an image, which not only has a broad vision, but also has a span of time, showing the integration of history, reality and the future here.
Liu Yuxi’s epic poems are very praised. These poems use concise words and selected images to express his meditation after experiencing the vicissitudes of life. They contain deep emotions, such as "Reminiscing about the Past in Xisai Mountain", "Wuyi Alley", "Stone City", " Shuxianzhu Temple" are all famous works.
Wang Jun's boat landed in Yizhou, and the king of Jinling lost his temper. Qianxun's iron chain sank to the bottom of the river, and a flag fell out of the stone. Several times in this life, the past has been forgotten, but Yamagata is still pillowed in the cold current. Today is the day when the world is home, so the forts are rustling and the reeds are blooming in autumn. ("Reminiscence of the Ancients in Xisai Mountain")
There are wild grasses and flowers beside the Zhuque Bridge, and the setting sun is setting at the entrance of Wuyi Lane. In the old days, the swallows in front of Wang Xietang flew into the homes of ordinary people. ("Wo Yi Lane")
The previous song is the poet's emotion when standing on Xisai Mountain and looking into the distance. In his heart, there is a strong contrast between eternity and ephemerality: Thousands of sails are racing, iron chains are sinking Jiang, whether it is war, subjugation, chaos, division and reunification, all of these are just passing smoke and fleeting compared to the silent nature. The latter song uses the historical changes of Wang Xie and other noble families to become ordinary people's homes, showing the sigh deep in people's hearts that all prosperity and nobility will be washed away by time.
Liu Yuxi’s landscape poems have also changed the narrow and bleak style of Dali and Zhenyuan poets. They often write about an open scene that exceeds the actual distance of space and is half virtual and half real. For example, "The clouds on the distant mountains under the water are like snow, and the grass on the flat shore beside the bridge is like smoke" ("The fable of Mr. Wagyu after his drunken trip to Nanzhuang is presented to Lotte and his insights"), "The wild grass is fragrant and the red brocade is on the ground, and the gossamer is dazzling the blue sky" ("Spring Day" The book is sent to the concubine of Dongluobai on the 22nd Yang and 82nd generations"). Another example is "Looking at the Dongting":
The lake and the autumn moon are harmonious.
There is no goggles on the surface of the pool that have not been polished.
Looking at the green mountains and rivers of Dongting in the distance,
There is a green snail in the silver plate.
The poet's subjective emotions are blended into this quiet and ethereal landscape, creating a tranquil and peaceful atmosphere. However, although Liu Yuxi said that "if you can renounce desire, you will be empty", but he actively participated in Yongzhen's reform, but actually still wanted to realize his life ideals in society; his character was also relatively stubborn, so despite the influence of Buddhists, he Unlike Bai Juyi in the later period, who was sometimes satisfied and sometimes decadent, his poems often showed a high and cheerful spirit. For example, one of the two poems in "Autumn Poems": "
Since ancient times, autumn has been sad and lonely, and I say that autumn is better than spring.
A crane lining the clouds in the clear sky evokes poetic sentiment "To Bixiao."
"Tong Le Tian Climbing the Qiling Temple Pagoda":
"It's not difficult to carry each other step by step, leaning against the railing outside the nine layers of clouds.
"Suddenly the sky was filled with laughter, and countless tourists raised their eyes to see it."
There was a kind of exalted power. Due to the implicit and deep connotation, the open and clear realm and the high and upward emotions, Liu Yuxi's poems appear to be both solemn and clear. Mention should also be made of some of the poems he wrote influenced by folk songs. Jiao Ran, Ling Che and others lived in Wu where folk songs flourished. From the perspective of Zen Buddhism, folk songs are frank, natural, lively and simple, which is the ultimate form of language. Therefore, they also drew on the characteristics of folk songs to write poems, which undoubtedly influenced Liu Yuxi. It had a certain influence; Liu Yuxi was demoted to the south many times, which is also where folk songs are popular, so Liu Yuxi often collected folk songs and learned their styles to compose poems, such as "Egret":
"Egret, the highest grid.
The new sweater is no match for the snow,
The birds are noisy and silent.
The solitary grass is sleeping,
The gurgling stone has been standing for a long time.
The front mountain is cloudless,
Flying into the distant blue.
The poem describes one's aloof feelings in a metaphorical way, but in a brisk folk song style. There are also some works that completely imitate folk songs, such as "Bamboo Branch Ci", "Willow Branch Ci", "Walking on the Dike", "Ta Lyrics", etc. They are all simple, natural, fresh and lovely, exuding the rich flavor of life like folk songs. The following two The first song is particularly expressive:
Looking at the misty waves from the south of the Yangtze River to the north, pedestrians sing in response at night.
The peach leaves express love and the bamboo branches express resentment, and the water flow is infinite and the moon is bright. ("Walking on the Embankment" No. 2 of 3)
The willows are green and the river is level, and I can hear Lang singing on the bank.
The sun rises in the east and rains in the west. There is no sunshine but there is sunshine.
(One of two poems from "Bamboo Branch Ci")