At the beginning of this year, Mr. Wang Xuetai of the Institute of Literature of the Academy of Social Sciences passed away. I read a letter written by Mr. Wang to Du Fu in 2012 at the invitation of a certain magazine on WeChat. At the end of the letter, Mr. Wang specifically asked Du Fu if he could provide a clear explanation as to why he left the Chengdu Cottage in his later years. If Lao Du cannot be brought up underground, this seems to have become an unsolvable mystery. But if you study Du Fu's poems carefully, it is not difficult to find that Du Fu has already explained this. My new account of this study was written down in 1979, and the first draft was not published until 2011 when Fudan University Press published the collection of my 30-year work "Reverence for Tradition". This is the first academic text I have written in my life, and of course it is very immature. After revision and addition, it was divided into "An Examination of Du Fu Wei Lang's Leaving Shu" (published in "Journal of Fudan University, Issue 1, 1984") and "A New Exploration of the Reasons for Du Fu's Behavior and Behavior after Leaving Shu" (published in "Thatched Cottage", Issue 1, 1985). , Chinese and foreign scholars have different views on this. It is not widely circulated, and Mr. Wang probably did not see it. The key evidence is the poem "Guest Hall" written by Du Fu in the autumn of the first year of Yongtai (765) at the beginning of his stay in Yun'an. This article intends to analyze and interpret the poem based on the aforementioned humble essay.
First record the full poem "Guest Hall" as follows:
I recall that I left Shaocheng yesterday, but now I am different from Chu and Shu. She left the boat and returned to the deep mountains, where she found herself at the foot of the forest. Living in Yun'an County, it eliminates poisons in the middle and internal phases. The old illness has been here for twenty years, and the old age has been exhausted. If you die as a ghost in a different direction, your head will be white and short. The old horse finally looks at the clouds, and the southern geese aim at the north. Parents and children, please feel ashamed. The narrative of the living room is changed, and the objects are restrained. The fern buds in Shixuan are purple, and the asparagus in Zhuxiu is green. The warblers are not sparse, and the wheat is ripe early. The long sun moves on the river, and the spring leaves the trees in the desert. Tailang selects talented people and takes great care of himself. Seniors are famous, but nothing is gained. Unexpectedly, Wan Zhang Fu has a quiet and lonely nature. Wherever you rest, you must plant several poles of bamboo. The business is just mash, and the maintenance is just thatched hut. Shang Gong has a reporter, but he has little salary and salary. When the Lord is worried, he will be absent from work because he is far away. It is right to follow the Confucian Temple, and it is straight to the sky. I still want to go to the imperial court and benefit the country at all. If the body is like this now, it will advance and retreat accordingly.
There are many discrepancies in details in the collation of each edition. The most important thing is the seventh sentence "Old illness comes in twenty years." It is written as "gan" and "ganzai" has no words. It is modified according to the Jiujia edition, Baijia edition, Cai edition, Fenmen edition, Huang edition and Zhao edition. Judging from the phenology described in the poem, sentences such as "The wheat matures early" and "The spring trees in the desert" should be in the late spring and early summer, certainly not in autumn. As for the location, there are two sentences: "Living in Yun'an County will eliminate the internal and external poisons." It must be that he lived here due to illness after living in Yun'an. Yun'an is a county under Kuizhou, only a hundred miles away from Kuizhou. Du Fu lived in Yun'an until the early spring of the following year before moving to Kuizhou. He stayed in Yun'an for more than half a year. This place was definitely not his destination and was a temporary residence. This has been discussed for a long time and has been concluded long ago, so I will not go into it here. Wang Sixi's "Du Sui" thinks that Ju Kui wrote it after him, and Qiu Zhao'ao followed it more often in the future. This is also possible and will not be discussed here.
According to the mainstream theory since the Song Dynasty, Du Fu was a member of the Ministry of Inspection and Engineering. During the period when Yan Wu was once again serving as the Jiedushi envoy of Jiannan and Xichuan, Du Fu entered the shogunate and served as Jiedushi's adviser. The following year Yan Wu died in office, leaving Du Fu with no one to rely on in Shu. Seeing that chaos in Shu was imminent, he hurriedly bought a boat and headed east. There are many things that cannot be explained. First, Yan Wu died at the end of April, which was close to midsummer. It is certain that Du Fu was preparing to leave Shu in the spring and was already on his way to the river at the end of April. Du Fu had a close friendship with Yan Wu, but there were no words of condolence during the funeral. There was only "Crying Yan's Servant Shooting Back to the Sea", at the end of which he said "I mourned the sunset in the Three Gorges, and I saw your love after leaving behind", and he was already living in the gorge. . Secondly, what was Du Fu’s destination when he first left Chengdu? Most commentators believe that "Going to Shu" was written when he first left Shu. The poem goes: "I have traveled to Shu County for five years and lived in Zizhou for one year. How to block the barriers and travel to Xiaoxiang instead." Did he plan to enter Hunan when he left Chengdu? After studying Du Fu's poems about living in the gorge and leaving the gorge and entering Hunan, it is obviously not the case. Until his "Ascend the Yueyang Tower" at the beginning of his entry into Hunan, he still expressed the helplessness of "having no relatives and friends, and being alone in old age and illness". In other words, if a letter arrived from relatives and friends in Jiangdong, he would be more willing to go east to eat. "How to pass the barrier and turn it into a tour of Xiaoxiang." It should be written after entering Hunan. Third, Du Fu's poem "Three Gorges" mentioned the relationship between leaving Shu and Wei Lang many times, such as "The two capitals are still poor, and the four seas are with them. At the beginning of the shogunate, Lang Guan had only a few staff. When I was in Gua, I was still living in a sojourn, and I had a bitter fate." , Gua Shi refers to the time when the job is handed over. This position must not refer to the shogunate, but to the Langguan. That is to say, because the time for entering the capital as a Lang has passed, he is still trapped in the journey and can only make a living wandering. Another example is "Yue Yu", "Tong Ji hates being sick, and he is a poor traveler", "Send Cen to Jiazhou", "Low pillow on green maple, only jade can be removed", "Eight Poems of Autumn Xing", "Painting incense burner violates pillow". All have the same meaning. Could it be that Du Fu didn't understand the official system at that time, so he gave you a false title and really thought you could enter the capital and become a man? Is he hallucinating and having a personal dream? Will he surrender his personal and family life and future to this illusion? Obviously such a judgment cannot be made. In other words, the explanation that has been the mainstream since the Song Dynasty cannot be established at all.
The above-cited article makes the following points. First, entering the court and being a man are not the same thing. Du Fu entered the imperial court again in the autumn and winter of the second year of Guangde (764). The clothes described in the poem were mainly military uniforms, and did not involve clothing related to Lang officials such as scarlet robes and silver fish. Yan Wuzhuo was a member of the School Inspection and Engineering Department, and he was approved by the court and issued with clothing. In the early spring of the first year of Yongtai, there was "Five Poems on Spring River Village" to record his events. As the saying goes: "The red tube follows the king's order, and the silver medal is paid to the old man. Little did he know that if his teeth fall out, his name will be tarnished and he will be recommended to the virtuous." "Healing the sick will bring down the red silk curtains, and returning home will stop with purple moss."
Jiao Fei has late plans, and the shogunate is ashamed of its talents. "It means that I have been preparing to spend the rest of my life in the thatched cottage, and my health has not been good. However, the imperial order was issued, the recommendation of talents was accurate, and I was ahead of the shogunate. I feel honored, ashamed, and grateful. A more direct expression is this First: "A group of thieves mourned Wang Can, and summoned Jia Sheng in his middle age. When I first climbed up the stairs, I made a lot of achievements, and I felt proud of myself at the front table. He entered the "Biographies of the Sages" and became famous as a scholar with high talents. I was pregnant with two sons at the same time, and my love returned in spring. "Comparing Wang Can and Jia Yi, Wang was in trouble and wandered away from home, while Jia was summoned in his middle age. Emperor Wen asked at the table that he had the fate of both of them, so of course he was more proud to be called. Second, the inspection of the school in the Tang Dynasty The official system was very different in the early and later periods. During the Xuanzong period, it mainly referred to official positions that were not actually awarded. In the middle and later Tang Dynasties, they were all empty titles and had no practical significance. The time of this change may have been between Wen Yuanying and De. Judging from the poems about abolition of officialdom written by Jia Zhi and Chang Gun stored in the "Hua", the original intention of not actually teaching should still be maintained in the early days of Daizong. However, among high-level inspectors such as Pu She and Shangshu, the meaning has changed, and middle-level civil servants It has not changed. Therefore, what Du Fu accepted in Shu was the inspector, and he could only be removed after arriving in Beijing within a limited time. Third, there was a way from Shu to Beijing, namely Jiange and Baoxie Road. However, the journey is difficult and not suitable for the elderly. Although the journey is far, it is more convenient by boat and vehicle. "That is to say, we pass through the Wu Gorge from Ba Gorge and then go down to Xiangyang to Luoyang." This is the path he chose.
When Du Fu left Shu, he passed through Rongzhou and Luzhou for the first time. When he arrived at Yuzhou, there was a poem in "Yuzhou Houyan Liushiyu didn't go down to the gorge first": " After hearing the Tao, I rode on my horse and stayed by the sand until now. I don’t know that the clouds and rain have dispersed, but my short and long chants have been wasted. The mountains are wide and black, and the rivers are deep. Watch as the ship passes by a pillar, keep your eyes peeled for the chance to board. "It means that I have been waiting for you for a long time and you haven't arrived yet. Are you delayed in viewing the scenery and reciting poems? The climate in the gorge is harsh and the river travel is difficult. I'm sorry, I have to leave first, but I will wait for you at Jiangling Yizhu Temple. Yu The state is now Chongqing, not far from Yun'an and Kuizhou. Du Fu still has no intention of staying in the gorge. He has several poems in Zhongzhou, including "Inscribed on the wall of the courtyard where Longxing Temple lives in Zhongzhou". From the looks of it, "I am still worried about the tiger in the park, and I am living in the Laidu Garden", I think I have probably become ill. I barely made it to Yun'an, and I could no longer persist, so I had to stay and recuperate.
After the above narration and explanation, let's read "The Guest Hall" again , you can fully understand his living conditions and true feelings.
"Gutang" is an ancient poem with rhymes. Among Du's poems, the first four sentences are about leaving Chengdu. Later experiences. Shaocheng, that is, a small town, is the name of a place in the southwest of Chengdu. The Cottage is also located on the bank of Huanhua River in the southwest of Chengdu, so it refers to the Cottage. "I remember leaving Shaocheng yesterday, but now I am different from Chu and Shu". The experience of the past year. Kuizhou and Yun'an are located between Bashu and Jing'e. They are neither Chu nor Shu, which vaguely illustrates the embarrassment of their location. It is written that Aizhou temporarily lived in the gorge. The land is mountainous and densely forested. He temporarily lived at the foot of the mountains. The surrounding environment is very different from that of Chengdu. This is also a specific description of "different from Chu and Shu". The following six sentences describe living in the Bo Gorge. The reason. Diabetes, which refers to quenching thirst, is now called diabetes. It is a disease caused by high blood sugar caused by the decline of metabolic function. Its symptoms are mostly thirst, frequent urination, vision loss, general fatigue, and even lead to organ disease. Death. Du Fu was well versed in medicine and had suffered from this disease for more than 20 years. He was well aware of the dangers and treatment methods. He excitedly prepared to leave the Xiaxia for Beijing, but when his condition became critical, he decisively chose to stay in the Xiaxia to recuperate in the hope of recovery. After recovering from illness, I can travel again. In the poem "Guest" written at the same time as "Guest Hall", he wrote: "I am in the middle of the road, and I can't talk about my health. "I'm lying down and worried about my sick legs, and I walk slowly to look at the small garden." The sick legs are also caused by diabetes. Du's poems also mentioned wind paralysis many times, which is now called rheumatoid arthritis, which is quite serious.
"Old I have been ill for twenty years and have lost my years. If you die as a ghost in a different direction, your head will be white and short. The old horse finally looks at the clouds, and the southern geese aim at the north. Parents and children, please feel ashamed. "This section describes the mood after being seriously ill. It has both a sense of exhaustion and self-comfort, which best reflects the feelings of Du Fu's poems. The sentence "old illness" is easier to understand. Du Fu got sick in his early years and survived for twenty years. Of course, I have always been vigilant and careful in everything. Once it relapses, I also understand the seriousness of the situation. Many predecessors have commented on the sentence "declining years." I don't dare to expect longevity exams. "Li Zhiyun: "As you age, you can only suffer from old diseases, and this is enough. "Wang Hao said: "It's been a long time without danger, and this is enough. "Although there are differences, the gist is similar. In the two sentences "die for", the latter sentence is interpreted by Lu Yuanchang as "dying with a gray head is not a sign of youth". Yang Lunyun said that "it is not a sign of longevity", but it is still Lao Du The broad explanation and ***, and the sentence "Death is a ghost in a different place" show that he has a huge sense of uneasiness about dying in a foreign place, and feels that his life is threatened, and he even gave up the opportunity to become an official in Beijing in order to survive. This is reality. , this is Du Fu's rational choice in the darkest moment of his life, and it is also a helpless arrangement in distress. The next two sentences are generally regarded by Zhao Ci as an adaptation of the ancient poem "Hu Ma hisses in the north wind, crossing the bird's nest in the south branches", and the pseudo-Wang Zhu. I think the two sentences, "The place I live in is not my home country, are both self-explanatory," are very accurate. I would also like to point out that the previous sentence shows Du's ambition. The first visit to the family was at the beginning of the second year of Qianyuan (759). It has been nearly eight years since then. The children are gradually growing up, which is of course gratifying. They also say that they have no achievements, and the most common thing is that patients with thirst are all over the body. A state of fatigue and lack of energy.
After the next eight sentences, we return to the title of the poem and write about the scenery and phenological changes around the residence. These provide some comfort to the poet living in a guest house, but the passage of time makes the author feel that life is The opportunity is fleeting, but what can you do if you have been suffering from illness for a long time? This leads to concern about one's own destiny.
"The Tailang selects talented people and cares about themselves to the best of their ability. The reputation of the predecessors has been lost, but they have gained nothing. Unexpectedly, Zhang Fu is a lonely man. He must plant several poles of bamboo wherever he rests in his life. His career will only be dull. "Mash, build a thatched house." This section describes his luck in being selected as a Langguan. The Shangshu Province of the Tang Dynasty was the executive department of the imperial government. It was divided into six departments: officials, rituals, soldiers, punishments, households, and industry. Each department had four departments. The Yuanwailang of the Ministry of Industry was the deputy position of this department. From the sixth rank, the duty was "auxiliary doctor". In charge of all matters of business and construction." In the Tang Dynasty, Chonglang Guan was regarded as an important official in the Qing Dynasty, but there were specific differences among the six divisions. For example, Volume Ding of "New Book of the South" says: "In the middle of the province, the Simen, the Duguan, the Tuntian, the Yubu, the host and the guest are all idle and have nothing to do. The proverb of the time is: 'There are countless people who have entered the province in the Tuntian Water Department.'" About the Ministry of Industry Pretty much the same. But Du Fu took this very seriously, that is, all those who were selected as Lang officials were talented people, so he reflected on himself and felt extremely honored. The so-called "predecessor famous people" refers to those whose poems were famous for a while, such as Wang Ji, Luo Binwang, Lu Zhaolin, Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Meng Haoran, Li Bai, etc., all of whom were famous all over the world, but they have not been able to achieve this position. The six lines of "Quran" repeat the meaning of "Five Poems on Spring River Village" written when he was first appointed as a Langguan. He still likes to be quiet and lonely by nature, and has already considered guarding the thatched cottage alone until he grows old in Huanhuaxitou. A few months before leaving the thatched cottage, he wrote poems such as "Camp House", "Weeding" and "Long Yin", which described the scene of planting bamboo, weeding and repairing the thatched cottage. At this time, he was fifty-four years old. He was indeed in his twilight years in the Tang Dynasty. If he wanted to pursue great achievements, his chances were already very slim. Du Fu is a very rational poet. He always sees the situation in life very clearly. However, Yan Wu's memorial to confer the title of Langguan and the conferment of silver medals and Zhu Fu's awards completely changed his original intention. After all, this was a rare opportunity for him to return to the Central Plains and the court. He seemed to have chosen to leave Chengdu and the thatched cottage without hesitation. This choice changed his destiny in his later years.
After expressing his long-awaited retirement, Du Fu changed his tone sharply and strongly expressed his desire to return to the court and contribute to the court: "The Lord has a reporter, but his salary and salary are poor. I am worried about the time, but I can't help him. I am far away from my job, so I can go straight to the Confucian Temple. I still want to go to the imperial court and benefit the country. "The Duke here should include Yan Wu, but he is not the only one, that is, Yan Wu uses the sword to the south of Xichuan. The status of the Jiedushi was Du Fu's invitation. If it was a secret service, most of the time it would only take the Jiedushi Commander's invitation. As for the imperial court official, he would have to be a prominent official in the court. It is highly suspected that the person is Jia Zhi. In the second year of Guangde, he was appointed as the minister of the Ministry of Rites and had a long-term relationship with Du Fu in poetry and writing. The so-called "tired playing" means that repeated efforts have yielded results, and it does not mean that one performance will be awarded by the official. Bolu is the poet's humble words. In the Tang Dynasty, the salary of Beijing officials was lower than that of state and county officials, as recorded in Du Mu's collected works. But for Du Fu, when he returned to his hometown from Huazhou in the early second year of Qianyuan, the place had experienced war and was no longer the same as before. He has been wandering in the southwest for many years and has no source of income. He mostly relies on support from his friends. By becoming an official in the capital, he could at least have a decent income and maintain food and clothing for his family, which was still important to him. Of course, more generally speaking, when the world was in chaos and the government and the public were troubled, Du Fu felt that it was the responsibility that he must bear as a minister to share the worries of the king and contribute to the country. However, he was far away in the gorge, as far away from the court as a sky. The imperial court gave him a position, but he was absent from his duties for a long time due to illness. This was really something he didn't want to see. The two sentences "Xun Wen" not only praise the government's appropriate measures and the integrity of its affairs, but also imagine that if you are lucky enough to enter the government, you can express your views on the gains and losses of the government. "I still want to join the court and benefit the country at all." These two sentences are concluded with these two sentences, which strongly express the desire to join the court. Although his personal power is so weak, his contribution to the government may be insignificant, but didn't he say it in his early years: "I was born to meet the kings of Yao and Shun, but I couldn't bear to say goodbye forever. Today's corridors and temples are not lacking in building buildings. Sunflowers and hyacinths are leaning against the sun, and the nature of things cannot be taken away." ("Five Hundred Words of Ode to Huai from Beijing to Fengxian County") Contribute to the country and the country , This is where one's bounden duty lies. As long as he has a breath left, he should rush to help, so how can he gain or lose? What's more, since he has an official position, he has an unshirkable mission.
"The shape of the body is like this, the advance and retreat are determined by the color." The last two sentences summarize the whole poem and should be interpreted separately. Xingke refers to the body after illness. Due to the attenuation of digestive and metabolic functions, patients with diabetes suffer from general fatigue, loss of appetite, rapid weight loss, and a haggard appearance, which is often reflected in their appearance. Du Fu has been living in the gorge for more than half a year. His physical strength is weak and his body shape has changed drastically. This is something he can feel all the time. What’s next? Make it difficult for him. Of course, he had to leave the gorge immediately and rush to the court. However, he was so weak and the journey was difficult. He knew that his sick body could not bear the fatigue. If he forced himself to go north, he would probably die on the middle road. To retreat, of course, is to return to Shu, but can Chengdu still go back? From Du Fu's Yun'an and Kuizhou poems, we can see that he kept in touch with friends in Shu and was more concerned about the governance of Shu. The fact is that not long after his trip, internal strife broke out in Yanwu's old tribe in central Sichuan, and wars broke out frequently. Huanhua Cottage was later occupied by Cui Ning's concubine Ren. In other words, there is no way out. The only way is to continue to rest in Kuizhou.
"The Guest Hall" was written about a year after Du Fu was appointed as a Langguan. The hesitation and confusion repeatedly described in the poem should be due to the time limit for taking office.
When he was seriously ill and in danger of dying, he felt deeply sorry to give up the opportunity to serve his country that he had pursued all his life, but sometimes in life, he really couldn't make any other choice. We can understand Du Fu's pain. During this darkest moment, his heart was filled with high-spirited feelings for his family and country, and he had to face the embarrassment of immediate difficulties. The choice was painful, but in the end reason defeated ***, and he chose to continue living in the gorge.
Du Fu stayed in Kuizhou for two years and preserved more than 400 poems, reaching the pinnacle of his poetic art in his life. If we can understand that these works were written by him when he was seriously ill and faced difficulties in making a living, we will definitely have more respect for this great poet. The predecessors had questioned why Du Fu cursed and felt miserable because of the magnificent scenery in the gorge. If you understand his situation, it is not difficult to give a reasonable explanation.
In the spring of the third year of the Dali calendar, Du Fu sailed out of the gorge and temporarily stayed in Jiangling. First, he had his younger brother to help him, and second, his old friend Li Zhifang was the Sima of Jingnan at that time and could receive him. In the autumn, Li Zhifang died of illness. He was often discriminated against and ignored in the Jiangling court. There is a verse in "Thirty Rhymes of Jingnan in Autumn" that goes: "Bitterness shakes the tail in begging for food, and often exposes the gills of repaying kindness. Tie the tongue to guard against slander." , There is a misfortune in the heart. The soldiers in the vast world are crying, and the family is hungry. The sorrow is everywhere. It is difficult for the people to recognize the loss. " The most difficult thing to see is his situation. From the police to Yueyang, he was desperate and had "no relatives or friends". He was willing to go wherever there was news. Because his old friend Wei Zhijin was appointed as the observation envoy to Hunan, he chose to trace Hunan to the south. These later experiences were unforeseen when he wrote the poem "Guest Room", but they were also the inevitable result of the choices he made at that time.
Going back to the beginning of this article, this article uses the original text of Du's poem and represents Du Fu's answer to the reason for leaving Shu. I don't know if it can explain Mr. Wang's confusion at that time. I ask readers to make a decision.
(Author’s affiliation: Department of Chinese, Fudan University)