Ni's embroidery and painting are widely spread and have great influence. Despite the turmoil, especially after Jiayin (Kangxi 13, AD 1674), it was seriously lost. But people still worship her. For example, Jinhua Jingji Zhi says: "Xin Hui is a master of literature and history, and also works in painting and calligraphy, making small landscapes, far matching Zhao. Embroidery is also acceptable. So far, these paintings and calligraphy works are so precious. " 140 years later, during the period of Jiaqing Bingzi (18 16) in the Qing Dynasty, when the poem "Ningxiangge" was reprinted, Chen Yunyou pointed out as a "small introduction": "The situation is picturesque, the embroidery is wonderful, the dream is endless." In the same year, when Wei Songshou wrote the postscript for the second edition of Poems of Ningxiang Pavilion, he also pointed out: "There are exquisite treasures, beautiful flowers, and needles can call gods (the master has hair embroidery, and he saw it in Longping Temple, making a seal for his life, and there is no ink in it, which is really a stunt). Painting can be good at flowers and words are connected together. " "Jinhua Jing Lu" contains: "Wang Jian's embroidered heart sutra, with plain silk as the quality and green silk as the thorn, is like a ray of gold and jade." A Textual Research on Gong Gui's Literature and Art records: "Benevolence, word and heart benefit", "Being good at painting and writing beautiful women is called stunts and scenery".
Today, we can still find the sources of Ni embroidery paintings as follows:
1. The silk embroidery "Master Fu" flowed into Japan in its early years and is now in the National Museum of Japan.
2. Embroidered tree planting map, now in China National Museum.
3. Silk Embroidered Spring Fu Guitu, now in Yiwu Museum. 17576, this picture is based on silk, and various colors of silk are embroidered with rocks, peony and magnolia.
4. Painting: A picture of a beautiful woman, 12547cm, by Geng Xu (1670), Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. Originally collected in Pujiang County Museum, now collected in Zhejiang Provincial Museum.
5. Painting: Plum Magpie Axis, 13369.5cm This painting is a meticulous painting of Plum Magpie, but it is not a double hook. It is written in dark and light colors, with no bones, but with a pen. Now it is in Yiwu Museum.
6. Painting: Flower-and-bird painting axis, 63.53 1cm, a red and white peony flower in full bloom, lined with spring leaves, five chrysanthemums beside the rock, and a bird standing leisurely on the branch in the middle of the picture. Now it is in Yiwu Museum. Around the age of 50, Ni's poems are becoming more and more famous. Her husband's family and her younger generation mobilized her to publish a book. "Ningxiangge Poetry Draft" was published in 1665, when Ni was 60 years old. His nephew Ginny clearly pointed out in the preface: "Today Jiazi is the week, which is the catalpa of fate. Celebrities in the world are deeper than poets, and they know that it is also a relief not to take Yu as a personal reputation. " "Yiwu County Records" also said: Ni is sixty years old and has "Ningxiangge Poetry Draft". Ningxiangge Poetry Draft consists of three parts: Ningxiangge poetry, palace poems and miscellaneous poems in the mountains. The following are introduced separately.
1658 (the Reform Movement of 1898), Ni was 53 years old, and wrote more than five poems 140, with the total title of "Poems of Mountain Living". In the "preface", she recalled herself: "1In the spring of 898, when I was in Xiao Xuan, I saw the old man's autumn mountain map and occasionally recalled the previous words. It was a bald pen, and I remembered its meaning, 140 times. This is a quiet scene beneficial to Shan Ye. I talked about the past and the present, and kept the story of seclusion. Hayes (according to 1659) owner's book of Ningxiang Pavilion in early spring. " In the same year, after a pure debate, Grandnephew Ginny said in "After Poems Living in the Mountain": "Yuzugu is old this spring and autumn, and he is doing his best to celebrate his birthday. He is angry and talks about it." Yun Chun Ginny's name is Huang Fei and He Sheng. He is a scholar. He has not been elected as an official for a long time. It was not until 1686 (Kangxi Bingyin) that he was appointed as the "year-old tribute" for the supervision of Chinese studies. 1659, he was repairing his family tree in his hometown Pujiang. He strongly supports Zuguni Renji's book publishing.
1660 (Geng Zi) When Ni was 55 years old, she wrote 35 palace poems, which are also encouraged by everyone. It was his stepson, General Wu Yun, who first pushed this matter. General Wu Yun's biological father, Wu (his eldest brother), founded the "Baronglou Poetry Society" in Jinhua in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and published books such as Yue Mingzhai Draft and Wu Shu, which are quite famous. Wu Yun will also be invited to participate in poetry club activities, and his works will be included in Wu Shu. At this time, he asked Zhang Xingrui to make a "narrative" for the Palace Intention Poetry. Zhang Xingrui Kangxi Guimao (1663) pointed out in "Palace Poems" that Ni "Gu Youcai is so, and his words seem to have been more than 50 years. Wu will invite the next generation. " It is an order to give a gift to Wusheng and return it. It is the best way to introduce the eyebrows. Zhang Yimai, a relative of Chunbini's maiden, and her grandnephew also wrote a preface for her in Kangxi (1662) respectively, which promoted the publication of the book.
Ni Yisheng's other poems were compiled as Ningxiangge Poems. By analyzing her poems in her later years (about 50 years old), we can see their consistent artistic characteristics and extensive life contents.
Widowed life is certainly bitter, and old age is no exception. Therefore, the poem "Exploring Plums" says: "Plum blossoms are fragrant, but plum knots are extremely bitter." Although Ni "looks at the lamp in the niche, the drops on the steps are removed, the incense in the cold cage is fragrant, and the shadow is the enemy." (Sitting at night) also wants to get rid of Buddhism, but in the end he is determined to face real life positively. Therefore, at the age of 49, she wrote in the poem "Mid-Autumn Festival": "The mid-autumn moon is forty-nine degrees, and Guanghua is half * * *. It is impossible for three guests to sell wine carelessly, so I plan to write off Gu Tong. There is no soul in the ring, and there is a cool country to take advantage of. It's cold to cover the heavens and the earth without letting the wind go. " Determined to get rid of troubles and keep a healthy mind, she wrote the poem "Self-Dispatch" at the age of 54: "If you add four in half a century, you will be carefree every day. Don't drink the wine at leisure when it is ripe. When the flowers bloom, you must pity them in the rain. Yan's small nursery is planted with medicine, and the double eaves exposed outside are cotton. Huang Ting's epigram is the most on the couch, and the heart dances three times. Therefore, there is a life of "building a garden": "Building a garden can be used for health care for the elderly because of planting medicines. Chrysanthemum English clears the eyes and ears, and daylily delights the soul. Move bacon strongly, and weave fences to protect leaves. Tired of sitting in moss stone, two butterflies follow people. ".
Under the guidance of this positive and healthy attitude, she wrote many fresh and lively poems. Such as "Spring Tour": "A hundred and fifty years should be a cold food festival, and the deep valleys and wild trails are all fragrant. When the apricot blossoms are sparse at the beginning, the pear clouds will be low. Bustling bees are painting, and swallows are dancing around the sunny bank. Not afraid of the fragrant mud, go through the secluded sky to find the west. " "Mountain Trip": "If you don't envy Taoyuan, you can avoid Qin. You only live in the valley. It's not enough to send you, it's better to get the moon first. Yinger is like an old friend, and her predecessor is a rocky stone statue. How can you build a small Panasonic and listen to the wind and waves? " "Autumn Love": "The bamboo rain in the window falls into a dream, and the cold toad sleeps brightly. Who is infinite in autumn, who is endowed with the same, and the latitude and longitude are lonely and prosperous. " "the fourth scene": "the mist reflects the water and flies, and the rock head thinks of Yi Yi. How to find out the waves and get the strange peaks back? " It's really interesting and witty.
Compared with men, female poets are more difficult to succeed in creation. First, "those who live in boudoir are limited to the same natural danger, unlike the bachelor's family who can borrow teachers and friends to enter their affairs and sway their chests in the mountains and rivers to make them know about the temple code." And if the deputy is one plus two vertical, you can't help but entrust. It's not like a bachelor's family can win only by taking a minor course, and it's easy to fly. "Secondly, it is more difficult to write poems in boudoir. Heroic spirit is useless. Generosity does not help. And I can't say anything, I am self-sustaining, for fear of slipping my tongue, and the audience is happy to criticize his words. If I talk about the handle in words, how can the boudoir talk about poetry? Therefore, at that time, many people thought that Ni was a master of poetry, calligraphy, painting and embroidery, and her poetry content surpassed that of female poets such as Li Qingzhao and Zhu, and she was innocent compared with men.
Chant in the Mountain —— A Wonderful Flower of China's Classical Poetry
In my opinion, the poems on the theme of hometown written by Ni in his life are the most touching. For example, I see my sister-in-law off at dusk in autumn, I miss my sister-in-law on a snowy night, I play in the mountains with my female companion in autumn, I remember traveling together the day before Chongyang, I remember my family under the moon, and I miss my family in the city. In particular, 1658 (53 years old) wrote the poem Four Seasons in the Mountains (140 poems of five elements), which is a wonderful work of China's classical poetry. Among them, the vivid description of all kinds of farming is beyond the reach of other poets (not just female poets). From "Spring Silkworm Blessing" ("When it's fragrant and cold, you can eat close and know the wind and rain". I am afraid that there will be less spring, so I pray for silkworms to go to the ancient temple "); "Bathing silkworms" ("Walking on the green and warm path, willows on the bank. Listen to Yingge and come back to wash silkworms); "Picking Mulberry" (Liutang frog pavilion, butterfly flying in Huawu, gentle and graceful mulberry seeds, returning home in a cage); Reeling ("The calf rises when the wall is overcast, the field work is getting tired, the mulberry branches are exhausted, and the worry is reeling"); Spinning and weaving in summer and autumn ("Xinsi girl becomes a girl, loom is ready, radish skirt is ready, and dragons fight in the sun"; Silkworm rearing, mulberry picking, spinning and weaving are such a complete process. From "cutting wheat" and "raising seedlings" in summer ("busy at home, cutting wheat and raising seedlings, driving calves to the foothills and flowing into wild ponds"); "Pumping water" and "irrigation water" ("Grass is everywhere in Pingchou, oranges are everywhere, but pigeons believe it and fall down sooner or later"; "Rain washes the heart, and when you smell the water deep in the world, you know that water drops wear through the stone"); In autumn, "Xiang Tao" is everywhere ("fighting to the west, fragrant winds in the four fields, like halving the summer heat, really losing a tung leaf"), planting taro to water melons ("kapok has sprouted, seeds are sprouting, taro ridges and mud must be sparse, melons must be watered"), and peeling dates. Then, in winter, picking and drying beans ("the planting days are still long, and the cold harvest has been accelerated, so it is not suitable to store pots and hang them beside trees") and ploughing ("After three seasons of ploughing, mud and wine are poured on each other, it will be deep and muddy, and spring ploughing will be frozen") has simply become an artistic record of agricultural events all year round. Among her works, there are Sounding Clouds on the Shoulder, such as Logging Tintin, Listening through the Sound, Carrying a Tree Back, and Picking a Bear with Mountain Flowers. There are also "shrimp catchers" and "fishermen" on Polygonum multiflorum Beach. There are mulberry pickers who are "gentle and gentle, and return home with cages"; There is also a shepherd boy who "piccolo goes to the pasture, moaning and smelling the fragrance". In her poems, she wrote about quarrying, picking ears, tasting new tea, tasting new vegetables, eating bayberry for new lotus roots and eating new vegetables, which made the city people unheard of and even less seen. She wrote about rural folk activities such as "Greeting the Gods", "Sending the Native Cows", "March 3rd", "May 5th", "Playing the God of Agriculture", celebrating the Chinese Valentine's Day, and the Orchid Festival, and even wrote about the peasant girl pounding wild flowers and painting her nails ("There is a little girl who is naive and stops sewing early, which means that the feelings are fine and red, and the phoenix flowers are pounding in the court", which is really lively and fresh. The rural landscape poems written by her are rich in local flavor, refined in words and vivid in freehand brushwork, which are not inferior to the excellent poems in China. For example, write spring scenery: "Mu Yingmiao needles green, drills bamboo shoots and pens, Tianjia has a leisurely scene, and spring scenery is self-satisfied"; Write Xia Jing: "I love Xia Jingjia, and I won't suffer from inflammation. I will silently play the cicada piano and enjoy the frog drum in the cool "; Write autumn scenery: "A piece of tobacco leaves, late autumn, know more about the leaves after frost, absolutely better than Wuling flowers"; Write the scenery in winter: "Many flowers have withered for a long time. Once the camellia is fragrant, it will not be known. This is the sun in spring." All of them were written by feudal literati, because they had no such life and experience. As an ordinary woman in a feudal society, Ni lives in an ordinary mountainous and rural area, leads an ordinary life, and has literary accomplishment and artistic feelings. Finally, she left us a unique poem with her wonderful flower pen. "A poet should be on guard against prosperity", which is also reflected in Ni Renji again. This precious literary heritage should be carefully studied, publicized and inherited by future generations.
"Chastity archway" and our present understanding
The Jiaqing edition of Yiwu County Records in the Qing Dynasty contains: Ni Yu set up a workshop in the 12th year of Kangxi (according to the year of guichou, A.D. 1673, when Ni was 67 years old), (see Records of Chastity for details). Chunfang's declaration of "chastity archway" to Ni is recorded in detail in the county annals and the "Da Yuan Wu Jia Pu", including the materials submitted by the government and the official reply of the court.
Is this a blessing or a curse for Ni Renji? Is it a compliment or a disgrace? Later generations have different opinions on this.
In my opinion, Kangxi 12 was the time when the Qing Dynasty began to consolidate its rule. In order to stabilize the world, they absorbed nutrition from Confucianism and preached the feudal ethics of "Jun Jun, minister, father and son", especially taking some old ideas of "Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties" as weapons, and regarded "chastity" as the highest virtue of women. Then "chastity archway" will spread all over the world again. Ni is also among the "workshops", which may give the Wu family some "honors" and save some information about Ni. But for Ni Renji himself, this is undoubtedly a "tightening spell". Since then, under the secular pressure, she had to take "chastity" as the standard to shape her external image, and her free and lively nature gradually disappeared, and the cells of art gradually disintegrated, and real works of art could no longer be produced.
Look at the last six poems of Ningxiangge (when I was sixty, I didn't build chastity square). How vivid, bright, lively and fresh, it's not like a widow who is nearly 60 years old, but it reminds people that Ni is a girl in her hometown.
Revisit Pingwu;
"Since the smoke rose for several years, the dry clouds stopped Baixi from leaving. Shiping base is long, fresh and meandering. Grass is entangled in the past, and mountain flowers attract new tourists everywhere. If I help you, I will go through the village, and the sunset will be more secluded. "
You ba Shi Yan:
"How many mountains and rivers, this is just a reward. Cui Yan took me to Xianzhang with cash. The ravine made a spiritual sound, but it was dead. Only when you hear the clouds outside can you realize your dreams. The desperate situation returns to the world, and Zen closes the cloud to lock itself. I am very happy that this is coming and the wind is blowing. "
Crossing the Tiger Peak:
"Fairy HuaCangLan, cheese ridge smoke dream. The mountains are amazing, and the peaks are amazing. There are many obstacles around, and the stone statue is lotus. A small stand is screaming and the birds are in harmony. "
Chamisite:
"Traveling outside the niche, the rain hangs before the rock. Occasionally, I have an adventure. Xia Hong leaned against the tree, and the shadow of the mountain was blue. I'm sorry I'm late, but the crows keep coming. "
Xishan came home late, accompanied by a woman;
"Choose to win the Linxi risk, call each other a stone pier, the wind turns over the sleeve shadow, and the sand slides and marks the hook. Spring blocks the way back, and the mountains and the moon meet early. Outside the thatched eaves, bamboo is sparse and bright. "
Last night:
"The scenery is beautiful tonight, and the smoke cage is fragrant under the moon. Where is the red makeup and laughter, and pray for Wenchang on the pavilion? " "At the beginning of the flute and drum, the moonlight is high and the courtyard is already late at night. In front of the window, the plum shadow is oblique, and the candle shines alone. "
So what is the image of Ni Renji after Li Fang? "Historical Records of Jinhua Classics" records: "Those who saw Ni Tong's face wore a velvet hat and brown clothes in their later years, sitting in a room, collating the history of maps, and got sentences with fine words on paper. Confucian celebrities like Yamazawa are no longer like boudoir people. "
No longer like a boudoir is an image of a virtuous woman whose personality has been completely stifled. From then on, no real works of art can be produced. In order to create Ni's image as a "virtuous woman", feudal society deliberately deleted many vivid things in Ni's life when compiling history and revising books, thus leaving many mysteries and an extremely one-sided image of Ni for future generations, which has been mentioned in many places.
After 400 years of ups and downs, China has entered a new period of reform and opening up. People will naturally look at Ni from a brand-new perspective, thus solving this eternal mystery and returning Ni to the true image of a "peerless talented woman".
(The author is a director of China Popular Literature Research Association, a director of China Popular Literature Society, an expert on Chinese popular literature research, and an inspector and researcher at the deputy department level of Fujian Press and Publication Bureau).