Landscape pastoral poetry school is one of the two major poetry schools in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. This school of poetry is the successor of Tao Yuanming, Xie Lingyun and Xie Yao. The poets of this school are famous for being good at depicting pastoral scenery, and their artistic styles are close. They reflect their quiet mood or quiet thoughts by depicting quiet scenery, so they are called "pastoral poets". Its main author is Meng.
Meng Haoran's pastoral poems were mostly written in the form of five-character poems, which were very famous at that time. In his poems, there are descriptions of magnificent mountains and rivers, descriptions of secluded mountain forests, descriptions of travel scenes, and reflections on rural farmers' lives, such as
Wang Wei is the most accomplished poet among the pastoral poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. His poems are poetic and picturesque. Su Shi, a great writer in the Song Dynasty, once spoke highly of them: "There are paintings in poetry". Since then, "painting in poetry" has become the final evaluation of Wang Wei's poetry.
Wang Wei's pastoral poems vary widely, with different styles and artistic conception. They are sometimes magnificent, sometimes detailed and intriguing, sometimes vivid and vivid, and sometimes subtle and concise. Wang Wei is also good at vividly expressing natural scenery with various colors, such as "the grass in the rain is green and the peach blossoms on the water are red." "Gray rain curtain, green grass and pink peach blossom interweave into a colorful spring dawn picture of mountains and rivers, which is really picturesque in poetry", which is intoxicating.
Both Wang Wei and Meng Haoran are good at writing pastoral poems, forming a famous school of pastoral poems in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Pastoral school is also called Wang Mengpai. It can be seen that its influence and talent are high. Although both of them are good at landscapes and rural areas, they are also different. Meng's poems have fresh and quiet natural beauty, but they often contain faint sadness, while Wang's poems are different. They are a kind of quiet and leisurely artistic conception, which often contains Zen. Poetry critics in Qing Dynasty praised Meng's poems as "light language but not light taste" and Wang's poems as "Zen without Zen". We can also read Meng Haoran's poems, while Wang Wei's poems are "empty" and permeated with Zen. I think it has something to do with their experience.
Let's take a look at the times they live in. This is the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, and the culture of the Tang Dynasty reached its peak. This period was the first time to recapture Li Tang from Wu Zetian and reached its peak. It was also the process of the Tang Dynasty empire from prosperity to decline, and politics began to decline. In the early period of Xuanzong in Tang Dynasty, Li Longji appointed Yao Chong and Song Jing as prime ministers, so as to restrain the nobles from getting rich and run the country without any harm. The national situation of the Tang Empire resumed the earthquake beyond the Great Wall and reached its military peak. From then on, I thought the world was at peace, so I indulged in the entertainment of debauchery and dogs. Later, Li, Yang Guozong and others were appointed as prime ministers, and the national situation began to decline. Even the Anshi rebellion finally broke out, and the national prestige of the Tang Empire declined from then on.
Wang Wei (70 1 ~ 76 1), a native of Taiyuan, was a scholar in the ninth year of Kaiyuan (72 1). After Ren Cheng, he was transferred to Shangshu Youcheng, known as "Wang Youcheng". Most of Wang Wei's early poems reflect reality and have a more progressive political tendency. In his later period, he mainly painted pastoral landscapes, which obviously reflected his negative feelings of escaping from reality. Wang Wei was an outstanding poet in the Tang Dynasty, with many artistic talents. He is good at painting and proficient in music, and can integrate painting and music into poetry. Wang Wei grew up in a family that worshiped Buddhism, and his mother, Cui Shi, worshiped Buddhism, which had an important influence on Wang Wei's religious belief and later seclusion.
Meng Haoran (689 ~ 740) was born in Xiangyang. In his early years, he lived in seclusion in his hometown of Lumen Mountain, studied behind closed doors, entertained himself with poems, and then wandered in wuyue and other places. Most of his poems are about the quiet interest in the mountains and the depression of being incompetent. Due to the narrow life, the social reality reflected in the poems is not much, but the artistic attainments are high, and there are many famous sentences in the landscape poems.
Let's read some of their poems. Let's take a look at Wang Wei's poem "Answering Zhang DuDu": "Time goes by, only give me a quiet, everything is safe." I think that there is no brilliant strategy to serve the country, only to retire to the mountains and forests. Wide wind, the wind in the shade, the moon shining on the right to play the piano. To know the truth about the poor, please listen to the fishing songs in the deep water. It is about Wang Wei in his later years. After hating officialdom, he looked for spiritual sustenance in the mountains and rivers. He expressed his Zen in a simple and easy-to-understand narrative, and the quiet and leisurely artistic conception revealed the author's Zen. This is Wang Wei's profound understanding of Buddhism and Zen cultivation.
Read Meng Haoran's poem "Returning to Zhongnanshan at the end of the year" again: I will no longer petition the North Palace Gate, but this shabby house on Zhongnanshan. I have no reason to decide to give up my point of view. My old and many sick friends have stopped practicing. The frequency of white hair is that people are getting more and more every day, and spring is coming to force them to die. Therefore, I lay awake and meditated in the moonlight under the shadow of pine trees in the empty window period. It is said that Meng Haoran was expelled from the court because of this poem. One day Tang Xuanzong wanted to listen to Meng Haoran's new poem, and Meng Haoran recited a new poem casually. When Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty heard the words "the wise ruler banished me because of my fault", he flew into a rage, so Meng Haoran was expelled from the palace. Meng Haoran failed to pass the Jinshi exam all his life, which is deeply regrettable. This poem reveals his regret and secretly contains bitterness. The two poems I quoted are not their favorite works, but I think they can feel their different moods well.
As the most attractive title for scholars at that time, Jinshi was the dream of every scholar. Meng Haoran failed to win in his life, while Wang Wei was a scholar at the age of 2/kloc-0, and later became an official. Meng Haoran is an assistant at best. I think this is an important reason why their poems are different in artistic conception. Meng Haoran lived in seclusion because he could not enter the officialdom, but he also had a faint yearning in his heart. Because of Wang Wei's aversion to officialdom and the influence of early Buddhism, he lived in seclusion. It can be said that they are all representatives of the pastoral school, but they also reveal their different artistic conception. It can be said that there are many places in their poems worthy of careful taste, and I want to discuss them with you.