I have not done much research on the generation and evolution of the Chinese language. When I was editing the works of three vernacular poets in the Tang Dynasty (Wang Ji, Han Shan, and Shi De), the language of the poems seemed to refresh the mind with cool water, and I suddenly I got a whim and came up with a concept of symmetry - Chinese Tang dialect. In addition, when I read "Tan Jing" (Qian Mu's language), "China's first vernacular work", I also had such symmetrical associations with Tang Chinese. Perhaps this intuitive question is quite intriguing and worthy of research by linguists. This is a digression.
1. Wang Ji
Wang Ji (586-644), whose courtesy name was Wugong, also known as Donggaozi and Mr. Wudou, was from Longmen, Jiangzhou (now Hejin, Shanxi). The younger brother of Wang Tong, a great Confucian in the late Sui Dynasty. He was a man of three official positions and three seclusions in his life. He was open-minded and self-sufficient. He didn't like to bow down, but only liked to drink. He often compared himself to Liu Ling, Ruan Ji and Tao Qian, and was known as the "bachelor of wine fighting". Each wrote a "Jiu Jing" and a "Wine Book". Most of his life was spent in seclusion in his hometown. There is "Donggaozi Collection" handed down from generation to generation. There are more than 100 poems in existence, and he is recognized by later generations as the founder of Tang dialect vernacular poetry. As one of the three great vernacular poets of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Ji had the advanced and detached attitude of "only following the trend but not being a teacher". If the feeling of Jiao Ran's poetry comes from "making tea", then the feeling of Wang Ji's poetry comes from "drinking" (wine). In other words, Wang Ji's poetry feels like it is not "brewed". Poetry reaches the realm of pure wine, which allows the elegance and mellowness of the vernacular "Tang Yan" to be revealed in the warmth and plainness. This kind of "elegance and mellowness" is mainly manifested in two aspects: on the one hand, the words are composed according to one's heart, and the poems flow out from the heart, as if it comes naturally, without any logical "filtering"; on the other hand, it is a lyrical way with rap meaning, Reaching the ultimate level of skill and clumsiness. From "It's better to make more wine and pour it into the bamboo forest every time", "The charm of mountains and rivers has never been heard by the common people", "Follow each other when we go, we are proud of the Tang Dynasty", "A hundred years is not enough, we can enjoy the joy and sing for a long time" and other raps are very interesting. It is not difficult to see from the dense poems that the poet's poems are so light in emotion, but so far-reaching in their thoughts. In particular, the long lyric poem "Crossing the Ancient City of Han Dynasty" sounded the "historical alarm" that "Long live the eternity, the air messengers sing and sing". At this point, the author suddenly came up with the concept combination of "Chinese Tang dialect". Of course, this is beyond the author's ability.
2. Zen Master Hanshan
Zen Master Hanshan (about 691-793), also known as Hanshanzi. The common surname is unknown. He is from Chang'an. Born into an official family, he failed in the exams many times and was forced to become a monk. During the Dali period of the Tang Dynasty, he lived in a secluded cave in Hanyan, Tiantai Mountain, Zhejiang, so it was called "Hanshan". He became friendly with the monks of Guoqing Temple in Tiantai Mountain, and he was often paid to sing, which became a favorite among Buddhists. It is said that he later lived with Shi De in Fengqiao Town, Suzhou and founded Hanshan Temple. The temple became famous all over the world because of Zhang Ji's poem "Night Mooring at Fengqiao". Hanshan is described as haggard, his clothes are tattered, he wears a birch bark hat and big wooden clogs all year round, and his behavior is weird, almost crazy. There is "Collection of Poems by Han Shanzi" handed down from generation to generation. In "History of Vernacular Literature" (published by Crescent Bookstore in 1928), Hu Shi listed Han Shan, Wang Fanzhi and Wang Ji as the three great vernacular poets of the Tang Dynasty. Since the 1950s, Hanshan's poetry has spread across the ocean to Europe and the United States. The Beat Generation in the United States has regarded Hanshan as their idol, and their yearning for Eastern Zen has made Hanshan's poetry popular in Europe and the United States. Hanshan's poems have been translated into Japanese, English and French and are accepted by readers in the East and West. They have actually won a higher international reputation than Li Bai and Du Fu. On the surface, Hanshan's poetry world, as some commentators have pointed out, "looks like Confucianism but not Confucianism, not like Confucianism but also Confucianism; like Taoism but not Taoism, but not Taoism but also Taoism; like monks but not monks, not like monks but also monks; like vulgarity but not vulgarity, but not vulgarity "It's just vulgar", in fact, I don't think so. Because the name "Hanshan" is like a huge metaphor. On the one hand, it hints at the "cold and cool" geographical significance of the landscape itself; on the other hand, it undoubtedly points to the "cold and cool" poetic quality of the work itself. As a geographical "cold mountain", once it is "poetized", it is stained with the glory of survival; as a poetic "cold mountain", once it is imagined by readers, it completes a transformational creation and becomes a symbol of destiny. From Liu Zongyuan's "Eight Notes of Yongzhou" to "Jiang Snow" and other works, the interpretation of the "cold and cool" mood has become the echo of the soul and the confirmation of destiny. From the vernacular poems that came out of my mouth such as "If you are not satisfied with a hundred years of life, you will always have a thousand years of worries", "Who can surpass the tiredness of the world and sit in the white clouds", "If your heart is like mine, you can still get it", etc., the author deeply feels Although "Hanshan" is cold, it still has the feeling of directness and ink lines of the poet's "initiation".
3. Zen Master Shide
Zen Master Shide lived around the end of the eighth century and the beginning of the ninth century. His common surname and place of origin are unknown. Originally an abandoned child, he was picked up by Zen Master Fengqian and brought back to Guoqing Temple in Tiantai Mountain to be raised, so he was named "Shide". He and Zen Master Hanshan shared their poetic aspirations and became close friends. Later, he founded Fengqiao Hanshan Temple. The two are said to be the incarnations of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and Manjushri Bodhisattva. Although Shide advocates that "poems and verses are generally general", compared with Hanshan, Shide is more on the verse side, and his poetic feeling and expression ability are slightly weaker. It's just that I have lost the simple way of speaking verses, focusing on expressing my feelings about pursuing the Tao, or enlightening the path to enlightenment when the opportunity arises, and I don't care much about the simultaneous transmission of Zen and poetry. This is also the main bottleneck in the writing of poet monks in the past dynasties. Despite this, there are also some pure Zen poems found such as "The stone bridge is green with berries and moss, and white clouds are flying from time to time", "The round light hangs too empty, and the brightness is pure and elegant", "If you ask how old you are, how many times the Yellow River is clear", etc. Language and texture.
Isn’t the Sixth Patriarch Huineng’s Enlightenment verse, which is passed down as his swan song, “There is nothing in the first place, where can it cause dust”? Isn’t it also simple and direct? Even Mr. Qian Zhongshu's comments in "Tan Yi Lu" are still a little harsh: "In the early Tang Dynasty, Hanshan and Shide two episodes can not use the name of translation, but their own eyes, and their purpose is to criticize the stubbornness of vulgar police officers." , repeated examples and explanations, the words are slang and the purpose is shallow."
Since the three poets Wang Ji, Han Shan and Shi De all belong to the early Tang Dynasty, and Shi De also has excellent works in combining poetry and verse, I think it is better to use him instead. Wang Fanzhi is the right one. Since Wang Fanzhi was an outstanding vernacular poet in the Tang Dynasty, he might as well be treated separately.