1 185 years ago, in the sixth year of Tang Wenzong Taihe (AD 832), the sky may be so light and cloudy, or it may suddenly rain and be gloomy. Poetry is sung downstairs, and the river flows eastward quietly. Upstairs, an old woman in a robe, who still has charm, leans on the collapse by the window, leafs through her poems, thinks about her life time carefully, and slowly closes her eyes.
She is Xue Tao, a woman who touched Sichuan with her beauty and became famous with her poems.
From birth to 14 years old, she lived a carefree and happy life. Her learned father taught her to read and write poems by hand. In his expectation, this naturally beautiful daughter, if she doesn't marry Hou Men in the future, should be an official family with her own family. Unfortunately, when she was eight years old, her father was always sad, happy and worried after hearing her daughter's couplets.
It is said that Xue Tao's father, Xue Yun, was resting under a tung tree when he suddenly felt something. He chanted, "Except for an ancient tung in the court, he plunged into the clouds." Xue Tao casually continued the poem: "The branches welcome the birds from the north and the south, and the fallen leaves bring the wind." What birds come and go? It sounds scary, but it is a prophecy that has fallen into the dust.
Of course, it is entirely possible that this is a fabrication of later generations, and this poem is more like Xue Tao's lament about his self-injury after becoming a prostitute. Her "good looks", "smooth melody, eloquent and poetic" could have attracted phoenix phoenix trees, but she had to devote herself to music and become an official prostitute after her father died. That year, she was only 16 years old, which was the age of the seeds of love, but she began to see her off. She is in pain and only knows herself.
Fortunately, she still has the paddle of poetry, which can't help her tide over the fate, but it can make her stand out from the crowd and not be submerged in the tacky powder pile, so that time can destroy her.
At this time, she met the first important man in her life-Wei Gao. Wei Gao was born in Jingzhao Webster's family. He served as the ambassador of Jiannan, guarding Zhongshu 2 1 year, and later became the king of Nankang County. After his death, he was posthumously named Taishi, a famous minister and star in the middle Tang Dynasty. In addition to his achievements, Wei Gao is also a person who values friendship, leaving a love story of his life and death with Xiao Yu in history.
When he entered Shu, Wei Gao was in his forties, while Xue Tao was only a teenager. As a prostitute, she is destined to meet new guards at the party. Improvised poetry, she won a full house with a brilliant poem "Visit Wushan Temple", and even won the favor of Wei Gao. As a result, Xue Tao soon became a celebrity around Wei Gao and helped him with some paperwork. Wei Gao praised his talent, and even proposed to write to the imperial court to award the title of secretary of Xue Tao provincial school, but as usual, it was not approved. However, since then, Xue Tao has been dubbed "the book for girls".
Beauty, talent and reputation make Xue Tao more and more proud. For those officials who used her to find Wei Gao to enter through the back door, she accepted all the red envelopes, but turned them in. In addition, she may have an affair with some young talents. This eventually led to Wei Gao's dissatisfaction. He can admire and pamper her, but how can he let a little girl do whatever she wants? In a rage, Xue Tao was demoted to Songzhou.
Faced with such changes, the talented Xue Tao soon realized that he might make mistakes. Even if she is gorgeous and moving, and her heart is high, even if she just wants to cover up her inner frustration with madness, in Wei Gao's eyes, she is just an official prostitute. It is the best policy to admit your mistakes mainly to him. Besides, she is a weak woman, and the wind and sand in the southwest wilderness are bitter and cold, which is really unbearable.
On the way to the competition, she remitted all her regrets and sorrows to the pen and wrote a tearful poem "Ten Poems": the dog leaves its master, the pen leaves its hand, the horse leaves its stable, the parrot leaves its cage, the swallow leaves its nest, the pearl leaves its palm, the fish leaves its pond, the eagle leaves its pheasant, the bamboo leaves its pavilion and the mirror leaves its platform. Xue Tao compared himself to animals and birds and daily things, and raised his master. The first song is saturated with humility, gentleness, obedience and even some flattery. However, heroes are the last ones to see beautiful women cry. When the letter was sent to Wei Gao, this soft language moved him and recalled it.
Perhaps it is the contribution of the poem "Ten Farewells", or perhaps it is because of this change that Xue Tao saw his destiny clearly and began to act for himself. In short, after returning to Chengdu, Xue Tao quickly took off his music and regained his freedom. However, this freedom should mean that others can no longer tell them what to do at will. For Wei Gao, she is still a canary who listens to everything.
She was only in her twenties at that time. If she finds a good partner, she will have enough time to get married. But who dares to marry a lover who used to be the number one trump card in Sichuan and the master of one side? What's more, she once lived a life of poetry and amusement, how can she tolerate her talent? Even if there is a place to live, the dust that has been ushered in has not dispersed from her heart, and the reputation gained by shallow singing is still lingering in her heart, which makes her unable to let go. She is not an ordinary woman. It is better to live her life so carefree than to be trapped in a cocoon.
Since then, Huanhuaxi, where Du Fu once stayed, has become her resting place, where she planted flowers and loquats, played the piano and wrote poems, and picked hibiscus to make colorful notes. She sang with famous poets such as Bai Juyi, Zhang Ji, Wang Jian, Liu Yuxi, Du Mu and Zhang Hu. And she is too close to the previous bo time, and her talent and poetry title are increasing day by day.
Time is like Shu water, flowing quietly. Xue Tao is used to flowers blooming and falling, and to lively praise. There are few waves in her heart, but the doomed man broke her silence. He came to Shu from Chang 'an with talent and romance. When dealing with official business, he went directly to Xue Tao, because he had already heard about her talent and fame.
In this way, Yuan Zhen came. Even though she is ten years older than him, when she met her, she was better than countless people. Xue Tao indulged in Yuan Zhen's sweet words, put down all his pride, and held out all the sincerity he had never shown. This pair of talented people and beautiful women, with poetry, travel together, fly together, happy, Xue Tao wrote with cheerful brush strokes:
At this time, she had an everlasting dream with a man for the first time.
Unfortunately, even if there is all tenderness, it is not a good person. Who is Yuan Zhen? His graceful appearance resounded through the poems of later generations, and he couldn't hide his initiative in his love. He is a man who abandoned his first love from the beginning and made all kinds of eroticism public. One sang to his dead wife, "Once the sea was hard for water, it was amber forever." A man who holds others in his arms.
Yuan Zhen's love for Xue Tao may be to fill his loneliness when he went to Dongchuan, or it may be out of sincerity, but he never made long-term plans. This companionship became the happiest time in her writing career, but it didn't last long. Three months later, Yuan Zhen was transferred to Luoyang. In the afterglow of summer, they say goodbye, say goodbye and miss each other. After leaving, Xue Tao's thoughts became more and more intense, and the exchange of poems became the norm. To this end, she also specially made a famous snow peach stationery with hibiscus flowers, wrote love poems on it and gave them to Yuan Zhen to express her lovesickness and attachment.
In the years after she left, she waited quietly with memories. After several relegations, he lost his wife and then his concubine, which was very tragic. It is said that after Xue Tao heard about it, he went to the relegated mansion in Jiangling, where Yuan Zhen was located, to meet him, hoping to soothe his sadness and stay with him. But it turned out to be nothing.
At that time, there was a light of hope in her heart, and she wanted to pay full tenderness for him and bear the pain of life with him. At least she believes that she will keep those old promises. However, when Yuan Zhen was promoted step by step to survive in adversity, he failed her after all. Yuan Zhen married Pei Shu, the daughter of the imperial clan, for his own career, and later had frequent scandals with Liu Caichun, a younger and more beautiful female artist than himself.
When Xue Tao found out, he put out all his hopes, and his heart was dying. Yuan Zhen, who was proud of officialdom, had a long history of indifference to Xue Tao. Only when he happened to think of it, he gave her a poem:
Politeness in this poem is obviously more than warmth. Times have changed, and everything can never go back. The company of "a good time to waste Dongchuan" can only be memories and sadness of her life. They have no contact since then, and the summer in memory has no blazing light.
The bright clothes on her are gradually losing color. The blue-gray cassock is commensurate with her loneliness, and Jinjiang, which is lonely in the east of the city, is more suitable for her present mood. She closed the door of Huanhuaxi's residence and moved to Bijifang. On the high poetry building, she looked at the time, watched the Shuhe River flow away, and the hibiscus was empty until the last summer came.
After 1 185 Wangjiang Park, there are rivers and tourists everywhere. The legendary Xue may not have seen this strange girl's water-scooping stationery, Xue Tao's tomb, poetry building, loquat lane, Bijifang ... and never left a trace of incense dust. These are just memories of her.
Through the torrent of time, the fence of time, the children playing on the manhole cover, the aunt wearing a red scarf patting pose, the long-legged girl taking selfies in the statue, the girl peeling loquat on the stone bench, I miss this strange girl ... I can't understand her joys and sorrows, her life legend.