In daily life, we sometimes find that our elementary school classmates and high school classmates have become college classmates, which makes us sigh that life is a circle. There were many such circles in the literary world of the Tang Dynasty, and the friendship between poets in the Tang Dynasty was even more of a circle, sometimes more complicated than a circle.
Just pick a few celebrities from the Tang Dynasty, and their friendship stories are surprising enough. For example, Li Bai and Du Fu. In order to follow Li Bai, Du Fu traveled all over the country just to meet Li Bai. Isn't this the ancient version of "Ben Xian"?
What’s more interesting is that later Li Bai and Du Fu became close friends with Gao Shi. The three of them traveled around the world together, reciting poems and writing poems. It can be said that they lived a happy life. Unfortunately, the advent of the Anshi Rebellion caused the friendship between these three good brothers to break down. Especially the two confidants Li Bai and Gao Shi ended up deleting each other's friends.
What's going on? The emotions of the ancients were really so fragile. What kind of friendship is this?
We often use "Zui Mian Qiu *** Quilt, Hand in Hand on the Same Day" to express the deep friendship between Li Bai and Gao Shi. Li Bai met Gao Shi, who later became his best friend, in Henan. After the three people met, it was so late that they met, and they immediately decided to travel the world together.
When they were traveling around the world, Gao Shi and Li Bai visited Liang Garden and climbed the high platform together. They recalled the romantic affairs of their predecessors and lamented the world with poetry. Therefore, Li Bai and Gao Shi were still reluctant to leave when they parted, but no one thought that these close friends would reach the point where they would never have contact with each other in the near future.
When it comes to Gao Shi, his sentence: "Don't worry about the road ahead without friends, who in the world doesn't know you?" It can be said that his poetic attainments are also at their peak. In addition, he was also an excellent politician. During the Anshi Rebellion, he stood out from the courtiers and finally came to Tang Xuanzong's side.
Every time Xuanzong was annoyed by the various troubles caused by the Anshi Rebellion, other ministers would just kneel down and say nothing. Only Gao Shi always cheered Xuanzong and gave him great psychological comfort. . Therefore, Gao Shi was appreciated by Xuanzong and was appointed as an admonishing doctor.
Once Xuanzong planned to let his three princes go out to resist the rebels, but this was dissuaded by Gao Shi, who believed that the vassal king would be even more divided. Facts have proved that Yong Wang Li Lin soon rebelled, and Prince Li Heng also ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, directly evacuating Xuanzong's power.
However, Gao Shi was valued by Prince Li Heng for his unique political vision, and was named Huainan Jiedu Envoy to command the army that defeated the rebel king Li Lin. At that time, Li Bai entered the shogunate of King Yong and became an aide. The friends who used to drink and write poems immediately became enemies on both sides during this chaos, and they had to fight each other on the battlefield.
When most people see their former close friends, even if they won’t openly give in, they will at least secretly let them go. However, Gao Shi was uncharacteristically unsympathetic and showed no mercy to Li Bai. After putting down the rebellion, he even imprisoned Li Bai for treason.
It is said that Li Bai wrote to Gao Shi while he was in prison, hoping that he could rescue him secretly. After all, Gao Shi, as the military governor, holds the power of life and death for these rebels. It is not a matter of minutes to rescue a Li Bai. However, Gao Shi actually ignored Li Bai. Even if Li Bai's wife came to ask for help in person, Gao Shi would not Avoid seeing.
The boat of friendship between the two capsized at your request. Li Bai originally said that he would never have any contact with Gao Shi again. Later, when literati from all dynasties judged this friendship, they all said that they were a plastic brotherhood and that Gao Shi was simply unkind and unjust.
But is this really the case? From a friendship point of view, Gao Shi's failure to save Li Bai was indeed unkind, but from Gao Shi's standpoint, he would not have dared to save Li Bai even if he wanted to.
Gao Shi was on the side of the new emperor who had just ascended the throne, but Li Bai was following the rebel King Yong. The accuracy of his political stance was obvious. Of course, the court was right. No matter which dynasty or generation, for the emperor, the word treason is very taboo. For the sake of his own political future, Gao Shi could not rescue Li Bai.
And do you think no one knows that Li Bai and Gao Shi met? This may be a trap set by Prince Li Heng to test Gao Shi. If he secretly rescued Li Bai, he might be caught immediately, and his end would be even more miserable than Li Bai's. What's more, Li Bai had a problem with his political integrity, and Gao Shi could not lose his political correctness just because he traveled around.
So, for Li Bai, it’s not that Gao Shi didn’t want to save him, but that he couldn’t save him. I guess Gao Shi was also very melancholy at that time. Therefore, Gao Shi's indifference to Li Bai has been reasonable since ancient times, and there is nothing unkind or unjust. It's just that as future generations, we feel sorry for the severed friendship between Gao Shi and Li Bai. If they had not been involved in politics and had continued to travel around, they might have been able to live happily as close friends for the rest of their lives.