Appreciation of the article "Han Yu·Jingtan ① Singing Poetry Preface"
Those who are engaged in ② Youxiu Yu's "Jingtan Reward Singing Poetry" will be graduated ③ and admire ④ He said: "The sound of peace is weak, but the sound of melancholy needs to be wonderful ⑤; words of joy are difficult to write ⑥, but words of poverty are easy to be good. Therefore, the writing of articles is always published in Jilu⑦ grass field⑧; If a noble man is full of ambition and has good performance, he will have no time to think about it. Now I am shooting Pei Gong to suppress the wild Jing, and the commandery is only nine. He is diligent in politics, and his rewards are both high and noble. He can keep his ambitions in poems and books, and contain poems and chants. He goes back and forth, singing harmoniously, searching for strange things, engraving words, and specializing in Webbly's haggardness. A man who is more precise than others {11}, has a sonorous sound of gold and stone, and has a sense of ghosts and gods. He believes in the so-called talent and is capable of making great achievements. 13}, it is worth mentioning. It is suitable to record the music in various books {14}"
He said: "This is what Zi said." {15} The book reads. "Preface to Jing Tan Huo's Singing Poetry".
Notes
① Jingtan: Jing, refers to Pei Jun, who was the military envoy of Jingnan at that time. Tan refers to Yang Ping, Liu Zongyuan's father-in-law, who was the observer of Hunan at that time. He later worshiped Jing Zhaoyin and eventually became the crown prince Zhan Shi. ②Occupation: Working as an aide to the county magistrate. ③Graduation: Read all the content immediately. ④Yang: Expressing respect. ⑤Be wonderful: beautiful. ⑥Work: Exquisite. ⑦ Ji Lv: Visiting a foreign country, refers to a person who travels on the road. ⑧Kasano: common people. ⑨Pushe (yèye): In the early Tang Dynasty, he was the deputy governor of Shangshu Province. Kaizhen: In the Tang Dynasty, it was pointed out that one should be appointed as Jiedushi to guard one side. Manjing: refers to Jingnan, the area in present-day western Hubei and eastern Sichuan, governing Jiangling. ⑩Weibu: Wei Dai cloth clothes, worn by those who are not in official positions or those with cold disorders, this refers to those who are cold. Wei, cowhide. Lilu: Countryside grassland, where common people live. {11} Compare it to the smallest detail: compare the quality of articles. {12}Attribution (zhǔprimary): connect, follow. {13}Editor: included in this collection of poems. {14}Ji Zhushushu: refers to compiled books. {15} Zi: Refers to Han Yu. Gong: refers to Pei Jun.
In the first year of Yongzhen (805), Emperor Xianzong of Tang Dynasty had ascended the throne, and Han Yu once assisted Pei Jun in joining the army as Jiangling Facao. At that time, Pei Jun was appointed as the military envoy to Jingnan, and Yang Ping was appointed as the observing envoy to Hunan. Both of them were elegant and good at writing, and they often sang poems during their interactions. Later, these poems, together with the Japanese poems written by their subordinates, were compiled into a collection called "Jingnan". Tanhu Singing Poetry". This article is Han Yu's preface to the collection of poems.
Although Han Yu's official career was not smooth, he was regarded as a giant in the literary world by his time. Many celebrities, princes and nobles asked him to write prefaces, hoping that through his introduction, they could expand their influence. Pei Jun and Yang Ping in the article were local officials at the time, so they naturally had this mentality. For Han Yu, he was treated politely by them when he was demoted to Yangshan and Jiangling, not to mention that Pei Jun was his old boss. Therefore, at the beginning of the article, "Those who are engaged in work will be rewarded with "Jingtan Reward for Singing Poems", indicating that this preface is at the request of "engaged in" and does not take the initiative to please the boss. It can be seen that Han Yu was indeed in a dilemma when writing this social preface.
Although this preface was written to compliment two dignitaries, the author had a strange intention because "it is difficult to see coincidence". The preface rarely mentions the specific content of the poem, but instead uses it to put forward his own literary theory, emphasizing that the composition should pay attention to personal feelings and have true content, indirectly proposing his own standards for evaluating poetry collections. Moreover, they also implicitly criticized this collection of poems - their poems are nothing more than rich and distinguished romances, and they are by no means works that are "sonorous with gold and stone, and faint with ghosts and gods". No wonder Liu Dapian commented on this article: "The words are very simple, but the spirit of majesty and uprightness is abundant in the lines."
It can be seen from this that Han Yu's attitude of neither being humble nor arrogant is really admirable. He was flattering and deliberately ignored Pei Jun and Yang Pingqiu and said "engage", which invisibly improved their status and maintained their self-esteem. Then there are the words "received to graduate" and "look up to him", implying that the author read the entire poem seriously and respectfully, making Pei and Yang think that Han Yu wrote this preface after reading all the poems, and was not perfunctory. Things are natural and satisfying.
It is really rare to be able to grasp the sense of proportion when dealing with literature.
Comments from later generations
Qian Zhongshu's "Poems Can Be Complained": "Compliment but not blind praise, sophisticated but not outright snobbery.
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