About poetry anecdotes:
Wen Tingyun of the Tang Dynasty was not only a literary prodigy but also a musical prodigy when he was a child. He and Li Shangyin are both famous, and they are called Wen Li. He was already a prodigious genius in his youth, and he was able to write articles of tens of thousands of words in a short period of time without feeling any effort at all. He only had to cross his hands and play with it eight times, and a seven-rhythm poem with rich sounds and emotions came out. Once, he fell into the hands of Linghu Zhuo. There was a curfew in effect at that time. When Wen Tingyun returned home drunk at night, he was slapped in the face by the patrolling soldiers, and his teeth were even broken.
Wen Tingyun came in and out of Linghu Hall and was treated well. At that time, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty liked the song "Bodhisattva Man". Linghu secretly asked Wen Tingyun to fill in the new lyrics for "Bodhisattva Man" on his behalf, and asked Wen Tingyun not to leak it out. However, Wen Tingyun spread the matter, and Linghu Tao Da for dissatisfaction. Wen Tingyun looked down upon Linghu Tao's talent and learning. Xuanzong wrote a poem, and the last sentence contained "Jin Bu Yao", but he failed to get it right, so he asked Wei Di Jinshi to correct it. Wen Ting stole the poem and criticized the "jade strips off". Xuanzong was very happy and rewarded it. Linghu Tao didn't know about the theory of jade strips being taken off, so he asked Wen Tingyun. Wen Tingyun told him that it came from the "Nanhua Sutra", and said that the "Nanhua Sutra" was not a rare book, and the Prime Minister should also read some books in his spare time from official duties. The implication was that Linghu Tao did not read, and he also said to others, "Zhongshu Shengnei is sitting there." General", mocking Linghu Tao for his lack of learning. Linghu Tao hated him even more because of this, and Wen Tingyun once wrote regretfully: "Because I know that I hate people so much, I regret reading the second chapter of "Nanhua"."
After fifteen years of scientific examination, We, Hero Wen, are not fooling around in vain. "The Biography of Talented Scholars of the Tang Dynasty" records that he "mostly spread false hands for his neighbors". What does it mean? That is to say, this old boy is just like the "shooter" in our current exams. He frequently helps people write exam papers and hand out cheat sheets. Because he liked to help candidates before and after him in the examination room, he was nicknamed "The One Who Saved Many People". I couldn’t pass the exam anyway, I’m disgusting and disgusting to you, what a lovely gentle man he is. It was not until 855 AD that the 55-year-old Wen Feiqing took the imperial examination to the extreme and reached the pinnacle of perfection. He can be regarded as the originator and master of the exam "gunner". Shen Xun was the examiner at that time. When Old Master Shen saw the name of the exam killer "Wen Basha" on the list of candidates, he was probably shocked and very upset. In view of Brother Fei Qing's bad deeds in the past, Shen Xun treated Wen Tingyun specially this time and summoned Wen Tingyun to test him in front of the curtain. In other words, he moved a small stool and asked Wen to sit in front of him alone to take the exam. Unexpectedly, the classmate who "saved several people" quit on the spot and caused a scene. It is said that although Shen Xun was on guard this time, Wen Tingyun still secretly helped eight people.
It is also said that Wen Tingyun met Xuanzong in Chuanshe, who had been here for a while. Because he did not recognize him as the emperor, he once questioned him proudly. On a winter day when the sky was dark, Xuanzong and Wen Tingyun, who liked to travel incognito, met by chance in a hotel, but they did not know each other at the time. Wen was rather arrogant and asked Xuanzong in a joking tone: "Don't you Are you an official like Sima or Chief Secretary?" After receiving the denial, Wen continued to ask: "So, are you the county lieutenant, chief registrar and the like?" As a minor official, Xuanzong could only say: "None of them!" After returning to the palace, Xuanzong felt really unhappy, so he ordered the prime minister to demote Wen to Fangcheng as a county captain. Soon Linghu Qiu found out that Wen Tingyun was talented but not good enough to be ranked first. The poem says: "Confucianism puts morality first, and articles last. Since you have been with the officials for a long time, you have always been famous, and you only praise your unruly talents, which are rarely used at the right time. You are a dissolute man in Xiangpu, and you moved Jia Yi to Changsha. It’s time to sit in front of me, but I don’t think about it at all.” He was confident and confident. This is another reason why Wen Tingyun failed in repeated attempts, and it is also a reason why later generations misunderstood that Wen Tingyun had bad character. For this reason, a group of poet friends who saw him off sighed deeply; among the poems written for this farewell, the poet Ji Tangfu's seven-line poem was the best. His poem said:
Why do we often cry in the Ming Dynasty? There is no spring in the apricot garden in Chang'an.
Although the Phoenix Emperor is lucky, the parrot is talented but exhausted.
Let’s use green ribbons to burn away accumulated hatred, and don’t leave yellow ribbons to brush the dust.
Fangcheng is just like Changsha Road, separated by thousands of mountains and Wanjin. ③
In 865 AD, for unknown reasons, Wen Tingyun changed his position and became an assistant teacher at Guozi. This winter, Wen Tingyun "actually died in exile." I don't know how depressed I was before I died.