The belief in immortality comes from the belief and magic of "fairy family". There are many descriptions of "real people" and "gods" in Zhuangzi. Pursuing immortality and achieving immortality is the basic belief and goal of Taoism, so Taoism is also called "immortal Taoism".
In Taoism, immortals are also feathered people, which means that they become immortals after feathering. There are also many images about feathering in Cao Zhi's poems. "The shimmering light spreads its wings and advances slowly." The "spreading wings" in Immortal is interpreted as "the enlightened one is born with six shackles on his arms, wings on his belly, flying into the boundless sky and living in the infinite secular world" and the feathered fairy is immortal. "Dongling Ping" has "Tianqu Tong". I was feathered by a flying dragon. "Also refers to the fairy with wings.
Regarding the immortality of the elixir, Cao Zhi's poems include "You offer the elixir of immortality, and you admire the door to enter the strange prescription" ("Wuyou Fu") about borrowing medicine, that is, borrowing the medicine of the immortal family. "Give me the Jade Emperor's Fairy Medicine" ("Flying Dragon") was given to me by Wang Ziqiao and Shennong, who were compared to immortals respectively. In addition, there is an image of elixir in the poem. For example, Ganoderma lucidum was used at the beginning of the second question in the five poems "Dance Overture". In addition, there are images of Ganoderma lucidum in Yong and Ping Ling East, such as "playing with Ganoderma lucidum" and "picking Ganoderma lucidum in Penglai East".
Numerous images of seeking immortality undoubtedly prove that Cao Zhi's poems are influenced by Taoism and Taoist thoughts, which not only enriches the image group of poetry itself and increases the diversity of forms, but also increases the grandeur and softness of language style due to the singularity of creation brought by Taoist images of immortals. Part of the characteristics of Cao Zhi's poetic style of "adopting Hua Mao" originated from these Taoist image group.
Taoist Thought in Cao Zhi's Poems
1. Pursuing nature
Taoism pursues and advocates nature. In Cao Zhi's poems, we can often see the life sentiment of the sun, moon, trees and other things blending with me.
"Summer is pure and the sky is cool. Bai Cao Zi Zhi Shu Lanfang. " (Ge Yanxing) Release your emotions in nature. I have never forgotten the comfort of "cockfighting in the eastern suburbs" ("Mingdu"). Cao Zhi showed an indifferent Taoist thought through nature. For the early Cao Zhi, he preferred things. At that time, it was difficult for him to have a deep understanding of Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts, but great changes have taken place in the later period. The phrase "the road is economical and not annoying." Indifferent to nature. "(Gui Shu) completely conforms to Lao Tzu's thought of" Taoism is natural "and also represents Cao Zhi's later experience. Cao Zhi was regarded as a prisoner in his later period, and he used Zhuangzi's realm of harmony between man and nature to gain spiritual liberation. We seem to see a young prince who was once high-spirited, high-spirited and high-spirited. After suffering endless setbacks, he was deeply lost and helpless. He constantly soothes his sensitive and fragile nerves with his thoughts of seclusion, indifference and nature.
2. Primitive philosophy
The Book of Changes states that "Infinity begets Tai Chi, Tai Chi begets two instruments, two instruments begets four images, and four images begets eight diagrams", in which the so-called Tai Chi is to clarify the process of the universe from infinity to Tai Chi and even all things. This means that everything in the vast universe has both yin and yang. They struggle with each other and depend on each other, which is the fundamental reason for the emergence and destruction of things. This is the most basic birth problem in the family, which existed before Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Cao Zhi inherited Wang Chong's thought in his philosophical view of nature, and thought that "Tao" was "vitality" without beginning or end. It transcends time and space, is ubiquitous, and is the origin of all things in the world: "At the beginning of Tai Chi, chaos was not divided, everything was wrong, and it flourished with the Tao. The cover will rot, the trace will be poor, and the vitality will be endless. Who knows the ending "("Seven Revelations "); "At the beginning of yesterday, the Xuan and Huang were mixed, and the chaos was huge, and the levy was not formed. Whether the vitality is blocked, yellow explosion, star chaos, yin and yang are wrong. " (On Wade). When facing the objective world, Cao Zhi also observed it with the primitive philosophy of Taoism. It is pointed out in "Heaven and Earth are Infinite, Yin and Yang Turn" (a trip to the autumn building) that the mutual movement and transformation of Yin and Yang promote the changes of things.
3. Self-freedom
In Taoist thought, personal life is the goal beyond spiritual freedom. Id is the ideal realm pursued by Taoism and Taoism. It transcends the greedy desire of life entities, is free from the temptation and trouble of any external material interests, and is free and self-satisfied.
There are 76 existing poems by Cao Zhi, including two poems about immortals, 65,438+0,654,38+0, and Ping Ling's journey to the east, which accounts for 65,438+0/6 of his works. In terms of the number of creations, Cao Zhi is unprecedented. The first one is You Xian. Many of them are about the fantasy of fairyland, the pursuit of freedom and self.
The poet has infinite imagination of wandering immortals, pinning his feelings on them and forgetting the reality. In Cao Zhi's poems about immortals, the journey to immortals is gradually rising, which is manifested in the improvement of orientation and situation. For example, "Thinking hard" and "Traveling Far" are from the mortal world to heaven.
The immortals, trees and ascension in Gui all go from fairyland to heaven. To sum up, Cao Zhi's wandering immortals experienced three levels, namely, earth, fairyland and heaven, and constructed an ideal and free spiritual world in turn. Cao Zhi's poems about immortals were mostly written in the later period, that is, during the cruel repression of Cao Pi and his son, which was extremely free for Cao Zhi, who was aloof and could only turn to pursue spiritual freedom.
Many of Cao Zhi's poems about immortals are caused by the depression of reality, which is also his understanding of his own life value. It can be said that Cao Zhi's pursuit of life freedom and true self is a yearning after deep awakening through the accumulation of reality, which makes his poems more tense. Cao Zhi expressed his view of life eugenics, his thinking about human's true life, his free transcendence of reality and his admiration for the spirit of self-subjectivity in his poems about immortals. This is the real ideological connotation of his poems about immortals.