About 1,500 years ago, the Xie family of the Eastern Jin Dynasty not only had outstanding military exploits and power, but was also rich in talents. This family was famous at that time, and "the king Xie Mingliu was full of Jin books"; it was also an important landmark in the epic poems of later generations, such as the well-known Tang Dynasty Liu Yuxi's "Wild grass and flowers beside the Suzaku Bridge, the setting sun at the entrance of Wuyi Lane".
Before Xie Lingyun was born, his grandfather Xie Xuan had already organized and trained Beifu soldiers with extremely strong combat effectiveness, and led this army to cooperate with his uncle Xie An to win the famous Battle of Feishui. It is a battle to protect our country. This tough battle was won under the leadership of a rich cultural family. In addition to the cruelty of the war itself, it also spawned many allusions and stories, such as "throwing a whip to cut off the flow", "every tree and grass are soldiers", "Xie Anzhe" clog".
Of course, military exploits and power are just standard features of an ordinary big family. In addition, the Xie family also exports culture and works. Military achievements and power only belong to the time and space of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, while talents and works can last forever and shine with the sun and the moon.
The Xie family has a very strong lineup of talents. In addition to politicians who are strategists and military strategists who are calm in times of crisis, there are also talented poets. They are also at the top level in the fields of painting, music, calligraphy and chess. In the cultural and art circles, represented by Xie Lingyun, the Xie family's children are shining stars, unique in the literary circles of the Six Dynasties, and occupy all the popular places.
Diaosi compete for their talents and always want to rely on their talents to counterattack and gain fame. However, the children of the Xie family, who are at the top of the power and wealth pyramid of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, live their lives to show off their talents, and they play poetry, books and music. In order to improve their spirituality and talents, they also like to exile themselves in mountains and rivers. They lived like gods and goddesses more than 1,000 years ago, displaying their talents wantonly, and stories about them have been sung from generation to generation. The romance of the Xie family will not be blown away by the rain or the wind.
According to historical records, Xie An, the romantic prime minister of Jiangzuo, was a great player in poetry, calligraphy and music. He often went hunting and fishing, and lived in seclusion in Dongshan to express his love for the mountains and rivers. Even the horn sound of the Battle of Feishui was not heard. It affects his arrangements for outings.
On the other hand, you and I spend our time in ordinary work and life day after day, or are tired of the nine-to-five job, or are entangled in orders and customers, or are obsessed with traffic and cooperation, or Traveling to various meetings and ceremonies. Disdainful of the immodesty in front of me, I want to look for poetry and distant places in the daily updates, but I am still worried about whether I can get on the home page.
Xie An was once in the same situation, with responsibility for his family, his desire for wealth and glory, and even the realization of his personal value. Whether to be entangled in the troubles in front of you or to look for poetry and distant fields tests everyone's decision. But when he was far away in rivers and lakes, he could invite a few friends to go fishing and hunting; when he lived high in the temple, he still had time to give lectures to children and wander around the mountains and rivers. But we are too obsessed with the present and lose the courage to pursue poetry and the distance.
As the head of the Xie family, Xie An is not only obsessed with nature, but also attaches great importance to parent-child education, inspiring children to observe nature and gain inspiration. If Xie An hadn't spared time to enlighten and guide the children, the Xie family's story might have been a little less lively and interesting.
One day, Xie An gathered the children to give a lecture on the meaning of thesis, and suddenly it started to snow heavily. This teacher did not teach the children to ignore what was going on outside the window and to concentrate on class. He himself put down the book and asked with great interest: "What does the white snow look like?"
One of the nephews replied: "The difference can be made by spreading salt in the air."
Niece Xie Daoyun said: "It's not like catkins blowing up in the wind."
Xie Daoyun became famous in one battle, and the talent of singing catkins became a general term for talented women in later generations. When Cao Xueqin wrote about the two goddesses Xue Baochai and Lin Daiyu in the main volume of Jinling Twelve Beauties in "A Dream of Red Mansions", she used the words "It is a pity to stop virtue, but it is pity to praise Xu Cai".
From this story, we can also see how cruel the Xie family is in competing for talent. Regardless of gender, no distinction between good and bad, all are publicized. The outstanding ones will naturally become famous, and the mediocre ones will inevitably be laughed at. How embarrassing is it for people with mediocre qualifications? It was promised that those with scores below 80 would not be named or announced.
Of course this was all a story before Xie Lingyun was born. The ancestors and fathers of the Xie family have taken turns to play, and each has given a wonderful performance. Their outstanding performance refreshed the records of the Xie family, the Eastern Jin Dynasty and even the entire era, which of course also put higher demands on the younger generation Xie Lingyun. He can stand on the shoulders of his predecessors, but it is not easy to stand out and set new records.
The Xie family is full of talents, but Xie Lingyun’s father was slow by nature and died early at the age of 26. I don’t know if he died in depression. But he gave birth to a clever son, who became a great talent in Jiangzuo.
How smart is Xie Lingyun? His grandfather Xie Xuan once lamented, I gave birth to such a stupid son, how could this stupid son give birth to such a smart Xie Lingyun.
Don’t think this is a grandfather’s preference for his grandson. If you know a little bit about Xie Xuan’s resume, you will know that the stupid son he calls may be just like you and me; and the smart son he calls Sun Tzu, his IQ is truly off the charts.
This Xie Xuan is definitely the core figure in the first echelon of talents of the Xie family. He was once ordered to form a new army "Beifu Soldiers". This army founded and directly commanded by him became the main force that later won the Battle of Feishui in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
In the Battle of Feishui, Xie Xuan, as the vanguard general, cooperated with his uncle Xie An on the battlefield.
Xie An is responsible for strategizing and releasing information about being calm and composed in the face of powerful enemies. Therefore, the official official account of the Eastern Jin Dynasty mainly pushes information such as where coach Xie An is playing chess today and where he plans to go for outdoor play tomorrow; while Xie Xuan is Responsible for charging forward.
The good stories related to him are also thanks to the teacher Xie An. According to "Shishuoxinyu", one day, Taifu Xie (Xie An) gave a lecture to the children again and discussed why the Xie children should study hard and become outstanding children since they had no intention of getting involved in political affairs. No one could answer for a while. Only Xie Xuan said: "This is like the orchid and jade trees. I always want them to grow in my own courtyard!". To put it bluntly, you can't do it without working hard. There are elders in the front, and juniors in the back. The brothers and sisters in the middle are all so outstanding.
Ganoderma lucidum, orchid grass, and precious trees are used to describe the excellence of the Xie family’s children, as well as the mutual promotion and growth among the children. Zhilan Yushu later became known as an outstanding child with both ability and political integrity. So much so that the great talent Wang Bo, one of the "Four Heroes of the Early Tang Dynasty", wrote in his immortal masterpiece "Preface to Prince Teng's Pavilion" that when he abandoned his fame and traveled thousands of miles to serve his father day and night, he lamented that he was "not the treasure tree of the Xie family".
At the age of 8, Xie Lingyun inherited the title of Duke Kang Le from his grandfather. Whether in the circle of wealthy young men or the circle of culture and art, he is a superstar with both idol and strength.
Generally speaking, most of the worries of noble gentlemen come from reading exams. For example, the noble son Jia Baoyu in "A Dream of Red Mansions" has troubles about studying for exams. Every time he thinks of his father Jia Zheng, he gets scared. But Xie Lingyun was gifted. "Southern History" records that "Lingyun is famous for his talents, and he is the only one in Jiangzuo", and his grandfather highly recognized him. In addition, due to the prevalence of the clan system at that time, Xie Lingyun, who was born in a noble family, could enjoy political and economic privileges without taking exams. Gain fame.
This kind of clan system, from the perspective of middle school history textbooks, is a backward and decadent system. It is a system in which the feudal ruling class ignores the diligence and wisdom of the working people. However, Xie Lingyun, who grew up under this system, did not have the worries of schoolwork or the pressure of exams, and was free both physically and mentally. It is not known that it would be beneficial to him in creating a fresh and natural school of landscape poetry in the future.
In the cultural and artistic circles, Xie Lingyun is sensitive and eager to learn, well-read, and good at poetry and writing. The outstanding poets of his generation, such as Yan Yanzhi, who is also known as "Yan Xie", and Bao Zhao, who is also known as the "Three Great Masters of Yuanjia" with the first two, are more or less Diaosi literati.
Although they are called together, Xie Lingyun far surpasses the two in terms of recognition at the time and influence on later generations. Regarding Yan Yanzhi, it is recorded in "Shi Pin" that Tang Huixiu once said that Yan Yan's poems are "like picking gold by mistake", Xie Lingyun's poems are "like hibiscus coming out of water", and "Yan Yan is always sick". The thank-you poems are like hibiscus emerging from the water, fresh and lovely; although the Yan poems are gorgeous in terms of words, they are inevitably carved. Yan Yanzhi will always cherish such comments. Regarding Bao Zhao, he himself once commented on Xie's poems that "Xie Wuyan is like a hibiscus, naturally lovely." And natural cuteness was the highest evaluation of beauty by people at that time.
What is even more commendable is that Xie Lingyun is extraordinary in many fields such as poetry, calligraphy, and painting. His poetry and calligraphy were called "two treasures" by Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty. After Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty came to the throne, he appointed him as secretary supervisor and compiled the "Catalogue of the Four Secret Pavilions"; and during the Yuanjia period, he was ordered to compile the "Book of Jin".
"Song Book" records that "the assets of my father and ancestors are very rich." Obviously you can rely on your background, but you still have to work hard on your talent. Perhaps as expressed by "Zhilan Yushu", excellence is not for anything, excellence itself is the inner gene and outer label of the Xie family's children.
However, Xie Lingyun soon discovered that Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty only appreciated his literary talent and did not give him the opportunity to display his political ambitions. Hundreds of years later, his die-hard fan Li Bai will have the same experience and the same feelings.
Although he is good at writing poems, his poems belong to the outside world, not to the officialdom and the court. Perhaps, he knows that his mission lies in poetry and the distance, and the mountains and rivers in the distance are his destination. As a result, he often absented himself from work without any reason or asked for leave due to illness. He also took hundreds of slaves with him and traveled around for fear that the world would not know.
Later, when he resigned and returned to his hometown, he became even more free and unfettered. Every time he traveled, he opened roads in the mountains and built bridges across rivers, pursuing the ultimate experience, striving to climb the highest mountains and take the most dangerous roads. The "Biography of Xie Lingyun" in the Song Dynasty records that there are many slave boys and hundreds of disciples who have made countless achievements in digging mountains and dredging lakes. If you look for mountains and ridges, you will definitely find deep and steep mountains with thousands of rock peaks.
In order to climb mountains, he also invented a mountaineering shoe. "When going up the mountain, remove the front teeth, and when going down the mountain, remove the back teeth." It's like walking on flat ground. It is known as "Xie Gong's Clogs" in history.
There are few products that can achieve such huge market acceptance and lasting reputation like Xie Gong Clogs. In the circle of poets, Xie Gong's clogs have simply become a cultural phenomenon, frequently seen in poetry of the past dynasties. For example, Li Bai's "Sleepwalking Tianmu Yin Liu Farewell": "Wearing Xie Gong's clogs, one's body is climbing the Qingyun Ladder"; Ming Dynasty Gao Qi's "The Picture of Yunshan Pavilion is Zhu Shouyu's Poem": "In order to ask where the immortal family is, I want to wear Xie Gong's shoes. Come on".
Xie Lingyun’s love for landscapes and pursuit of poetry and distant places allowed him to observe nature with all his heart and pioneered the landscape poetry school. When the trend of piled-up carvings was still prevalent in academic literature, he had already advocated that what you see is what you get and what you get is what you write during mountaineering trips.
Xie Lingyun's poems not only caused a sensation at the time, but also had a profound impact on later generations. Just as Zhong Rong commented in "Shipin": "For example, the green pine pulling out the shrubs, and the white jade reflecting the dust and sand are not enough to detract from his nobility."
When he was serving as the prefect of Yongjia, he was seriously ill at the beginning of his illness. Later, he created the famous work "Climbing the Pond and Going Up the Stairs", in which "Spring grass sprouts from the pond, and the willows in the garden turn into songbirds" has become a famous sentence through the ages, describing the fresh and natural feeling of winter passing and spring coming, and all things reviving. His other magical strokes include, "The desert sandy shore is clean, the sky is high and the autumn moon is bright", "The bright moon shines on the snow, the new wind is strong and sad". Xie Lingyun's poems found inspiration from the mountains, rivers and nature, ushered in a new style of poetry, and directly affected the development of poetry in the Tang Dynasty.
Hundreds of years later, Li Bai lamented in "Climbing the Phoenix Terrace of Jinling" that "the flowers and plants of the Wu Palace are buried in the secluded paths, and the clothes of the Jin Dynasty have become ancient hills." The prosperity and achievements of the past have been blown away by the wind and submerged in the dust of history. The swallows in front of Wang Xietang have flown into the homes of ordinary people.
Only works of art can gain lasting vitality and inheritance in the long river of history!