Wu Jiaji (1618-1684), courtesy name Binxian and nickname Yeren, was born in Anfeng Town, Dongtai City, Jiangsu Province, that is, Anfengchang, Taizhou. He is famous for his poem "Salt Farm Now Yuefu".
Born as a salt citizen, he was often sick as a child. In the late Ming Dynasty, he retired from official service and lived in seclusion in Anfeng Salt Farm, Taizhou. Gongyu poetry, the language of his poems is simple and popular, and the content mostly reflects the poverty of the people. It is quite similar to the poetic style of Meng Jiao and Jia Dao, and was appreciated by Zhou Lianggong and Wang Shizhen.
He is the author of "Housuan Poetry Collection", which contains 1,265 poems. Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House has a copy of "Wu Jiaji's Poems and Notes".
Salt people poet Wu Jiaji
Editor
In the history of Chinese literature, there was a famous salt people poet in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. He was known as the commoner poet Wu Jiaji.
Woodcarving of Wu Jiaji
Wu Jiaji, a native of Anfengchang (now Anfeng Town, Dongtai City), was born in the 46th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1618), with the courtesy name Binxian and the nickname Yeren. ), died in the 23rd year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1684). Grandfather Wu Fengyi was a student of Wang Xinzhai, a famous philosopher in the Ming Dynasty.
Liu Guozhu, a disciple of Wu Fengyi who was a disciple of Wu Jiaji when he was young, took part in the government examination because of his talent and intelligence, and ranked among the best. He was born into a poor family. He burned salt when he was young and his family had no food left over. Although he often ran out of food in good years, he did not feel it was a hardship. He loved reading and writing poems, was diligent in learning, and once took the government examination. However, because he witnessed the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing troops marching south, and the massacre of the residents, he gave up his official career and lived in seclusion in his hometown. Although the poet is not a kitchen household, he is still so poor that he does not have enough food and clothing to make a living. There is only one thatched cottage in the residence, which is called "Shaoxuan". Because there were overgrown weeds and grass all over the place around his residence, but he chanted the scroll all day long and refused to interact with outsiders, his old friends also called him a "savage". He also likes to use the nickname "Savage".
Yangzhou poet Wang Ji (Zhou Ci) visited local literati and learned that the Wuye people were poor and happy, good at chanting, and established their own family, so he sent his poems to Zhou Lianggong, the salt transport envoy to the Huaihe River, for reading. Wang Shizhen, the recommended official in Yangzhou, was highly praised by the king and said: "There is a talent like Jia Ji that no one in the world knows, and people who know rural music don't know it. Only Wang Ji knows it." Both Zhou and Wang wrote prefaces to the poems, Later, Wang Zhaozhang (Fusi) of Taizhou Branch collected and published 400 Wu poems, and they became famous all over the world.
Wu Jiaji Ancestral Hall Wu Jiaji’s former residence Wu’s Ancestral Hall HD large picture
The poet’s feelings of compassion for others
The statue of Wu Jiaji
Due to living among the poor for a long time , personally experienced the exploitation of Zao people by officials and salt merchants, and the harm done to Zao people by frequent floods and military defeats. In response to this, he meditated all day long, and thus wrote a large number of poems that reflected the darkness of society and the people's dire livelihood. His poems, with their true and profound content and highly generalized techniques, reflected the miserable life predicament and their own thoughts and feelings of the working people at that time. Wang Maolin commented that "the five or seven words are in a modern style, quiet and cold, and... they are free from restraints. So far, the Yuefu chapters that have been written today are about events and emotions, changing the Han and Wei Dynasties, and they are painful, melancholy, simple and far away, and they are the words of a family." Wu Zhouzuo said in the preface to the poem that "the frost is noble and the carvings are delicate. It cannot be specified as any era or style. It must be regarded as a poem of a savage." For example, he wrote in the poem "quatrains" describing the life of the salt people:
The low-thatched house of the white-headed stove household is beside the strong fire of frying salt in June.
In the hot sun before walking out, I take a moment to enjoy the cool air.
The elegance of Qin Se and Ming's boudoir
High-definition photos of Wu Jiaji's former residence
Wu Jiaji's wife Wang Rui is a wise woman who is willing to live in poverty and has noble aspirations. Writer of words. She is a descendant of Wang Gen, the founder of the famous "Taizhou School" in the Ming Dynasty. Wang Rui was smart and studious since childhood. He inherited Wang Gen's simple materialism and common people's thoughts and was diligent in composing lyrics. After marrying Wu Jiaji, they had similar interests. Wu Jiaji titled his poetry collection "Luxuan Poems", and Wang Rui also titled his collection of poems "Luxuan Poems". Each poem is a perfect combination, and both were highly praised by people at the time.
In the autumn of 1683, Wang Rui passed away. Wu Jiaji wrote 12 poems "Crying for Wife Wang", feeling extremely sad. The preface to the poem goes: "(Wang) returned to Yu for forty-five years, and wished that I would die before him. When asked, he said: I hope you will write a poem for me. Now that my son has died, I have poems for my crying son. When I shed tears, my poems are not worthy of shame. Work, but I am willing to be rewarded! I am willing to be rewarded, and I am so sad!" Because the female poet was too poor during her lifetime, "Luxuan Ci" could not be printed, and even the whereabouts of the original manuscript was unknown. The next year, 67-year-old Wu Jiaji also passed away in grief and poverty. He died in depression, and his close friends Wang Zhouci and Cheng Yun's family took care of his funeral. Wang Zhouci inscribed the tombstone: "The tomb of Mr. Wu Yeren, a commoner from Dongtao." After the Revolution of 1911, Zhang Jian, a famous Nantong industrialist, funded the construction of a stone archway with stone tables, stone benches, etc. Zhang Jian wrote a couplet for the archway in his own hand: The autumn water of Jianjia makes people think, and the west wind of grains brings sorrow to the motherland.