Mei was born in an official family and liked poetry since she was a child. The History of Song Dynasty said that he "wrote poems with profound meanings and occasional ingenious thoughts" and gave an accurate evaluation. He opposed the ostentatious and empty content of Quincy's poems in the early Song Dynasty, and paid attention to plain, implicit and far-reaching, which brought a fresh wind to the poetry circles in the Northern Song Dynasty. However, talented people may not be admitted to Jinshi, just as the historian Mr. Tang Degang said: "In the imperial examination era, nine times out of ten people did not take the imperial examination. It is normal to fail the exam repeatedly; It is abnormal and unexpected to be admitted. " Therefore, although Mei is famous for his "poetic work", his scientific research road is bumpy, and he has tried many times. In the end, I had to "fight for my father" and made up my post through my parents' contributions, and awarded the master book to Taimiao Zhailang and Henan County (affiliated to Henan Province).
The young official got off to a good start. As soon as he made his debut, he met a good leader, Qian. During the heyday (1023- 1032), Qian worked in Xijing (now Luoyang City, Henan Province) as an "envoy" and was on an equal footing with the Prime Minister. Qian is a minister of the DPRK, with a noble position, but he knows how to respect talents better, and he is relatively backward, so he can be called Bole. He had given a lot of help to a group of young talents such as Mei, Ouyang Xiu and Athena Chu who were working in Luoyang at that time, especially Mei and Ouyang Xiu, and he loved them even more. He often sings with them and learns skills, which is widely praised by his colleagues. "Everyone talks about everything", so Mei Yao Chen and Ouyang Xiu were called "Mayo" by the world and became famous all over the world. From the Palace to Luxiang, Mei's poems can be seen everywhere, and even his poems are woven on the clothes of southwest ethnic minorities, which shows its wide influence.
But in the eyes of money, he is a talented person and has a poetic name among the people. But in the imperial court, he had no political voice and was incompetent, and the imperial court never regarded him as a talent. After a few years in Luoyang, he also worked in Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Shaanxi and other places, and worked as a county magistrate, tax supervisor and warehouse supervisor for 30 years. It is quite rare that a person with such a famous literary name has worked in many positions and exercised in many positions, but he always lingers in the position of a mere official. Many scholar-officials think that it is a waste of talent for a great talent like Mei not to enter the library and cabinet, and they feel wronged for him one after another. In the first year of Jiayou (1056), more than ten people, including Zhao Bi, a bachelor of Hanlin, even jointly recommended Mei Yao Chen.
With everyone's pity, praise and repeated recommendation, Song Renzong decided to interview this world-famous poet. I gave it a try, and it was really talented, so I gave a background as a scholar, and became the direct speaker of imperial academy, and later ministers were also officials. However, this foreign minister is still just a casual official who can't get on the table. Vice Premier Shi Zhongli once joked that Yuan Wailang is not as good as the lion who eats meat every day in the palace, and "the wolf outside the garden is not as good as the lion in the garden", which shows his low status. It is even more regrettable that May Yao Chen died only a few days after being appointed as Foreign Minister. At the memorial service, people were crying, and some colleagues even felt wronged for him: "If you win a child, you are called a grandfather, and a poor name is called an official." (Zhao in Song Dynasty and Poems of Recreation Hall)
However, May Yao Chen doesn't seem to have high expectations for her career. During the Jiayou period, Song Renzong recruited him to compile the Book of the New Tang Dynasty. After receiving the emperor's call, he said to his wife Diao, half jokingly and half seriously, "My calligraphy has been put into a cloth bag." How uncomfortable is it for an active monkey to be stuffed into a cloth bag? Expressed his rather reluctant mentality. There is no better way to know a husband than a wife. Diao's answer is more direct: "You are an official, how did you get on the bamboo pole?" Who in the world has seen catfish that can climb bamboo poles? It is doomed that the official career is not smooth and unreasonable.
This shows that Mei is self-aware of being an official. This is also the case. If a poem is well written, it will be mentally retarded politically. Because really good poetry is the expression of individuality, frankness and frankness, while politics pays attention to compromise, interests and compromise, which has its opposite or uncoordinated side with poetry writing. Therefore, when a scholar runs a country and a poet is in politics, he is often not naive to be ridiculous, but will be arrogant. When you are naive, you don't talk about science, and when you are arrogant, you are irrational, which often leads the country astray or into the abyss of disaster, just like Li Yu in the Southern Tang Dynasty before and Evonne in Song Huizong.
Mei has worked at the grassroots level for 30 years and seldom cares about her career. He performs his duties step by step every day, and after work, he recites poems and gives them a lot of fun. According to Sun Sheng's Sun Gong Tan Pu in Song Dynasty, Mei always recited the scriptures, whether she was eating, sleeping or traveling. He carries a "counting bag" for storing paper, pens and inkstones. Sometimes when inspiration comes, I ignore the guests and leave. I take out a pen and paper from the "money counting bag" and bury myself in writing. Someone peeked at his paper and found it was full of poems, couplets or sentences. Later, these bitter poems became epigrams, quatrains and ingenious brushstrokes in Mei's poems. Mei Yaochen's title is not obtained casually, but the result of day and night, in which she is completely absorbed.
Ouyang Xiu, a great writer, did not admire many people all his life, but he was convinced of Mei Yao Chen and "enjoyed himself". He also spoke highly of his poem "Poverty and Backwardness" and thought that the ups and downs of his political career and the hardships of life made Mei and his peerless poems hit home. It may be a good thing for those who rush on the road, but it may not be a bad thing for poets. One more poet with clear thinking is better than one more mediocre official.