Perhaps influenced by foreign culture and the royal legacy, the ideal personality of Confucian scholars in the Tang Dynasty is not the kind of modest gentleman who can only recite poems and paint, but a person who learns from others, reads a lot of poems and books, is literate and able to teach, and has high martial arts. Chen Ziang is such a chivalrous man trained by Confucianism. He has been "strange" and "chivalrous" since he was a child. According to the report, when Zi Ang first arrived in the capital, he spent thousands of years on the Hu Qin, which surprised everyone. At the rally the next day, he smashed the piano in public and took the opportunity to distribute the manuscript. "In one day, the voice of China flooded." He is a hero in the world. I'm afraid only the Tang Dynasty can do this. Only people like Chen Ziang who dare to start over and stand on their own feet can do this.
Chen Ziang is such a scholar with strong political knowledge and ambition. He is outspoken and dares to protest. He often criticized many disadvantages of Wuhou dynasty, which was not adopted by Wu Zetian and was imprisoned for "betraying the party". His political ambitions can't be realized, but he is hit, which often makes him feel extremely depressed. Long live Wu Zetian. In the first year of Tian Tong, the Khitan captured Yingzhou, and Chen Ziang served as Wu Youyi's shogunate staff, accompanying him to the war. Wu Youyi was reckless and lacked strategy, so he was defeated in the war. He spoke frankly several times, but Wu refused to listen. Instead, he was demoted to sergeant. Seeing that his ambition to serve the country failed, the poet boarded Jiyou North Tower and generously wrote this song "Youzhou Tower".
"Before me, where was the past era? Behind me, are the future generations? " Here refers to the ancient sages and wise masters, who can cultivate talents and respect valuable men and women. Newcomers refer to later wise monarchs. The author ascends the mountain and looks far, sees through Wan Li, thinks about the past and the present, and regards Yan Zhaowang as Le Yi and Guo Bo in the Warring States period. Yan Taizi Dan treats Tian Guang and other historical deeds with infinite admiration. However, like Yan Zhaowang, the saints of the previous generation are out of sight, and the wise king himself is out of sight. He lamented that he was born at the wrong time and waited for no one. His strong sense of social responsibility, great ambition to make contributions and tragic consciousness of life are intertwined in his heart. When he stepped onto the stage and looked out, he saw the vast universe, eternal and unchanging, and deeply felt that he was as small as a mustard dust. The shortness of life was intertwined with the failure of his career. This is the long cry of the giant, the sad song of the giant, and the high song of the giant. It is tragic but not desolate and decadent. On the contrary, it pours out a kind of strength and tolerance from a deep sadness, which makes people feel the strength and vibration of diving. Loneliness is the unique life experience and life consciousness of many people without talent in the old society, so it can transcend time and space and gain wide fame. However, Chen Ziang's lonely elegy, which came out of nowhere, has special significance in this situation. It is a kind of loneliness of life itself, which is also the unique loneliness and ambition that the literati in the early Tang Dynasty will gush out like spring water after a cold winter, and it is a mature sign that the literati in the early Tang Dynasty are moving towards personality and spiritual independence.
This poem is also unique in artistic expression. In the early Tang Dynasty, if the "Four Masters" were compared to depth charges, and Zhang was compared to the left and right, then China's army was handsome. As far as aesthetic creation is concerned, the poems of the "four great poets" in the early Tang Dynasty have begun to show vigorous and sad momentum and touching strength, and he Zhang also created the artistic beauty of poetry, which greatly expanded the vision of poetry creation to a certain extent, boldly stirred up the poetry world and reversed the charming style of writing in the Six Dynasties, but it was only a positive attempt and a hazy exploration stage, not only more conscious. On the Tower of Youzhou clearly advocates "style", "prosperity", returns to the road of anti-Wei and "retro", achieves the goal of innovation beyond the Jin Dynasty, and consciously puts it into practice, which is a powerful practice of its conscious theory.
This poem is magnificent and vigorous, sweeping away the beauty and powder of the poems of the Six Dynasties, and it is very expressive. The two sentences in the poem have tones from ancient times to the present, which takes a long time to write; The third sentence, looking up from the building, says that the space is vast, "heaven and earth are the inverse of everything." Time flies, a hundred generations of passers-by. "Poets are independent of the vast universe, the universe is endless, the world is endless, and life is just a mustard. Being and nothingness, emptiness and reality are intertwined in such a vast background, which shows the poet's extreme loneliness, sadness and depression, reflecting each other, being generous and sad, and being particularly touching. When reading this poem, we seem to see a vast picture of the Northern Yuan Dynasty in front of us, and in front of this picture, we resolutely stand a lonely and sad poet with lofty aspirations but unable to serve the country. The poet's loneliness gushing from the deep heart is a kind of loneliness of life itself and an indelible sense of life tragedy to be sublimated and surpassed. This unique life experience is difficult to express and vent, and it is hidden in the hearts of many of us. Chen Ziang expressed this unprecedented sigh with the mind of a giant, which not only achieved the transcendence and sublimation of his own life, but also won a very wide range of * * * voices, which made us deeply excited.
In terms of diction and sentence-making, this poem adopts the sentence pattern of uneven length of Chu Ci, and does not talk about standardized rules and regulations, and does not seek strict antithesis. It is quite a bit of a prose, with harmonious syllables, and there is no formal constraint on the temperament of 46 couples since the Six Dynasties. It seems that we can vaguely see the bud of one of the new art forms, which may also inspire the ancient prose movement advocated by Liu Han in the middle Tang Dynasty. It is no wonder that Jin Yuanhaowen wrote in "On Thirty Poems" that "Shen Song traversed the field of calligraphy, and Qi Liang was not abolished at the beginning of his romantic life. If the merits and demerits are equal to Wu, they will be cast together. " Chen Ziang, a master of poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, was highly praised.
Chen Ziang, which has experienced ups and downs in life and historical hardships, looks at the magnificent and open prosperous Tang Dynasty from the early Tang Dynasty, where Vientiane was renewed. Faced with the vast history and endless rivers, a sense of social responsibility and a sense of life tragedy are solemnly intertwined. He sighed and sublimated ... This sigh marks the maturity of a new generation of intellectuals, who have more achievements in personality and spirit, and this sublimation also indicates the establishment of a greater new artistic creation in aesthetic ideals.
"Chu Sai meets three lakes, and its nine streams touch the gate of Beijing", just as we can get a glimpse of the prosperous Tang Dynasty through the mysterious and confident smile of Lushe Buddha in Longmen Grottoes, we can also look forward to the prosperous Tang Dynasty with the help of Chen Ziang's generous elegy.
Li Xu, Master of Chinese Education, School of Art, Huazhong Normal University.