Mei Yaochen (1002～1060)
Poet of the Northern Song Dynasty. The courtesy name is Shengyu. A native of Xuancheng, Xuanzhou (now part of Anhui). Xuancheng was named Wanling in ancient times, and Mr. Wanling was called Mr. Wanling in his old life. In the poetry innovation movement of the Northern Song Dynasty, he was as famous as Ouyang Xiu and Su Shunqin, and they were also called "Mei Ou" or "Su Mei". His father, Mei Rang, was a farmer, and his uncle, Mei Rang, was a scholar. Mei Yaochen studied with Mei Xun at the age of 12. At the age of 26, he was promoted to Taimiao Zhailang with Mei Xun's "Men Yin". Soon, he was appointed as the chief registrar of Tongcheng County and was transferred to the chief registrar of Henan County. In the ninth year of Tiansheng (1031), he was appointed as the chief registrar of Heyang County. Heyang is very close to Luoyang, Xijing. At that time, Qian Wei, the leading figure of the Xikun Poetry School, acted as the judge of Henan Prefecture and stayed in Xijing. Ouyang Xiu was appointed as the left-behind official in Xijing, and Yin Zhu and others also served as officials in Xijing. Mei Yaochen often interacted with these celebrities and was highly respected, and became close friends with Ouyang Xiu. In the third year of Jing □ (1036), when Mei Yaochen was appointed magistrate of Jiande County, he sent a poem to Fan Zhongyan to support his idea of ??reforming the bad government. In the second year of Baoyuan (1039), he knew Xiangcheng County, and there were many transfers thereafter. In the third year of the emperor's reign (1051), he was granted the title of Jinshi and was appointed Dr. Taichang. In the second year of Jia □ (1057), Ouyang Xiu recommended him as a detailed officer, hoping to combat the flashy and obscure writing style at that time through the examination. Mei Yaochen highly appreciated Su Shi's article during the review and recommended it to Ouyang Xiu, who ranked him second. In the fifth year of Jia □ (1060), Mei Yaochen was an official of Shangshudu, Wailang, and died of illness soon after.
Mei Yaochen's poetry creation in his early years was influenced by the Xikun School of Poetry. Later, because of his concern for reality and closeness to the people, his poetic style gradually changed, and he proposed a poetry theory that was diametrically opposed to the Xikun School. He emphasized the tradition of "The Book of Songs" and "Li Sao", and advocated that poetry creation must be "motivated by events and inspired by things" ("A Reply to the Three Sons of Han, Hua Han, Wu Zhi, Guo Han Liuyu Ru Seeing the Poems"), and expressed his love for the flamboyant The empty poetic style was criticized fiercely. In terms of art, Mei Yaochen paid attention to the characteristics of poetry such as imagery and implicit artistic conception, and put forward the idea that "a scene that is difficult to describe is like the present, but contains endless opinions" (quoted in Ouyang Xiu's "Six One Poetry Talk") Famous artistic standards, and advocates the "bland" artistic realm: "There is no ancient or modern poetry, but it is difficult to create blandness." ("Reading Shao Buyi's Poetry Volume") Mei Yaochen's creative practice is consistent with his creative ideas. His poems are full of realistic content and have a wide range of themes. He understood rural life and wrote a number of works that cared about the fate of farmers in his early days, such as "Four Seasons of the Tian Family", "Wounding Mulberries", "Viewing the Farm", "New Cocoon", etc. Later, he wrote "Tian Jiayu" to describe the disasters and pain caused by heavy taxes and corvee to farmers. His famous poem "The Poor Girl in Ru Tomb" deeply reflects the tragic experience of the people through the cry of a poor girl. Some of his poems express his concern for national affairs. Such as "Xiangcheng vs. Snow" Part 2, "Gu Yuan Zhan", etc. Other chapters, such as "The Yin of the Other", "The Clever Woman", "Hearing that Ouyang Yongshu was Banished to Yiling", and "Tiger's Journey", express his hatred for the conservative and decadent forces. He also wrote many landscape poems, among which poems such as "Cold Grass", "Seeing a Cowherd Playing the Flute across the River", "Watching a Cockfight in a Late Moor", etc. embody profound philosophy in ordinary scenery or things.
Mei Yaochen’s poems are characterized by plain style and implicit artistic conception. He is good at using simple and natural language to depict clear and novel scenery. For example, "Mountain Trip to Lushan" describes the desolate and quiet scenery in the mountains in late autumn with meticulous detail. In addition, "Dreams of thousands of miles at the fifth watch, the waning moon fills the city with chickens" ("Dream Posted to Uncle Ouyang Yong"), "The most leisurely sleep on the shore, the old trees are full of flowers and have no ugly branches" ("Dongxi"), "No "I'll tell you how many days it will take to go upstairs, and the whole city will be full of willow branches." ("Kaobi Dengquan Tower"), these are all beautiful poems written by Yi Xinyu Gong. But his poems also sometimes have a majestic and strange side, such as "Yellow River" and "Dream of the River Han", which are magnificent and completely different from his general style. Because his poetry was greatly influenced by Han Yu and Meng Jiao, his art tended to be overly argumentative and prose. Sometimes his language was too simple and old-fashioned and lacked literary grace. These shortcomings can be considered as the price paid for a correct and flashy poetic style. He made an important contribution to opening up the path of Song poetry. Liu Kezhuang called him the "founder" of Song poetry ("Houcun Poetry Talk"). Gong Xiao said that he "get rid of the habit of floating and extravagant, and detached himself from the extremely disadvantages of Kun style. The way of preserving the past and being indifferent is outstanding before all the other masters have done it" (Appendix of Mr. Wanling's Collection), these comments are very insightful.
Mei Yaochen's works include 60 volumes of "Mr. Wanling Collection", 1 volume of "Supplements", 1 volume of "Appendix", and the Yingming edition of "Sibu Congkan". Today's Zhu Dongrun has "Chronological Notes of Mei Yaochen's Collection".