Xue Tao was born in the fifth year of Dali (AD 770), and by the age of 70, he was already an expert in poetry and calligraphy. When I was eight or nine years old, my father pointed to a buttonwood tree in the yard and said, "There is an ancient buttonwood tree in the yard, towering into the clouds." She replied, "The branches welcome birds from the north and the south, and the leaves send them into the wind." Later, this sentence became a prophecy. When her father died, she was unaccompanied, and the "branches and leaves" in the joint sentence turned out to be a portrayal of her depravity.
Because of her father's death, Xue Tao and her mother had no support, and life was very difficult. She had to join the music club early and became an official prostitute. In the Tang Dynasty, there were music officials in every yamen and military town, among which official prostitutes lived. They specialize in serving the government, performing the arts and even serving the private sector. At that time, Wei Gao, the highest local official in Chengdu, especially appreciated Xue Tao, and often ordered her to pour wine and sing, meet guests and even become a private secretary. Wei Gao is also going to ask the court to appoint Xue Tao as the "school book boy". Although it was not approved, people nicknamed her "a textbook for girls" from now on.
Hu Ceng, a scholar, gave a gift to Xue, saying, "There are female books on Wan Li Bridge, and loquat flowers live behind closed doors. It is better to lead the spring breeze than to sweep your eyebrows. " Xue Tao loves Lian Shuai, or sings in harmony, getting in and out of the car, and poetry is everywhere. There are many people who seek Tao. Bai Juyi presented a poem to Xue, saying, "If it seems easy to get in the middle, it is still separated from Wuling West." Euphemism reveals a feeling of admiration.
The poem "White Zhou Ping" that Du Mu sent to Xue Tao is more straightforward: "Birds fly red, pavilions fold purple flowers. At the beginning of the stream, the light is clear, and the autumn scenery is Tsinghua. Without much resistance, I will not bear the smog. "
Although Xue Tao has been in and out of the rich all day, taking poetry as her friend and giving people a happy and natural image, she has long been quite tired of her career as a poet and prostitute. At the age of 38, she finally met the only person she really loved in this life, the poet Yuan Zhen, and started an unforgettable relationship.
Yuan Zhen (779-831) was born in Henan. At the age of 9, he could write; at the age of 65,438+06, he was Ji; at the age of 24, he was awarded the post of secretary of the provincial school; at the age of 28, he was the first to take countermeasures in the Ministry. He was a poet as famous as Bai Juyi in the middle Tang Dynasty, and was known as "Bai Yuan". At that time, Xue Tao was famous in the poetry circle, which made Yuan Zhen admire him, but he only hated him. It was not until Yuan He was appointed as Yuan Zhen in the fourth year of Yuan He (809) that he had the opportunity to invite people to know Xue Tao. They fell in love at first sight, met late, and fell in love at the same time.
Although Xue Tao is a prostitute, she has always been honest. This time, everything is different. On the night she met Yuan Zhen, she gave herself to her beloved without reservation. When I got up the next morning, I wrote a song "Two Birds on the Pool" because of my true feelings:
On the amphibious green pool, fly back at dusk;
The days between concentric lotus leaves will be busier.
Poetry expresses the yearning for a better life and plays the heart melody of pursuing sincere feelings. Yuan Zhen was deeply intoxicated by Xue Tao's beautiful feelings, and a poem he left recorded such a thing:
Everyone is poetic, but I know the exquisite scenery;
The moonlight is full of flowers, and the willow in the rain period is a song.
Xue Yuan dated for more than a year, spent a year of intimate time and formed true love. However, after all, they met by chance, returned to Kyoto, and had to break up in tears. After Yuan Zhen returned to Chang 'an, he sent Xue Tao a melody from the client:
Jinjiang is beautiful and gave birth to Wen Jun and Xue Tao;
Words are like parrots' tongues, and articles are divided into chicken feathers.
One by one, the guests stopped writing, and everyone wanted to dream of a knife;
After parting, acacia is separated by smoke and water, and pueraria flowers are five clouds high.
Yuan Zhen was infatuated with Xue Tao's talent, secretly marveling, and at the same time expressing his yearning for love, which shows that he was quite sincere about his lingering years in Chengdu.
In the poem Farewell, Xue Tao also described the scene after the breakup: "I know that you didn't turn to Qin Guan to ride, and the sunshine covered your sleeves and cried. The boudoir doesn't know anything about military affairs, but it's still upstairs in Wang Fu, which is a month high. " It can be inferred from the poem that when they broke up, Yuan Zhen promised to come back to Chengdu to reunite with Xue Tao after a business trip. But you never know, the actual situation is not as agreed, which makes Xue Tao look at Chang 'an from a distance, clutching his sleeves and sighing.
Since then, the mountain road is difficult to cross, the road is impassable, and Yuan Zhen's official career is bumpy, and he has no fixed place for the official. In ten years, he became an observer in western Zhejiang and was later recalled to Beijing. Later, he was demoted to Jiangling House to join the army. Soon, Bai Juyi was also demoted to Jiangzhou for offending powerful people, and Yuan Zhen was implicated and transferred to Tongzhou Sima.
In such frequent transfers, Yuan Zhen, who is 9 years younger than Xue Tao, naturally cannot stick to his love. In addition, the contacts between officials and prostitutes were not prohibited in the Tang Dynasty, so it was inevitable for Yuan to move to other places. Although after breaking up, the two also kept pen and ink exchanges, but on Yuan Zhen's side, it seems that they just cope, not as promised that day.
Time flies like water, gradually taking away Xue Tao's hope for his lover. 12 years later, Xue Tao knew he couldn't wait any longer. After this hot and cold turn, Xue Tao was depressed and never got married. The scenery in the field of communication in the past, with the passing of beauty and beauty, gradually faded away. Xue Tao, who is nearly in his twilight years, simply built a poetry-chanting building in the outer suburbs, disguised herself as a female Taoist, lived in seclusion in the building, far away from the bustling and dreamlike communication places, and paid her respects with poems. The whole Tang poetry said that Xue Tao "retired from Huanhuaxi in his twilight years and wore a crown suit". Xue Tao often writes poems in two forms, namely rhythm and unique style. Because the length of notes circulated at that time was too large, Xue Tao loved red, so he created crimson notes, named "Notes of Xue Tao".