The reason why Li Bai can become a poet with fresh backbone and immortal spirit in the eyes of the world has a lot to do with Taoism.
Taoism, as a religion born in the local cultural field of China, has deeply influenced the literary creation of ancient China literati and poets since its birth, which is an important influencing factor for the rich content and theme of their literary creation.
Taoism was formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. After hundreds of years of development and evolution, it reached a very grand situation in the Tang Dynasty. In the process of development and evolution, Taoism constantly struggles and exchanges with other local and foreign ideas to develop and improve itself; On the other hand, it developed to the upper class of society and gradually gained the support and belief of the ruling class.
The reason why the Tang Dynasty highly praised Taoism was precisely the coincidence of the development of Taoism itself and the development of social times. The rise of any emerging dynasty, in order to seek the social peace urgently needed in the early stage of dynasty development, is often inseparable from borrowing some ideological theory to control the whole social trend of thought.
Therefore, in order to seek stability and further development, Li's ruling class moved out the second child in the Tang Dynasty, and at the same time intensified its efforts to widely publicize Taoism, which made the ruling and opposition parties in the early Tang Dynasty generally keen on Taoist beliefs.
In addition, in the first year of Tianbao, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty advocated metaphysics and set up a "four-branch" to select scholars, taking Laozi, Zhuangzi, Wen Zi and Liezi as the examination contents.
Taoism received strong political and economic support in the Tang Dynasty, and naturally reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty, especially in poetry, which had a wide and far-reaching impact on society and literati creation.
As the backbone of Tang Wenhua, Tang poetry should be a typical symbol of Tang Wenhua.
Li Bai was an outstanding romantic poet in the Tang Dynasty. Sima Zhen, a Taoist priest, once praised Li Bai and said that he "has a spirit that can drift with the gods."
Li Bai began to envy Taoism at the age of fifteen, and pursued Taoist practice devoutly until his later years. His life can be described as an indissoluble bond with Taoism. Looking at the relationship between Li Bai and Taoism in his life, it can be asserted that among the important poets in the Tang Dynasty, no one was so deeply influenced by Taoism and Taoism as Li Bai.
Li Bai once said frankly in the poem "Eight Poems of Feeling Xing": "At the age of fifteen, I never stopped."
It can be seen that Li Bai has been in contact with Taoism since very early and has been committed to the Taoist thought of wandering immortals.
Li Bai's early contact with Taoism has a lot to do with his birth environment. Li Bai lived in Bashu, the birthplace of Taoism, where Zhang Daoling, the founder of Taoism, founded Pentecostalism and preached for more than 30 years.
As the birthplace of Taoism, Sichuan has many Taoist temples, holy places, places and religious believers, presenting a spectacular scene of "five miles, one palace and ten miles and one scene", which occupies an irreplaceable position in local people and political life.
Without exception, these are the reasons why Li Bai had a strong interest in Taoism in his childhood and exerted a subtle influence. Under the influence of such a big environment, Li Bai gradually learned to exile himself in the endless world of Taoism, and spent his life exploring the realm of immortals and looking for a prescription for immortality.
It is obvious to all that Li Bai is always impressed by the good names of "fallen immortals", "Brewmaster" and "fallen immortals" given to him by others. He said in the poem "Liu Shaofu in Liuxi River": "I am Fang Shuo, and the stars fall into the world." His "Two Memories of Wine" also said: "When we meet in Chang 'an, call me a fairy".
Not only that, Li Bai also claimed to be "fallen immortal" directly, and his poem Who is Answering Ye Jia Sima Bai claimed to be "fallen immortal". Li Bai regards practicing Taoism as a way to improve his personality.
Taoism advocates that people should conform to nature, blend in with nature, rest and practice in mountains and rivers, and put aside all secular thoughts to meet immortals. This is also the reason why famous mountains and great rivers have Taoist views.
The beauty of mountains and rivers can often cultivate people's temperament, thus forgetting the troubles in the world.
Therefore, although Li Bai can't get high and become an independent immortal with a clean mind, whether he is an alchemist taking medicine or wandering around, his long-term pious pursuit of Taoist thought has given him a unique charm and grace, which is a charm beyond ordinary people.
In a large number of poems about immortals, he not only found a wonderful fairyland, but also successfully handled the contradiction between his frustrated ambition and society.
Li Bai's landscape poetry is a peak of Tang poetry, and Taoism has played a decisive role in the formation of his poetic style. To explore the relationship between Taoism and Li Bai's poetry creation, it must be closely related to Li Bai's life course.
Taoism is a religion that cherishes individual life and longs for worldly happiness. It contains the desire for survival and pleasure, and it is also the ideal source to trigger Li Bai's constant pursuit of achievements in his life.
This excessively free attitude towards life may not be worth imitating, but it has greatly broken the taboo of art and fully expanded the aesthetic space. All these have been vividly reflected in Li Bai's life and creation, and played an important role in Li Bai's literary creation.
From the relationship between Taoism and Taoism, it can be seen that Taoism regards Zhuangzi as a real person in the south of the Yangtze River, and his book Zhuangzi is the true classics in the south of the Yangtze River.
Li Bai's ideal personality is mainly reflected in his love and pursuit of freedom, and his natural aesthetic pursuit of freedom originated from Zhuangzi.
Zhuangzi Zhibei Tour: "Saint, the original beauty of heaven and earth, the principle of everything." Li Bai's "To the Monk Cliff Duke" said: "An empty boat is not bound, but you can see the anger in the middle reaches of the river. Ginger's anger meets the same voice, and the cliff is a monk. " "Looking for the Purple Pole Palace in Autumn" says: "The audience was wonderful, charming and lonely when they were alive." All these indicate that he "takes the road of Zhuangzi, takes reason and brightness as the aesthetic direction, and takes the original beauty as the way of reason and brightness".
In the process of visiting scenic spots, nature opened Li Bai's vision with its magic and magnificence, broadened Li Bai's mind, and formed his unique landscape feelings. Li Bai's landscape poems are based on such kind feelings.
So we can say: If Li Bai only loves mountains and rivers, without the subtle influence of Taoism, there will only be one more Xu Xiake in the history of China.
It is the Taoist thoughts of "quietness", "returning to simplicity" and "conforming to nature" that sublimate the artistic conception of Li Bai's poems. Li Bai deserves to be a poet. The poet's freedom to soar between mountains and rivers, and the freedom and boldness of everything are all formed under the influence of Taoist thought.
After Li Bai left Shu at the age of 25, he lived in Anlu for nearly ten years.
During this period, he wrote "An Zhao Hua Yan sends Liu Wan", telling Liu's feelings of seclusion in the Peach Blossom Garden. The life in the mountains described in the poem is quiet and full of vitality, which expresses Li Bai's yearning for the fairy world.
This yearning can be reflected in his close contacts with many Taoist priests, such as visiting Taoist priests in the mountains, seeking harmony and respecting their teachers for seclusion, singing songs in autumn on New Year's Day, looking for Ying's residence in Yangshan on New Year's Day, visiting Shimen Mountain in the middle of New Year's Day and autumn, and Wen Danqiu living in Shimenying, north of the city, recalling the past and living in Songshan on New Year's Day and autumn.
In the article "The Influence of Taoist Culture on Li Bai's Life Path and His Poetic Style", Li believes that "the perfect combination of Taoist spirit of pursuing freedom and Li Bai's spirituality of understanding Taoism makes his landscape poems personified and deified, forming a unique immortal style". The author focuses on the influence of Taoist culture on the style of Li Bai's landscape poems and explores the reasons for the immortal style of his landscape poems.
Luo Chonghong believes in the article "The Influence of Taoism on Li Bai's Poetry Creation" that "Taoist culture provides a rich and complex image group with Taoist color for poets, and it breeds a strong subjective color and magnificent poetic style in his poems".
In the article "Taoist purity and Li Bai's elegant poetic style", Ai discussed the relationship between Li Bai's Taoist belief and poetic creation and the formation of his poetic style, and pointed out that Li Bai's elegant poetic style was the product of his understanding of Taoist thought.
Summarizing these theoretical achievements, we can know that Taoist thought is the key factor affecting Li Bai's landscape poetry creation, and the formation of his elegant poetic style is closely related to the in-depth exploration of the Taoist world.
Poems about immortals are maturing under the direct influence of Taoist culture. In content, they often express their dissatisfaction with the real world and their feelings about the short life by describing the immortal realm pursued by Taoism, so as to express their pursuit of freedom and immortality.
And this immortal pursuit and eternal persistence of life is the core of Taoist thought. In form, a large number of immortals, myths and legends are selected as images, and a magical, magnificent or pure and mysterious realm of immortals is constructed, which reflects the reality in twists and turns and expresses the poet's thoughts and feelings. These are the same characteristics of immortal poems.
Li Bai's poems about immortals occupy a large proportion in his whole poetry creation, which can best reflect Li Bai's "poetic immortal" style. Li Bai described a fantastic fairy world in his poems. Whether the world really exists in his consciousness or not, he always tries to express his lofty ideal and strong desire to get rid of the bondage of reality and realize his personal ambition through the realm created by poetry.
The spirit of transcendence and freedom embodied in fairy tales inspired him, became the driving force of his life and creation, directly influenced the conception and association of his poetry creation, and made it have distinctive and unique personality characteristics.
In the article "On Li Bai's Poems of Wandering Immortals", Wimberland commented that "it is not enough to study Li Bai's poems of wandering immortals, and it is impossible to correctly evaluate Li Bai without correctly evaluating his poems of wandering immortals".
There is no doubt that Li Bai's poems about immortals are closely related to his Taoist beliefs.
After experiencing the failure of dealing with the emperor himself, Li Bai's heart of Taoism became stronger, and during this period he officially became a monk from Gao Tianshi.
Li Bai wants to build a great career, but his noble character and arrogant personality don't allow him to bow to the powerful, so he can't be tolerated on earth, so he can only seek spiritual sustenance and support in the ideal of caring for mountains and rivers, seeking immortals and visiting Taoism in Taoism. In Li Bai's poems about immortals, what is written and done is the yearning for the unrestrained life of immortals. Through the description and imagination of fairyland and immortal life, he expressed his pursuit of the ideal realm of freedom.
This point is most clearly expressed in Li Bai's famous poem "Dream on Mount Tianmu": "But let me raise a white deer on my green hillside and ride to you, Dashan. When I need you, oh, how can I solemnly bow to those high officials who will never suffer from sincere faces?" The immortal realm here is not only the magical imagination of Li Bai's personality, but also the reflection of his personal life experience. It is also an image display of Li Bai's belief in immortal Taoism in literature, reflecting the influence of Taoist culture on Li Bai.
Taoism regards real life as a painful life controlled by various desires and external objects, and always regards it as its ideal life pursuit to get rid of external bondage and dependence, get rid of the control of inner desires, become immortal through the double cultivation of life, return to nature, and get an eternal unrestrained and free life. This pursuit of life is transformed into literature and images, forming a beautiful, magical and carefree fairy realm.
Therefore, the immortal realm here reflects the reflection of the whole Taoist culture on life, the transcendence of individual life and the pursuit of freedom, happiness and eternity of life.
For example, in the poem XIX, in the first half, I wrote the detachment of climbing into fairyland and not pestering the world: "Go to Lianhua Mountain in the west and look at the stars all the way. Holding hibiscus in hand, the imaginary step is too clear. " The second half reads: "Look down on Luoyang, look down on Sichuan, and walk into Hu Bing. Bleeding brings weeds, and jackals are full of flowers. " The sharp contrast between heaven and earth and the spirit of criticizing reality are beyond words.
Another example is the first half (3) of "Antique", which describes how powerful Qin Shihuang is. In the second half, the topic suddenly changed. Compared with the immortals in the fairy mountain of Penglai, "under the three springs, the golden coffin is buried in cold ashes", so is the wealth and achievements of the world. Du Fu, a poet sage, once described Li Bai's heroism against the "emperor" by saying that "the emperor never boarded the ship" (Du Fu's "Song of Eight Immortals in Wine").
Li Bai mainly pinned his Taoist ideal of getting rid of the fetters of reality, realizing freedom of will and cynicism on his fairy fantasy. This huge emotion hidden in his heart will condense into a kind of strength, which will ferment with * * * to become a kind of creative passion and inspiration, so there are a lot of immortal poems in his poetry creation.
The Taoist values of integrating everything with nature, the pursuit of independent personality, the ideal of free from vulgarity and carefree life, and the beautiful belief in immortals have made Li Bai's "poetic immortal" and his elegant and free poems.
? In a word, Taoism left an indelible mark on Li Bai's poems. Under the influence of the spirit of Laozi and Zhuangzi and Taoist culture, Li Bai opened up the realm of roaming spiritual freedom in his colorful artistic world, implanted imagination and exaggeration into poetry, realized spiritual liberation to the maximum extent, and created a confusing, illusory, colorful and magnificent artistic realm.
Throughout Li Bai's life, though full of lofty sentiments and aspirations, he was always unhappy.
Even if he had the opportunity to get in touch with the highest ruling class so closely, it failed to enable him to successfully realize his ideals and ambitions.
Lonely Li Bai can only reflect this contradiction and confusion with positive and romantic poems, and indirectly reflect the spiritual outlook and contradiction in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Judging from the influence of Taoism, Li Bai exerted the aesthetic factors of immortal Taoist belief with his outstanding talent, thus making his works a unique expression of a generation of immortal aesthetics.
In the tortuous course of his seclusion and official career, it seems that he can only save the suffering of the world by his early devotion to Taoism. It can be said that he chose Taoism and Taoism chose him.