Demoted officials are prone to anger after their ideals are frustrated. Many officials who have been demoted are extremely sad and angry. "If you don't believe in my sin and give it up, why don't you forget it day and night!" (Qu Yuan's Mourning) History, reality and personnel are entangled in inexplicable difficulties, misfortunes and disasters. People scream when they are unfair, and feel sad when they wander. When they have to talk, they will feel sad. Their songs are thoughtful, and their crying is pregnant. Qu Yuan's exile is Li Sao; Jia Yi was demoted, and he wrote the Fu of Mourning and Catching Birds. He wrote "Youzhou Tower" and Han Yu wrote "Moving Left to Languan to Meet My Grandnephew", all of which were works of indignation. Jiang Yan's "Hate Fu" wrote: "Maybe there are lonely ministers who cry in danger, and the evil ones fall into their hearts. Flowing to the sea, the current guards Long Yin. The man smelled very Thai tears. Staining under blood; It is sour and sighing, and the sales volume is heavy. "
The relegated officials suffered setbacks in their official career, gained a deeper understanding of the ups and downs of the official sea and the indifference of the world, generally showed disappointment and helplessness in their official career, and often showed a sense of indifference in avoiding the world. Many scholars have been relegated for many times or for a long time, and some even died in relegation institutions. Such as famous literati, Li Yong, Wang Changling, Liu Changqing, Han Yu, Su Shi, Wang Yucheng, etc. have all been demoted more than twice. Liu Yuxi was exiled for a long time, saying that he abandoned his position in 23 years, while Su Shi spent most of his life in exile and was exiled to Danzhou (now Hainan) when he was in his 60 s; Shangguan Yi, Li Qiao, Su Weidao, Song, Liu Zongyuan and Li Deyu. More depressed. The political tragedy of relegating officials even aroused their understanding of reality, which made some people gradually indifferent to fame and fortune, take everything lightly and pursue a peaceful state of mind. Correspondingly, Su Dongpo regards seclusion as a manifestation of contempt for independence and his return to nature as spiritual comfort and enjoyment in Qian Chibi Fu and Hou Chibi Fu. After being demoted, Su Shunqin has Canglang Pavilion, Ouyang Xiu has Zuiweng Pavilion, Su Shi has transcendental platform, and Su Zhe has western language pavilion, all of which need affection. Bai Juyi turned to leisure poetry, Wang Wei was interested in Zen poetry, and Tao Yuanming was obsessed with pastoral poetry.
Influenced by Confucianism and Taoism, the relegated officials are painfully wandering between helping the world and being independent. The world between the ruling and the opposition may mean a retired and prosperous life path for a real literati, but it is a dilemma for literati with independent spirit. As a result, the polarized world has become the source of contradictions and pains that literati in past dynasties can't get rid of: when they were officials, they felt sinister and uncomfortable, but they were really demoted, and they were depressed because they couldn't get ahead. This is an embarrassing situation faced by China scholars in the past two thousand years, which has aroused the general anxiety of scholars. It is worth emphasizing that during the period of relegation, the literati increased the opportunities to get close to the people and observe social life. In addition, they have always been keen to help others and make contributions so that they can pay more attention to North Korea's political affairs and show sympathy to the people.
Demoted officials always have unwilling pain. Du Fu's "One Night Abroad" said: "I hope my art can bring me fame and free my sick old age from public office!" It tells the voice of all the demoted officials: fame in literature is not their original wish, but frustration in officialdom is their lifelong regret. It is a helpless choice to use language as a tool to express one's feelings and relieve one's inner depression. It is difficult to change his concern for the country and people, his cynical nature and his desire to clarify Gan Kun with the help of a chicken. If he is unwilling to give up his concern for the country and the people of the world, he will never forget the people of the world, and his pain will be inevitable. I have hated this body for a long time. When will I forget the camp? You can't sleep with a pillow, you can think and sigh about life alone, and you can find your own joys and sorrows, which is still the case today. Even in those fierce feelings of knocking on the railing, drawing out the sword and hitting the column, there is always a sigh of helplessness. After middle age, Bai Juyi gave up his early style of petitioning for the people and embarked on the road of Taoist retreat. His heart is also full of contradictory pain and suffering, because economic benefits and social benefits are his real ideals, and being alone is just his helpless retreat.
The innate sadness, worry, anger and sorrow of relegated officials are more obvious in the loneliness that is not affirmed by officialdom. Since ancient times, scholars have been sad about autumn, because they have read a lot of books and considered many problems, and they have a lot of considerations in their hearts. Sima Qian, a historian of the Han Dynasty, was deeply moved by the experience that scholars were tangible but not obvious, and talented but not old. Fan Zhongyan, a writer in the Song Dynasty, said in The Story of Yueyang Tower that if you live in a temple, you will worry about your husband, and if you live far away from the rivers and lakes, you will worry about your people, whether you are advancing or retreating. The long-term relegation career, the ruthlessness and secular torture of feudal autocracy often soften or even erode the integrity of literati. They have to hide their ambition to actively use the world, or stretch their arms with literary works, or express their feelings with natural landscapes. Taking the works of literature, songs and poems as the dispatcher, as Liu Zongyuan said: sages should not aim at the present, but take things that are more expensive than the future. Ancient writers are also. Zongyuan wants to do this. [1] (page 484) Liu Yuxi also tasted the cloud of self-narrative: he drifted between Yuan and Xiang, and was influenced by the scenery of mountains and rivers, which often meant that things turned into songs and poems, or that he felt something when reading, and needed to make comments. Writing a book in poverty is the great harmony of ancient Confucian scholars, which is better than the sword without a crown.
First of all, corresponding to the cruel reality, the literature of relegating officials is shrouded in tragedy. Demotion is definitely a political tragedy for scholars. When the ideal dissolved in the bones encounters a devastating blow, it is inevitable that the heart will be shrouded in inexplicable sadness. Its main theme is grievance, resentment, homesickness, seclusion and so on. It is manifested in the fact that most of the literature is the wailing of heroes at the end of the road, the regret of the untimely life of literati, the injustice of bureaucratic relegation and exile, the sustenance of famous philosophers retiring from mountains and rivers, the pain of lovers returning to the sails, the melancholy of hard-to-pay ambitions and the hesitation of wandering around the world. For example, Fan Zhongyan's blue sky and yellow leaves fall in autumn ... For example, the fog in Qin Guan got lost, the moon was in the maze, and Taoyuan was nowhere to be found ... Bai Juyi heard that the pipa girl could play the pipa, which triggered her political feelings and wrote Pipa Trip. Even though Su Shi's River of No Return turned out to be a dream in life, he used wine to drown his sorrows, expressed his grief boldly, and reached graceful and restrained with boldness.
Corresponding to the resentful mentality of relegated officials, the literature of relegated officials is often full of resentment and depression. Because most people who are demoted are "unbelieving, loyal and slanderous", they are depressed in the middle and sad outside, so they are seen in words and sent as songs and poems. Scholars have a strong heart to use the world. They are also officials and farmers. The tortuous and difficult experience of becoming an official and relegation aggravated their psychological conflict. In the painful feeling of bad luck and bad luck, they often show disappointment, confusion and indignation at officialdom and unfinished business. Travel is hard. Travel is hard. Don't go astray! Where to go today. I look at this precious sword, I hold the railing upstairs, and no one understands the mind I am building now. Fan Zhongyan had a history of "picking silver lanterns" and laughed at Cao Cao, Sun Quan and Liu Bei during the Three Kingdoms period. "It's no use using all the organs. You have to divide the world into three parts." Obviously, he is pouring out his complaints and resentment that his career has been frustrated again and again.
The literature of relegating officials often has the feeling of being in exile and homesick for the country. Being demoted from his hometown, leaving his wife and children, he faced a hard journey and a bleak future. In this regard, Wu in the Three Kingdoms angered Sun Quan and was relegated to Yu in Jiaozhou (now Hanoi, Vietnam): "Life has nothing to say, and the dead green fly is a hanger" (see Biography of the Three Kingdoms, Pei Chuan), and poetry naturally became an outlet of inner pain and resentment. The hardships of relegated officials' traveling and wandering around the world are bound to be reflected in their works, which leads to the description of Yang Ping's relegation to He Wei in Zhang Ji's Song of Mourning the Past: "The Yellow Gate sent a letter to promote arrest, and Jing was the court. There is no music when you go out, and relatives can't talk when they meet. He resigned as the commander-in-chief of the South China Sea and was ordered not to stay for a moment. Riding a bad blue horse, there is no sender outside the middle door. When the postman is in a hurry to drive away, he often falls under his hoof. " What a harsh and cruel scene this is! The creation of literati is always inevitably influenced and restricted by subjective and objective conditions such as life accumulation, status and situation. The fundamental reason why relegated official literature is different from court literature is that relegated officials are no longer officials who accompany singers in court. Fan Zhongyan's The Story of Yueyang Tower refers to a wandering poet. Who can really be happy for things and sad for themselves? Before he abandoned his post, Du Fu also lamented his appearance, but he was just a sandpiper in the vast world! On the way to Zhou Hua (that is, Zhou Hua)! Yes, the old road is thin, the sun sets, and heartbroken people are in the end of the world. How can I not send out the sadness that everything has passed, everything has passed, and the original tree of the village bridge is like my hometown?
The misery of being down and out and the embarrassment of reality have created the images of drunkards and sleepwalkers in relegated literature. Desperate literati get drunk and drown their sorrows by drinking, which has their own psychological and spiritual needs. Drinking for them is the indignation of unfulfilled ambition and the vent of infinite sadness in their hearts. The sober psychological expectation and cold reality make them think more about life, fate, life and death, which is manifested in the dream phenomenon in the literature of relegating officials: when the dream of promotion is shattered with the dream of being an honest official, they regret the dream and chew the dream of butterflies in Zhuang Zhou, and more people start Tao Yuanming's dream of Taoyuan again. I wake up alone when the world is drunk, and when I have suffered, like Su Shi, I sigh and live like a dream.
From an artistic point of view, its characteristics are mainly manifested in the following aspects:
There are many innovations in the literary style of relegated officials. Generally speaking, a new literary style always sprouts from the soil of folk life first. The experience of relegation is that their lives have fallen to the people, and the relegated officials have gradually got rid of the influence of various distractions such as fame and fortune, and can more fully gallop their artistic imagination. The poet's vision is relatively broad, and his poems can contain various themes. Coupled with his own literary accomplishment, he can often explore new literary styles. Liu Yuxi achieved great success in singing the custom with Zhuzhi Ci in his relegation, which made Zhuzhi Ci a special genre for later literati to sing the custom. There is a new trend that Su Shi creates bold ci, and Bai Yuan literati sing songs with ci. The frustration of official career aggravated the sentimental feelings of literati, and political frustration became their ancient poems about history and life, which were wise and meaningful, such as Liu Yuxi's Old Times on the West Fort and Wuyi Xiang.
The literature of demoting officials has a strong subjective emotion. The panic at the beginning of relegation, the mental pain of being trapped in a cultural "barbarian" land, the feeling of being abandoned because of learning difficulties, and the mental journey of sticking to loyalty and trying to transcend pain in the suffering of relegation are bound to be reflected in the literary creation of relegated officials. In many dynasties, the typical way to punish officials by relegation was to send them to cities far from the capital. In the eyes of these relegated officials, these cities are just grasslands. Bai Juyi was demoted to Jiujiang. In his works, the image of the city is "My residence is near the riverside town, low and humid, and the house is surrounded by bitter reeds and yellow rushes. What can I hear here in the morning and evening?" , the cuckoo's bleeding cry, the ape's whimper ",this is a completely distant scene. Liu Zongyuan described Liuzhou, where he was relegated, as a misty and rainy place where "there is no forest, no mountain, no river and no meandering stream for three hundred miles". After Su Shi's relegation to Huangzhou, the scenery he described was either "flying rocks flying over the air and crashing on the shore" or "it's a pity that a stream is full of bright moons, so don't teach me to break Qiong Yao", all of which are idyllic rivers and lakes. In fact, by the Tang and Song Dynasties, most of these cities had been quite prosperous. However, in the eyes of traditional scholars, these urban culture and social life far from the political center do not seem to exist. Because the world in their minds is only the imperial court and the grass field. So Fan Zhongyan went to Yueyang City and boarded Yueyang Tower. All he saw and thought about was temples and rivers and lakes, but there was no lost land and a city like Gechuan.
Because of their special situation, the literati who relegated officials often use metaphor to express their feelings in twists and turns. The relegation of officials' lonely and dangerous position in politics has made them express their inner worries in literature by expressing their children's love of writing about monarch and ministers, or by taking flowers and plants as metaphors. Since Qu Yuan created the metaphor of "vanilla beauty" in Li Sao, there have been more and more followers who relegated officials. For example, Robin's Political Prisoner Listening to Cicada uses the metaphor of Cicada to express his grief and indignation at being slandered. In "Fishing", Xin Qiji used the historical beauty Queen Chen to describe her exclusion and political frustration.
Due to the change of status and the comparison between ancient and modern situations, the literature of relegated officials mostly adopts comparative methods. Scholars who relegate officials often form a strong contrast consciously or unconsciously by describing the past and the present, and feel that the old hurts the present. Qin Guan was vilified in the struggle between the old and new parties, and experienced the ups and downs of his official career and great changes in personnel. His words will reflect his personal depression about the vicissitudes of the world. For example, in Wang's "Shu Dan with Meiying", he used a lot of pen and ink to describe the old banquets and tours, which were in sharp contrast with the sadness of revisiting the old place today. Looking back on the past and sighing at the present, it is reasonable for Li Yu, a late master, to let out a sigh of heaven and earth at every turn.
When the literature of relegated officials is poor, they often can't help but express their feelings directly. The grievances of the demoted officials are not told and there is nowhere to pour out. Once there is an opportunity to vent, the feelings that can't be concealed will gush out, and finally there will always be a sigh of "who will rely on the column". For example, Su Shi, despite the broad-mindedness of Lingnan people, can't let go of the bumpy experience that I was missed by cleverness in my life. His poems reveal the sadness of life like a dream; Although Lu You proclaimed himself emperor, it was hard to hide his old but heroic sadness, and he sighed at Cangzhou's old age. Although Xin Qiji is a hero who really creates heroic words, it will happen in vain. As far as development is concerned, from the perspective of direct expression of ideas, they accepted the influence of "Southern Tang poets"
Almost all the important poets in the Tang Dynasty experienced relegation, and the predecessors noticed the relationship between relegation and poetry creation. Liu Zhenya's "relegation and Tang Poetry" [3] points out that the influence of relegation on writers can be summarized in two aspects: life experience and creative mood, which has brought about changes in poetry content and style. Related papers include Tao Min's On Tang Poetry [4], all of which only focus on the Tang Dynasty. As a literary phenomenon, since Qu Yuan angrily wrote Li Sao, there have been many famous works, not only in the Tang Dynasty, but also in past dynasties. For example, Guangdong and Hainan in the Song Dynasty, Ningguta and Yili in Xinjiang in the Qing Dynasty all became the bases for the rulers to exile and demote scholars. Therefore, the literature of relegated officials should be studied in a broader historical background. This paper discusses the underlying reasons from the more essential realistic, ideological and cultural levels.
The life experience of relegation and the changes in mood and emotion it brought to the poet directly affected the changes in the content and style of his poems. These changes promoted the prosperity of the literature of relegated officials. Westerners say that anger makes a poet, while China people say that injustice makes people cry and makes them poor and backward. The ups and downs of life often create articles, and the gloom of political career is often accompanied by the glory of artistic career. Rough experience is the driving force for relegated officials to mature and brilliant in art, and suffering is the wealth of relegated officials. The lofty and yearning of scholars, the nobility and glory of being an official, and the embarrassment and embarrassment after being demoted are the best materials for literature. The official position of a scholar is based on composition. After being demoted, they naturally focused on composing music. Life after relegation is also suitable for literati to concentrate on their artistic talents. From then on, they can no longer cater to the needs of the court, no longer abide by the prescribed mindset and artistic dogma, and embark on the road of creation from the failure of their official career, and say whatever they feel; They can freely imagine and create from a broader psychological and artistic perspective based on their own aesthetic standards, so that their works can obtain original artistic value. At the same time, the decline of life also made them go to the bottom of life and gained inexhaustible artistic precipitation. The folk voice of seeking a husband and thinking of a woman, the feeling of seeking marriage and the songs of ordinary people make his works have a greater sense of social group and higher ideological and cultural value. For example, Du Fu wrote Three Officials and Three Farewells, which stood out from the crowd in history, during his demotion to Sigong in Huazhou to join the army. When Han Yu was relegated to Chaozhou, there were "two stories about Sun at the mouth of Su Zan River" to describe the sufferings of Sanjiang people in the flood. When Yuan Zhen was in the same state, the local drought. He once wrote a poem blaming himself. The poem asks, "If I am guilty, won't Hu hurt me?" Is Hu a state of drought or a disaster for thousands of people? "(The drought blamed itself, causing seven counties to kill Tongzhou) This kind of care undoubtedly reflects the feudal literati's sense of social responsibility of taking the world as their own responsibility.
With the help of the enlightenment of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's thoughts, relegated officials resolved their own loss and bitterness, freed their hearts, triggered aesthetic creativity and wrote immortal poems. The thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi are predestined. Lin Yutang said that China literati believed in Confucianism when they gained power and Taoism when they lost power. There are few places where Laozi and Zhuangzi directly talk about literature, especially literature, but their aesthetic thoughts of literature and art do exist, and they are quite profound and incisive, which has great inspiration for China's literary creation and literary theory in later generations. Confucianism makes China classical literature full of rational colors by emphasizing social functions, while Taoism makes China classical literature retain rich imagination and magical and magnificent contents. The ancient man, who reflected snow and hung his beam and stabbed his thigh, cooked oil for ten years and nine years in a cold window, and was full of knowledge. Since you can't make contributions, honor your ancestors and seal your wife and children, you are going to make a big scene, indulge in landscapes and leave some complaints to the world. When asked about your occupation, Su Dongpo thinks it is Huangzhou, Huizhou and Danzhou. Most of Dongpo's immortal works are written in relegated places. It was Lao Zi and Zhuangzi who made him feel empty, understood the ups and downs of the world with an empty mind, and created a beautiful poetic scene as bright as a mirror in an open mind without rain or shine.
From a broader background, the formation of relegated official literature also has its cultural causes. Sima Qian pointed out in his book Bao Ren 'an that the down-and-out literati have a tradition of "writing in anger", while the fallen literati inherited and carried forward the tradition of worrying about the country and the people and taking the rise and fall of the world as their own responsibility, shouldering morality with iron shoulders and writing skillfully. Resentment produces writing, which is a proof of the theory of literary mind. Emotion is in your heart, naturally revealed, and it is easy to speak with substance. Don't moan for nothing, but write for the sake of writing. I have something to complain about, something to send, and I can't help myself. Passion comes from the depression in my chest. The literati who demoted officials were not only sad, but also particularly sentimental, touched by the scene and couldn't help it. They often wrote articles for their feelings, which is also the reason why the literature of demoted officials flourished. All outstanding literary and artistic works that can impress readers are almost without exception. The reason for the prosperity of the literature of demoted officials is the chorus between demoted officials. Although the scholar's relegation is far away, he still sends poems and sings endlessly. For example, Bai Juyi's Drunken Gifts to Twenty-eight Ambassadors of Liu, Liu Yuxi's First Meeting Ceremony in Yangzhou, and Missing My Family when I was leaving, etc.
As mentioned above, the development of relegated official literature has its realistic, ideological and cultural reasons, which are not independent but comprehensive. In a word, the soldiers who went through relegation pushed life, society and people, and also pushed relegation literature to prosperity and development.