During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years of the Tang Dynasty, the economy was prosperous and the national power was strong. A large number of highly talented poets emerged who were inspired by the heroes of the mountains and rivers. They "have no time for new voices, but are familiar with ancient styles; they have half the literary quality, but they have both coquettishness; when they talk about the spirit and bones, Jian'an is the biography, but when they talk about palaces and merchants, they are too prosperous" (Yin Fan's "Preface to the Collection of Heyue Yingling"). Since the early Tang Dynasty, the modern style that pays attention to the rhythm and rhetoric has merged with the ancient style that expresses generous feelings. The poet's writing style takes into account nature, rhythm and lyricism complement each other, the spirit comes out in harmony with the rhythm, and the emotion is revealed by the rhyme, as Yin Fan said It says "spirit comes, spirit comes, emotion comes", reaching the perfect state of having both voice, rhythm and character. This became a symbol of the formation of poetry style in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Around the fifteenth year of Kaiyuan (727), it was a critical period for the formation of the poetic style of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The Jinshi Examination, which was established during the time of Empress Wu and emphasized literature and poetry, has further evolved into "selecting scholars based on poetry and poems". Moreover, the proportion of rural tribute candidates greatly exceeds that of Imperial College students, opening up the hope for talented Hanjun scholars from all over the country to enter the officialdom. door. In addition, Zhang Shuo and Zhang Jiuling, who liked to recruit talented people, became prime ministers one after another, and Chang'an became a gathering place for tribute scholars from Sifang Township. In the past, the poetry world was dominated by a group of literati who were court servants. It was replaced by the competition among various loose groups of talented poets. Poetry creation has "both interesting images and restored character" and formed different styles. The group creates the beauty of various poems.
Section 1 Wang Wei and the poets who created the beauty of tranquility, elegance and beauty
The significance of Wang Wei and Meng Haoran’s hermit complex and landscape sentiment to the creation of poetic realm with Wang and Meng as the center The influence of Shenzong thought on the emotional style of poetry
Wang Wei is a representative writer of landscape and pastoral poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. His ancestral home is Taiyuan Qi (now Qixian County, Shanxi Province), his descendants' family is in Pu (now Yongji County, Shanxi Province), and he was born in Chang'an, Empress Wu The first year (701). From the age of 15, he traveled to Chang'an to study for several years. In the ninth year of Kaiyuan (721), he was promoted to Jinshi and released as Taile Cheng. He was found guilty and demoted to Sicang, Jeju to join the army. After that, he began his career of being both an official and a hermit. He lived in seclusion in Qishang, Songshan and Zhongnan Mountains, and built Wangchuan Villa in Zhongnan Mountain to live in seclusion. He also presented poems to Prime Minister Zhang Jiuling for promotion, and picked up relics from the official right. He once went to Hexi Jiedu as an envoy to supervise the censor and be the judge of the festival. He also served as the censor to know the selection of the south. In the fourteenth year of Tianbao (755), the Anshi Rebellion broke out. In the first year of Zhide (756), the rebels captured Chang'an and he was forced to accept a pseudo post. When the two capitals were recovered the following year, he was convicted and imprisoned; but he was immediately pardoned and not only restored to his original post, he was also gradually promoted, reaching the rank of Shangshu Youcheng. However, in his later years, Wang Wei no longer wanted to be honored or disgraced in his official career. After retiring from the court, he often burned incense and sat alone, doing meditation and recitation. He died in Wangchuan Bieyeye in the second year of the Yuan Dynasty (761) at the age of sixty-one.
Like many talented people at that time who wanted to make contributions and become immortal, Wang Wei was passionate and yearning for fame in his early years and had a positive and enterprising attitude towards life. He said in "Youth Journey": "Who knows how painful it is to go to the side court? Even if you die, you can still smell the fragrance of the bones of a hero." His poem "Send Judge Zhang to Hexi" says: "The sand is flat with white snow, and the yellow clouds are rolled into it. I lean on my sword with generosity and send you off with a high-pitched song.” Wang Wei went to the outside of the Great Wall when he went to the Hexi Jiedushi Dynasty. The poems he wrote before and after leaving the fortress, such as "On the Military March", "Watching the Hunting", "Composition out of the Fortress", "Send Off the Second Envoy of the Yuan Dynasty to Anxi", etc., are full of strong and bright ideas. Emotion and momentum. His "Envoy to the Fortress" says:
The bicycle wants to ask about the side, but it belongs to the country and has passed by Juyan. Zheng Peng left Hansai, returned to Yan and entered Hutian. The desert is solitary and the smoke is straight, and the sun is setting over the long river. When Xiao Guan is waiting to ride, he will always protect Yan Ran.
The heroic spirit is integrated into the excellent description of the scenery, forming a majestic poetic realm. The endless river, the setting sun on the vast horizon, and the beacon smoke on the lonely fortress in the desert reveal the poet's heroic spirit of traveling to the end of the world.
But what established Wang Wei’s status as a master in the history of Tang poetry was his landscape and pastoral poems expressing reclusive feelings. He is proficient in music and painting. In his poems describing natural landscapes, he creates a quiet and beautiful poetic environment of "paintings in poems, poems in paintings". The images are exquisite and difficult to explain in sentences. For example, "Mountain Dwelling in the Dark Autumn":
After the new rain in the empty mountains, autumn comes late. The bright moon shines among the pines, and the clear spring flows over the rocks. The bamboo noise returns to Huan Nu, and the lotus moves off the fishing boat. The spring fragrance rests at will, and the king and grandson can stay.
In the fresh, quiet and vibrant landscape, you can feel the endless joy of life of all things, and your spirit is sublimated to the realm of clearness and unhinderedness, where the beauty of nature and the beauty of your mind are completely integrated. Together, they create a pure and beautiful poetic realm that is as irresistible as water, moon and mirrored flowers.
The beauty of the empty mirror world and tranquility is the crystallization of Wang Wei’s idyllic landscape art. Because of his clear mind, he observed nature very carefully and felt very keenly. Like a painter, he was good at capturing the light and color of natural things in motion, and showed a rich sense of color layering in his poems, such as:
The rivers and lakes are white at sunset, and the sky and earth are green when the tide comes. ("Farewell to Xing Guizhou")
The sound of springs swallows dangerous rocks, and the sun is cold and green. ("Passing Xiangji Temple")
White rocks emerge from Jingxi River, and the red leaves are sparse in the cold weather. There is no rain on the mountain road, the sky is green and people's clothes are wet. ("In the Mountain")
The white clouds look back and merge, and the blue mist enters and sees nothing. The peaks in the field change, and the clouds and sunshine are different. ("Zhongnan Mountain")
The sunset becomes dim and the whiteness of the rivers and lakes becomes more apparent; the tide comes and covers the sky, as if the heaven and earth are also filled with the cyan color of the tide. One is the contrast of colors, and the other is the mutual generation of colors. Japanese colors are inherently warm, but the cold tones of pine forest and deep green create a cold feeling. This is the function of conditional colors.
The red leaves are withering, and the evergreen trees are even more green. This green color fills the space, and the sky is filled with rain. It feels like wet clothes without rain. This is also the function of conditional color. As for "The white clouds look back and merge, and the green mist enters and sees nothingness", it is faint and blurred, and the smoke and clouds fade away, like a scene with ink and wash. Wang Wei uses his painter's eyes and poet's emotions to write about the natural beauty of things, tranquility, beauty and ethereal charm.
At that time, Meng Haoran was as famous as Wang Wei and a poet who was also good at writing natural landscapes. He was born and died earlier than Wang Wei, but he became famous after Wang Wei.
Meng Haoran (689-740), a native of Xiangyang, was a lifelong writer among the poets of the Tang Dynasty. Before the age of 40, he lived in seclusion in the south of the Han River not far from Lumen Mountain. He traveled south to Jiangxi and Hunan, to the north to Youzhou, and once lived in Luoyang and traveled to Yuezhong. In the 16th year of Kaiyuan (728), he entered Chang'an to take the imperial examination, met Wang Wei, Zhang Jiuling and others, and began to make friends with all the famous people in the poetry world. The following year, he wrote a poem about the secret province, which moved the capital with a joint title of "The clouds are light and the river is white, and the raindrops are sparse on the sycamore trees"; but unfortunately he failed. Later, he went south to Wuyue to express his love for the mountains and rivers. In the twenty-fifth year of Kaiyuan (737), Zhang Jiuling entered the Jingzhou court and was rewarded with many singing songs. He died three years later without success.
In the eyes of others, Meng Haoran is an authentic reclusive poet. Li Bai said: "I love Master Meng, and his love is known all over the world. The beauty abandons the crown, and the white head lies in the pine clouds." ("Gift to Meng Haoran") In fact, Meng Haoran did not have no intention of becoming an official. Like other poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, he had the intention of benefiting the times. With a strong desire to serve the world, his poem "Presenting Prime Minister Zhang to Dongting Lake" says:
The level of the August Lake is mixed with the clear. The steam is rising over the Yunmengze, and the waves are shaking Yueyang City. If you want to help without a boat, you will live in the shameful sage. Sitting and watching the fishermen only envy the fish.
This poem was given to Zhang Shuo (one saying was given to Zhang Jiuling). He sat and watched fishing while "envying the fish in the abyss", expressing his eagerness to get into an official career through Zhang Shuo's quotation. There is a kind of heroic spirit that is unwilling to be lonely. Therefore, the poem is written with a grand realm and powerful momentum, especially the couplet "Steaming clouds and dreamy lakes, shaking Yueyang City" is an extraordinary sound of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Meng Haoran has an aloof and aloof nature. Although he always has the ambition to help the world, he is unwilling to bend and bend. Zhang Jiuling could recommend Wang Wei, but he could not recommend him. When he found no way to seek an official position and failed in the examination, he chanted "If you are not talented enough, you will give up, and if you are sick, your friends will be sparse." He gave up the official position and went to the mountains and rivers to show his nobility, which was different from the popular customs. He said in "Summer South Pavilion Huai Xin Da":
The mountain light suddenly sets in the west, and the moon in the pond gradually rises in the east. Enjoy the cool evening breeze, open the pavilion and lie down in an open space. The lotus breeze brings fragrance, and the bamboo dew drops make a clear sound. I want to play the harp, but I hate the ignorance of the music. Feeling nostalgic for my old friend, I am tired of dreaming in the middle of the night.
Expressing his feelings when enjoying the cool air alone, the sentence "hate the ignorant music appreciation" shows the poet's lonely mood of self-admiration. With the self-adapted feelings of mountains and rivers, blending into the clear light of the moon in the pond, the dark fragrance of the lotus wind and the clear sound of bamboo dew, you will suddenly feel clear and refreshing. The purified emotions are expressed with purified scenery, and there is a kind of pure and pure beauty.
Due to their different living environments and personalities, Meng Haoran and Wang Wei are different in terms of poetry writing and artistic style. His landscape and pastoral poems are closer to his own life, and the words "I" and "I" often appear in his poems. For example, "Passing an Old Friend's Village": "An old friend brought chickens and millet and invited me to Tian's house. The green trees border the village, and the green mountains are sloping outside." Another example is "Climbing Xian Mountain with the Scholars": "People have their own metabolism, and the exchanges become the past and the present. The mountains and rivers have left beautiful traces, and we will come again." The descriptions of scenery in Meng Haoran's poems are often part of his living environment, with the characteristics of improvisation and no artificial decoration. For example, "Spring Dawn":
I sleep in spring without realizing the dawn, and hear the singing of birds everywhere. The sound of wind and rain comes at night, and you know how many flowers have fallen.
Writing about my feelings at the dawn of spring, my inadvertent conjecture revealed the bright and pleasant spring scenery. There seemed to be a feeling of regret, but there was no trace of it. The poetry is naturally pure and beautiful. In comparison, it seems to be more simple and simple than Wang Wei's poems, and closer to the state of Tao Yuanming's poems that are luxurious and pure.
Meng Haoran traveled many times in his life and preferred water travel. He wrote many landscape poems while roaming the Wuyue water town by boat. When he encounters a scene and writes a poem, he often writes from high and far away, wandering down from a lonely place. The randomly colored scenery blends with the light emotions, forming a bright and beautiful poetic environment that is plain, distant, and endlessly interesting. For example, "Staying on the Jiande River":
Moving the boat to Yanzhu, the guests are worried about the new arrival at dusk. The trees are low in the open sky, and the clear moon on the river is close to the people.
Another example is "Roading on Yexi River":
The setting scene is left with clear brilliance, and the river is lightly crossed. If you love water clearly, how can you tolerate it in the presence of floods? A fisherman with a white head, a girl with new makeup and gauze. They looked acquainted, but couldn't speak.
The previous poem describes the "guest sorrow" when mooring in a boat at dusk. The lonely and melancholy mood becomes more clear and boundless because of the vast wilderness, the sky is low, the river is clear and the moon is close. The latter song expresses the relaxation and joy of boating in the evening. The old man and the young girl look at each other, calm and generous, with pure feelings and pure intentions, free from the mundane atmosphere. The sentences are plain, so light that you can hardly see the traces of poetry, but the poetic flavor is very mellow. If Wang Wei's mountain dwelling songs are good at expressing the tranquil beauty of empty mountains, then Meng Haoran's boating chants give people a sense of washing away the ordinary world. The purification of emotions, the lightness of language, and the beauty of the poetic environment are integrated. In one body, the beauty of the natural and pure landscape is thoroughly expressed.
Natural and plain is the style characteristic of Meng Haoran’s landscape poetry.
Although there are also neat couplets in his poems that are carefully described and carefully used, such as "The trees on the horizon are like shepherd's purses, and the boats on the riverside are like moons" ("Autumn Climb Orchid Mountain to Send Zhang Wu"); "The wind rustles the leaves on both sides of the bank, and the moon shines on a lonely island. Boat" ("Old Tour to Guangling on the Tonglu River"). But it's not intended to be a model, it's just a whim. Looking at the whole poem, most of his poems are written with single lines, which are all composed in one breath, without any trace of description. The beauty is that they flow naturally, dilute the leisurely distance, and work on their own without asking for work.
Wang Wei and Meng Haoran enjoyed high reputation and great influence in the poetry world of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Cui Xingzong called Wang Wei a "contemporary poet craftsman" (preface to the poem "Rewarding Wang Wei"), and Wang Shiyuan said that Meng Haoran's five-character poems "are praised all over the world as being beautiful" ("preface to the collection of Meng Haoran"). At that time, with Wang and Meng as the core, there were also a group of poets with similar poetic styles to them, such as Pei Di, Chu Guangxi, Liu Zhenxu, Zhang Zirong, Chang Jian, etc.
Pei Di once lived in seclusion in Zhongnan Mountain with Wang Wei, and was deeply influenced by Wang Wei in terms of life interest and creative style. His "Wangchuan Collection of Twenty Poems" is a harmonious work between the two. For example, "Hua Zigang":
The wind is rising in the pines at sunset, and the dew on the grass is thin. The cloud light invades the tracks, and the green mountains blow people's clothes.
This is one of his better poems. Although it is far from comparable to Wang Wei's work with the same title, the creative tendency of striving to write clearer poems is still quite obvious.
Chu Guangxi’s life experience was rather tortuous. After he became a Jinshi, he served as a county captain in Anyi and other places. Soon he resigned and returned to his hometown. He lived in seclusion in Zhongnan Mountain with Wang Wei and others for many years. Xuan became an official again, was captured by the rebels during the Anshi Rebellion, and accepted a pseudo-post. Later, he was demoted to the south and died. Many of his poems have survived, including "Ten Poems Occasionally Composed by Tong Wang Shisanwei", "Eight Poems on Tian Family Miscellany", "Tian Family Immediate Events", etc., which are his representative works that directly write about pastoral life. In these poems, because the author wanted to express the idea of ??returning to simplicity, cultivating one's nature and enjoying one's emotions, there were many mystical elements, and they were not artistically successful. The better poems written by Chu Guangxi are "Five Miscellaneous Odes" and "Four Jiangnan Songs" that express reclusive sentiment. For example, "Fishing Bay" in "Five Miscellaneous Odes":
Fishing in Green Bay in spring, the apricot blossoms are in bloom in deep spring. The pond is clear but the water is shallow, and the fish are scattered when the lotus moves. Waiting for my lover at dusk, the boat is green and the poplar banks are green.
The beautiful scene composed of apricot blossoms in the spring water and fish swimming in lotuses in the pond blends into the poet's keen feelings and tranquil mood. It does have a "high-profile and elegant style, far-reaching interest and deep affection" (Yin Fan's " The charm of "The Collection of Heroic Spirits of Heyue" (comments). In terms of the natural and distant style, it is very close to Meng Haoran's poetry.