Between Hongzhi and Zhengde, the land was highly concentrated, the ruling groups such as big noble, big bureaucrats and big eunuchs were extravagant, the broad masses of people were unemployed and homeless, and large-scale peasant uprisings broke out all over the country. At the same time, local nobles rebelled from time to time, and foreign invasions were frequent: there was a serious crisis in the rule of the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the eight-part essay examination system was developed and implemented, and it became more and more mature and stereotyped. The neo-Confucianism dogma of Cheng and Zhu has become the dominant ideology of dominating the world through the eight-part essay examination, forming a strong spiritual chain, firmly binding the thoughts of scholars and seriously hindering the development of social culture. Sanyang's "Taige style" is still pervasive for some time. In this way, Wang Yangming's mind movement appeared in philosophy, and the "First Seven Scholars" retro movement appeared in literature. They rise at the same time, apparently to break through the dominant position of Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism dogma, stereotyped writing and Taggart style, so that philosophy and literature can serve the ruling class more effectively.

The first seven children are He Jingming, Bian Gong, Kang Hai, Wang and He. Li Hehe is the most famous.

Li Mengyang (1472- 1527) was born in Qingyang, Gansu. He Jingming (1483- 152 1) was born in Xinyang, Henan. Politically, they are all figures who dare to fight against the cruel and greedy big noble, big bureaucrats and big eunuchs. Li Mengyang was imprisoned twice for impeaching Zhang Heling, and conspired with Minister Han Wen to get rid of Liu Jin and other eight tigers. He Jingming was also dismissed for writing a letter to Xu Jin, the official department minister, accusing Liu Jin. In literature, they "advocated that literature must be in the Qin and Han Dynasties and poetry must flourish in the Tang Dynasty" and opposed the "Taige style", which had a great influence for a while. They let people know that in addition to "Taige Style" and stereotyped writing, there are also traditional excellent ancient literature. They advocate reading ancient books, increase their knowledge and broaden their horizons, which has played a positive role in combating the "Taige style" and eliminating the adverse effects of stereotyped writing. However, they abandoned the established tradition of literary development since the Tang and Song Dynasties and embarked on the road of blindly respecting the ancient times. Their creations blindly imitate plagiarism and become soulless fake antiques. Later, He Jingming thought that imitating ancient people's "same laws but different languages" and criticized Li Mengyang's poems: "Poetry is for the masses, not pushing extreme changes, underdeveloped, and its imitation is lost, so as to achieve sacred achievements. It's just that it's old, it's embellished, it's a little out of the old book, and then it's broken. If a child can lean on things, he must be alone. Although he is Cao Liu, he is Ruan Lu. ("big complex? And Kong Li's "Book of Songs") Li Mengyang also expressed regret, saying: "Yu's poems are not true, and the prince (Shu Wu) said that scholars rhyme with words, expressing feelings and achievements very little." ("Li Mengyang's poem? The preface shows that they themselves have to admit that this is a wrong path.

But after all, they care about reality, so they also wrote some works of practical significance. Li Mengyang and He Jingming both wrote The Palace Map of Xuan Ming, which exposed the sin of Liu Jin's extravagance and waste. (Example omitted)

During the reign of Jiajing Wanli, foreign invasion became more serious, social contradictions became more complicated and sharpened, and the rule of Ming Dynasty became increasingly corrupt. In literature, the "last seven poets" represented by Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen appeared again, and they launched the retro movement again, repeating the mistakes of the "first seven poets".

Li Panlong (15 14- 1570) was born in Licheng, Shandong. Wang Shizhen (1528- 1590) is a native of Taicang, Jiangsu. He, Zong Chen, Liang Youyu, Xu Zhongxing and Wu are also called "the last seven sons". Li Panlong said that prose is Xijing, poetry is Tianbao, and there is no sufficient opinion. In this dynasty, Li Mengyang was pushed down by one person, and all scholars reconciled. If not, the bottom is Song Xue "("Ming history? Biography of Li Panlong "). His poetry and prose can also imitate plagiarism. Poetry, such as Gu Yue Fu, is simulated by chapters and sentences, just like writing "copying posts". However, there are also some desirable works to simulate the prosperous Tang Dynasty. (for example, omitted) characters were eaten alive by three generations of the Han Dynasty. "There are no words after the Han Dynasty, and there are no words before the Han Dynasty." It's embarrassing. You can't watch it alone. After Li Panlong's death, Wang Shizhen dominated the literary world for 20 years, with even greater momentum. "At that time, scholar-officials and mountain poets were very prosperous, and they rushed to praise them, and their values soared" ("Ming history?" Wang Shizhen biography), there are so-called "first five sons", "last five sons" and "wide five sons". He advocated that "literature must be in the Western Han Dynasty, poetry must flourish in the Tang Dynasty, and no reading should be done after the Great Calendar". This argument is exactly the same as that of Li Panlong. He believes that "the literariness of Xijing and the weakness of Tokyo are still not divorced from reality." The literary tour of the Six Dynasties was divorced from reality. Tang Yong is still alive. Song is crude oil, but it has gone from floating to falling. Yuan without text "(Yi Yan Yuan Biography). For poetry, the older the better, the worse each generation. His poems, from The Book of Songs to Yuefu, and then to Du Li's poems in the Han, Wei, Southern and Northern Dynasties, are all imitative and tedious. However, he often writes current affairs with archaic words, which is slightly more lively than Li Panlong's works. His Yuefu Bian is more of a "matter proposition" of Du Like's Fu. Such as "Zhou Jun Bian", has certain significance to expose the decadent scenery of the aristocratic captaincy. However, he never forgets to imitate, and a large number of words and expressions inevitably drown out their true content. Wang Shizhen has extensive knowledge and rich works. "Since" The Dream of Yang ",some scholars have copied Banma; Since the Collection of Shizhen, many scholars have copied Shizhen (The Summary of Siku). The bad influence of his old saying is great. Xie Zhen (1495- 1575), a native of Linqing, Shandong Province, was the representative of the "last seven sons" in the early days and was abandoned by Li Panlong. He believes that "literature changes with the world" and "feels ancient but not ancient". Theoretically, it seems that he does not advocate learning from the ancients, but wants to establish his own family through learning from the ancients. He admired and studied Du Li and other fourteen schools of thought in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. "Elected as a masterpiece of his anthology, recorded as a poem, read carefully to capture the air, sing to tune, and ponder to the essence. If you get these three essentials, you will be confused. You don't need to draw Shaoling or plastic ones. ""If you can get in and out of the fourteen schools, and people don't know who they are, then the fourteen schools will be added with one ("Four Styles of Poetry"). He doesn't advocate learning from the past blindly, but using the creative experience of the philosophers in the prosperous Tang Dynasty for reference to create his own poems, which Li and He can't do. However, he forgot the "world", that is, the decisive role of real life in poetry creation, and only emphasized the study of Tang poetry from the perspective of style and temperament, but did not know that they were also the products of "world changes", so it was inevitable that they were still an antique or formalism theory. Zong Chen (a native of Xinghua, Yangzhou) is not famous among the "seven sons". His "Zhang Shu to Liu Yi" depicts the ugly behavior of shameless literati rushing to the "gate of power" and exposes the domination of the city by big bureaucrats, big eunuchs, big noble and other ruling groups. It has profound practical significance and has no intention of imitating the past, but it has been passed down to this day.

Sorting out the relevant contents of the history of primitive literature;

The literary reflections of the first seven sons and the last seven sons set off a wave in the literary world in the middle of Ming Dynasty, in which radicalism and conservatism interweave, innovation and plagiarism interweave, which embodies the characteristics of mixed merits and demerits and shows the complexity of this literary trend of thought itself.

Judging from the positive significance of the literary activities of the former seven scholars, first of all, they sought an independent position for literature under the banner of retro. Especially at the beginning of the rise of the first seven sons, Suntech's literary atmosphere of whitewashing peace has not been completely eliminated. Coupled with the fiery academic style of Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, there is a tendency among scholars to despise poetry and be keen on managing classics, and some "scholars" are even excluded. Because of this, Li Mengyang once questioned: "Confucius is not expensive in writing, but later generations say that writing and poetry are not refined. How soft? " (Part I) Obviously, Li Mengyang and other first seven scholars hold high the banner of restoring ancient ways in the literary world, which is closely related to their attaching importance to the independent position of literature and actively exploring the development path of literature.

Secondly, on the basis of attaching importance to the independent position of literature, the former and the latter seven scholars enhanced their understanding of the essence of literature, which exactly impacted the old literary values and creative practice. For example, the last seven scholars put forward the view that "rhetoric" is more important than "reason". Although they pay too much attention to the form of literature, to a certain extent, they reflect the requirement of getting rid of the bondage of literature by emphasizing the form. The first seven scholars clearly linked the purpose of restoring ancient ways with the pursuit of expressing writers' true feelings and depicting real life in literature. In particular, Li Mengyang denounced the "modern prose" that "a man is a man without beauty and evil", appreciated the "ancient prose" that "a man is a man without evil", put the literary status of folk "true poetry" above that of literati's works, and even appreciated the fashionable argument that was denounced by Taoists as "the voice of debauchery", thus attributing the decline of literary realism to the result of the infringement of Neo-Confucianism. These more or less reflect the new understanding of the value of literature itself and the courage to break away from traditional literary concepts, which endows literary retro activities with profundity and challenge.

Nevertheless, the drawbacks of the activities of the first seven sons in restoring ancient ways are obvious. In the process of restoring ancient ways, they seek ways to eliminate the old literary misunderstanding, but they fall into a new literary misunderstanding-wandering in the circle of imitating the ancients. An obvious feature is that there is a gap between their literary ideas and their creative practice. The idea of seeking truth and being pragmatic is not fully reflected in their works, and a large number of imitations lacking true feelings affect their creative level. It is not difficult to find the following chapters in the anthology of the first seven scholars. For example, the words "I know you, I will form an alliance with you, and the mountains will destroy the sea, and I will not move" in Wang Shizhen's quasi-ancient Yuefu's "I want to know you, and I want to live a long life". The meaning and sentence pattern of "the mountain has no mausoleum, the water is exhausted, but …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… However, Shang Mosang proposed by Li Panlong is almost a copy of Shang Mosang written by Han Yuefu, except for some changes. In the original work, he changed it to "come back and complain, but watch Luo Fu", so he interpreted the meaning of "because" in the original work as "sitting". There is no doubt that this is the result of eating alive and deliberately copying. Works like this obviously have little artistic vitality.

The trend of thought of retro literature initiated by the former and the latter seven scholars had a great shock in the literary world at that time, and also brought direct and indirect, positive and negative influences to the later literary world. For example, Shen Deqian, a poet who lived during the reign of Kang Gan in the Qing Dynasty, once boasted about the achievements of the former and the latter seven sons in restoring ancient ways, and pointed out: "Between Hong and Zheng, they offered good fortune (Li Mengyang) and Zhong Mo (He Jingming), striving for elegance, simplicity (Bian Gong) and long valley (Xu Zhenqing), and the ancient style remained unchanged. ....., Yuan Mei (Wang Shizhen), Qin (Xie Zhen), followed by philosophers. " (Preface to Different Poems in Ming Dynasty) He advocated absorbing the contents from the literary arguments of the former and the latter seven scholars and re-raising the banner of retro. He thought that "poetry does not learn from the ancients, it is called wild style" and "on poetry" directly inherited the retro mantle of the former and the latter seven scholars. On the other hand, the ideas of some literary changes of the former and the latter seven sons also opened up the new spirit of later literature in a sense. Yuan Hongdao, a representative of the Public Security School in the late Ming Dynasty, wrote in the poem "Answering Li Ziyou": "The grass doesn't know how to push Li, but it knows what to see. Although the axes are the same, Er Ya is a good teacher, which affirms the literary activities of Li Mengyang and He Jingming. At the same time, he once praised the folk songs such as Broken Jade and Mopping Grass Rod as "more true sounds". This argument is obviously related to Li Mengyang's theory of "true poetry among the people", or it can be said that it is a continuation of Li Mengyang's theory of "true poetry". For another example, Wang Shizhen's view that "there is a true poem only if there is a true self" seems to be reflected in the "soul theory" expressed by the public security school. From one side, these show the internal relationship between the first seven scholars and the literary ideas of the late Ming Dynasty.

Youben's discourse system is a bit old, but it is not difficult to "ignore" sentences with ideological color. Please "ignore" them by yourself ~ The narrative of this element is full of platitudes, but it is suitable for answering questions ~