Tao Yuanming
When I think of Tao Yuanming, the image of "picking chrysanthemums under the hedge and seeing Nanshan leisurely" will probably emerge immediately: this is a poet who retired to the countryside according to his own wishes.
But does it have to be like this? Generally speaking, in people's memory, the poet's seclusion is inseparable from the story of "five buckets of rice don't bend over": Tao Yuanming was appointed by Peng, Du You came to inspect, and the county magistrate told the poet to "dress up to see him"; Hearing this, the poet sighed, "I can't bend over to the villains in the village for five buckets of rice!" " "So I hung up and left. But this vivid scene appeared in the later history book Song Shu. Tao Yuanming himself did not say so. In the preface of his masterpiece "Gui Xi Ci", he only said that he came out to be an official because his family was poor and wanted money, but the rich official life did not conform to his own nature, so he was also very uncomfortable. "I am deeply ashamed of my life's ambition. "At this moment, it happened that his sister, who married the Cheng family in Wuchang, died. He was in a hurry to offer his condolences, so he left his job. If we believe the poet's self-report, he didn't go home directly, but first went up the river from Pengze in Jiujiang today to Wuchang. One thing, people have different opinions, and the reason is actually very simple: what people are most familiar with is not necessarily the fact, but what the fact is, and we really need to think more.
Think about it, there are many things to discuss. In fact, it is not the first time that the poet is reckless and irresponsible. Tao Yuanming is not only Peng's eunuch. His earliest official position was as the so-called "Jiangzhou offering wine", which was probably the provincial name of "offering wine to make history". According to "Book of Song Dynasty Guan Baizhi", this is "the division of Cao Bing, thief, warehouse, household, water and armored vehicle", which is very trivial. In addition, the Jiangzhou secretariat at this time was the son of Wang Xizhi, and the poet probably didn't get along with this arrogant brother Wang. In Song Shu, it was recorded that he was "unbearable to be an official and returned in a few days", that is to say, it didn't take long, although we don't know whether it was shorter than Peng's 80 days. The reason why the poet can leave unhappy again and again is of course his capital. It is conceivable that he has certain support and financial resources. Even when I finally retired to the countryside, it was already very backward, and there were "more than ten acres of square houses and eight or nine huts" (the first part of Guiyuan). On the other hand, the poet didn't come out as an official until he was almost thirty years old (there are many different versions of Tao Yuanming's birthday, ranging from his fifties to his seventies; According to the earliest and most common early 1960s, he was born in 365 AD, but he held a miscellaneous post. At that time, he could only be regarded as a man of low status, which was almost certain.
There is also a paragraph mentioned earlier, which deserves a little attention: Tao Yuanming abandoned Peng's position and went to Wuchang to mourn his sister. Isn't the poet's home at the foot of Lushan Mountain? How did his sister Cheng (who used to think they were half-brothers, but some scholars thought they were brother and sister) get married in Wuchang? Speaking of it, Wuchang belonged to Jingzhou in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River at that time, which was the place where Taoism showed its glory earlier.
Jingzhou played an extremely important role in the Middle Ages, especially in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Jingzhou, with its position in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, often confronts the central government of Jiankang in the lower reaches. At that time, there were more than twenty people doing Jingzhou secretariat. No matter the chaotic period in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was a powerful aristocratic family in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. For example, the Langya Wang family occupied ten years, and its younger brother, Yu, was attached to the Langya Wang family for ten years, and the Huan family was intermittent for more than forty years. These figures, except for the Yu brothers who are consorts, all represent the power of the royal family to a certain extent, and compete with Wang Dao, the great star of the central government. The rest are Wang Dun, Huan Wen, Huan Xuan, etc. Have the intention of competing with the central authorities or even disloyalty. In the history of the Tao family, Tao Kan, Tao Yuanming's most revered great grandfather, was also an important figure in the history of Jingzhou in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Between Wang and Yu, he served as the secretariat for nearly ten years. It can be said that Jingzhou used to be a place with great influence of Taoism. Although we don't know why Tao Yuanming's sister married the Cheng family in Wuchang, it is probably not accidental. Even Tao Yuanming himself, Jingzhou is a very important place in his life experience. This has to talk about the poet's second official career.
In the past, people didn't pay much attention to Tao Yuanming's second official career, that is, his work experience under the then lean Huan Xuan. Huan Xuan, a man with excellent writing and martial arts, played an earth-shaking and important role in the history of the late Eastern Jin Dynasty. His rise might as well begin in 398 AD, when Wang Gong, the secretariat of Yanzhou in the Qing Dynasty, and Yin Zhong, the secretariat of Jingzhou, jointly fought against Sima Daozi, the regent of North Korea. As a result, Liu Laozhi, a famous military official of the northern government, defected, which led to Wang Gong being defeated and killed. Huan Xuan and Yin Zhongkan are metaphysical debaters. They stood aside in this incident, and at this time they took the opportunity to become Jiangzhou secretariat. In the second year (399), Huan Xuan attacked and killed Yin Zhong Kan, and in another year (400), it was the secretariat of Jingzhou, and it also took Jiangzhou and Jingzhou. During Huan Xuan's occupation of Jiangzhou and Jingzhou successively, the poet Tao Yuanming entered Huan Xuan's office.
In this regard, the most conclusive evidence is Tao Yuanming's own poems. In 400 A.D., there were two songs "Gengzi Returning to Forest in May". Among them, the phrase "I have known it since ancient times" shows that the poet was undoubtedly in his official career at that time; The word "Du" in the poem refers to Jiankang, the capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, while "Guilin" should be near Xunyang. So these two poems were written by the poet when he went to Jiankang, the capital, and returned to the west, and stayed in the wind not far from his hometown. So where does the poet want to "return" while "returning everything"? Of course, I won't go home near Guilin. How do officials go home after a business trip? Get the sales price difference. Where can I sell the difference? In the second year, 40 1 year, he wrote a song "Xin Chou returns to Jiangling at night in July", in which the word "pregnant service" appeared: "I don't want to sleep in the middle of the night." This obviously corresponds to "going on holiday" and "going at night" in the poem. Then, the message revealed by the poem is that the poet returned to Jiangling after his vacation and passed Tukou not far from Wuchang. Jiangling, which returned from vacation this time, should be the destination of "returning to Beijing" the year before last, and also the residence of Huan Xuan who attacked and killed the former Jingzhou secretariat Yin Zhong in 399, and it is still preserved. In view of the fact that Huan Xuan began to lead Jiangzhou secretariat in 398, it is speculated that Tao Yuanming joined Huan Xuan's army as early as 399, long before Huan Xuan conquered Yin Zhong. Anyway, judging from these three poems of the poet, it is certain that Tao Yuanming worked in Huan Xuan about 40 1 year and two or even three years before.
Undoubtedly, this is Tao Yuanming's longest career experience in his life. So, what did the poet do under Huan Xuan? As we already know, the 400-year-old "Gengzi is in mid-May" shows that he once served as Beijing's envoy for Huan Xuan, but what is his mission? Mr. Kuai, one of the most in-depth scholars who studied Tao Yuanming in modern times, felt that the poet was probably running for Huan Xuan Shangshu court's request to lead troops against Sun En. Sun En's family took five Mi Dou knives. In 399, he took advantage of the chaos to avenge his uncle Sun Tai who was killed by Sima Daozi. At that time, it was huge, attacked Huiji, killed Wang Ningzhi, the literature and history of Huiji at that time, and caused chaos in the counties of Emperor Wu. This time, although Sun En was repelled by Liu Laozhi's army and retreated to the island near Zhoushan, it made a comeback in May of the following year. In this context, it is reasonable for Huan Xuan to demand a crusade against Sun En, but things are often complicated, and Huan Xuan's intention and ambition to take the opportunity to move eastward may not be hidden behind it. If Tao Yuanming's mission is to ask the East for Huan Xuan, it is really crucial.
Tao Yuanming ended this longest career experience, but it was not like the first Jiangzhou wine festival, but because his mother Meng died in the winter of 40 1 year. This point is clearly written in the poet's "Sacrifice to Sister Cheng Jiawen": "I was severely punished in Jiangling." It can be seen that Tao Yuanming got the news of his mother's death in Jingzhou, Huan Xuan and Jiangling.
There may be questions, why is the poet's longest professional experience so obscure that no one cares about it for thousands of years? Knowing the subsequent changes in the situation, I can probably hold on.
In the two and a half years since Tao Yuanming left Huan Xuan and returned to his hometown to observe filial piety for his mother, the whole situation has undergone tremendous changes: in 402, Emperor Jin 'an sent a letter to Huan Xuan, Huan Xuan led the army eastward, and Liu Laozhi, who had almost a rebellious habit, repeated his old tricks and surrendered to Huan Xuan. Huan Xuan successfully captured Jiankang, killed Sima Yuan Xian and took charge of state affairs; The following year (403), Huan Xuan usurped Jin and changed Yuan to build Chu; Then, at the beginning of 404, another lean man of this era, Liu Yu, who was later promoted, set out to crusade against Huan Xuan. The two sides fought near Xunyang, when Liu, the son of Jiangzhou secretariat, stood aside. In the end, Huan Xuan was defeated. In this series of changes, the first half of the poet is a spectator, and the second half enters the scene and plays a certain role. At this time, Tao Yuanming wrote a poem "A Q Zuo". Although the poet missed the past, he said goodbye to his hometown and went all the way east to join the army and became a general of the town army. Today, the general of the town army roughly determined by researchers is Emperor Wu of Song who was stationed in Beijing at that time, and Qu A mentioned in Shi Tao's question is not far from it.
Tao Yuanming
Tao Yuanming left shortly after Emperor Wu of Song, because at the beginning of the second year (405), he left a song "When he was three years old, he went to Qianxi to join the army for Jianwei", indicating that he had joined the army as a general of Jianwei. We don't know why Liu Yu turned to Liu, but judging from the close cooperation between Emperor Wu of Song and Liu at that time, it is not very strange: this Liu is his son. As mentioned earlier, when Huan Xuan attacked Jiankang in 402, he turned his back on Huan Xuan, but later the restorers deliberately attacked Huan Xuan with their son Liu, and it was a big defeat, while Liu fled to the north. Two years later (404), as Liu Laozhi's old chief of staff, Emperor Wu of song began to attack Huan Xuan, and it was Emperor Wu of song who brought back the calligraphy called Jingxuan. In this poem, Tao Yuanming has a poem "I dream of the garden every day and meet again after a long separation", which has already indicated that he is going home. In fact, in this year (405), Emperor Jin 'an, deposed by Huan Xuan, resumed the throne, and Liu was immediately dismissed. This is also the reason why Tao Yuanming built the capital this time. After leaving Liu for about half a year, Peng's Eighty Days Trip, which is well known to poets, was formed.
Get a general understanding of the beginning and end of Tao Yuanming's inauguration under Huan Xuan and Emperor Wu of Song, and perhaps we can understand why these twists and turns were covered up intentionally or unintentionally. The poet's service to Huan Xuan, Emperor Wu of Song here, is something that should never be mentioned but should be ignored and buried as much as possible. He may even attend Emperor Wu of Song. The relationship between the poet and Huan Xuan and Emperor Wu of Song is really difficult for most people who believe that Tao Yuanming is loyal to Jinshi. Although these two are rivals, they are no different on the issue of subverting the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which can be described as run.
Looking back on Tao Yuanming's experience in these years, we know that he worked under two great men in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Huan Xuan and Emperor Wudi, and witnessed their earth-shattering actions. We should be able to understand and imagine the poet's inner turmoil. Will he be an ordinary person who has no deep perception of real politics? Will he be a simple and pure pastoral poet of Lotte know life?
There is no doubt that the poet is useful to the world, which is implicit or explicit in his poems; However, this world-oriented mind is not just an empty idea, and it must be implemented. For Tao Yuanming, if there was ever a chance to truly realize his ideal in life, it was certainly not the first Jiangzhou wine festival, nor the last Peng, nor even the joint efforts of Emperor Wu of Song and Liu Zaijun-as mentioned earlier, this may be his efforts to play Huan Xuan, and it would be naive to want to express himself in it-but under Huan Xuan, the poet's longest-lived man.
Back to the moment when Tao Yuanming joined Huan Xuan. Why did the poet do this?
In fact, there are good reasons to put yourself in the position of a poet. First of all, we already know that there were two states in Huan Xuan at that time, namely, Jiang and Jing, which attracted people's attention. Jingzhou is the place where the poet's great-grandfather Tao Kan once lived and fought.
Secondly, from Tao Yuanming's personal experience, he and Huan should have a considerable sense of closeness. The Eastern Jin Dynasty was the so-called gate valve era. It seems necessary to observe the relationship between Tao Yuanming and Huan Xuan from such a perspective. Huanjia, as the historian Mr. Tian Yuqing researched, Huanrong, a great scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was its ancestor. After the fierce struggle between Cao Shi and Sima family in Cao Wei era, Huan Fan was killed, and the family was lonely and weak from then on. Huan Yi was a hero crossing the river in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and his son Huan Wen was once in power, which laid the foundation for Huan Xuan to eventually replace Jin as the Chu State. Even so, Huan's family was despised by aristocratic families. According to Shi Shuo Xin Yu, Huan Wen proposed to the king who was an official at that time and wanted his son. Wang did not dare to be alone, so he promised to go home and ask his father, Huan Wen's daughter-in-law's grandfather, Uncle Wang. Wang Shu is the famous impatient Wang Lantian. He wants to eat an egg, but the chopsticks can't hold it. He threw it on the ground and stepped on it with his heel, but he couldn't. So he caught it on the spot, put it in his mouth, bit it open and spit it out. This time, Wang Shu's temper is still very grumpy. Originally, he liked Wang very much. Although his son is an adult, he still sticks to his guns. But when he heard Huan Wen's proposal, he was furious, pushed his son away and scolded, "Are you an idiot? Afraid of Huan Wen? He was born in a military family. How can he marry his daughter? " Wang returned to see Huan Wen and said, "The little girl's family has set up a husband's family for her."
Huan Wen, of course, was a wise man and said, "I see, this is your father's disagreement." Wang Shu regarded Huan Wen as a "soldier", which was a sign of strong contempt at that time. As for the Tao family, Mr. Chen Yinque thought that it was originally a "fisherman" in a mixed ethnic area, so the gentry were regarded as different, but they were still discriminated against because of their military achievements in the early Eastern Jin Dynasty. There is a story in Shi Shuo Xin Yu: Wang was very poor when he lived in Dongshan, Huiji. At that time, Tao Kan's son Fan Tao sent him a shipment of rice, but the result was rejected. Wang bluntly said, "My Wangs have no rice to cook, so I must ask Xie Jia for it, not your Taojia's rice." Mr. Wang, who has a deep research on Shi Shuo Xin Yu, analyzed it this way: "Because the Tao family was born in poverty, although Shi Xing (Tao Kan) contributed a lot, Wang and Xie Jiaer could not but regard him as a veteran." The most noteworthy is this record in Shi Shuo Xin Yu: Yuan Hong published Zheng Dong Fu, but he didn't tell Tao Gong (Tao Kan). In a small room lured by Hunu (Fan Tao), facing a white blade, he said, "What merits have you done? Why not pay attention? " Hong was so embarrassed that he didn't know what to do. He replied, "I'm on the road. Why is there no cloud?" Because chanting: "Fine gold is fine, you can cut it and break it. Merit is the rule of man, occupation is quiet and chaotic. The glory of Changsha is praised by history. "
However, for this article, Liu Xiaobiao quoted another historical book, Continued Jinyang Autumn, when he made a note for Shi Shuo Xin Yu: (Yuan) Hong Congjun was the secretariat of Fu (Huan Wen), later named "Fu", and was famous for crossing the river. When Huan Wen was in Zhou Nan, there was a lot of talk: "I will never be with Huan Xuan Cheng (Huan Wen's father, Huan Yi)." When he was there, he talked with Hongshan and protested strongly to him, but Hong just laughed and didn't answer. I turned on the temperature in secret, and the temperature was very angry. After talking to Macro for a while, I also smelled this audio, so I didn't want people to smell it. The castle peak is drunk, and it is dangerous to come back. After a few lines of poetry, he asked Hong, "Write Ode to the East, which is a saint that people often say. Why not Jia Jun? " Macro replied: "The title of Gongzun is not something I dare to specialize in, so I dare not show it." Wen Naiyun: "Why do you want to resign?" Macro immediately answered the cloud: "The wind is scattered, or search or lead. Although the body can die, the road cannot be reversed. " Then the festival in Xuancheng is believed to be a promise. "The temperature suddenly stopped. Obviously, these two accounts are very similar, and we don't have to ask whether they were crowned with glory or both happened. The entanglement between the two stories of Huan and Tao reveals that the status of the two families was equivalent in the view of the aristocratic families at that time. As far as Tao Yuanming is concerned, his family has been declining since his great-grandfather Tao Kan, and he has always been a respected minister. As a child of his hometown, Tao Yuanming's self-identity may be very proud of his ancestors, but it is far from it in the actual environment. Without the respect of the family, it is quite similar to Huan. This may be the basis of a spiritual contract between Tao Yuanming and Huan.
Tao Yuanming
Speaking of family, further relations, among the family figures that Tao Yuanming worships, besides his great-grandfather Tao Kan, the second one is his grandfather Meng Jia. The Meng family is a noble family in Wuchang. He was a celebrity at that time. When I was in Jingzhou, Tao Kan Town, I married my tenth daughter. Their fourth daughter is Meng's mother Tao Yuanming. Meng Jia works under Huan Wen, and they are closely related. There are many stories in Tao Yuanming's biography for his grandfather, such as a very famous anecdote: "What's so good about wine that you love it?" You smiled and replied,' Be a gentleman, but you can't have fun in wine. I asked the prostitute again, silk is not as good as bamboo, and bamboo is not as good as meat, and replied,' It's natural. "This biography was written during the death of the poet Taomu Montessori. As mentioned earlier, the situation was undergoing tremendous changes at that time. Huan Xuan marched eastward until the last generation of Jin Li; Under this background, it is hard to say whether the poet Zeng in Huan Xuan wrote about his ancestors and Huan Wen, but only showed his understanding and concern about the relationship between his family and Huan Wen family. Even if we don't speculate too much, judging from this relationship, it is at least a natural choice for Tao Yuanming to join Huan Xuan: as a poet, Huan Xuan is the son of Huan Wen, the chief official of his revered grandfather; In Huan Xuan, this is the grandson of one of my father's early family members. Thirdly, Tao Yuanming and Huan Xuan are not just old relatives. To put it bluntly, they also have the same language in their thoughts and beliefs. Tao Yuanming is several years older than Huan Xuan, and his contemporaries received similar education and had similar cultural upbringing.
Tao Yuanming said in his poem that he was "a teenager who was ignorant of personnel and was good at swimming in the Six Classics"; At the beginning of Huan family, it was based on Confucianism. As the youngest son, Huan Xuan is greatly favored by Huan Wen, and his traditional upbringing can be imagined. If you want to give an example, let's take a look at Huan Xuan's association with Hui Yuan, a monk in Lushan at that time. According to the Biography of Monks, before Huan Xuan set out from Jiangzhou to attack Yin Zhongkan in Jingzhou in 399, he went to Lushan to meet Hui Yuan. He became a monk by cutting his hair at that time. According to the Book of Filial Piety, "His parents did not dare to damage his body. At the beginning of filial piety, they also asked," If they did not dare to damage it, why cut it? "Earlier, Hui Yuan was also familiar with Confucian books and" studied the Six Classics ". Immediately replied: "stand on the road, leave a name for future generations, show your parents, and finally be filial." "Obviously, the argument between them is based on Confucian classics.