WASHINGTON client Beijing December 25 electrical

problem: most bitter Tang Dynasty poet, refused to lie flat for life

　　Author: Yuan show on

　　It will be 2021 in a few days.

It is said that 2020 is a bad year, and many people have experienced "critical attacks" from their lives, work, and bodies.

　　Some people say that a word is hard to say; others say that they realize that all beings are suffering.

　　However, there is another term called "bottoming out."

2020 is coming to an end, we will "mourn" one last time and talk about Meng Jiao, the most bitter poet of the Tang Dynasty.

Drawing: Lei Yuzhu

Only 46 years old

　　In the poetry world of the middle and late Tang Dynasty, Meng Jiao was not an unknown person. Even now, his "Wandering Ziyin" is still a poem that many students must learn during the enlightenment period.

　　Mother hands line, wandering clothing.

　　Departure thick seam, meaning fear of delay in return.

　　Whoever said an inch of grass, reported three Chunhui.

　　The rhetoric of the whole poem is not gorgeous, only a few movements depict the mother's love and worry.

Many people think that this is a poem written by Meng Jiao before leaving.

In fact, this poem was written when Meng Jiao was reunited with his mother.

　　Meng Jiao was born in the tenth year of Tang Tianbao (751). He was just four years old when the Anshi Rebellion occurred.

After the end of the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty's strength was greatly weakened, and a separatist regime began to appear. In the period of Tang Dezong, there was a rebellion against the vassal.

With constant internal and external troubles, the rule of the Tang Dynasty was faltering.

　　Meng Jiao grew up in this environment.

He was not from a wealthy family, his father Meng Tingzhen was just a small official of Kunshan County Lieutenant.

However, a satisfactory family life did not last long. After the birth of Meng Jiao's two younger brothers, his father Meng Tingjing passed away.

　　The loss of his father at a young age made Meng Jiao understand the truth early, and he was even more outstanding in reading and literary talent.

But Meng Jiao did not prepare to be an official as early as others.

　　It is said that he hid in Songshan in his early years and did not begin to take the imperial examinations until he was 40 years old.

Meng Jiao was full of confidence and had a positive attitude towards becoming an official, but soon he encountered a series of setbacks in Chang'an.

　　From the eighth year of Zhenyuan (792) to the ninth year of Zhenyuan, he went to Beijing for the exam twice, and both times he lost his name to Sun Shan.

In "Lost in the Diploma" and "Next Die", he once described the distress in his heart-"disposing and re-disposing, love is like a sword wound", "Twice in Chang'an Mo, the air will see flowers in tears".

Drawing: Lei Yuzhu

　　It was not until the age of 46 that Meng Jiao responded for the third time and finally got what he wanted.

He wrote the famous sentence "The spring breeze is proud of horseshoe disease, and I can see Chang'an flowers in one day" after he received his diploma.

Different from his previous works, this poem flies brightly, sweeping away the previous sorrows and difficulties.

　　Four years later, 50-year-old Meng Jiao was transferred to Liyang County Lieutenant.

The year of fate finally ended many years of wandering.

After arriving in Liyang, he immediately took his mother to him.

Mother and son reunited, and the past scenes reappeared one after another, so he felt it and wrote this song "Wandering Zi Yin".

Frustrated life

　　However, for Meng Jiao, there is only a moment of pride.

He was bent on realizing his ambition, but only got a small official like Liyang County Lieutenant after he got the title.

In this regard, his heart is depressed.

　　In "The Selection of the First Yu Luo", he wrote: "Dust disappears day by day, and there is no power to drive. The blue clouds are not with me, and the white head chooses books." Han Yu also said in "Preface to Meng Dongye". Serving in the south of the Yangtze River, there are those who are not relieved."

　　After arriving in Liyang, Meng Jiao showed little interest in the job.

It is recorded in the "New Tang Book" that there are Jinlai and Pingling cities in Liyang County, where there are dense vegetation and water pools.

When Meng Jiao was free, he went to sit by the pool, wandering about chanting poetry, so that his official duties were delayed.

Drawing: Lei Yuzhu

　　Meng Jiao's behavior finally annoyed the county magistrate, and the county magistrate found an acting county lieutenant to replace him and divided his salary in half.

Meng Jiao didn't seem to have any nostalgia for this job, and soon he resigned from the post of county lieutenant.

　　With salary, he can barely make ends meet. After resigning, Meng Jiao's life has returned to a state of nothing.

In "Yiyou Sui Shedi Helps the Attendant to Return to Xingyi Zhuang and Left Himself to Be Alone", he writes, "The diet is enthusiastic, and the clothes are too narrow. The return wind rolls the idle bamboo, and the new moon gives birth to an empty wall. There are soldiers, no officials have a surname." The resentment was beyond words.

　　In the first year of Yuanhe (806), due to the recruitment of Henan Yin Zheng Yuqing, Meng Jiao once again embarked on official career, engaged in water and land transportation, tried to cooperate with Lulang, and settled in Lidefang in Luoyang.

　　Near his residence, he opened up an open space to grow vegetables, often watched the scenery in the kiosk, and walked by the creek, and his life was fairly comfortable and quiet.

　　But the good times didn't last long. During the second or third year of Yuanhe, Meng Jiao lost three sons.

In Yuanhe four years, Meng Jiao's mother died again, and he resigned and went home to mourn for his mother.

　　A series of blows left Meng Jiao exhausted and described as withered.

In "Xing Shang Nine Poems" and "Mourning the Younger Son", the whole story is full of "sorrow" and "tears".

"Fang Ying is not resurrected, and she is sad to Wukong." "Because of my ten years of gratitude, I owe you thousands of tears." "Cry this will not make spring, tears will mark the third and fourth classes."

　　Losing his father in his childhood, wandering in the middle of life, bereaved in old age, ruined officialdom, and left in poverty, Meng Jiao's life can be described as a frustrated life.

Drawing: Lei Yuzhu

Willing to lie flat?

　　Seeing this, I couldn't help but want to sigh for Meng Jiaobo.

Fortunately, in misfortune, he still has poetry as a lifelong sustenance.

　　He wrote his joys, sorrows, ambitions, and real experiences into poems.

　　For example, when you write about the relationship between husband and wife, "Heart-to-heart and heart-to-heart, and love is deep."

　　Write the grand and majestic Zhongnan Mountain, "Nanshan is filled with heaven and earth, and the sun, moon and rocks are born on it."

　　Write sympathy for the peasant weaver woman, "How to weave 纨素, wear a blue garment."

　　Write to borrow a car by yourself, "borrow furniture from a car, less furniture than a car."

　　Write about the situation after a friend gave the charcoal, "Blowing the sun to get in the sun, and the body is warm and straight."

　　There is also an indispensable part of Meng Jiao's life background, which is the confrontation with the secular.

For example, he once wrote in "Farewell to Cui Chunliang": "Eating chestnuts is also bitter, and strong singing is unhappy. Going out is a hindrance, who is the world?" Writes the standard of choosing friends, "Good people are always straight, not going to the world. ."

　　This unique poetic style of Meng Jiao has received completely different evaluations. For example, Su Shi compared Meng Jiao's poems to "Han Chong".

　　"Life is like the dew of the morning, day and night, the fire disappears. Why bother ears, listen to this cold insect."

　　Yuan Haowen referred to Meng Jiao as "the prisoner of poetry", "Dong Ye is a prisoner of poetry in despair."

　　However, Han Yu admired Meng Jiao very much, and praised Meng Jiao's poems in many poems for his talents and strong writing skills.

The modern poet Wen Yiduo also admired Meng Jiao's realistic and cursing style in his poems, calling his attitude "come and sharp."

　　For example, he described sympathy for the working people in "Cold People's Yin".

　　Those who are cold are willing to burn Bihua to death for moths.

　　Huayao is separated from Xianluo and suffers thousands of times.

　　In order to obtain a moment of warmth, the poor people would rather turn into moths to pounce on the lamps and be burned to death.

But the lamps of the wealthy and wealthy were also blocked by Leno, and they flew in vain.

The word "xu" vividly portrays the tragic experience of the cold.

Drawing: Lei Yuzhu

　　Although life is rough and rough, Meng Jiao's ambitions have never been wiped out.

In the face of the beatings of life, he never abandoned the edges and corners and lied down willingly.

　　This may be a completely different harvest from the apparent "mourning" we got from his life.

(Finish)