During the Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu in Chengdu, he walked out of the thatched cottage and went to Wuhou Temple to pay tribute to Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of Shu of the Three Kingdoms.
There, Du Fu pondered the sentiments of ancient times and wrote the classic "Shu Xiang".
"You die before you leave your apprenticeship, and the hero is full of tears." Such a sentence has become a benchmark sentence for later generations to evaluate Zhuge Liang.
When Du Fu left Chengdu and once again "wondered about the monuments" in Kuizhou, the protagonist of one of the poems was Zhuge Liang again, and he wrote the words of praise that "Zhuge's famous name is in the universe, and the portraits of chief ministers are clear and high."
Why did Du Fu have such a reverence for Zhuge Liang?
Is he just praising or feeling Zhuge Liang?
When we read Du's poems today, how should we understand Du Fu's reverence?
Apart from poetry, how should we understand the political situation of the Three Kingdoms era today, and how should we more objectively evaluate Zhuge Liang as a real historical figure rather than Zhuge Liang in the novelist's Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
On the afternoon of May 21st, the fifth lecture of Alai's series of lectures, "Du Fu's Poems in Chengdu", hosted by Chuanguan News, Cover News and Upward Culture, was held in Alai's study.
Focusing on the theme of "Wuhou Temple: Painful Sense of Jun-Civil Meeting", Alai not only analyzes the artistic characteristics and superb skills of Du Fu's poems, but also analyzes the relevant content involved in Du Fu's "Shu Xiang" and many other poems written by Zhuge Liang. historical and political issues.
Effortlessly convert between engraving and line drawing
Great Poets Dare to "Introduce Prose into Poetry"
Let's first appreciate the genius of Du Fu's poetry.
In the opening chapter of "Shu Xiang", Du Fu recorded the process of his going out of the city to inquire and find Wuhou Temple.
At that time, Wuhou Temple was not a tourist attraction at that time, but an inaccessible place in the suburbs.
"Where can I find the ancestral hall of the prime minister, outside Jinguan City is full of trees." These two sentences are almost a line drawing.
"The green grass is in the spring, and the oriole is empty." These two sentences began to carve the words.
Alai, this is a high level of Du Fu's poetry writing: "When it's time for rhetoric, he can do well-crafted rhetoric, but where he can make it clear without deliberate rhetoric, he uses prose into poetry. The vernacular, no rhetoric. The transformation of clumsy work is very natural. This is not crafty, not stingy, but an expression of self-confidence."
"Three times of trouble with the world, two dynasties opened up the hearts of old ministers. Before leaving the apprenticeship, he died first, and the hero was full of tears." The deeds of Zhuge Liang's life were expressed with high precision by Du Fu in a few sentences, which shows the power of his writing. of depth.
It is worth noting that the poem is clearly divided into two parts.
The former part writes the scene, the latter part writes the history and makes the argument.
"The ancients generally did not advocate directly discussing and expressing their opinions when writing poems. Even if they wanted to express a point of view, the poet had to use the description of the scenery to express it secretly. But Du Fu made a direct discussion here, which was rare at that time. Perhaps the great poet's Greatness lies in this, daring to break through conventions, and having the ability to break through conventions. Du Fu dared to make comments, and he made them very successfully." Ah Lai.
Praise Zhuge Liang, envy Zhuge Liang
Du Fu's "painful feeling that the ruler and his ministers have not met"
"The green grass is the color of spring, and the oriole is empty." Originally, the greenness of the green grass is a natural phenomenon, and the singing of birds is not for people to listen to, but when Du Fu, who is concerned, sees and hears it, he seems sad. and solitary tones.
Du Fu's ambitions were difficult to achieve, and he was in a lonely mood. He also felt sympathy for Zhuge Liang's deeds dissipating with the passage of time.
Zhuge Liang's fate was tragic, and his political efforts in his life were actually doing something he "knowingly couldn't do".
Du Fu felt sympathy for it.
But Du Fu still envied Zhuge Liang, because even if Zhuge Liang failed, he still had the opportunity to assist the king, and he still had a close relationship between the king and the minister.
Looking back at himself, Du Fu felt sad, recalled the past, filled with emotion, and felt that the monarch and his ministers had not met.
Write about the Prime Minister of Shu, praise the Prime Minister of Shu, and never forget to remember the Prime Minister of Shu during the journey.
When he left Chengdu and passed Kuizhou, Du Fu went to the local Confucius Temple again to pay his respects and wrote "Five Songs of Worshiping Historic Sites": "The famous Zhuge is famous in the universe, and the portraits of ancestral ministers are cleaned up. Feather. Seeing Yilu between the peers, and commanding Ruo Ding to lose Xiao Cao. It is difficult to transport Han Zuo, and I am determined to annihilate the military service workers." In "Gu Bai Xing", he issued "No grievances for people with lofty ideals, since ancient times. The material is too hard to use" sentimental feeling.
Besides poetry, how to treat history?
Need to distinguish between fiction and historical facts
Alai also extended from poetry analysis, talking about some of his understanding of "Three Kingdoms" and "Three Kingdoms", ""Three Kingdoms" is a novel and a romance, and there are some excessive deification and dramatization of characters in it. If you want to know more about the merits and demerits of a historical figure, you have to go back to the "Three Kingdoms"." He cited the familiar story of "Zhuge Liang from the Qishan Mountains" as an example, "Actually, it is objective and calm. After analysis, the practice of going out of Qishan several times is not of great significance. It is mainly a gesture, and it also leads to heavy taxation, corvée and labor, laboring people and hurting money. This also reminds us that understanding historical figures today requires more perspectives and perspectives. Instead of just relying on a romance or a literary story. In classical opera, Cao Cao is often portrayed as a negative character. In fact, from the perspective of poetry history and political history, Cao Cao has many merits. Cao Cao is a literary Poets with high achievements are a generation of writers. For example, the word 'style bone' in the history of poetry is derived from the poems of the three fathers and sons of Cao Cao."
It is better to believe in books than to have no books.
Alai reminds us that reading historical stories today requires sufficient analytical and judgmental abilities.
"Excessive admiration of loyalty, like in Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Water Margin, cannot be accepted uncritically today. The world must have Tao, etiquette (system), and law, and society will be more orderly. Taoyuan Three To a certain extent, there is a heavy color part of small groups forming gangs, which is worthy of vigilance."
Alai said that in Du Fu's time, Zhuge Liang's fame was not as big as it is now.
In Du Fu's verse "Meeting Yilu between brothers and children, commanding Ruoding to lose Xiao Cao", we can see that Du Fu compares Zhuge Liang to Yi Yin and Lu Shang who assisted Shang Tang and Zhou Wu Wang, and to assist Liu Bang to establish Xiao He, a hero of the Western Han Dynasty, and Cao Can, the second prime minister of the Han Dynasty.
"Before Du Fu, no writer spoke of Zhuge Liang in such a high-profile manner. In fact, Zhuge Liang's political achievements cannot deserve such high praise." Alai.
Even so, it does not affect the artistic achievement of Du Fu's poem.
"We read ancient poems today, adhering to the attitude of 'comprehension with sympathy for history', and we must understand the ancients from the perspective of historical figures at that time. Therefore, when we read Du Fu's poems today, we must also stand from Du Fu's perspective, To understand why he had such complicated feelings for Zhuge Liang at that time, because there was Du Fu's association of his own destiny. Du Fu always had a great ambition to assist the Mingjun and run the country and secure the country, and for this, he used Zhuge Liang to express his feelings." Ah to say.
At the end of this lecture, Alai concluded that Du Fu wrote down some of his feelings and views on Zhuge Liang in the Tang Dynasty. Although it is not absolutely comprehensive or accurate, it is important for us to understand the evaluation of Zhuge Liang in history today, and the separation of Shu and Han. The evaluation of the regime has undoubtedly provided a valuable perspective.
It is precisely because of such records from generation to generation that today's information is richer, and our understanding of history can be more three-dimensional.
West China Metropolis Daily - Cover reporter Zhang Jie