Zhong Rong
Zhong Rong (c. 468 – c. 518) was a literary critic of the Southern Chinese Dynasty. Word Zhongwei. A native of Yingchuan Changshe (present-day Changge, Xuchang, Henan). Qi Daiguan to Situ Xing joined the army. Entering Liang, he successively served as the king of Linchuan in the Chinese army, and the general of Xizhong Lang in the Jin'an Wang Ji room.
Studied
Zhong Rong and his brother Zhong Shanyuan and younger brother Zhong Yu are very good at learning, with clear thinking and strong understanding. He once served as a guozisheng, so he had a lot of experience with "Zhou Yi". The Wei general Wang Jian made a sacrifice for the Guozi Temple, and was very appreciative of his talents and learning, and often interacted with him. In the early years of Jianwu, Zhong Rong served as the prince of Nankang. At that time, Emperor Qi Ming's personality was that he loved to personally inquire about everything, so the daily affairs of various counties and counties and central departments were directly reported to the imperial court, waiting for the emperor's final decision. The emperor's official duties seemed to be very busy, but it was inevitable that he was somewhat inefficient.
Book
Seeing the shortcomings of this system, Zhong Rong could not sit still, and directly wrote to him and put forward his own suggestions: "In ancient times, the wise monarchs would grant him powers according to each person's ability; even the three dukes did not have to care about specific affairs, but only accompanied the monarch to discuss major policies, and the specific affairs were handled by people below the ninth secretary, and the son of heaven only needed to grasp macroscopic control." After the song was handed over, Emperor Ming looked very unhappy and asked Gu Yu, the Grand Master of Taizhong, "Who is Zhong Rong, and he still wants to teach the king a lesson, do you know him?" Gu Yu replied: "Although Zhong Rong's position is not high or famous, what he said has something to adopt. Moreover, the tedious daily affairs are handled by the various departments, and now the king takes them all into his arms and handles them personally, so that the king will not become more and more busy, and the ministers will become more and more comfortable? This is what the saying goes, cooking for the cook and making furniture for the carpenter. Emperor Ming took care of him left and right, and deliberately did not take the stubble.
unhappy
In the last year of Yongyuan, Ren Situ dai joined the army. In the early years of Liang Tianjian, although there were minor reforms in the system, there were still many drawbacks left by the previous dynasty, and Zhong Rong began to write again: "Since the turmoil in the world during the first year of Qi Yong, the number of officials in the imperial court has been increasing day by day, and they can obtain military merit without going to the battlefield, and officials rely on bribery. Send a little money to be the ninth secretary, and a letter from the horse can get the lieutenant. I believe that all incompetent officials should be removed in order to punish those who climb up the ladder by luck and do not follow the right path. This time the proposal was approved by the emperor, and Emperor Wu of Liang approved it and forwarded it to Shangshu Province, asking them to implement it according to the specific situation.
Emperor Wu of Liang
Xiao Yuanjian, the king of Hengyang, went out of Beijing to serve as Taishou and summoned him to take charge of writing work. In this way, Zhong Rong has a lot of time and convenient conditions to carry out what he likes. After the twelfth year (513) of Emperor Tianjian of Liangwu, he imitated the precedent of the Han Dynasty's works of "Nine Pins on People and Seven Judges", and wrote a poetry criticism monograph "Poetry". Mainly based on the five-character poems, the whole book divides 122 writers from the two Han Dynasties to Liang into three articles for comment, so it is called "Poetry". In "Poetry", Zhong Rong advocates wind power and opposes Xuanyan; advocates the natural harmony of phonology and opposes the artificial theory of vocal disease; advocates "direct searching" and opposes the use of classics, and puts forward a set of standards for a more systematic evaluation of poetry. Generally speaking, although "Poetry" has historical limitations, it is still an important and influential work in the history of Chinese literary theory criticism.
Poetry
After Zhong Rong's writing, he asked Shen to spread his reputation to him. Shen Yue was the leader of the Qi and Liang literary circles, who was knowledgeable and proficient in musical rhythms, and together with Zhou Yong and others, he created the theory of four voices and eight diseases, and required that the method of mutual adjustment of the four voices of flat, up, going, and entering should be applied to poetry to avoid the eight diseases, which opened up a new realm for the creation of rhyme at that time.
Shen Covenant
Since Zhong Rong was only a literary youth at that time and did not have any fame, when he asked for Shen Yue, Shen Yue did not give him face. After Shen Yue's death, when Zhong Rong commented on the ancient and modern poems by grade, he left the following evaluation of Shen Yue's poems: "Looking at the various poems of Shen Xiuwen, the five-word poem is the best. During the next year of Qi Yong, Xiao Ziliang, the king of Jinling, loved literature, and Wang Yuanchang and others also respected and attached themselves to Shen Yue. At that time, Xie Yuezhao's poetry was not strong enough, and Jiang Yan's talent had been exhausted, and Fan Yun's reputation was low, so he was able to dominate the literary world. Therefore, his words are stricter than Fan Yun's, but his meaning is shallower than that of the river. This is not only a routine evaluation of the level of Shen Yue's poetry, but also mixed with the resentment generated by being slighted in the past, and the charm in this is not understandable to ordinary people.
Reference: History of the South, Don Li Yanshou