Cute Han Yu
Wen | Zhang Wei
Zhang Wei is the vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association and a native of Qixia City, Shandong Province. He is the author of twenty-one novels, including "Ancient Ship", "Fables of September", "Hedgehog Song", "Book of Other Provinces", "You are in the Plateau", "Du Yaoshi", "The Secret History of Aiyobao", etc.; the poetic monograph "Also Says Li Bai and Du Fu", "Tao Yuanming's Legacy", "Chu Ci Notes", "Reading the Book of Poetry", and "Ban Huan Zhi"; in 2020, he published "Zhang Wei's Collected Works" in 50 volumes. His works have won the Outstanding Novel Award, the "100 Excellent Chinese Literature Books in 100 Years", the "Top 100 Chinese Novels in the World", the Mao Dun Literature Award, the China Publishing Government Award, the China Excellent Publication Award, the China Writers Publishing Group Special Award, the Southern Media Outstanding Writer Award, the Jingdong Literature Award, etc. His works have been translated into dozens of languages, including English, Japanese, French, Korean, German, and Western.
For the ancient Han Yu, I somehow formed a fairly fixed view before: solemn, rigid, conservative, a high-ranking and uninteresting "upright gentleman" and "defender". I reject such a character and can't get close to and like him, so I don't read much of his text. I can't tell you how much I've read before and why I made such an impression.
During the epidemic, because I had to prepare the speeches of several ancient poets, I began to read Han Yu. Who knows, this reading will not be accepted. The character of this man in the text, his ambition, his extraordinary talent and profound thoughts, his openness and rebellion, I was greatly surprised and deeply fascinated. I read all the words he left behind in one sitting and searched as many words about him as I could. It was a particularly worthwhile and huge read.
I confess that I used to like li baisu dongpo and was especially fascinated by their innocence and richness. But Han Yu, who I "rediscovered", is a genius and wizard who is more heartwarming and obsessive than the two of them. To say that this person is naïve, this person is too naïve, such as Su Dongpo's cuteness, he himself knows a little; and Han Yu's cuteness, he himself does not know at all, so this person is even more cute.
I wrote down more than 20,000 words of reading Korean notes, and on this basis, I discussed and exchanged with people, and finally ended up with a long article of more than 50,000 words, "How to Thank Nature". How complex and unexpectedly towering this great figure I have met once in a lifetime, this wonderful thinker and poet who has shocked me to the extreme, is manifested in this text. He often made me beat the knots, so I threw up fast.
How to thank nature - Han Yu twenty-three questions
Zhang Wei / Wen
After the peak
Han Yu lived in the Middle Tang Dynasty and was active in the Four Dynasties of De, Shun, Xian, and Mu. This was a period of severe social turmoil, and the country continued to decline, which can be said to be internal and external troubles, including the division of feudal towns and borders, as well as fierce party strife within the court and eunuchs' power grabs. The field of thought and culture was a decadent and passive school of theology and metaphysics that flourished in the Han and Wei dynasties, and flourished again in this period. Under the vigorous initiative of several generations of emperors, the entire upper-level officials indulged in them, the so-called upward and downward effects, the people also flocked to it, and the spiritual outlook and cultural character of the people were very different from those of the Tang Dynasty.
The political, military, people's livelihood, especially culture, from Tang Taizong's "rule of Zhenguan" to Tang Xuanzong's "Kaiyuan prosperous era", after more than a hundred years of prosperity, encountered the "Anshi Chaos", the entire national fortunes took a sharp turn, and the Tang Dynasty entered a period of decline, mediocrity and turmoil. As far as the literary world is concerned, Li Du is no longer, the "sound of the Tang Dynasty" is declining, and the Chinese language and literature they symbolize and represent is gradually weakening. Literature is a more complex phenomenon of life, which cannot simply correspond to the socio-political and economic conditions of a period, they are not synchronized, but there is still a deep connection between the two. After a series of ups and downs such as prosperity, decay, rejuvenation, and re-decay in the Tang Dynasty, the vitality could not be restored. Although there have been several periods of revival and renaissance, such as Tang Xianzong's "Yuan and Zhongxing" and Tang Xuanzong's "Rule of The Great Middle", after all, it was short-lived and could not be turned over, and the vitality and spirit of extreme creativity could not be restored in the end.
The national body is like the human body: the sickness comes like a mountain, and the sickness goes like a silk. What suddenly overwhelms the living body is a long-term accumulation of dangers, which converge in the dark, in a corner without noticing, and finally turn into a heavy blow. Weak life stumbled and barely got up, waddling, and its feet were full of bumps, making it more difficult to resist the cold wind. The dominant representation of synthesis is "culture", and the main part of culture is literature, so this period is expressed in literature, that is, vanity and exaggeration. Originating in the Han and Wei dynasties and flourishing in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Chinese script developed considerably after the decline of classics, the prevalence of metaphysics, and the entry of Buddhism into China, and literature gradually deviated from the confucian track. The advocates of the Piao style were basically the scholar class at that time, they did not care about the social and people's livelihood, their personal lives were extravagant and flashy, they pursued decorative beauty for the text, used a variety of classics, piled up rhetoric, and corresponded to vulgar survival with formalistic "talent thinking" and so-called "learning".
In this period, if there is a simple and resolute style of writing, a majestic expression of individual life, it is inconceivable. From the perspective of literary history, people expect change in such a period, expecting the emergence of an epoch-making historical figure. This should be a cultural miracle, heralding the vitality of the social organism. Although it is partial, it is a place of hope and a great opportunity for recovery.
In the Tang Dynasty, the tang dynasty used poetry to give the soldiers, and the endowment was given the law, and this ancient style with rhyme developed into the Tang, and the text paid more attention to the harmony of sound and rhyme, and the duality was neat, and the scholars had to be proficient in this skill to take the exam. In the Tang Dynasty, the official documents were written in the form of piao script, such as Ling Huchu, who had been the prime minister, and was praised by the world for this, "those who speak the article think of the crown" (Tang Liu Yuxi's "Monument to the Temple of the Linghu Chu Family Left in the Eastern Capital"). At that time, Ling Huchu's Piao Wen was actually similar to Han Yu's ancient text and Du Fu's poems, and was called "Three Absolutes". History records that Tang Dezong was particularly fond of Ling Huchu's articles, and when he was serving in the shogunate of Hedong Jiedu, every time the imperial palace sent a piece of music, he could see Ling Huchu's handwriting at a glance. Indeed, this is consistent with the spiritual temperament of the whole country, the appearance is flashy and the temperament is insufficient. The corruption of the ruling class must begin with materialism and entertainmentism, and then affect the whole society from the top down. The inducing, educational, and corrosive power of corruption is incomparably powerful, and it can cause a large-scale fall in a very short period of time. The so-called "orientation", the feudal autocratic system is precisely a kind of bad "big orientation" and "big education", which can determine the trend of cultural and human development in a period of time to a considerable extent.
We examine the authoritarian regimes of a period and a society and enumerate their evil deeds, such as how many people have been unjustly imprisoned and how many people have been killed and trampled. Of course, this is the evil of feudal despotism, but what is even greater is the group's consciously or unconsciously, explicitly or implicitly, the vicious and despicable education and inducement of the entire society: for a period of time, the people have gone to spiritual degeneration and lost their rationality and blurred right and wrong. The feudal polity expelled civilization to the greatest extent effectively, even very cruelly and completely, replacing it with meanness, intrigue, cunning and deceit, allowing an unspeakable, hidden and seemingly visible hostility to civilization to spread and flow in society. This is the unforgivable sin.
The feudal rule of the Tang Dynasty was the coexistence of the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and the "deposing of hundreds of families and the exclusive respect of Confucianism" established and advocated by the Western Han Dynasty has become an empty phrase. Even the "pseudo-Confucianism" that has been transformed and distorted by the feudal ruling clique for a long time is declining in status, not to mention the "righteous Confucianism" that sober and upright intellectuals adhere to. Emperors who are bent on seeking eternal life and pleasure are more willing to believe in fallacies and heresies, so strange forces and chaotic gods emerge endlessly.
It was also at such a moment that Han Yu appeared as a representative of "Zheng Confucianism".
History has made such a choice, which makes us happy and pleased. He almost single-handedly drove away the smog, and he did so for the rest of his life. In terms of religion, we have adopted a firm attitude toward the Tao and Buddha, which are pervasive in society and spread out among the people, superficial, formalistic, distorted and transformed, and have gone through old and malpractice, and even written directly to the book, and do not hesitate to risk killing our heads. As a reformer, his efforts ranged from culture to many other aspects, affecting social trends, education, literature, politics, military and other fields. In fact, cultural variation must involve many aspects, and it cannot be single and independent, because corruption and degeneration must be all-round. It is hard to imagine that an era of malaise and chaos will have a robust style, a clean politics, and a rational citizen.
The significance of Han Yu's bravery and perseverance lies in the entire era and ethnic group, not only in the field of culture and religion. He grew from weakness and loneliness, from lowly cloth to low-ranking officials, from the edge to the center, and gradually grew up and received more and more responses. All the way to the wind and dust, he has always stubbornly amplified his voice, which can not only be strong words, but also convince people with reason, which can be described as a life that is not afraid of difficulties. He accepted the Confucian classics since he was a teenager, and after four scientific examinations, he was admitted to the rank of jinshi, and the official should be elected and lost three times, and the road to seeking shi was bumpy, "four moves in the ceremonial department is one to get, three to the official pawn is not successful." He failed three examinations for the imperial household and finally had to travel to the shogunate. However, this way of fighting and struggling is also a way of shouting, even in the period of humble status, he did not stop his big words: "Now there are seven years of life and learn the way of the saints, in order to cultivate their bodies, accumulate twenty years, and have to destroy it in one day, and they will not get what they deserve." If there are benevolent people in the upper position today, if they do not tell them to do so, will they be willing to abandon themselves and not treat me in the way of the ancient gentleman. I'd rather go to the court. If you are not determined, then you will be destined, and you will be able to do the same. (The Book of the Prime Minister)
Han Yushi is a key figure who strives to save the decadent literary style and thus affect the atmosphere of the entire era, and is a brave change-maker of culture and even society that cannot be bypassed. In terms of spiritual culture, he is a well-deserved standard-bearer of the times. "The decline of the eight generations of Wenqi, and the drowning of the World, the wrath of the loyal prisoners, and the bravery of the commander of the three armies." Isn't this the heavens and the earth, the prosperity and decline, the vast but the only one! (Song Sushi's "Chaozhou Hanwen Gongmiao Stele") This is Su Dongpo's lofty evaluation, which is rarely rhetorically exaggerated and roughly to the point. Specific analysis of what is "decay" and "decline" to what extent, and need a lot of examples. Corresponding to the "decline" is the irreplaceable great efforts of Han Yu and others, which is the perseverance and strength of superhuman.
Above the law
The Vinaya of the Tang Dynasty developed by leaps and bounds, of course, with the contributions of the poets of the previous generations, and the outstanding people represented by Du Fu, on the basis of inheriting their predecessors, made the Vinaya reach the realm of pure fire. The poetic art of Du Fu and others has been carried forward by later generations, but it is still a case. The example of any era is irreproducible, and the greatest genius is always difficult to reproduce. As individual cases, its independent and unpredictability and singular brilliance constitute an unspeakable phenomenon of life and culture, which is what we call the "mystery of genius". There is no "mystery" that is, there is no charm, and there is no need to interpret it. The strong influence represented by Tang poetry can be positive or negative at the level and consequences of reference. If the development and innovation of literature are formally restricted, it is a little sad. When a certain art form is so mature and condensed that it forms a strict norm, this restrictive force goes in the opposite direction. Everything is too late, the perfection and fixity of form, the support of content, when there is a limit: it must be subordinated to this expression step by step under the needs of content expression, to the excitation process of life, and cannot be reversed, can not be transgressed.
In fact, the rigor of the Vinaya gradually reached the extreme, and the evil consequences of hollowing out and superficialization were formed, and eventually it inevitably became a formalistic game and competition. During the Middle and Tang Dynasties, many "ancient styles" were written into legal poems, and normal speech was also written into Piao Wen, and the lively and fresh content was returned to the second place. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Li Du's dashing was in his bones, the texture of life was so, and their contribution to the literary form was first of all determined by the fullness and full spiritual content of the rambling. It was one aesthetic finish and one victory after another. Although Du Fu made a form more mature and adhered to it to a large extent, it was also a vigorous growth of the soul, not rigidity and decay. Rich content and perfect form are originally a kind of harmony, and the strength of form lies in the ability to maintain the freedom of content and the liberation of the mind. Once this function and process is in the hands of those who wait and fall, they are completely inverted. They will be mechanically persistent, imitating and following without much understanding, blindly pursuing and amplifying the form itself, and using it as an energy.
As art poetry, there is clearly something more important above the law. No matter how perfect the form of the fu and the text, the intrinsic principle of the text cannot be changed. Today, this seems to be a simple truth, but it is not easy to truly implement it in practice. It still needs to go through a long period of understanding and resolution, and even needs to pay a heavy price, requiring many people to make a struggle. In the Middle and Tang Dynasties, both the Piao wen and the Vinaya were facing a metamorphosis and innovation. If the law of work does not provide content, services and reinforcement, it needs to be changed. Once the observance of the law becomes empty and empty, it will be annoying. Therefore, a period of time from the form of breakthrough constraints, and can make a clear sound, is a big contributor, a real pioneer.
At this time, Han Yue became more and more alarming: "The books of the non-three generations and two Han Dynasties do not dare to be viewed, and the aspirations of non-saints do not dare to exist." (Reply to Li Yishu) "Servants are wenjiu, and every time they think they are good, they will think they are evil." The small title means that people are also small monsters; the big title means that people will be strange. Always do the usual writing, the next pen is shameful, and show people, then people think it is good. The little one who is ashamed is also called a little good; the one who is ashamed will think that it is great. I don't know how the ancient texts are used in this world, but those who know it know it. What puzzled him was that the more he was proud of his own text, the more derogatory it was when others read it; the more he felt ashamed of his own words, the more he was praised by others. This is an era of deer as horses and ugliness as beauty. This reminds us of the current era of garbage in the digital age, where people are first numb to words and then enter absurd judgments: the dirtier and uglier they are, the more pleasant they are; the more straightforward and noisy, the more admired they are. It seems that the aesthetic self and independence, that kind of robust and fresh acumen, are not easy. The obscuration, distortion and temptation of trends can be thorough.
Individuals in the trend must have a strong ambition, to have a fight, which requires a powerful and uneasy life. Han Yu was such a person. He is on top of the trend, neither going with the flow nor being a simple bystander. Because he was high above and had a wide field of vision, he was able to look at the front and back, and include the pre-Qin into the field of vision, and did not think that it was a distant place. In this vision and pattern comparison and identification, the coordinate system is much expanded, and the old can be seen from the "new" and the new can be seen from the "old". The abundance and strength of the life force will make people sober, more direct and real. Under this scrutiny, he became more rational and confident than many of his contemporaries, and therefore dared to open up new horizons and do the opposite. This remarkable synthesis of the times came from the openness and arrogance above the tide, and he participated in and led a movement for the emancipation of the mind. It's a kind of courage to go it alone. "The more he knows: When a gentleman is in his place, he thinks of his official; if he does not have a position, he thinks of rhetoric to understand his way. I will add people with the way of the clear, not as straight. Of course, he knows that the left and right of the trend is beyond imagination, and to be a defiant of the trend requires not only great courage and full of neutrality, but also preparation for sacrifice.
"In ancient and modern times, there are many people who talk about Han Healing, and there are many people who are praised, and there are many people who ridicule them." For example, the Southern Song Dynasty theorist Zhu Xi had a very contradictory attitude toward Han Yu, on the one hand, he very much agreed with Han Yu's "Tao" and admired Han Yu, and in the "Preface to mr. Meixi Wang's Collected Writings", Han Yu was listed as the "Five Gentlemen" alongside Zhuge Liang, Du Fu, Yan Zhenqing, and Fan Zhongyan, saying that "these five gentlemen, who suffered differently, were also different." However, his heart is called bright and upright, unblocked, and the one who is upright and unruly is also seen in the meritorious articles, down to the small words and paintings, and the cover can be expected to be a man." On the other hand, he also said that Han Yu said, "At the beginning, I only wanted to ask for an official position, but it was always just this heart." He just wanted to make his speech like the Six Classics, and he thought he was preaching. As for his daily kung fu, he is just playing poetry games and drinking for fun. Looking at his poems, you can see that they are all lined with the "Original Tao" and cannot be lifted" ("Zhuzi Language Class"). In the Song Dynasty, the Great Confucians represented by Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, and Zhu Xi, while being thin and slowing Han Yu, absorbed and accepted many ideas from him that could be used.
In the 1930s and 1940s, some koreans emerged. Chen Dengyuan's "Commentary on Han Yue" pointed out that Han Yu was a typical representative of "literati without deeds", and believed that Han Yu advocated "Taoist unification" and was "the showmanship of the literati, and the arrogance of Lang Lang without a home" was just a matter of arrogance. Zhou Yintang's "Treatise on Han Bai" says: "Han's mind is very narrow-minded, his views are very superficial, his thinking is very rough, and he blindly wants to hang up the sign of 'saint', he cannot understand the exquisite and mysterious Buddhism, but he attacks it vigorously, believing that it is heresy." "His political activities have shown even more his psychology of suffering from loss and gain, and his arrogance." Zhou Zuoren even wrote a number of articles to dispel The Korean, believing that the Korean language was "arrogant and rough, which is the opposite of quality and elegance" and that "since the Tang and Song Dynasties, under the influence of this unified literature, nothing good has happened" ("Wind and Rain Talk about Family Training"). He even attacked Han Yu's appearance: "His dignity is red and black, his lips are thick, and his eyes are as small as a pig, I used to suspect that he was good at eating pork, fat and happy to sleep, and then I read what books proved that he was indeed like this." He further accused his character: "Hot and restless, stubborn and timid, dry and humble, snobbish to teach his son, full of etiquette, because of the Buddha's bones who immediately wrote a letter to mourn, climbing a mountain afraid of not coming down, crying and writing a will, these actions are just matched with that appearance." I look for bad articles, and I look for representatives in his place. (Zhitang Collection of Foreign Languages, Yi Bao Essays, Bad Articles II)
It can be seen that the negators of Han Yu and his poetry are still very numerous not only in ancient times, but even in modern times. Some of these insights, while discussable, are mostly pertinent.
The relationship between poetry and literature
Han Yu is a poet, but as an article everyone seems to be more famous. Sometimes it is better to avoid his poetry than to talk about his text. If you open some contemporary anthologies and textbooks, you will find that there are many articles, while poetry is rare. Is this a misunderstanding, is it a kind of superiority over another? We need to face the text. In fact, poetry and literature cannot be completely separated, the former is the soul and core of the latter, the latter is the foundation of the former, and can be seen as a more open rear. The relationship between Han Yu poetry is by no means independent and separate, but supports each other so that they reach a kind of achievement and realm together. This must be fully recognized, otherwise it is not only impossible to accurately understand and evaluate his poetry, but also unable to go deep into the hinterland of the article.
In terms of the evolution and origin of form, traditional poetry is the refinement and rhyme of the text, which is another form of text. The complete opposition and detachment of poetry and literature is both absurd and impossible. But on the other hand, literature is not poetry after all, because there is poetry in the realm that the text cannot reach, which shows that it is not only a matter of form. Poetry is indeed a very unique thing, an expression that must be so indispensable, extremely characteristic and high, and certainly cannot be replaced by text. Therefore, from the birth of the first poetry collection in Chinese history, the Book of Poetry, thousands of years later, poetry as a literary style still survives, and it is far from ending. Some people may say that the title of "poetry" still exists, and its form itself, more expressive paradigm, has long undergone a great change. They will cite the obscurity and weirdness of Western modernism from the vernacular movement to today, from the original straightforwardness and freedom. This is an objective fact, but this statement seems to be true and still lacks fundamental basis. The essential meaning of poetry has not changed, it is still the core of literature, this is irreplaceable. No matter how many readers there are, poetry, as a radical expression, is still the high end of literary aesthetics, and this status and dignity are unshakable.
Rationality and narrative are the strengths of the article, but these advantages even poetry can not be completely separated, but always appear in a different guise. From ancient times to the present, people have publicly promoted "Korean", and their poems have to be relegated to the second place. Personally, he is also the most important cause of literature. Whenever an article is written, it must be rich and imposing, but once such a sharp text is included in poetry, it is also another realm. His poems are equally unpleasant and have new tones. "The mountain stone is indeed a small act, and the bat flies to the temple at dusk. Ascension hall sits on the steps of new rain feet, banana leaves large gardenia fat. "The mountains are red and the streams are full of blue, and when you see the pines, they are all ten around." When the stream barefoot steps on the stone, the sound of the water stirs the wind to blow the clothes. Life is so self-cola, it will be bound to people. Oh my party's second and third sons, and I will not return to my old age. ("Mountain Stone") "A letter to the Ninth Heaven, the Sunset Descending Chaozhou Road Eight Thousand." In order to eliminate the evils of the saints, Ken will decay and waste his life. Where is the Yunheng Qinling home? Snow and blue are not moving forward. Knowing that Ruyuan should be intentional, so as to collect my bones by the river. ("Left Moved to Languan to Show Nephew Sun Xiang") The height reached by his poems is precisely because of Wen's assistance; it can be said that without Han Meiwen, there would be no such good poems. His poems and texts can be called double-handed, and many times it is difficult to distinguish between high and low. The text does obscure the poem to a certain extent, but the light of the poem can still shine through the dense forest of articles, dazzling the eyes. His writing is free and open, and it also opens up a unique poetic realm.
"The poem of retreat is more than talented, so it can be captured and indulged, upside down, and there is nothing that can be done." It is like the Yangtze River, which is turbulent and rolling; when it is harvested, it hides its form and shadows, and when it is first seen, it is full of posture and strangeness; it is gratifying and shocking, and it is fearful and convincing. (Southern Song Dynasty Zhang Jing's "Poetry of the Year Han Tang") This is the most important comment, and it must not be remembered.
... Finish reading...
Issue 6, 2021