"Yueyang Louji" is a household name in China, and the famous sentence in it is "Do not like things and do not grieve with yourself... The world is worried and worried, and the world is happy and happy. "It is even more inspiring, and it is the motto of all benevolent people." It can be said that "Yueyang Louji" represents the peak of Song Dynasty prose. However, many people do not know that the author of the article, Fan Zhongyun, is actually based on a painting written "Yueyang Louji". Before writing the article, he had not even been to Dongting Lake, where Yueyang Tower was located. So, what did he rely on to write this famous article for eternity? The answer is for us to find slowly.
Opening the original text of "Yueyang Louji", we can see that the second, third and fourth paragraphs of the article describe the scenery, of which the second paragraph writes about the beautiful scenery of the cave garden, the third paragraph writes about the rainy day scenery, and the fourth paragraph writes about the sunny scenery. The fifth paragraph of the core of the article is directly lyrical and writes out the author's mind. It seems that this fifth paragraph, which has nothing to do with the previous paragraphs, feels a little abrupt. But if you understand Fan Zhongyun's mood at this time, you can understand why he made such arrangements.
Before looking for answers, we must also understand the story of Teng Zijing, the builder of Yueyang Tower.
Teng Zijing is a native of Luoyang, Henan, and Fan Zhongyan is a jinshi of the same department, so the relationship is very good. After becoming officials, the distance between the two was not far, Teng Zijing was an official in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, and Fan Zhongyan was an official in Xixi (present-day Dongtai, Jiangsu). Later, Taizhou Zhizhou controlled the flood, and Fan Zhongyan recommended Teng Zijing to be responsible for specific work. Teng Zijing worked diligently and achieved remarkable results in water control, so he was appreciated. After a while, he was transferred to the capital as an official.
Teng Zijing's path to Beijing officials is not easy to follow. He was too upright, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he offended his superiors. When Empress Liu came to the court, she seemed to have the feeling of Wu Zetian in that year. Teng Zijing, Fan Zhongyan and others wrote a letter together to ask the empress dowager to "return to the government", which of course lit a powder keg. The end result was that several people were exiled together and returned after a long time. After Empress Liu's death, Emperor Renzong occasionally slacked off the government, and Teng Zijing wrote a letter of advice, which would have been a good thing, but he criticized the emperor for being "good inside" without any basis, and as a result, he offended the emperor and was released for a long time.
No matter how bumpy Teng Zijing's road to becoming an official was, his relationship with Fan Zhongyan has always been very good. The two advance and retreat together, and become confidants in life. In the first year of Kangding (1040 AD), Fan Zhongyan began to preside over the military affairs of the northwest, and Teng Zijing was immediately appointed as the Governor of Jingzhou. In the leap month of the second year of the Qing calendar (1042 AD), Li Yuanhao, the lord of the Western Xia State, invaded Jingyuan Road, and the Song Dynasty general Ge Huaimin met the enemy, resulting in the defeat of Dingchuan Village. Li Yuanhao marched east and hit Weizhou, which was 120 miles away from Jingzhou, which was guarded by Teng Zijing. Teng Zijing actively defended, recruited warriors, gathered intelligence, hoarded supplies, mobilized the people to defend the city, and finally insisted until Fan Zhongyan led the Huanqing Road soldiers and horses to break the siege. In the end, Li Yuanhao withdrew, Weizhou Jingzhou was safe and sound, and Teng Zijing also made great achievements.
But the dangers of war soon broke out. In the third year of the Qing calendar (1043 AD), Fan Zhongyan presided over the "New Deal of the Qing Calendar", which offended many ministers. These people then decided to start with Teng Zijing and get rid of Fan Zhongyun. Their excuse was that during the Jingzhou War, Teng Zijing's treasury money and grain accounts were unclear! In fact, in the war era, everything is subordinate to power, in order to do a good job of defense, Teng Zijing did spend a lot of money without a name, which is understandable. But if you really look into it, the ruling class of the Song Dynasty can't ignore this kind of thing. Therefore, under the auspices of the conservative ministers, an investigation team was "delegated" to Jingzhou.
Teng Zijing knew that once the investigation of this matter began, many people would be implicated, and there would be problems in the northwest defense line. Forced to be helpless, Teng Zijing burned the account books of the government treasury in front of the investigation team. At this moment, he was equivalent to carrying all the charges alone. In the end, Teng Zijing was demoted to Taishou of Baling Commandery (岳州) (岳州; present-day Yueyang, Hunan).
After arriving in Baling, Teng Zijing worked diligently for the people, expanded the school, built water conservancy, and developed commerce, which won the praise of the people. Later, Teng Zijing raised a sum of money by way of fundraising and rebuilt the famous Yueyang Building. After the completion, he wrote to his friend Fan Zhongyan, asking him to make a note, and presented a "Picture of the Autumn Evening of dongting" for reference. Fan Zhongyan felt nostalgic for the merits of his friend, so he wrote the famous text "Yueyang LouJi".
The above is the cause and effect of the birth of "Yueyang Louji". Turning to the article, we can't help but marvel at how Fan Zhongyun can describe the scene so vividly with just one painting. Even if he is a generation of Wenzong, his imagination is a little too rich. In fact, the second, third and fourth paragraphs of the article seem to write the scene, but in fact, it is written about Fan Zhongyun's mood at this time.
Let's start with the second paragraph:
Yu Guan Fu Baling victory, in Dongting a lake. Distant mountains, swallowing the Yangtze River, Haohao soup, horizontal endless; sunrise and sunset, the weather is endless. This is the grand view of Yueyang Lou, and the previous people's descriptions are prepared. However, the north through the Wuxia Gorge, the Antarctic Xiaoxiang, the relocation of the rioters, more will be here, the love of the scenery, is no different?
This paragraph is to use the scenery to lead to a thought: Dongting Lake is there, Yueyang Tower is there, but the people who come and go to and from the scenery have different situations, some people are wanderers who leave home, some people are students who are successful, they see the beautiful scenery, the mood will inevitably be different! Fan Zhongyan's paragraph is obviously paving the way for the future.
Let's start with the third and fourth paragraphs:
If the husband is rainy and rainy, the moon does not open, the wind is angry, the turbid waves are empty; the sun and the stars are hidden, the mountains are submerged; the merchants are not good, the trees are destroyed; the twilight is silent, and the tiger roars and the ape cries. Dens Lou also went to the country and nostalgic, worried and ridiculed, full of depression, feeling extremely sad.
To Ruochun and Jingming, the waves are not alarming, the sky is bright, a blue and a million acres; sand gulls soar, brocade swimming; shore Zhi Tinglan, lush green. And or long smoke empty, Haoyue thousands of miles, floating light leaping gold, silent shadow, fishing songs answer each other, this music is very much! Dens Lou also has a relaxed heart, spoils and forgets, puts the wine in the wind, and its joy is the one who is happy.
Just said that people's "love of seeing things", at this time jump to because of the different weather will have different moods, is not a little split? Not really. This paragraph actually uses the writing scene to express the author's own mood in the official field. At this time, Fan Zhongyun had been squeezed out of the center of the imperial court, and his situation was the same as that of Teng Zijing. Between triumph and frustration, no one understands the helplessness of the world better than these two people. The emperor who once supported himself may turn his face in the blink of an eye, and he has no way to do anything about it. The "heart-warming" of the high-ranking temple and the "full of eyes" that dethrone the rivers and lakes have all experienced and understood the taste.
After that is the "title" of this article:
Woohoo! To taste the heart of the Guren people, or the act of the other, what is it? Do not rejoice in things, do not grieve with oneself; those who dwell in the temple are worried about their people; and those who are far away from the rivers and lakes are worried about their kings. It is both forward and worrying, and retreating is also worrying. But when is leyy? It must be known as "the worries of the world before the world, and the happiness of the world after the world". belch! Weiss people, who am I to return to?
Although there is nothing to do about the world, but after all, people must have an attitude to life, is it to go with the flow or to improve themselves? Fan Zhongyan's choice is the latter. Traditional Confucian intellectuals, the highest state of life is "to reach the world and help the world, the poor are good at their own." Fan Zhongyan's realm is obviously a higher level: although the imperial court is not fair to himself, he cannot but do his best for the imperial court. That is, the so-called "advance and worry, retreat and worry". Only when the world is truly peaceful, will their true happiness come! After the preparation of the first few paragraphs, the author finally sublimated the realm of the article at the end!
The whole "Yueyang Lou Record" is actually Fan Zhongyan's spiritual explanation to himself and his friends. We have worked hard for the sake of the country, but the world is unpredictable, too many things are out of control. But as a pure reader, you have your own responsibilities, you can't be disturbed by the outside world, and you must keep your original intention! Only by doing this can one be regarded as a true "benevolent person". Therefore, what Fan Zhongyan describes is actually the human landscape in his own heart, rather than the objectively existing natural landscape. Whether he had been to Dongting Lake or not, it didn't matter to him. Borrowing natural scenery to write the heart scene is the highest realm of travel records, and it is also the fundamental reason why "Yueyang Louji" has been famous for thousands of years.