December 16, 2021 (November 13, 2021) is the 1000th anniversary of Wang Anshi's birth. As a politician, writer, thinker and reformer during the Northern Song Dynasty, he left a very complex figure for future generations. Perhaps everyone is not familiar with his variations, do not understand his thoughts, but for his poems, but all those who have attended middle school and primary school have memorized one or two poems, "Remote knowledge is not snow, for there is a dark incense"; "Spring breeze and the south bank of the Green River, when will the moon shine on me"...
Wang Anshi had a great relationship with Nanjing, and he lived here for 20 years, leaving many stories within reach of his travels.
Xu Tao, associate professor of the College of Letters of Nanjing University, has studied Wang Anshi for many years, and has recently published the book "Draft History of Wang Anshi's Poetry Research (Two Song Dynasties)", which provides a detailed and systematic review of the overall situation of Wang Anshi's poetry in the two Song Dynasties, which was widely circulated. On the occasion of the millennium of Wang Anshi's birth, the "Micro History" weekly magazine invited Xu Tao to tell us about Wang Anshi in the history of poetry. This article is the first part, which tells the influence of Wang Anshi's poetry and why different eras have different evaluations of him.
Song Shu painted a stone statue of Wang An
One
Reporter: First of all, I would like to ask a more tacky question, later generations have the order of "eight masters" of Tang and Song essayists; if we talk about poetry, what rank can Wang Anshi rank in the Song Dynasty?
Xu Tao: It is generally believed that Su Shi and Huang Tingjian are representatives of the highest achievements of Song poetry, but in fact, the Song people's "ranking" of Wang Anshi and Su and Huang can be divided into three situations: one is to respect Su and Huang is above Wang; the other is to respect Wang above Su and Huang; and the third is to call Wang, Su and Huang together. There are three theories, here I would like to mention the Northern Song Dynasty poet Chen Shidao, who is also a poet with high poetic achievements, that is to say, he really understands poetry.
Chen Shidao was one of the "Six Gentlemen of Sumen" in Dongpo, and his poetry was also studied by Huang Gu, but he did not think much of Wang Anshi's new study, so he never participated in the imperial examination, he was pro-Su, Huang and Far away From Jinggong; but he said in his poetry, "Wang Jiefu works with work, Su Zizhan is new, and Huang Lu is straight with qi", which shows that in his mind, Wang, Su, and Huang poems are equal in equal measure, regardless of Xuanxuan. I think it is very fair for Chen Shidao to make such an evaluation, and Wang, Su, and Huang were all first-class great poets of the Song Dynasty. If you take the two Song Dynasties, you can add the poet Lu You of the Southern Song Dynasty to form the "Four Great Poets of the Song Dynasty", and these four poets are all first-class. If I had to rank these four poets, my personal preferences are: Su, Wang, Huang, and Lu. Wang Anshi is ranked second because Jing Gong is a person who has truly achieved the cause of joining the world with the mentality of birth, so his poetry pattern is broad and the realm is lofty, which is in line with Dongpo. Of course, this is only my personal reading experience, purely my own private opinion.
Reporter: When we think of Song poetry, we will think of the "Jiangxi school", "Jianghu school" and so on, did Wang Anshi create his own genre? What influence did he have on later generations of poets?
Xu Tao: The Song people advocated a literary atmosphere of free development, taking Su Shi as an example, he was a teacher of the "Sumen literati", but his literary exchanges with Huang Tingjian, Qin Guan and others were always equal, and there was no concept of "kaizong and founding". The "Jiangxi Poetry School" was not intentionally created by Huang Tingjian, but Lü Benzhong's "Jiangxi Poetry Society Sect Diagram" lists more than 20 poets, believing that it is in the same line as Huang Tingjian, so there is a "Jiangxi Poetry School". Wang Anshi did not create any "genre", but he, like Dongpo and Gugu (Huang Tingjian), created his own poetic style, and Wang Anshi's style was "Jinggong style". Yan Yu of the Southern Song Dynasty listed the seven most distinctive Song Dynasty poets in the Canglang Poetry, including Wang Anshi's "Jinggong Body", which was juxtaposted with Su Shi's "Dongpo Body" and Huang Tingjian's "Valley Body". That is to say, Wang Anshi's poems are self-contained in Song poetry.
Wang Anshi's influence on later generations of poets, this is a problem that needs to be sorted out in detail, from the macroscopic perspective of the development of Chinese poetry history, Tang poetry and Song poetry are the two peaks of Chinese poetry history, Wang Anshi is one of the founders of Song poetry, talking about the characteristics of Song poetry, can not bypass Wang Anshi; talking about the influence of Song poetry, can not bypass Wang Anshi. The humble work "Manuscript of the History of Wang Anshi's Poetry Research (Two Song Dynasties)" is actually to explore the influence of Jinggong poetry in the Two Song Dynasties, and the evaluation and acceptance of it by the Song people. Therefore, I am afraid that this issue cannot be clarified in three words and two words. However, I think that when we evaluate Wang Anshi's poetry today, in addition to paying attention to its poetic historical influence, we should also pay attention to the "spiritual weather" other than its literary art. Jing Gong was a man of great order, and he did not regard himself as a pure writer, but regarded himself as the successor of the "Tao" of the sages, as well as the practitioner of the "Tao" (i.e., the politician), and then the literary scholar; and he reached a first-class realm in morality, career, and literature, which is extremely rare among Chinese literati. This "weather" in Wang Anshi's literature still needs to be excavated more deeply by the present generation.
Two
Reporter: The evaluation of Wang Anshi's character has been different throughout the ages.
Xu Tao: Wang Anshi is a politician and reformer, so the historical evaluation of Wang Anshi and his people is extremely complicated and involves many factors such as party struggle, politics, and academia. In his early years, Wang Anshi wrote about virtue and academic articles in the government and the public; later he was criticized by opponents for presiding over the change of law, including the depreciation of other people's character; in the late Northern Song Dynasty, when the new party came to power, he was elevated to the status of a sage; and with the establishment of the Southern Song dynasty regime by Emperor Gaozong of Song, in order to exonerate himself, the Southern Song court pushed the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty on Wang Anshi's change of law, accusing Wang Anshi of "bringing calamity to the country and the people", and attacking him as a "traitorous and evil villain". Coupled with the rise of science in the Southern Song Dynasty and the dispute with the new school of academic orthodoxy, theorists criticized Wang Anshi's scholarship as "heresy", which further intensified the denial of other personalities.
During the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, most historians and thinkers mainly derogated Wang Anshi, so later Liang Qichao wrote a book "Wang Jinggong" specifically to defend Wang Anshi. However, Liang himself was also a political reformer, and he overturned the case for Wang Anshi and his change of law, and also had the meaning of Zhang Ben for his own political opinions; but he said that "political views are self-political views, personality is self-personality", which is not vulgar and higher than the ancients. The ancients' criticism of Wang Anshi's character mixed with too many political, academic and other non-personal factors, resulting in a change in his evaluation and making Wang Anshi "demonized".
Reporter: It is said that Su Dongpo evaluates him as a "wild fox spirit", why is this?
Xu Tao: Su Dongpo's comment on "Wild Fox Essence" is found in the "Western Qing Poetry" written by the Song Dynasty Cai Yun: "Yuan Youjian, Dongpo Fengci Xi Taiyi, see Gong (Wang Anshi) old title... Gaze at The Long Day: 'This old wild fox spirit also. Wang Anshi's original poem is:
One
The willow leaves are green and dark, and the lotus flowers are red at sunset.
Thirty-six Pi Chunshui, Bai Tou wanted to see Jiangnan.
Second
Thirty years ago, here, my father and brother took my things.
Today, I come back to Baishou, and I am fascinated to find the traces of the past.
Some scholars have tied these two six-sentence poems to the first year of Xi Ning (1068), when Wang Anshi was summoned to the capital by the newly reigned Emperor Shenzong of Song, and the following year began a drastic change of law. Su Shi's "Fengci Xi Taiyi" was in the first year of the Yuan Dynasty, when the background was that Wang Anshi had died of illness, the new law was completely rejected, Su Shi was recruited back to the imperial court, and the political future was very good, just like Wang Anshi at that time. History seems to inadvertently overlap the figures of two great poets. I think at this moment, Su Shi was deeply moved by the spiritual temperament in Wang Anshi's poems. "Wild Fox Spirit" is good at change, but here it is not a pejorative meaning, but refers to the complexity of the spiritual world of Wang Anshi, a scholar, a scholar who combines politicians, scholars, and literati. Wang Anshi in the political arena may leave people with the image of a stubborn, rigid, and impersonal politician, but who can really understand the affectionate and transcendent poet Wang Anshi?
"Thirty-six Pi Chunshui, white heads want to see Jiangnan", what impressed Dongpo with poetry was the kind of personality that transcended the name of merit, regarded wealth as a floating cloud, and the attitude of life that was calm and calm, spoiled and unfazed. This made Dongpo feel a great sense of confidant, so he went on to make two first rhymes:
In autumn, the river is pure and beautiful, and the rain and wind are clear.
From then on, outside the cultivation sword, who sent me Tonan.
But if there is a bottle in the middle, why should the tomb go west.
Smell the mouth of Wuyi Lane, and now tobacco fans.
The flavor is very similar to Jinggong.
Intern Zhang Bojin
Yangzi Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Zang Lei
Proofread su yun
Source: Purple Cow News