Tang Bohu was one of the most legendary talents of the Ming Dynasty, and his deeds such as becoming famous as a teenager, being unruly, debauched, poetry, calligraphy and painting, being involved in the imperial examination fraud case, and pretending to be crazy in the Ning Dynasty have become well-known in the folk. Later generations even fabricated many anecdotes for Tang Bohu, such as three smiles and mercy, Tang Bohu's point of autumn incense, etc., which have been adapted into dramas or film and television works.
Although the real Tang Bohu in history looks like a wandering skeleton, he is also high and upright, and he is very proud of the literati. In that year, Tang Bohu participated in the township examination, won the first name Xie Yuan in one fell swoop, and was already honored as an official. He was angry to participate in the examination, but he did not expect to be involved in the Xu Jingke fraud case and was implicated in prison. In the end, the case could not be found to be substantiated, but Tang Bohu was innocently stripped of his military status and deposed as a minor official of the Zhejiang Domain, and from then on he could only be a minor official, no longer able to participate in the imperial examination, and could not enter the DPRK as an official.
This incident was the biggest blow Tang Bohu experienced in his life, making him change from a spirited and amazing Xie Yuan to a low-level official, with no future. Tang Bohu was deeply ashamed of this, and resolutely refused to take up his post and returned to his hometown. Since then, he has sold paintings for a living, and the world has been called a wandering skeleton.
After Tang Bohu was deposed and returned to his hometown, he wrote a small poem to express his attitude towards the world. And come and enjoy this "Speech":
Ming Tang Yin
No alchemy, no zazen,
Do not cultivate the land for the merchants.
Idle to write on the green mountain to sell,
Do not make evil money in the world!
The title of the poem, "Yan zhi", already has a somewhat resolute meaning. The first two sentences, "Don't alchemy Jindan, don't sit in meditation, don't cultivate the land for the merchants", use four "nos" in a row, writing that the poet is frustrated and resolutely improper after the small official does not do something: do not learn the Taoist alchemy to seek immortality, do not learn the monks to practice Buddha zazen, do not take advantage of the merchants, do not do the farmers to cultivate the land.
Among these four "no's," "no alchemy, no sitting meditation, no scrooge, no scruples," is not a strange and chaotic god, and does not do nothing but do nothing; while "not for shangjia and no cultivation of the field" is not a human industry, "not for the merchant" is disdainful, the literati are arrogant and disdainful of doing the tricks of the merchant jia and other tricks to seize the pit and abduct the deception, "not to cultivate the field" is not to do it, and the student is weak and has no power to bind the chicken.
The four "no" words were written in one go, painful and crisp, showing Tang Bohu's pure arrogance. However, he could not become an official, and he was determined not to be a petty official, and now he did not go out of his home, did not buy or sell, and did not cultivate land and cultivate the land.
The third sentence is his method of survival: "Write idle and sell it in the mountains"! Not to seek glory, not to be ashamed of poverty, to sell paintings for a living, to be proud of their own strength! Ordinary literati often sell paintings and sell literature to get the cost of polishing pens as a shame, but as everyone knows, for the true creators of spiritual wealth, writing with a creative pen will paint a green mountain with a wonderful text, and the money sold will earn comfort and earn peace of mind!
Finally, the poet turned another stroke and stated his attitude toward the world: "Do not make evil money in the world"! What is making evil money? All corruption and bribery, cunning and plunder, robbery, speculation, abduction... And so on is all money! Not making evil money and not spending evil money is the wind and bone of Tang Bohu's inner purity and loneliness!
Perhaps in Tang Bohu's heart, the money he earned from entering the DPRK as an official was all evil money! Under deep thought, this sentence of "do not make evil money in the world" is not only Tang Bohu's attitude toward the world, but also his cynical cry!
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