Text/Wu Chengxue (Professor, Department of Chinese, Sun Yat-sen University)
Liu Zongyuan thinks that "no one in Lingnan"?
Since the Ming Dynasty, Lingnan people have begun to have a relatively strong sense of township culture. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Qiu Mao wrote a preface to the "Wuxi Collection" written by the Lingnan sage Yu Jing: "To taste the strange willow is the atmosphere of the mountains and rivers of Lingnan, and it is only for things, not for people." He was angry about this, and felt that Liu Zongyuan thought that the beautiful spirit of the mountains and rivers in Lingnan was only gathered in the property, not in people, which was quite the meaning of no one in Lingnan. He then listed Two famous people from Lingnan, Zhang Jiuling of the Tang Dynasty and Yu Jing of the Song Dynasty, to refute them.
In fact, Liu Zongyuan did not mean this. He mentioned in "Sending poet Liao Youfang Preface" that Jiaozhou produced many treasures, strange products, and grass and trees were different from other places. Then he sighed and said, "I taste the strange Yang Virtue Bingyao, which originates uniquely in the midst of a variety of magnificences, and rarely resembles people." Jiaozhou is probably in the territory of present-day Hanoi, Vietnam, far from Lingnan, and Liu Zongyuan did not say that the divine qi of Jiaozhou is "not like people", but said "Han Zhong hu people", and the words are very measured. From the perspective of writing rhetoric, Liu Zongyuan's meaning of "Han Zhong Hu Ren" is only to praise the valuable talent of the Jiaozhou poet Liao Youfang.
In short, the object of Liu Zongyuan's comments has no entanglement with Lingnan, and he has absolutely no intention of belittling Lingnan talents. With Qiu Mao's erudition, he will not misunderstand Liu Zongyuan's words, and he will only use this topic to express his confidence in Lingnan culture. Behind this "self-confidence" is actually a kind of identity anxiety, that is, it is worried that Lingnan culture will be obscured and despised by other regional cultures. It is no wonder that, because in the Chinese cultural map, Before the Ming Dynasty, Lingnan was indeed relatively backward and remote, especially the obstacle of the Five Ridges, which caused a certain degree of alienation and even isolation from the cultural center. Fortunately, the celebrities exiled here, such as Han Yu, Su Shi and many others, have made these places widely known at home and abroad, such as "Chaozhou", "Huizhou" and "Hainan". After the Ming Dynasty, Lingnan culture has a relatively obvious development, we look at the current surviving documents, after the Ming Dynasty, it has greatly increased, famous families have emerged, and what Qiu Mao expressed was a gradually self-conscious Lingnan cultural consciousness at that time.
At the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Lingnan became a place of yearning, gathering and concern for many literati and volunteers at home and abroad because of its special geographical location. During the eighteen years, the Yongli regime struggled to move between Lingnan and Southwest China. As an important position against the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, the Lingnan region gathered a large number of relict poets. They have personally experienced the vicissitudes and great changes of the Yi Dynasty, their thoughts have been tempered in pathos and reflections, their emotions have suffered in bitterness and pain, and their poetry has penetrated the righteousness of heaven and earth. At that time, many Lingnan poets were participants or witnesses of the anti-Qing struggle, and many poets traveled abroad many times to establish deep ties with poets outside Lingnan, and they used the majesty of Lingnan to absorb the thickness of the Central Plains, the tenacity of Qin and Jin, the agility of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the fierceness of Xiang'e, and they took a wide range of wisdom and forged a heroic poetic style comparable to the Central Plains and Jiangnan.
An in-depth analysis of the reasons for the prosperity of the Lingnan poetry scene and the dynamic changes in the new pattern of the poetry world during the Ming and Qing dynasties undoubtedly have academic significance in the history of literature. Previously, there have been studies in this area in academia. In the 1980s, my mentor, Mr. Huang Haizhang, wrote "Guangdong Anti-Qing Poets in the Late Ming Dynasty", which introduced more than 20 Guangdong poets and their works, including Qu Dajun, Chen Gongyin, Chen Zizhuang, and Chen Bangyan. In recent years, the academic community has begun to attach importance to the study of Lingnan poetry in the Ming and Qing dynasties, but there is still a large space for exploration in depth and breadth.
Three clusters of Lingnan poets during the Ming and Qing dynasties
Recently, Professor Li Chanjuan sent a manuscript of "Lingnan Poetry Research in the Ming and Qing Dynasties", which is rich in content and difficult to elaborate, I will only take the study of a poetry club, a poet and a poetry collection in the book as an example, peek at the leopard in the tube, and talk about my experience.
This book focuses on three clusters of Lingnan poets during the Ming and Qing dynasties, namely the "Twelve Sons of South Garden", "West Garden Poetry Society" and "Five Sons of Beitian". The composition of the poet group, the time of activity, the life and travel, the poetry creation and the influence of status are examined. Among them, the study of the poetry group of the remnants of the "West Garden Poetry Society" is the most noteworthy. The "Xiyuan Poetry Society", which was active in Guangdong during the shun and Kang years in the early Qing Dynasty, was founded by Qu Dajun, a famous poet in Lingnan, and has existed for nearly 50 years. This was not only the longest-lasting poetry society in Lingnan in the early Qing Dynasty, but also the existence of the national poetry society at that time was also long. The West Garden Poetry Society is a typical representative of the Lingnan Relic Poetry Society in the early Qing Dynasty, and its significance far exceeds that of ordinary literary societies. There are more than 20 members of the West Garden Poetry Society, and it has even attracted the attention and participation of a number of poets from other provinces, such as Zhu Yizun, Xu Qianxue, Wei Li, and Zhang Yanyin. The society followed the Chen Zizhuang South Garden Poetry Society, which has a strong epochal and regional nature. In the past, the record of it was relatively simple and trivial, and there were many contradictions and errors, which affected the understanding of its true appearance and exact status.
Based on the relatively reliable historical records, combined with the lives and works of the members of the poetry society, this book investigates the origin of the establishment of the poetry society, the time of establishment and existence, the development of activities, etc., and at the same time analyzes and examines some previously inaccurate statements, restores the general appearance and the faces of the members of the poetry society, and provides historical support for further research. In the early Qing Dynasty, the Lingnan Relics Poetry Group was a creative group with regional personality and close ties with the Jiangxi Relics Poetry Group and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Poetry Groups. The author strives to reveal the convergence of mentality in the poetry group: the exceptionally fierce national sentiment and the tenacious and indomitable spirit of national salvation, the strong sense of locality and the love of the culture of the township, the unity of the mentality of avoiding the world and avoiding disasters, and the firm belief in inheriting the world's Taoist unity and cultural salvation.
In terms of poet research, this book is the most innovative for Chen Zisheng's research. Chen Zisheng was one of the "Twelve Sons of Nanyuan" in the late Ming Dynasty, and was called the "Three Sons of Eastern Guangdong" together with Wang Minglei and Wu Ruilong; and together with Chen Gongyin, Liang Peilan, Cheng Keze, Wang Bangqi, Wang Minglei and Wu Ruilong, he was also known as the "Seven Sons of Eastern Guangdong". Chen Zisheng's life course is tortuous, his travels are extensive, his poetry creations are considerable, the theme is rich, the poetry style is unique, and he is a more influential relict poet in Lingnan during the Ming and Qing dynasties. His "Collected Remains of Zhongzhou Caotang" truly reflects the political changes in Lingnan during the Yi Dynasty, the situation of the poetry world, and the complex mentality of the Han remnant literati at the time of the Ding Revolution, and has rich textual significance. In addition, he takes poetry as the sending of life, benefits many teachers, and the poetic style is changeable, and is good at forming his own unique poetic characteristics on the basis of absorbing the essence of the poetry of his predecessors; in the pursuit of poetics, he advocates the restoration of the way of elegance, and also advocates innovation on the basis of learning from the ancients, both opposing the blind mud and the arbitrary innovation without origin.
The relics complex and unique poetic style of Chen Zisheng's poetry are of unique value and significance for studying the development and evolution of Lingnan poetry in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Previously, the academic research on Chen Zisheng was relatively weak, and this book studied Chen Zisheng in a more in-depth and comprehensive manner.
Lingnan scholars' sense of rural state and the poetic view of Lingnan in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties
This book also has a good discussion of the lingnan scholars' sense of rural state and the construction of the lingnan regional poetic view in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. In all regional cultures, the sense of township state is universal. Of course, the Lingnan people's sense of rural state did not begin in the Ming Dynasty, but since the Ming Dynasty, it has been stronger and more conscious, which is also closely related to Lingnan's creation and self-identity. Qu Dajun's "Guangdong New Language and Poetry" traces back to the source, outlines the ancestral genealogy and development clues of Cantonese poetry, and consciously constructs the history of Cantonese poetry. The formation of the Lingnan poet cluster and the maturity of the Lingnan poetic style herald the advent of the era of poetry with regionality as the main feature.
Through the Lingnan poetry circles in the Ming and Qing dynasties, we can clearly see the influence and expression of the township consciousness in the construction of regional poetic views. Wang Falcon's "Selected Poems of the Three Great Poets of Lingnan" is a collection of poems that embodies a strong sense of Lingnan townships. Previously, the academic community paid much attention to this book, but few people talked about its compilation process and theoretical significance. Li Chanjuan has a relatively in-depth exploration of the beginning and end of the "Selected Poems of the Three Great Poets of Lingnan", the background of poetics and the purpose of compilation, and she believes that the compilation of this book has established the status of the three great poets in Lingnan, effectively reversed the long-term silence of the Lingnan poetry circle, and improved the overall influence of the Lingnan poetry circle.
Since the Qing Dynasty, the poetry circles have evaluated the characteristics of the Lingnan poetry school as majestic and ancient, such as Hong Liangji's high evaluation of Lingnan poetry "Shang de Gu Xian Xiong Straight, Lingnan is still victorious over Jiangnan"; Lu Ying's "Ask Hualou Poetry" is said to be "the poet of the national dynasty, the style is pushed up lingnan, and the algae is new and li pushes the left side of the river". It can be seen that "xiongzhi" and "shangshang" are the general identification of the poetry circle for the Lingnan poetic style, which is consistent with the self-identification of the Lingnan poetry circle.
Li Chanjuan believes that Wang Falcon's compilation of the "Selected Poems of the Three Great Poets of Lingnan" highlights his majestic and elegant poetic style, which fully reflects Wang Falcon's intention to establish the paradigm of Yazheng poetry and promote the compilation of Lingnan poetics, and also reflects the poetic ideal of Lingnan relics and literati who have adopted poems to inherit the Taoist system and save the country with literature. This selection of poems has not only greatly promoted the development of the Lingnan Poetry School, but also aroused the attention of outsiders to the Lingnan poetry circle, and promoted the mutual exchange and integration of the Lingnan poetry circle and the national poetry circle. In short, this selected poem embodies the enlightenment of the Zongtang view, the regional concept and the consciousness of the township and state in the early Qing Dynasty, as well as the poetic standard of the unity of the era and the selector's position, and has a non-negligible influence on the poetry anthologies of the early Qing Dynasty and even the entire Qing Dynasty. The narrative and interpretation of the "Selected Poems of the Three Great Poets of Lingnan" in this book have both a large poetic history and a poetic history.
The unique brilliance of Lingnan poetry during the Ming and Qing dynasties
Overall, "Lingnan Poetry at the Time of the Ming and Qing Dynasties" conducts an overall investigation of the Lingnan poetry circle under the historical time, space and social culture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and strives to truly and deeply present the spiritual history of Lingnan poets in this period, show the process of the rise and prosperity of lingnan poetry, explore the interconnection and influence of Lingnan poetry and the Central Plains, Jiangsu and Zhejiang poetry, and reveal the changes in the fashion of Lingnan poetry in the Ming and Qing dynasties and their significance in the evolution of poetry history. It can be said that this book has greatly promoted and expanded the research in this field on the basis of the research of predecessors.
In 2004, Li Chanjuan was admitted from the department of Chinese of Huazhong University of Science and Technology to Sun Yat-sen University to study for a doctorate with me, and her dissertation was "The Genealogy of the Three Families of Ancient Literature in the Early Qing Dynasty", which was revised for many years and published in 2012. "Lingnan Poetry Research in the Ming and Qing Dynasties" is her research results over the years. In the past two decades, her research has focused more on the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, which can be described as persistent. I understand her unique love for this field.
When I was young, I once read a passage by Huang Zongxi: "Husband article, the yuan qi of heaven and earth is also." Yuan Qizhi in peacetime, Kunlun is thin, harmony and smooth, from the Gallery Temple, and Huan Huan is in the seclusion, nothing strange. When the fate of the catcher is in danger, the heavens and the earth are blocked, the vitality is drummed out, the courage is depressed, the anger is intense, and then the Wensheng is born. "After reading it, if you are electrified, you can't help but beat the knot, singing three sighs. At a time when the world is falling apart and the vicissitudes are changing, under the tremendous pressure of survival, the righteousness and discipline of the scholars often burst out. Examining ancient and modern poetry, it is better to be true. The Lingnan poetry circle at the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, like a dazzling light shooting out of the dense cloud gap, has its important and unique brilliance in the history of Lingnan poetry and the history of Chinese poetry.
I read "Research on lingnan poetry at the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties", and slowly experienced that two or three hundred years ago, in the homeland of Southern Guangdong, the sages used poetry to express the sorrow of separation and the sending of life in the shadow of the sword and light, and once again remembered Huang Zongxi's words of "when bad luck is in danger" and "to Wen Shengyan", and I can't help but feel an inexplicable feeling.
The original article was published in the A6 "Bay Area Literary and Art Review" edition of Yangcheng Evening News on December 12, 2021
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Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng Pie
Editor-in-charge | Wu Xiaopan