Text / Yang Daxia
In 1056, Ouyang Xiu was 50 years old.
A year earlier, he had gone on a mission to the Khitan as a Hanlin scholar. Traveling to Xiongzhou (present-day Waqiaoguan, Hebei), he wrote down "Go to the West Building for two thousand miles, and pedestrians will come here to Mosi's house."
In the Tang and Song dynasties, Xiongzhou was the dividing line between the Central Plains and the surrounding ethnic minorities, and as soon as Ouyang Xiu left Xiongzhou, he entered Khitan territory. These two poems are a long-distance lament for thousands of miles, and they are also a memory of the friends of Beijing.
He is a person who loves to be lively, especially the old guys in Banjing. He praised Fan Zhongyan for serving the country and the people "regardless of his own safety"; he praised Cai Xiang's words "especially energetic and cherished by the world"; for Yan Shu, whose character is not good, he did not hesitate to say bluntly that "Yan Shu Xiao ling is the best"... In his eyes, Fenjing's friends are the first in the invincible universe in the world. Now that he was going to break off from them and go their separate ways, how could he not be sad?
Fortunately, it only takes a year to go north.
A year later, at the age of 50, Ouyang Xiu embarked on the road back to the south. On the way, he wrote down "Laughter and words come to the prince, and the horse's head goes south today." It was February 1056, and in Ouyang Xiu's eyes, the spring breeze that came over his face seemed to carry a smile.
Back in Beijing, Ouyang Xiu heard that Mei Yaochen and Su Xun had come to the capital, so he immediately invited them to come to his home as guests; at the same time, Wang Anshi, who was not seriously used at that time, was embarrassed in Beijing, Han Wei, a dali commentator (similar to a judge), and Liu Shu, who was teaching at guozijian, were also invited.
The courtyard, which had been cold for a year, became lively again.
After drinking and eating, Ouyang Xiu took out a white rabbit and immediately composed a song "White Rabbit":
Heaven and earth, clouds,
White Rabbit Mash Medicine Concubine Palace...
The host invited the guests to get drunk under the cage,
Kyo lo wind is not sticky.
The poetry of the group is extremely arrogant,
Ertu intends to fruit who knows...
The guests and friends present understood the spirit and wrote poems and white rabbits one after another.
Wang Anshi wrote "The White Rabbit of the Xindu Gongjia".
Mei Yaochen wrote "Uncle Yong White Rabbit".
Su Xun wrote "Ouyang YongShu White Rabbit".
Han Wei wrote "Fu Yong Uncle's White Rabbit".
Liu Shu wrote the "Ancient Poems Yong Ouyang Yong Uncle White Rabbit".
Ouyang Xiu wrote in "White Rabbit": "ChuQuan is clear and sweet, and the grass is soft and green and shakes the breeze." Wang Anshi's poem reads: "Last year, I was shocked to fall into the clouds of chu mountains, and there were no groups of people entering and leaving the ruins. Mei Yaochen also wrote: "If you do not fall into the mouth of the hound, Chuzhou Yesuo will be returned." It can be speculated that this white rabbit is a hare from the deep mountains of Chuzhou, Anhui, hunted by a hunter, and finally obtained by Ouyang Xiu. As for whether it was bought or sent by a hunter, there is no literature to verify.
Although there is no way to verify it, it can also be considered one or two.
About ten years ago, his mentor Fan Zhong drowned in the whirlpool of the New Deal reform movement in the Qing calendar, and was impeached and degraded by his colleagues. Ouyang Xiu's heart was uneven, and he was also degraded; the place where he was sent down was Chuzhou, Anhui.
In Chuzhou, Ouyang Xiu was depressed in his heart, and he went around all day to relieve his boredom and wrote a long-lasting strange article. This essay is called "The Tale of the Drunken Pavilion".
The opening chapter of "Drunken Pavilion" is: "Huan Chu, all mountains also..." In this place surrounded by mountains, Ouyang Xiu lived for two years. His temperament is like that of the student Su Dongpo, open-minded, enthusiastic and cheerful, it is conceivable that he must have visited the big ravines and ravines in these mountains and got acquainted with the hunters and hermits in the mountains; he was also like his friend Fan Zhongyun, worried about the world, benefiting Li Min, it is not difficult to imagine that the people of Chuzhou will also treat him like a hometowner. Ten years later, even if he was not in Chuzhou, it was reasonable that his friends in the mountains would send him some special wild game from time to time.
So, at the banquet where the old friends reunited, this white rabbit appeared. It should have died in the mountains, or was captured by falcons and captured by jackals, but it became the most famous rabbit in history besides the Chang'e Jade Rabbit (if Chang'e Running Moon is also history).
This gathering reflected the leisure style of the ancient scholars and intellectuals, and also perfected Ouyang Xiu's person from the side.
He loves to be lively and invites guests to dinner, but not everyone can come to his table. He was brought into the official arena by Yan Shu's appreciation, and on some levels, Yan Shu was his mentor. But Ouyang Xiu was not accustomed to this teacher's enthusiasm for fame and fortune, spending days and drinking, Yan Shu invited him to dinner, he looked at the rich feast, thinking about the shubian soldiers who resisted the bitter cold, and sarcastically said: "You must pity the iron armor cold to the bone, more than 400,000 Tun border soldiers." "Since then, they have not interacted in life.
Ouyang Xiu's protégé was a cold soldier like Mei Yaochen:
"On the banks of the Junyi River, I was already happy at first sight."
It is a sage like Wang Anshi:
"Old self-pity is still there, but who will compete with the Son later?"
It is a chivalrous warrior like Su Xun:
"His arguments are good at physics and good at changing power, and articles are not intended to be useful for empty words."
It is a well-educated person like Zeng Gong:
"To the beginning of the horror of the text, but also to strengthen the ambition."
In addition, Han Wei, Liu Shu, Su Shi, Su Rui and others, including Mei Yaochen, Wang Anshi, Su Xun, and Zeng Gong, were all plucked by Ouyang Xiu in order to become the leading figures in the literary and political circles of the Northern Song Dynasty. Most of them succeeded; but fate did not take care of everyone, except for Mei Yaochen, whose career was as bleak as Lu You's, and eventually he died of depression and hardship. But this did not prevent Ouyang Xiu from liking him, in Ouyang Xiu's collection of letters, the most written was for Mei Yaochen, so much so that many readers who liked Mei Yaochen called him Ouyang Xiu's "Shengyu Wife" (Shengyu is Mei Yaochen's word, and Ouyang Xiu and Mei Yaochen are called "Oumei").
At this point, it is not difficult to see that when Ouyang Xiu looks at a person, the first thing he looks at is not how prominent and powerful he is, but his character. Ouyang Xiu commented on Yan Shu, and the complete words were as follows: "Yan Shu's xiaoling is the best, poetry is second, articles are second to poetry, and people are second to articles." This sentence, in turn, describes Zeng Gong's. Zeng Gong was good at ancient literature and strategy, and could not write articles on the imperial examination, so he repeatedly lost several battles in the examination, which can be described as "the most important article". However, when he was not yet famous and had no official position, he revised a book to introduce Wang Anshi to Ouyang Xiu, and after becoming an official, he punished bullies and did a lot of good things for the people, which can also be described as "the best character".
Ouyang Xiu likes to invite guests to dinner, not to covet food, drink and have fun, but to let the sages he appreciates get to know each other and become friends. Looking at the "Long Compilation of Wang Anshi's Chronicles" and the "Annotations on the Chronicles of Mei Yaochen", there are many ancient poems that sing and answer each other; and then look at Lu You's "Annotations on the Manuscript of Jiannan Poems", and there are very few works written to others. At this point, Mei Yaochen was ten thousand times luckier than Lu You when he received Ouyang Xiu's gift of knowledge.
Therefore, Ouyang Xiu's liveliness is not a simple interweaving, but a gathering on the eve of the Northern Song Dynasty's poetry and cultural revolution.
The crowd chanted the white rabbit, not simply to give Ouyang Xiu face, but sincerely agreed that Ouyang Xiu was "ancient Bole".
reference:
The Complete Works of Ouyang Xiu, Zhonghua Bookstore
Wang Anshi Chronicle, Zhonghua Bookstore
Selected Poems of Mei Yaochen, People's Literature Publishing House
Annotations to Jiannan's poems, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House
At the edge of the Junyi River, I was already open at first sight