Listening to Gao Xiaosong talk about "Golden Plum Bottle", talking about the mate selection criteria of beautiful women in the Ming Dynasty, Xiaosong said that it was not an era of looking at faces, when beautiful women chose their husbands to focus on knowledge, cultivation and talent. After saying that, he patted his thigh, his face full of envy and jealousy, eager to reincarnate five hundred years earlier. In that era, regardless of wealth and family background, there was no "national husband" type of figure? Of course! The talented woman Zhang Yaohe once wrote an article entitled "If you were born in the Ming and Qing dynasties, you would only marry Zhang Dai", she said: "Where the people are boiling and the gongs and drums are noisy, there must be Zhang Dai; the song is finally scattered, the wind is cold and the moon is cruel, and someone blows out a wisp of sorrow, then the listener must be Zhang Dai." His articles, like those of a man, have the sharp edge of the world and the cynical curiosity of playthings. What a rich, wonderful man. If he was born in the Ming and Qing dynasties, he would only marry Zhang Dai. ”
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Zhang Dai, Zi Zongzi, Shi Gong, Tao An, Die An, etc., from Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Zhang Zongzi was born into a family of eunuchs. Gao Zu Zhang Tianfu was the deputy envoy of Yunnan, equivalent to the deputy commander of the Yunnan Military Region today. Great-grandfather Zhang Yuanchen, longqing five years of the national college entrance examination champion, grandfather Zhang Rulin, Wanli twenty-three years of jinshi, later became the Guangxi Cloth Envoy Department senator, equivalent to the current Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Party Committee General Office, father Zhang Yaofang is the general administrator of the Lu Fan Palace. It is said that this kind of gongzi brother from a family should take the road of studying hard, winning meritorious fame, and helping the world at the same time, but Zhang Zongzi is partial to the sword and takes the side, although he is talented and intelligent, he is hesitant to be in the voice, indulges in landscapes and rivers, constantly crosses the border on the road of governing learning, constantly deviates, and in his own words, "learning books is not successful, learning swords is not successful, learning festivals and righteousness is not successful, learning articles is not successful, learning immortals, learning Buddhism, learning agriculture, learning gardens, and not succeeding", but this Zhang Zongzi, who "has achieved nothing", has become the first prose of the Ming and Qing dynasties and a famous historian of the late Ming and Ming dynasties.
As the writer Li Jingze said: "Zhang Dai is good at writing. Not the kind of good that is righteous, it's the kind of good that is stupid. It's a little bit too good to be reasonable... It is casually brought by the womb. "To understand Zhang Dai, it is necessary to combine his bumpy and wonderful life and the true disposition that has been created in the womb, the following, the author from several aspects to make a shallow statement, in order to throw bricks and lead jade.
One is curiosity.
As a person with a full heart, he steamed up his life with curiosity and fraternity for the whole world, which seemed to be Zhang Dai's most significant temperament. He called himself: "A young and clumsy boy, who loves prosperity, a good house, a good maid, a good child, a good fresh dress, a good food, a good horse, a good lantern, a good pear garden, a good trumpet, a good antique, a good flower and bird, and a tea of obscene orange abuse, a bookworm poetry demon." "A good teenager with a wide range of preferences and a lot of interests.
Marie Curie said that curiosity is the first virtue of scholars.
As a virtuous teenager, Zhang Dai's curiosity is also reflected in his interest in physical processing, such as the study of sedimentation filtration of mineral water, the manufacture of flower lanterns, the formulation of fireworks, and the technological innovation of stir-frying tea. The article "Lan Xue Tea" said that Zhang Dai and his third uncle recruited workers to make tea, and the method of rolling, pinching, and moving ... were all made according to the traditional method of manufacturing. After the tea leaves are prepared, they are brewed with boiling water, and the aroma does not come out. Zhang Dai then used his brain on the water: boiled it with zen spring water, and the aroma was too strong. Stir in the jasmine flowers, wait until the tea leaves have cooled, and brew them with freshly boiled water, and the tea aroma is all in place. Zhang Dai named this tea "Lan Xue Tea", and later the gentle and elegant people in shaoxing rushed to buy it.
Zhang Dai tells us with his extraordinary heart that living is to toss, and curiosity is the first driving force for life.
The second is fun.
Comrade Wang Xiaobo, a senior Wenqing, has a famous saying: A lifetime is very long, and you must find an interesting person to be with.
As an old predecessor of literary and artistic youth, Zhang Dai vowed to practice "fun" to the end throughout his life.
Open this "Tao An Dream Memories", funny, novel, and happy articles are everywhere.
"Jinshan Night Drama": On August 16, the second year of Chongzhen, Zhang Dai crossed the Zhenjiang River by boat, and that night "the moonlight poured into the water, the river swallowed, the dew sucked in, and the sky was white." Zhang Daile Hehe: This is really a good weather for things! After the second drum day, the ship sailed into the main hall of the Golden Mountain Temple, and Zhang Dai woke up the servants, brought the drama equipment, and played the drums in the hall, singing several good plays in a row. In the middle of the night, the monks were woken up, rubbing their sleeping eyes, yawning, laughing while watching, but they did not dare to ask whether the visitor was a human, a monster, or a ghost. When the sky was almost dawn, Zhang Dai was full of fun, untied the cable across the river, and flew away. Provoking a group of demented monks, they chased them to the foot of the mountain and watched them for a long time. Such a flying fairy, naughty childlike god to humor, the real stubborn lord also.
"Huxin Pavilion to See Snow": In December of the fifth year of Chongzhen, it snowed for three days in the West Lake, and Zhang Dai came to the spirit in the middle of the night that day, and rowed a small boat alone to the Huxin Pavilion to see the snow. On the pavilion, two outsiders sat on the felt, a boy shochu, saw Zhang Dai, and pulled together to drink. Mr. Zhang Dai is also not polite: bang, bang, bang, even dry three cups. When you're done, take advantage of the fun. "The sky and the clouds, the mountains, and the water, up and down, are white." The shadow on the lake, only a trace of the long causeway, a little pavilion in the center of the lake, and a mustard with Yu Zhou, two or three people in the boat. "This perspective of looking down on heaven and earth, the meaning of enjoying snow on a cold night, is really foolish."
"Furnace Peak Moon": In the afternoon of April in Ding Di, Zhang Dai and his friends climbed to the top of the Furnace Peak, a friend said, it is rare to go back to the top of the mountain, it is better to stay and admire the moon, even if there is a tiger, the tiger also talks about the morality of the tiger, at night to go down the mountain to forage, we are safe at the top of the mountain. This blatant heresy and perversion of Zhang Dai actually felt that "there was nothing wrong with it", and the gall fat was also left for a while. "The sun has not risen, and the grass and trees in the mountains are glowing strangely, quietly fearing." The crowd was frightened and moved down the hill on crutches. At that time, the servants were anxious to wait, and they were leading the monks with torches, boots, knives, and sticks all over the mountain calling out "where are you?", and Zhang Dai responded with a voice: "Oops! I'm fine, thank you, and you?” A heart finally "snapped" and fell to the ground. The next day I heard someone on the back of the mountain say that last night there seemed to be a mountain thief crossing with torches. Zhang Dai patted his head, Daxi: I didn't tie us up to see the official the night before, it was really lucky! He is a scholar, not afraid of hungry mountains and hungry tigers, sitting on the moon, such bold and funny, really delusional people.
"West Lake in July and a Half": On July 15 of a certain year, Zhang Dai and his friends boated in the West Lake. On this day, the West Lake was very lively, "the voices of the people preached, such as boiling as shaking, like a nightmare, as deaf as dumb..." Zhang Dai said with a big sleeve, the West Lake is half in July, there is nothing to see, the most is to see the people on the West Lake. Late at night, the crowd dispersed, but Zhang Dai and his friends rowed a small boat to dock. They feasted on the broken bridge, calling on friends and friends, poets, prostitutes, and those they knew who did not know, and they brought together a drink. Drink until the East will be white, and the crowd will disperse. Zhang Dai and his friends boarded the boat again, "My generation of boats, sleeping soundly in the lotus flowers of ten miles, the aroma is patting people, and the dreams are very comfortable." Mr. Zhang Dai loves to be lively but not to join the hilarity, there is no liveliness, the liveliness is scattered to create the hilarity, to be lively, spend a deep sleep, so grotesque and crazy, strange and uninhibited, true lover also!
Zhang Dai's life is fun to the simple texture, interesting to the sparkling. Poets, writers, monks, opera actors of the powerful or idol school, and even famous prostitutes in the Qinglou school are not bad friends with them. Returning to Wang Xiaobo's famous saying of "find an interesting person to be with", it is not difficult to find that fun is really the first motivation for making friends and engaging in objects.
The third is suixi.
There was once a hot post on Zhihu "What is the name of seeing the big world?" There is a wonderful answer that has been praised a lot: "If you can be exquisite, you will be done." ”
This answer is clean and sharp, to the point, and if it can be said more condensed, it is "casual joy".
Zhang Dai's spirit of casual happiness erupted on his "foodie nature".
In the past, he was the brother of the eunuch family, and eating was called a delicate:
At the beginning of the article", it is written: "None of the hungry and gluttonous people of the Yuezhong generation can surpass mine." Then he wrote "China's Good Specialties":
"Beijing is Apple Po Guo, Huang Wei, Ma Ya Song;
Shandong is morel, autumn white pear, wenguan fruit, sweets;
Fujian Zefu orange, Fu orange cake, brown candy, red curd milk...
Hangzhou is watermelon, chicken beans, lotus under the flower, leek buds, Xuan bamboo shoots, Tangqi honey orange..."
Sir, this line, do not talk about routines, do not have literary style, do not rhyme feet - come up and hang freestyle, read with hip-hop beats, hungry people's neck pain, really exquisite!
"Cheese": Zhang Dai said that the cheese thing, made by the hands of livestock dealers, is not delicious. As a senior foodie, I simply raised a cow myself- "Take the milk at night and put it in the pot, BiXiao, the milk flowers are clustered up and boiled with a copper bell, the wulan snow juice, the milk jin and the juice siou, the hundred boiling." Jade liquid bead glue, snow creamy, blowing air Shenglan, qin into the lungs, self-providence." Sigh, read this, let me swallow a big mouthful of water first.
When you're done eating, let's talk about drinking.
"Zen Spring": In the summer of the forty-second year of the Wanli Calendar, Zhang Dai found after studying that the newly beaten Zen Spring Water, with a slight fishy smell of stones, was left for three days before the fishy gas dissipated. Take a sip of the spring water, slowly your tongue, use your tongue against your palate, and the spring water quickly flows out. He beckoned the servant to go to the spring to get water, and the servant was lazy and took water from elsewhere in the middle of the road to pretend. Zhang Dai took a sip and said: You fool me, this is the water of a certain well in a certain place. The servant was shocked and bowed his head in disbelief. If it weren't for everyone's sons, who would have the ability to discern this drinking water and spring, this is really paying attention to people.
In the year of Chengshu, when there was a lot of military turmoil, Mr. Zhang Dai went to the mountains to hide from the soldiers, which would not be able to pay attention to it, and when other people's families were busy fleeing to save their lives, Zhang Dai "will" have a new joy.
"Luyuan Temple Square Persimmon": Zhang Dai hid in the Luyuan Temple, there are more than a dozen Summer Persimmons before and after the temple. "In the summer of June, persimmons are as big as melons, raw and crisp as ice and chewing snow, the eyes are clear, but if they cannot be made, they cannot be ingested." Raw persimmons are not delicious, you have to find a way to ripen them, after repeated investigation and observation, Mr. Zhang Dai in the escape wrote: "To fry soup with mulberry leaves, wait for cold, add a little salt, into the urn, soak the persimmons and lose their necks, eat every two nights, fresh lei abnormal." At the end, Zhang Dai did not forget to tell his foodie friends in Jiangsu and Zhejiang: "The rest of the food Xiaoshan persimmon is astringent, please give this method." "With the body of the fleeing, and this sentiment, sir's joyful and affectionate heart can be seen.
Yu Guangzhong said that if you just choose a person to be a friend, Li Bai has no sense of responsibility, Du Fu has a bitter life, only Su Dongpo loves to eat, love to play, love friends... Mr. Zhang Dai is not such an hopeless optimist.
Curious, so live in the open world; interesting, so live a life of vivid and fragrant; with joy, in the bumps and bumps of the world, sweep away the dust and delusions, write famous articles, cultivate virtue and merit. To this day, there are still scholars who study "Dream of the Red Chamber" who believe that the characters who can write such a divine work as "Dream of the Red Chamber" must be from a large family, a clumsy disciple who is dressed in fine clothes and jade food, and must be a literary and artistic all-rounder who is proficient in subsets of scripture and history, poetry and song. Some scholars even say that Cao Xueqin is another pen name for Zhang Dai. Zhang Dai is not the original author of "Dream of the Red Chamber", we will not investigate deeply, Mr. Zhang Dai, who has such an excellent heart and cultivation of curiosity, fun and joy, is destined to do some big things on the road of life.
The fourth is unswerving.
In this life, Zhang Dai has been working tirelessly and his dedication to writing has been unswerving. In addition to the fifteen kinds listed in the "Self-made Epitaph", there are more than 30 kinds of books such as "Yu Yuesan Immortal Tuzan", "Shi Kui Shu Hou Ji", "Strange Character Question", "Lao Yu Ji", "Tao An Elbow Behind", miscellaneous drama "Qiao Sitting Ya", and the legendary "Iceberg". Among them, the book "Night Sailing Ship" has the same content as the encyclopedia, covering all aspects, with a total of 20 categories and more than 4,000 entries, which can be called a small encyclopedia of the Ming Dynasty.
In this life, Zhang Dai took on his own responsibility as a writer of history, and his heart to write history was also unswerving.
The Zhang family has always had a tradition of writing history, and Tianfu and Yuan Chen's father and son have written and revised the "Chronicle of Shaoxing Province", "Huijizhi", and "Shanyin Zhi". Grandfather Zhang Rulin was immersed in reading history for half of his life, "The eldest father is old, and he does not release the scroll and leans on a few books to light, and he leans down with the light, and every night, he does not think he is tired." The historical ideas applied by the Zhang family through the ages deeply inspired Zhang Dai, from the completion of the first historical work "The Biography of Ancient and Modern Righteous Martyrs" by Zhang Dai in the first year of Chongzhen, to the exhausting history of the classics and the emotional history of the world, "The Collection of Stones", and zhang Dai was still engraving "Yu Yuesan Immortal Tuzan" until his death. "Write your own elegy, and lead to every desire." Because the Book of Stone Is not completed, it is still regarded as a living. However, the bottle of corn is sold out many times, and you can't raise a fire..." Such words and phrases make people's hearts cut and ache, their eyes are red and hot, and the heart of Mr. Shi's fist and fist is not my realm, and the heavens and the earth can be learned.
By chance, the author was very fortunate to be invited to translate Mr. Zhang Dai's "Tao An Mengyi", professor Chen Pingyuan of the Department of Chinese of Peking University said: If the "top ten" are selected in the history of Chinese prose, I estimate that Zhang Dai can also be selected, especially "Tao An Mengyi", all of which are good articles.
Checking the last part of the whole book, when it was past the end of the book, when the volume was contemplating, there was a sudden thunderstorm between heaven and earth, as if it was destined to say goodbye to this old friend, the teacher, and the male god tonight, and to be frightened and thunderous, and to cry suddenly. Xu Shen, a classicist of the Eastern Han Dynasty, said: "Those who cover the script, the foundation of the scriptures, the beginning of the royal government, the predecessors are therefore behind, and the posterity is therefore aware of the ancients." Therefore, it is said that the original is born and the Tao is born. "May Mr. Zhang Dai's good writing be passed on in this new translation." The spirit of curiosity, fun, joy and unswerving determination in his life also echoed between Qiongyu in this thunder and lightning.
Be kind in life and live out the big realm. Contemporary readers, it is worth reading Zhang Dai well.
Text/Noon Song
This article is excerpted from the preface of the translator of "Tao An Dream Memories"
![Zhang Dai: Life is like a dream[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)