The study of Du Fu is related to the encouragement of the teacher and the encouragement of his wife
——I wrote "The Silhouette of the Prosperous World- Du Fu's Commentary" behind the scenes
◎To fresh
A poet must, in his lifetime, have a mysterious connection with another poet, especially one in history—either as a brother of a different generation or as a spiritual father—a mysterious fate that is inexplicable.
Xiang Yixian (Data Map Photo by Tao Ke)
Nie Jiayan teenager of the long book of poetry
In the autumn of 1979, I was admitted to the department of Chinese of Chongqing Southwest Normal University from a small village named Nie Jiayan in the hinterland of Daba Mountain, and I was still an ignorant teenager at the age of 16. Around the second half of 1980, Mr. Cao Mufan, an expert in the study of Du Shi in the Department of Chinese (Mr. Liu Guojun, a master of bibliography and the philosopher Xiong Shili Gaozu), opened an elective course for students in the seventh and seventh and eighth grades: Du Shi Selective Reading. From my limited experience, this may be the first time that a national university has opened a special course on Du Fu's research.
The students of Mr. Cao's elective course are mainly students in the grades of 77 and 78, and the average age is estimated to be over 25 years old. As a junior student in the lower grades, I went to observe Mr. Cao's rather advanced course, and sat in a group of mature men, which was particularly dazzling. During one spare time, Mr. Cao walked up to me and picked up the "Selected Readings of Du Shi" on the desk - it was an internal reference textbook in a lead print compiled by Mr. Cao himself, which I still think is one of the best Du Shi anthologies in China, and it is also a must-have for my desk - Mr. Cao saw that the pages of the book were densely filled with reading notes and pasted with various reading notes, and his eyes showed a little joy and surprise. This book has not been abandoned since I traveled north and south, and it is still on my desk. The title page of the book is written with words such as "Huanhua Shuixi" and "Huanhua Wild People", and now it is a little funny to think about it, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old teenager has become a "wild man", and where can the wild go again! It is estimated that it is because Du Fu often writes about "wild man" or "wild old man" in his poems that he will think of such a desolate elegant name.
Mr. Cao asked me in a low voice: You are so young, why do you come to listen to the lessons of the seniors? I replied without hesitation: I want to apply for Mr. Dushi's graduate school. Mr. Cao paused slightly, and said solemnly: You can take the exam for my graduate school, but there is one condition - you have to memorize all of Du Fu's poems, and I will accept you as a student. My excitement was immediately stimulated, and I asked provocatively: Sir, has there ever been a person in history who can recite all the more than fourteen hundred poems left by Du Fu? Mr. Cao took off the thick lens, took a breath of heat, picked up the corner of the coat and gently wiped it: Yes, of course there is. Who is he? Mr. Cao put on his glasses again, smiled and patted my head: Kang Nanhai. Seriously, I really didn't know who Kang Nanhai was at the time. Mr. Cao saw my doubts and then added: It is Liang Qichao's teacher Kang Youwei. I solemnly stood up and said to Mr. Cao: "Well, sir, wait for me for two years."
What happened next became an adventure of beauty and memory: using Yang Lun's Du Shi Jing Quan as the base, I began a one-man Du Shi journey at an average rate of reciting two poems a day (the law may never be as many as five or six). In many corners of the beautiful Xishi Campus, I was left with the figure of reciting Du Fu's poems. Du Shi is really an unfathomable sea, and I have become a leaf boat on it. Two years passed quickly, and I almost made good on my promise. In my junior year, I began to write my graduation thesis, and of course I chose Du Fu, and the final topic was: Du Fu's Poetics Research. Under the guidance of Professor Liu Jianfen, through a year of hard work, he finally wrote a 30,000-word paper. Allegedly, this is the longest bachelor's thesis we have written in our class.
In the first half of my senior year, I knocked on Mr. Cao's door. Mr. Cao's first sentence was: All back? I said, all back. Mr. Cao said, then you recite "Eight Songs of Autumn Xing" to me. I said, this is too simple, come a little difficult, I will give you the "Northern Expedition", I also like this one. I only memorized a few words, and Mr. Cao waved his hand and said, no need to carry it. I felt a little frustrated, sir still smiled mimi stared at me: Since you like this song "Northern Expedition" so much, then you talk about Du Fu writing his daughter to imitate his mother's makeup, "wolf thrush broad" what is the matter? I don't think I thought about it, but Du Fu's daughter was still young at that time, and she still drew a gourd, and the result was a flower cat face. The gentleman groaned for a while and then asked: According to what you said, why didn't Du Fu say "wolf thrush chaos"? All of a sudden I was asked. In order to answer the question raised by Mr. Cao Mufan very well, I consulted a large number of materials and wrote an article entitled "Du Fu's Trivia of "Wolf Book Thrush Broad" - Silhouette of Social Customs in Poetry", which is an explanation for Mr. Cao and myself.
To Mr. Cao's surprise, I told him that I was not going to apply for his graduate school. I said to my husband, now I especially like Tonyo, and I'm going to go to graduate school with Smelling More than one disciple. Mr. Cao's absolute demeanor quickly restored his calm, and immediately told me that Mr. Zheng Linchuan of the Nanchong Normal Academy was Mr. Wen's disciple, and if he wanted, he could recommend it on his behalf.
At that time, I was really proud and arrogant, and I did not tell Mr. Cao the reason why I did not go to Mr. Zheng's door: at that time, I still had a lot of vanity, and I couldn't look at the Nanchong Normal Academy at all. Later, with the first place, I was admitted to the graduate school of Professor Wang Dajin of the Department of Chinese of Nankai University. After Mr. Wang became a famous family, his grandfather Wang Tieshan was a close friend of Cai Yuanpei and Xu Shousheng, and Mr. Wang successively studied under Liu Yongji, Tang Lan, Gao Heng, Zhu Dongrun, Wen Yiduo, Zhu Guangqian, Feng Yuanjun and other famous teachers, and Wen Yiduo was also the teacher of Mr. Wang when he defended his graduate thesis.
The matter of reciting Du Fu's poems still had a little influence on our Chinese department in that year. In the summer of 1981, when the floods broke out in Nanchong, I wrote a letter to a classmate of the opposite sex for the first time in my hometown nie jiayan, and the female classmate named Coco (who later became my wife) gave me a lukewarm letter. At the end of the letter, it reads: "Mr. Xiang Xiao, I heard that you especially like Du Shi, and I believe that in the near future, you will definitely become a big Mr. Du Shi who studies Du Shi." This sentence seemed to encourage me, but in fact it deeply hurt my indomitable self-esteem. I also mentioned this in my later poem, The Book of My Two Lands:
alas! I can put more than 1400 Du Fu poems
What about blurting it out?
Nie Jiayan's young Witt
Hide alone under a camphor tree and scroll through poetry books
During the summer vacation of my junior year, I made a special trip to Chengdu to worship the caotang where Du Fu lived. When I graduated from Nankai University, I chose Sichuan University on the Jinjiang River without hesitation. There are many reasons for coming to Chengdu, one of which is that I want to be closer and closer to the Chengdu and Caotang that Du Fu loves.
He formed a fate with Du Fu in his past life and this life
On the afternoon of the 15th day of the first month of 2016, as the second "Poet of the Year of the Chengdu Commercial Daily Readers' Word-of-Mouth List", I participated in the Lantern Poetry Sharing Meeting jointly organized by Chengdu Commercial Daily, Chengdu Du Fu Caotang Museum and Star Poetry Magazine. This day is the day of consummation, the day of love, and the day of the poet. About two hundred poets and poetry lovers came together to the Yangzhi Hall of the Du Fu Caotang Museum and recited twenty of my modern poems. The name Yangzhitang is very suitable for the scene at that time: we came here to look up and pay tribute to the poet Saint Du Fu.
Xiang Yixian poetry sharing meeting held in Yangzhi Hall that year (Photo by Liu Haiyun)
In the summer of 2019, under the presidency of Ms. Shu Xing, editor of Sichuan University Press, I signed a contract with the publishing house to write "Du Fu's Commentary". I have always wanted to write about The Du Fu in my heart, but I didn't find the right opportunity - this is good, and finally I have the opportunity to write about my Du Fu.
As I began to write, a disaster struck without warning: the coronavirus swept through humanity like lightning, and my writing came to a sudden halt because of this viral storm. Helpless and confused, I had to live under the mountain, from winter to spring to summer. What I didn't expect was that I experienced a serious visual illness in the middle of the way, and I was really desperate. I fully understand the pain of "looking at the old flowers like fog" that Du Fu said, and I am very worried that this "Commentary on Du Fu" may be abandoned halfway. Fortunately, I was later better treated and the epidemic in China was brought under control, allowing me to re-devote myself to passionate writing in midsummer. During this period, he was constantly greeted and encouraged by Ms. Shu Xing, and without her support, there might not have been the advent of this "Commentary on Du Fu".
Xiang Yixian's "Silhouette of the Prosperous World- Du Fu's Commentary"
In writing, I was under unimaginable pressure that I had never had before in my other writings. The reason is that I like Du Fu too much, and I am afraid that I will not be sorry for my own likes. Of course, there is another important reason, in front of me, there are several mountains: Feng Zhi's "Biography of Du Fu", Guo Moruo's "Li Bai and Du Fu", Hong Ye's "China's Greatest Poet Du Fu", Zhu Dongrun's "Du Fu's Narrative", chen Yixuan's "Du Fu Commentary". There are also Du Fu studies by Wen Yiduo, Liu Wendian, Shum Zhongmian, Yoshikawa Kojiro, Stephen Owen, and Ye Jiaying. In front of these masters, the late life still has to put a beak, which is really a bit self-imposed!
Speaking of which, several of the above masters are more or less related to me. Wen Yiduo and Zhu Dongrun are among the mentors of my graduate supervisor, Professor Wang Dajin. Once, when talking to Chen Shangjun, a professor at Fudan University, About this origin with Zhu Dongrun on the Internet, Chen Shangjun joked that he was my uncle, and that this was indeed the case in terms of generations. In his junior year, Hong Ye's niece, Hong Fan, who graduated from Jinling Women's University, came to Xishi to make an academic report on a visit to the United States, and the report was held on the playground of Xishi, and it was crowded with people, almost as if a grand ceremony was being held. In that report, I first learned about the Harvard Yenching Society, the first time I knew about the advanced way of sorting out literature and classics, the first time I knew the name of Hong Ye (Simmering Lotus), and I immediately borrowed "Du Shi Lead" from the library. Knowing about Yoshikawa Kojiro, the following year when he arrived at Nankai University in Tianjin, the department of Chinese invited Mr. Koshimihiro, a professor at Kyoto University in Japan, to do a short-term academic exchange, and Hiroshi Yoshikawa was a beloved disciple of Kojiro Yoshikawa, and naturally often mentioned his mentor Kojiro Yoshikawa.
In the face of Du Fu's research by many masters, I still had to write hard, and slowly, I finally found a little self-confidence. As I continued to write, this self-confidence grew stronger and stronger, so much so that I had the illusion of arrogance. Looking back, of course, the knowledge of these previous masters was better than mine, but not necessarily I liked Du Fu so much; even if I liked it so much, they were not as lucky as I was, because I could stand on their shoulders, and I could draw essence and energy from their Du Fu research, thus refining the blood and fire of Du Fu that belonged to me.
Du Fu wrote in "Even Titles": "Articles have been through the ages, and gains and losses are known. The authors are all listed, and the reputation is hanging down. It doesn't matter to me whether I have a "reputation", as long as I don't "wave" it is enough to comfort my heart. Under Zhangren Peak, I once again thought of the temporary scene of Du Fudeng, if I could continue to climb up the clouds of Zhangren Peak, how good it would be! Du Fu said in the "Two Songs of stars and moons by the river": "Tianhe Yuan confessed, and Jiangpu has always been Cheng. The reflection is broken, and the edge of the air rises. "I thought that Du Fu and I had already formed a fate in the past life and this life, but suddenly I felt empty and pale. The Milky Way is originally white, the river is originally transparent, the stars reflected in it are scattered like some broken pearls, but the bright moon is like an empty mirror, rising higher and higher, rising farther and farther.
"The edge of the sky rises": Is my fate with Du Fu really empty? That edge is the climbing edge and the fate; the emptiness, the firmament, is also the endless nothingness.
I would like to especially thank Professor Wang Wei of Southwest University for Nationalities, under her gentle leadership and efforts, 107-year-old Shuzhongrenrui writer Mr. Ma Zhitu, after sealing his pen for a year, resolutely gave this book a lot of ink treasure, the real rare tea year ink treasure - this may be the title of the oldest person in the Chinese book so far - I know, this is not to say how well written this book is, but all thanks to the gift of the poem Saint Du Fu! (This article has been abridged)
About the Author:
Xiang Yixian, poet, essayist, professor of Sichuan University, former mentor of "Poetry Collection" of Chengdu Business Daily. He is the author of academic monographs such as "The Poet Beyond the Rivers and Lakes", "Chronicle of Chinese Stone Carving Art", "Silhouette of the Prosperous World: Du Fu's Commentary", poetry collection "My Trilogy", "Melody Trilogy" and long historical drama "The Legend of Mulan". He has won the Humanities and Social Sciences Award of the Ministry of Education, the Natong International Confucianism Award, the Sichuan Literature Award, the First Exploratory Poetry Special Prize of Poetry Newspaper, the Tianduo Poetry Award, the Chinese Poet of the Year Award of Chengdu Business Daily, the First Yang Wanli Poetry Award, and the Li Baibei Poetry Award. His works have been collected in a variety of poetry anthologies at home and abroad.
Edited by Li Jie
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