Wang Bo is the first of the four masters of the early Tang Dynasty, and also one of the most well-known "prodigies" in the history of ancient Chinese literature. Legend has it that he was six years old and could write, and when he was created, he was "unhindered in his conception" and "heroic in words", so he was praised by the imperial history Du Yijian.
Wang Bo's father praised his son as a "genius" whenever he was told, and finally he was ridiculed for this, and he got the nickname of "Yu'er". Wang Bo later became famous for writing the "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion", and finally grew a face for his father and slapped those who ridiculed him at the beginning.
However, during the Tang Dynasty, there were not a few people who wrote poetry articles for TengwangGe. According to Han Yu, at that time, at least three people with the surname Wang wrote a preface, a fu, and a note for the "Tengwang Pavilion".
But hundreds of years later, people only remember Wang Bo and his "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion", and the other two articles, like their names, have been lost in the long river of history.
Moreover, before the Middle Tang Dynasty, the fame of the "Tengwang Pavilion" itself was greater than that of Wang Bo. However, after the Song Dynasty, Wang Bo's fame completely overshadowed the "Tengwang Pavilion" itself. Therefore, Xu Zhongxing of the Ming Dynasty sighed: "It is Ge Sheng who smells the sea, and Zi'an is the order." ”
The "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion" is famous throughout the ages, and people in later generations often know that there is such a pavilion through Wang Bo's "preface". Later generations cherished this preface, and at the same time they also had a sense of admiration for its author, so they continued to write wild history stories, "myths" its authors.
Written in the Tang Dynasty's Tang Dynasty, it is said that Wang Bo wrote the Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion at the age of fourteen. Song Taizong also said, "I heard that Wang Bo composed the "Preface to the Pavilion of King Teng" at the age of fifteen." The Taiping Guangji even says that Wang Bo was only thirteen years old when he wrote this article.
The literati who worshiped Wang Bo's descendants, in addition to constantly creating "deification" in terms of Wang Bo's age, also based on the "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion" itself, attached a large number of legendary stories.
For example, it was later included in "Three Words and Two Beats" by Feng Menglong, and rewrote into the article "Madang Kamikaze Sends Tengwang Pavilion". The article "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion" consists of a poem and a poem, which is the focus of teaching in the basic education class, and the poetry after the text is an extension of learning.
A Thousand Words "Tengwang Pavilion"
"Tengwang Pavilion" - Tang Wang Bo
King Teng's high pavilion is linjiangzhu, and Pei Yumingluan is singing and dancing.
The painting is facing the South Pu cloud, and the bead curtain is rolling in the rain of the western mountains.
The shadow of the idle cloud pond is leisurely, and the things change stars to move several degrees in autumn.
Where is the Emperor of the Cabinet? The Yangtze River flows empty of its own streams outside the sills.
Vernacular Translation:
The tall Tengwang Pavilion stands on a sandbar on the ganjiang river. A jade pendant was hung from his waist, and the banquet of the nobles riding in Luan had just ended. In the early morning, white clouds flew from the painting building to Nanpu; at dusk, the bead curtain rolled into the raindrops of the West Mountain.
Idle clouds reflect on the river, and the day is endless. The scenery of the mountains and rivers has changed, and the heavens have shifted from stars to stars. Just like that, I don't know how many years have passed. Where is the original King Teng, now? Only the water of the Yangtze River outside the railing remains, day after day, flowing empty.
The "Peiyu" in this poem refers to the ancient nobility. The "luan" in "Songluan" is a kind of bird in ancient mythology, and its call is very crisp.
In the Book of Northern Qi, Yan Zhitui, it is said: "It is established to be a singing luan, and the eastern capital is strong." The "Mingluan" here is the same as "Mingluan", which refers to the brass bell in front of the carriage where the ancient princes and nobles rode, referring to the driving of the nobles.
Wang Bo's poem integrates the narrative of historical transformation into the description of scenery, lamenting the passage of time and the fact that things are not human, and at the same time, it vaguely reveals the momentum of his own view of "wealth is like a floating cloud" and "cloth can be proud of the prince".
So there are also admirers of Wang Bo who make a fuss about this poem, such as a story of "A Thousand Words and a Thousand Gold". The story goes that when Wang Bo was passing through Nanchang, he heard that the governor Yan Boyu had a banquet at the Tengwang Pavilion and invited the talents of the world to the banquet, so he went uninvited.
During the banquet, the host Yan Boyu gave everyone a "propositional composition" and asked the talents attending the meeting to write an article on the theme of "Tengwang Pavilion". It turned out that Yan Boyu arranged this banquet, in addition to celebrating the successful renovation of the Tengwang Pavilion, he also wanted to take the opportunity to "show off" his son-in-law Wu Zizhang.
Therefore, yan Boyu told Wu Zizhang the title of the "propositional composition" as early as the night before. But I didn't expect to kill a Wang Bo halfway, and before Wu Zizhang's "small composition" was taken out, he had already raised his hand and wrote a preface.
However, Wang Bo had already seen that the master's family had some contempt for him. Therefore, when he wrote poems, he deliberately left the "empty" character in the last sentence of the poem "TengwangGe" in the "Empty Self-Flow of the Yangtze River Outside the Threshold" blank and did not write.
Afterwards, Wang Bo took his servants and left, although Yan Boyu was partial to his son-in-law, he was still a person who cherished talents, and he was shocked after reading Wang Bo's "Tengwang Pavilion", but unfortunately the last sentence of the poem was missing a word.
So, what exactly is this word? Yan Boyu and the scribes present came up with many kinds of answers. But they still wanted to know what the real idea in Wang Bo's mind was, so Yan Boyu immediately sent someone to chase Wang Bo.
But when the servant caught up with Wang Bo and asked what words were missing in the poem. Wang Bo's servants, however, made it difficult for the other party to say: The master of my family is "a thousand words and a thousand gold", and he will not write out that word for a penny.
After Yan Boyu heard this news, not only did he not get angry, but he personally led the crowd to find Wang Bo with a thousand gold and asked him to complete the poem.
As a result, Wang Bo was surprised and told the other party: I have finished writing. It turned out that Wang Bo wrote "Empty Self-Flow of the Yangtze River Outside the Threshold", and the blank space in it represented an "empty" word.
How much truth in this story is unknown. Everyone only knows that Wang Bo showed his proud talent to the world through a poem and a poem, and he became famous in one fell swoop.
Unfortunately, although Wang Bo has literary talent, his character is slightly "suspicious". In the second year of Emperor Gaozong of Tang (671 AD), a domestic slave in Wang Bo's family named Cao committed a crime.
Wang Bo first hid the house slaves, and then because he was afraid that the matter would be leaked, he simply killed the house slaves. This matter was finally discovered, and later fortunately encountered amnesty, otherwise Wang Bo might have become a severed ghost.
epilogue
The "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion" that we usually refer to actually refers to the preface and poetry. It's just that this poem was not well valued before the Ming Dynasty.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, some scholars commented that it was "snubbed in the rich" and "although the text has four rhymes, it is full of qi and long". The poem received relatively little praise, probably because the preceding verse was so brilliant that it somewhat drowned out the brilliance of the poem.
Reading the "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion", the words are rich and imposing. However, in the preface, the author made it clear that he did not meet his talents and longed to be appreciated by the superiors. However, the poem after the text focuses on describing the scene of people going to the empty building after the prosperity of the Tengwang Pavilion has dissipated.
Thousands of years, water and clouds. With the passage of time, the nobles who once sat on the high seats of the banquet of the Tengwang Pavilion and pointed out and judged the students attending the meeting will eventually disappear.
Now only the Yangtze River outside the railing remains, and the air flows from there. As if to laugh at the original master of the Tengwang Pavilion.
It can be seen that Wang Bo's poem is written more clearly and arrogantly than the previous poem, and it can show the proud bones of a generation of literary heroes. Without this poem, the previous "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion" would also be greatly reduced. From this point of view, it is indeed a masterpiece of "a thousand words".