People always seem to be able to find evidence to support Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy works to support his life deeds, the inscription as physical evidence, its text content enriches the connotation of historical events, but also to make up for the lack of historical materials, its artistic value and even the issue of authenticity and falsity have taken a secondary position, among which the attitude taken to the use of some doubtful stele posts, as well as some of the controversies caused by stele that are contrary to moral construction, are no longer in the category of art.
Core events and inscriptions
The New Book of Tang, revised by the Song Dynasty, recorded Yan Zhenqing's image as a loyal subject, and his life deeds were constantly recited, and later new and shorter versions were constantly produced. Shen Shu (born and died unknown, but to be made an official at the time of Emperor Xiaozong of Song (1163-1189) is summarized as follows in the General Category of General Commentary:
Yan Zhenqing stood alone in the plains to resist thieves.
Yan Zhenqing thanked the sergeant for pleasing the thief.
Yan Zhenqing was graceful and died.
Tang Yan Zhenqing did not lure the thieves into losing control.
Lu Qi came out of Yan Zhenqing to comfort Li Xilie.
Lu Qi wanted to show Yan Zhenqing outside.
Yan Zhenqing on the dictatorship of Yuan Zai.
This summary has been briefly reduced to three events: one is the "Anshi Rebellion", the second is "the consolation of Li Xilie", and the third is "the establishment of the dynasty and the right color". The first two examples are the most favorable evidence as a loyal subject, in the face of life and death, loyalty has become Yan Zhenqing's first choice, what is more convincing than using life to test a person's morality?
A large part of the new and old Book of Tang is devoted to the "Anshi Chaos", and the New Book of Tang and the Old Book of Tang do not differ much in the overall word count compared to the Old Book of Tang, while the narrative focus shifts to the "Anshi Chaos" as the center. There is no doubt that the "Anshi Rebellion" is the core event of the "Biography of Yan Zhenqing", and it can be said with relative certainty that there would be no Yan Zhenqing without the "Anshi Rebellion", and several important promotions of Yan Zhenqing's official rank also began from this event, through which Yan Zhenqing's status continued to rise.
"Loyalty" is the most distinctive personality trait of Yan Zhenqing, and "establishing the right color of the dynasty" and "martyrdom" have become the most favorable supplements to "loyalty", and these three events have become an "iron triangle" to jointly support the great image of Yan Zhenqing.
The three core events are matched by calligraphy works, namely the "Sacrifice of nephews", "The Draft of The Battle for the Seat", and "The Shifting cai Ti", where people pay attention to the meaning of the stele as a cultural symbol, that is, how the stele became an intermediary in the discourse of the ancients, and is not limited to the value of the stele as a work of art.
First of all, a stele is produced in a certain situation, and the content of the stele can obviously be used as evidence to directly support the life deeds of the character. In addition to being used as evidence, it seems that people can also make further associations and plays through the inscriptions, which we can clearly see in the ancients' discussion of the "Sacrifice of Nephews", and there is no longer too much ink and ink to be described here. What needs to be particularly pointed out here is that in the Ming Dynasty, there were two versions of the "Sacrifice nephew manuscript", of which there were famous inscriptions, and the "Sacrifice Nephew Manuscript" we see now was rarely in the shu inscription, and the other one that was not handed down was Chen Shen, Chen Yizeng, and Wen Zhengming, and one of the two must be "pseudo", but the inscriptionist seems to be unwilling to delve into this issue, and the cultural connotation it has obviously exceeded the scope of art.
The second is "Moving Cai Ti". The four series of "Yan Lu GongJi" are originally "Cai Zhou Thesis", and the date is not written in the post, and later generations infer from the content that during the period when Yan Zhenqing was envoyed to comfort Li Xilie, some people also raised doubts. The original stone engraver of this post was Chao Sanlang during the Northern Song Dynasty, the Secret Cabinet Repair, and the Zhitong Prefecture Military Prefecture Tang Zhong (1083~1128), as for the source of this post, it was obtained through Tang Chong's search. What Tang Zhong had seen was also a stone carving, and Tang Zhong himself was not quite sure whether this post was Yan Zhenqing's original handwriting. Let's look at Tang Zhong's text:
Looking at this handwriting does not show the years, based on the facts, gai makes Li Xilie also. ...... Heavy not only imitates the image of the public in Pu, paints and worships it, but also visits this stone book, which looks old. In the first year of the Qianyuan Dynasty, gong yi migrated from Tongpu to thirty years when he was envoyed, and his integrity did not fade, and his appearance was not the same as before, but the ancestral chamber of carved stones and squatting, and the viewer had a review.
The reason why Tang Zhong designated this post as before Yan Zhenqing's martyrdom was a judgment made through the content of the text. But he also said uncertainly: "The viewer has a test."
The Graphite Lockhua also believes that in terms of content, it should be written by Yan Zhenqing when he was envoy to Li Xilie:
Lu Gongxingshu "was ordered to come here, but the matter was not completed, only because he was loyal and diligent, and he had no intention of wrangling." He also made a second sentence: "The human heart has no way to see, and current events are only known by heaven." "There is a small statue of The Song carved under the same state, and I don't know where the original carving is. However, judging by the meaning of his words, it is enough to make Li Xilie also miserable!
But this has also been questioned:
The "Records of the Golden Stone Script" contains this book in Tongzhou, with a public statue on it and a Tang heavy inscription on the lower side of the Jing Kang Yuan Year, and the rest of the book has nothing, is it not a moment and? The Public Is Taboo for Being Straight, and The Rebuke of Non-One may not necessarily be the Book of The Prophet, but judging by its generous words and sad intentions, it makes people sigh and hate the poems of the fly.
The above text is the "Jinshi Wenqian" first quoted from the "Jinshi Wenqi" Gu Yanwu (1613 ~ 1682) record, Zhao Shaozu (1752 ~ 1833) and then expressed his own views, arguing that "it may not be necessarily the Book of The Making of Xi Lieshi". It is not easy to draw conclusions about the authenticity of the "Moving Cai Ti", but this does not prevent the ancients from using it as a symbolic value representing Yan Zhenqing's important historical events. For example, Wang Shu (1668~1743) said in the Bamboo Cloud Inscription:
The so-called "only because of loyalty and diligence, no whimsy, the center of the mourning, always unchanged", cover the time of the book with the words of Ming Zhi also. Or if the public is more than seventy years old, he refuses to take the government, and it is difficult to speak wisely. When the Tang Dynasty was still in turmoil, there was no empty day, and Lin Fu and Lu Qi were successively phased, and the situation at home and abroad was in danger, and the public and fifty years of old ministers could not bear to sit and watch their death, but rather martyred with their bodies, and this trace of his heart was also directly with the sun and the moon. Or when it is also discussed that the gong will not die at the time of the Hiere's trumpet, until he is killed by the Hijri, he thinks that it is a pity, the trap of Hijri, the conjugation, etc., the anti-ear, the gong does not die at the time of the conjugation and does not die on the day of the trap of the Ru, is it said that the public has the heart of stealing life and fearing death at this time! If he does not die for a day, or the imperial court recovers, he can still be left to do something, and he does not know it. And it is suggested that the dispatcher of the duke, the dispatcher of the duke Dezongye, and the thief who surrendered to the pillar stone of the clan society, is the death of Lu Gong and the ear of the death of Junxiang. The great book of the "Outline" Yan Zhenqing was killed by Li Xilie, and the sin jun Xiangye was also committed.
Wang Shu thought of a series of events from the content of the text, as for the authenticity of the inscription and whether it was written during Yan Zhenqing's envoy, it seems that it is no longer important, what is important is the symbolic meaning of the inscription and the associative effect that can stimulate the reader.
The Beggars as a Moral Supplement
The Song Dynasty is not far from the Tang Dynasty, and Yan Zhenqing's inkblots are relatively circulated, and the content involved in the Yan Zhenqing inscriptions that circulated to the Song Dynasty is also relatively rich. In addition to the works that people often talk about in connection with important historical events, there are also other contents related to daily life, such as the Beimiti. Comments on this type of post became another focus of the ancients, especially certain contents that played a role in enriching the image of historical figures.
The first to comment on this post was Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072), who said in the Collected Ancient Records:
Yan Ti begged rice for Li Dafuyun when he was a Shangshu of the Punishment Department: "Clumsy in trouble, the family has been eating porridge for several months, and now it is exhausted, practical and worrying." "Cover its poverty so. This inkblot is given to the deceased friend Prince Yejia, Ziye is from the Xiang family, and the suffering is worse than the cold soldier, trying to carve a stone to leave a friend. Deceased Yun: Lu Gong is so poor for Shang Shu, I don't want to keep the covenant.
Zhuge Liang (181-234) said in the Book of Commandments: "The journey of a husband and a gentleman is to cultivate oneself quietly and cultivate virtue through frugality." "Qing Bitterness" has become a kind of virtue, and "Beggar Mi Ti" can enrich Yan Zhenqing's character image from this angle.
Ouyang Xiu not only started from the content to prove that Yan Zhenqing was poor and conservative, but he also praised the collector of inkblots, Wang Ziye.
Huang Bao (1044~1130) expressed the same view in the "Xishan Collection": "Yu Guan Lugong's "Begging Rice" and "Vinegar" two posts know that he is not ashamed of being poor, so he can keep the way, although he is difficult and indomitable, his righteousness is sincere, and his font is indistinguishable. Not only did he find the text content commendable, he also found more information from the font.
Of course, some people have raised objections to the authenticity of this post, and the Ming Ren An Shifeng (1573~1620) "Merlin Quick Affair" said:
The testament of the ancients, there is clearly a forgery, but there is no doubt, and the philosopher with five facial features is confused, without thinking about it, so that he allows it to turn black into white, so that the true white person doubts his face, which is hateful! The full text of this post: medicine beard venison, fear of venison is difficult, is thinking of the new good in the deer breast, now can not use fresh ginger with dried ginger also. This cloud "medicine to deer breast" is, and cloud "new good", the literature is not clear, can not be deceived, but the crowd respects the faith, how much to seize the truth, curious and joyful, solid and constant feelings? Its words are not too large to be transferred in the original post, and they are far less than the old ones.
In "Cai Ming Yuan Ti", people saw the other side of Yan Zhenqing's "almost human feelings" to enrich Yan Zhenqing's image of "benevolence". Wang Shu (1668~1743) said in the Bamboo Cloud Inscription:
Gong yi stabbed Rao Prefecture last October, Ming Yuanxiang from the trend, and now to the right of the river, and thousands of miles of feeding and losing endlessly, Gong Shendezhi, so there is this order also.
He believes that Yan Zhenqing's writing of this post reflects a kind of "morality", and in another inscription he also expresses Yan Zhenqing's "close to human feelings" side:
Gai Ming is far from the public for a great deal of labor, Ding Ning repeatedly can not do so, Lu Gong as a person as strong as iron is among friends, so I know that there is no one who is not close to the people in the ages.
The quality of heavy affection and righteousness, starting from Yan Zhenqing, also affected Yan Zhenqing's slaves, and there is a record of Yan Zhenqing's slaves in the "Mountain Hall Examination":
Silver Deer - Tang Yan Zhenqing's servant, named Silver Deer, Shi Lu Gong lifelong.
In the twelfth year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1747), the official Revision of the "Examination of Continuing Literature" even interpreted this folklore as an official understanding, and the revised Shi Chen said: "The case of the minister and others is to edit the deeds of the righteous servants of gulai, and its name is the silver deer, the silver deer is the tang Yan Dan family servant, the matter Yan Zhenqing is lifelong, until the disaster does not avoid the past." "Yan Zhenqing's image has been perfected from multiple angles and in many directions based on the richness of the inscriptions circulating.
Calligraphy as a political symbol
"Zhongyi Tang Ti" and "Self-Confession" problem
In later generations, whenever there was a crisis in the political situation, people often thought of Yan Zhenqing's loyal performance in the "Anshi Rebellion", and the key role he played in times of crisis not only became an example admired by the imperial court, but also became the object of emulation by many scholars with the same loyal ideas.
First, let's look at the background of the ZhongyiTang Thesis. This post is a collection of Yan Zhenqing's inkblots in the eighth year (1215) of the Southern Song Dynasty Jiading (1215) Liu Yuangang (about the time of Emperor Ningzong of Song) compiled Yan Zhenqing's inkblots. In the second year (1217), Jing Rong continued to engrave several kinds, and received a total of forty-five kinds of posts. This is a collection of posts inscribed in a specific historical period, and it is not difficult for the discerning person to find the special year from 1215 to 1217. The watershed between the Southern and Northern Song dynasties in Chinese history was 1217. The historical event of the "Jingkang Disaster" led to the collapse of the Northern Song Dynasty. The situation of foreign invasion and the destruction of the country and the family cannot help but remind people of the "Anshi Rebellion" of the Tang Dynasty, and even more reminiscent of Yan Zhenqing, who was able to turn the tide of the tide and not fall. In this situation, a loyal subject like Yan Zhenqing is needed to defend the family and defend the country, and the Zhongyi Tang Ti has undoubtedly become a symbol of Yan Zhenqing as a loyal subject, and the main connotation of this symbol has obviously surpassed the calligraphy itself.
Second, let's look at the situation of the inscriptions included in such a collection. The more complete Tuoben we see now is the old collection of Haiyunge of Sun Chengze (1592~1676) in the Early Qing Dynasty of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, which is considered to be the original engraving. According to Zhu Guantian's proofreading of the Tuoben and the Anthology, there are many discrepancies, and even he suspects that Huang Benji (1781-1856), who edited the Yanlu Gongwen Collection, did not see the complete Original Tuo. Huang Benji searched for all kinds of information about Yan Zhenqing all his life, and if he had not even seen it, it would quite explain the limited circulation and dissemination of this post, and as for the reasons for this, it is not easy to make a judgment here.
Third, our focus is on the issue of "pseudo-posts" in it. In view of the first point, we can make such a judgment, as a political symbol or a symbol used by the ancients to mingzhi, it will not put the position of Yan Zhenqing's calligrapher in the first place, in other words, the authenticity of calligraphy and its artistry are not the most important here, and it is naturally understandable that there are pseudo-posters. This point liu yuangang also seems to be clear, in the "Yan Yuansun Notice" and "Yan Zhaofu Notice" later said: "Or written by The Ying and Shuo generations, there is no need to be Lu Gong's handwriting." Yan Ying and Yan Shuo were the sons of Yan Zhenqing, and even Liu Yuangang was not sure whether the "confession" was the handwriting of Yan Zhenqing's son, but the content of the text was related to Yan Zhenqing's family, and the characteristics of the book were more in line with the characteristics of the "Yan Book", so they were included together.
After Zhu Guantian proofread the "Zou You Ti", "Lu Shu Ti", "Bao Gong Ti", "Shou Zheng Ti", "Lu Xi Hou Ti", "General Pei Poem", "Mr. Dongfang Painting Praise Monument Yin Ji", "Guo Family Temple Stele", "Beggar Imperial Book Release Pond Stele Forehead Table", "Gift Yan Zhaofu Huazhou Assassination History System", "Zishu Prince Shaoshi Confession", "Zishu Punishment Department Shangshu Confession", all of which are different from the text of the "Yanlu Gongji", the specific reasons may be different, and I will not speculate here. Liu Yuangang said in the text:
Yan's confession, the personal writing of the Duke of Lu, or the book of The Ying and Shuo generations, the heroic style and friendship, the thousand years do not grind, so the rise of people's hearts, for the world's weight, want it, not exclusively in the theory of calligraphy and painting.
Liu Yuangang's account is also relatively clear, including these less certain handwriting, the important thing is to "raise people's hearts", so "not exclusively in the theory of calligraphy and painting". Zhu Guantian also believes that "there are also quite suspicious people in the various posts, such as the "Preface to Sending Xin Zi" and the self-written confessions, including the "Shu Qingyuan Daoist Poems" quoted above, the penmanship is not similar to Lu Gong, or comes from a forgery, or belongs to his book by mistake, and can still be studied in depth."
The "Self-Confession" and the "Zhongyitang Post" belong to the same kind of problem, and the discussion of the authenticity of this post has not stopped, and most scholars tend to judge it as a forgery. Some Japanese scholar Ishida Zhao once wrote an article entitled "The Evaluation of Yan Shi and Yan Zhenqing in the Early Southern Song Dynasty - Taking the Self-Confession as the Center", detailing the historical background of the emergence of the "Self-Confession", and from this point of view, we do not judge the conclusion, and undoubtedly grasp the attribute of the political symbol that the "Self-Confession" should be subordinate to as far as the clues of the discussion are concerned.
Afterword
In history, a large number of "pseudo-posts" have been produced and continuously used by later generations, and have their breeding soil and background, so when we understand a stele, we should try to take into account all aspects of the factors, put it into a certain historical context to understand, the typical significance of Yan Zhenqing's moral model, the stele works as a strong support, "true" and "false", "excellent" and "inferior" will inevitably lead to many controversies related to the art ontology, for the discussion around this topic should maintain a vigilant attitude, find the entry point, In order to accurately understand the words of the ancients.
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