In the New Book of Tang, it is recorded that Meng Haoran "has few good festivals and righteousness, rejoices in the suffering of people, and hides the Lumen Mountain". After reading this sentence, many people think that he simply likes the idyllic landscape, so he chooses to live a secluded life.
For example, in the eyes of "Shi Xian" Li Bai, Meng Haoran is a dashing hermit who "abandons the crown with a red face and a white head lies in Songyun". But in fact, Meng Haoran chose to live in seclusion, but he was forced to do so.
Meng Haoran's family was poor when he was a teenager, and he studied poetry and books hard, but he had never been able to find a noble person to recommend him. Therefore, he could only live in seclusion in the Lumen Mountains to learn the "Art of Vertical and Horizontal", hoping to wait for the opportunity to meet the nobles.
However, this time, when he was in his thirties, the nobleman who could help Meng Haoran still did not appear. To this end, he also wrote a special poem "Pastoral Works", poem Yun:
The disadvantages are noisy, but first cultivate the tranquility. Bu is adjacent to three paths, planting thousands of trees with fruits. Yue Yuren was pushed forward, and thirty years were not encountered.
It will be too late to read the sword, and the day in the hill garden is already twilight. Morning-rising is self-cherishing, and daytime sitting is often widowed. Soaring envy of the birds, competing for food shy chickens and birds.
Looking at the Golden Horse Gate, Laoge Caiqiao Road. The folk song is ignorant of itself, and the dynasty lacks relatives. Who can be yang xiong, a recommendation of Ganquan endowment.
The gist of the poem is: I live in a hut far from the dust, and through the grace of my ancestors, I nourish myself with a quiet and simple heart. After choosing the right home for the hermits, I also planted a thousand fruit trees in front of the door.
Every day laments the passage of time, he is already in his thirties, and he has not yet had the opportunity to become an official. Now, whether it is reading or practicing swords, it is already too late. It's like a man walking alone in a cemetery near sunset.
Every morning when I woke up, I was full of sorrow and sat at home all day, not wanting to say a word. I only envy those soaring cranes and refuse to learn the chickens and ducks that compete in the garden.
However, his eyes were pierced, and he could not enter the gate of the palace, and finally he could only chop wood and sing in the mountains. There are no confidants in the countryside, and there are no former friends and relatives in the DPRK. Who can recommend the "Ganquan Fu" to the emperor for me, the "Yang Xiong" of the Tang Dynasty?
The story of Meng Haoran's "Broken Sentences"
So in this way, Meng Haoran was no longer willing to stay in the mountains, he rode out of the deer gate on a donkey, and began to live a life of doing things around. In the fifteenth year of the new century, Meng Haoran rode a donkey to Chang'an, and at that time he was already famous in Jiangsu and Chu.
Therefore, as soon as he arrived in Chang'an, Meng Haoran ran to attend the talent party in Chang'an "non-stop". Because he is over forty years old and is a shabby student from a small place, most of the talents present look down on him.
So Meng Haoran wrote the famous "Broken Sentence" on the spot: "The clouds are light and the river is han, and the raindrops are sycamores." With these two poems, Meng Haoran stunned the audience and made the talents abandon their pens and admit defeat, which was later passed down as a good story throughout the ages.
So, why did Meng Haoran's two poems make a big splash? This is mainly because at that time, the talents of Chang'an were enjoying "joint sentences". This kind of cultural entertainment is compared to improvised poetry, and the talents have to create verses within the prescribed time.
Writing poetry, however, is a time-consuming and labor-intensive affair. So, how long does it take to write a good sentence? Jia Dao of the late Tang Dynasty said: "Two sentences in three years, one groan and two tears." ”
This is, of course, an exaggeration, but at least we can be sure that improvising at a gathering of talents is difficult to come up with a good sentence. However, Meng Haoran finally did it with "quick wit", he not only wrote two good sentences, but also wrote these two poems very neatly.
In the poem, "cloud" to "rain" is a meteorological noun to noun; "micro" to "sparse" is an adverb of degree to degree; "light" to "drop" is a verb to verb. Therefore, this one pair of sentences can be regarded as neat and tidy.
In addition, the natural imagery selected by these two poems, although it does not involve profound connotations, appear fresh and distant, and people are unforgettable. Later, Meng Haoran's poems became famous in the Song Dynasty, and even Li Qingzhao had to borrow his "raindrop sycamore" to fill in the words.
After this incident, Meng Haoran was appreciated by Zhang Jiuling, Wang Wei and others. However, this did not help his career. Because the scientific expedition is not just an examination to write poetry, not to mention that his poetic style was not popular during the Tang Dynasty.
Subsequently, Meng Haoran participated in the imperial examination and ended with the name of Sun Shan. Wang Wei cherished his talent and invited him to the palace to study the rhythm with himself. Legend has it that once Tang Xuanzong came to Wang Wei and met Meng Haoran, so he asked him to write a poem impromptu.
Meng Haoran didn't know which tendon was wrong, and immediately wrote the song "Twilight Return to Nanshan" that we all memorized. Because there is a sentence in the poem, "Do not know that the Lord abandons", which provoked Tang Xuanzong's anger, he drove him away.
However, after Meng Haoran left the palace, he did not return to his home in Lumen Mountain immediately. Because he was still a Confucian intellectual after all, the sages told him that the goal of a reader is to apply what he has learned and seek the well-being of the people of the world.
Therefore, Meng Haoran wrote the poem "Wangdongting Lake Gift zhang chengxiang" that we have memorized:
August lake level, the meaning of the virtual mix is too clear. Vapor cloud Mengze, waves shake Yueyang City. If you want to help, you will be ashamed of the saints. Sit and watch the anglers, and envy the fish.
Meng Haoran said to Zhang Jiuling in the poem: Now is a prosperous world, but I can only sit at home and can't do anything, which makes me feel very ashamed.
Zhang Jiuling already had a good feeling for Meng Haoran, so he arranged for him to work under him. However, Meng Haoran did not long after, because of the back gangrene attack, resigned from the official and traveled around, and finally really returned to the mountains to live in seclusion.
The above story, involving Tang Xuanzong, is probably not the truth. If Meng Haoran was really expelled from the palace because he had angered Tang Xuanzong, then he would definitely be embarrassed to go to Zhang Jiuling to arrange a job for himself later.
At the same time, Zhang Jiuling clearly knew that Tang Xuanzong did not like Meng Haoran, so naturally it was impossible to offend Tianwei to arrange work for Meng Haoran. So the real situation is that Meng Haoran's poems were not very popular during the Tang Dynasty.
For Meng Haoran's life, Su Shi once summed it up in "Gifting The True He Chong Xiucai":
I didn't see Meng Haoran riding a donkey in the snow, frowning and shrugging the mountain. Hunger, cold, wealth and wealth are in place, and there are empty statues left in the world.
Meng Haoran's life experience, whether it is hunger and cold, or wealth, is all submerged in the long river of history. Su Shi believes that what made him famous at that time was not his good poems, but Wang Wei's "Meng Haoran Riding a Donkey".
epilogue
Meng Haoran's poetic style is pure and natural, fresh and distant, but his poetry does not have any profound connotation.
At the same time, Meng Haoran's poems are neither as imaginative and radiant as Li Bai's; nor are they as melancholy and concerned with current affairs as Du Fu's poems. Therefore, it is very unappetizing to the ancients, which is probably also a reason why he cannot be lifted.
However, poetry originally belonged to art, and art did not have a fixed creative paradigm, nor did it pursue any "text to carry the way". A poem is a good poem as long as it makes the reader feel the beauty in it.
At this point, it is also necessary to count Li Bai as Meng Haoran's "confidant". Because of Li Bai and Du Fu's praise and admiration for Meng Haoran, coupled with the fundamental transformation of the Song people's aesthetics of poetry, Meng Haoran's poetry became more and more popular.
Not only did li qingzhao and other celebrities begin to borrow Meng Haoran's "Broken Sentence" to fill in the words, but even many people wanted to "continue" the "Broken Sentence". But except for Meng Haoran himself, no one can write the same clear and far-reaching sentences.