Han Yu's life dilemma and ideological breakthrough

According to the results of the chronology, the annual examination, and the year of the work, the editor pays more attention to the kodi, eunuch, and social travel in the life of the literati. The three articles in this issue have a different path, "Han Yu's Life Dilemma and Ideological Breakthrough", starting from Han Yu's family life and career ups and downs, revealing that he has been in a difficult situation in life for a long time, but he can bear the world in mind, advocate the "Taoist unification" theory, and complete the ideological breakthrough. "The "Mountain Residence" Life of the Literati of the Southern Dynasty focuses on the way of living, and analyzes the types of mountain life of the literati of the Southern Dynasty, their literary expressions and the spiritual interests and aesthetic ideals of the literati group embodied. "The Marriage Life of Yuan Shu and Pei Shu and the Gift of Qin Poems" makes a unique combing of the marriage life of Yuan Shu and the stepsister Pei Shuqin poems. The three articles have new ideas for exploring the lives of literati groups or individuals, and there is no lack of inspiration for relevant writers and special topic studies.

Author: Liu Huairong (Professor, Ocean University of China)

Han Yu's literary achievements have been recognized by scholars of ancient and modern times, and Han Yu "learned the way of the saints to cultivate his body" ("The Book of the Prime Minister"), "repaired his words to clarify his way" ("The Theory of Contending for Subjects") and initiated the "Taoism", which had a far-reaching impact on the history of thought. These feats of his won the infinite admiration of his time and future generations, and the fact that he completed his ideological breakthrough in the long-term difficulties of life seems to have failed to get the attention it deserves.

Han Yu lost his father at the age of three and was raised by his elder brother Han Hui and his sister-in-law Zheng Shi. Around the age of twelve or thirteen, his elder brother Han Hui died tragically. In the tenth year of Zhenyuan (794), Han Yu was twenty-seven years old, and his sister-in-law Zheng Shi, who raised him, died. Han Yu recalls his early misfortunes in the "Tribute to Lady Zheng": "Nian Fang and Ji, Recommended and Fierce Tun. The brother cursed and undertook the order to move far away. Poor and desolate, a hundred years of death. Thousands of miles of hometown, young orphans in front. Looking back at each other, weeping blood trumpet heaven. "A Hundred Years of Death" refers to the early death of the Han Society, and "orphanage" refers to the children of the Han Society, including the "Twelve Langs". Written in the nineteenth year of Zhenyuan (803), the "Twelve Lang Texts of Sacrifice" also says: "When my middle-aged brother died in the south, I and Ru were young, and I returned to Heyang from my sister-in-law, and I also ate Jiangnan with Ru, and zero Ding was lonely and bitter, and I did not taste a day apart." I have three brothers, all of whom died prematurely. Inherit the latter, in Sun Weiru, in Zi Weiwu. Two lives in one body, only a single shadow. The loneliness of his early years is concentrated in these two articles.

Han Yu said in the "Twelve Brothers of Sacrifice" written in the first year of Yuan He (806): "Emperor Wei has eight grandchildren. But my brother and I are alone after death. Now, he abandoned it first. The "Twelve Brothers" are the sons of Han Yu's uncle Han Shengqing, and the "imperial ancestor" mentioned in the text is Han Yu's grandfather Han Ruisu, who has four sons and eight grandchildren. After Han Qian's death, of the twelve generations of his children and grandchildren, only the thirty-nine-year-old Han Yu was still alive, and Han Yue was weak and premature, and his "Book with Cui Qun" said: "The servant family is unfortunate, the fathers and brothers are all Kang Qiang early, such as servants, can you try to be long-lasting?" Quoting a letter written to Twelve Lang the previous year, the "Sacrifice of the Twelve Langs" says: "I am not forty years old, but I look at the vast, and the hair is pale, and the teeth and teeth are shaken, and the fathers and brothers are all strong and early, like my decay, it can last a long time!" Both this letter and the Book of Choi Qun were written when Han Yu was thirty-five years old. The "Sacrifice of the Twelve Lang Texts" also says: "Since this year, the cangs have either turned into white, those who shake or fall off, the hair and blood are weakening day by day, the morale is getting weaker and weaker, and the geometry is not dying from Ru!" The Five Proverbs also says: "For the remainder of thirty years and eight years, those whose hair is shorter and whiter, and those who shake their teeth are getting whiter and more." It can be seen that Han Yu, who has been lonely for many years, has such a deep fear for his life in the prime of his more than thirty years.

Due to the early death of family members, the heavy responsibility of raising orphans fell on Han Yu alone. At the time of The death of Twelve Lang, his son was ten years old and Han Yuzi was only five years old, not including the daughters of the two. Therefore, Han Yu sighed, "Such a child, how can he hope that he will establish an evil cult?" He regarded "teaching My Son and Ru Zi to grow up; the eldest daughter and Ru Daughter, waiting for him to marry" as a major event for the rest of his life, but Han Yu raised not only han orphans, but also the orphans of friends. Bian Xiaoxuan's "Commentary on Han Yu" believes: "By the first and first years of the Yuan Dynasty, han yu's brothers and sisters-in-law had five famous people who could be examined, and there were about fourteen or fifteen widows, orphan nephews, orphan nieces, nephews, and nieces and granddaughters, most of whom lived with Han Yu, plus Han Yu's wife, second man, fifth daughter, and nursing mother, and so on, and there were more than twenty people. The orphan son and daughter of 'dating' are not counted. Emperor Fuxiang's "Hangul Gong Shinto Tablet" says: "Inside and outside, the weak are caretaken, and one relative is benevolent, so that men have officials and women have subordinates, and they are not inferior to their own lives." If I am handed over to others, I will not count in the end, and when I die, I will shelter his family, and eat all the money and people, so although weak, he treats them like virtuous relatives" The Old Book of Tang and the Biography of Han Yu also says: "There are only ten orphan girls who marry inside and outside and friends and friends." This is the same as Han Yu's "servant house is poor... The family is tired of only thirty mouths" ("With Li Aoshu") The self-statement is basically the same.

Because Han Yushi's career was repeatedly frustrated, "four moves to the ministry of rites is one to obtain, and three to be chosen by the officials is not successful" ("Book of the Prime Minister"), so he has been in a state of poverty for a long time. His "Book with Cui Li" said: "At the age of twenty, the bitter family was poor and had insufficient food and clothing." In the sixteen years from his entry into the capital in the second year of Zhenyuan (786) to the granting of the Four Doctorates in the seventeenth year of Zhenyuan (801), although Han Yu entered the shogunate for food and clothing, the problem of poor life has not been solved. Written in the seventeenth year of Zhenyuan (801), "Will Be Returned to Meng Dongye Fang Shuke" says: "After sixteen years of neglect, the end of the dynasty was bitter and cold. In the following year of Dr. Ren Simen, he mentioned again: "A servant who has no way to live on his own, from an official here to a poor person." In July of the nineteenth year of Zhenyuan (803), Han Yu was reappointed as the inspector of imperial history, and was soon deposed by Yangshan. In the Book of Li Shilang of the Shangbing Department, written in the first year of Yongzhen (805), he mentioned again: "The family is poor enough to survive on its own. It can be seen that Han Yu "has insufficient idle food and is difficult to do from his strength." Both things are harmful, and the self-statement of "perseverance and hardship throughout life" ("Congshi") is by no means a false language. It was not until around the tenth year of Yuan He (815), when Han Yu was forty-eight or nine years old, that his family's situation completely improved.

In the long-term difficulties of life, although Han Yu has been confused, his enthusiasm for taking the ancient sages as an example, learning the way of the saints, and embracing the world has never diminished. The Book of ShangjiaHuazhou states: "There are three in the twenty-year of the year, fifteen years of reading and studying literature, and he does not dare to be inferior to the ancients in words and deeds"; he said in the "Theory of Contending for Subjects", which was composed at the age of twenty-six: "When a gentleman occupies his position, he thinks of death of his official; if he does not take the throne, he thinks of rhetoric to understand his way." "By arranging the poems he composed in the following decade in order, we can clearly see the trajectory of the development of Han Yu's thought." The more the more, the cloth man also... The rise and fall of the past is not without the heart; the gains and losses of the present world are not left unattended. ("With FengXiang Xing Shang Shu", written at the age of twenty-seven) "Reading and writing, since the age of seven, every twenty-two years, his deeds have not dared to be ashamed of the Tao" "Cover the rest of the life of heaven, but also have a period of time to go down to the earth." ("Sense of the Two Birds", written at the age of twenty-eight) From this, we can see Han Yu's jishi feelings and self-confidence. Two events that occurred in the fourteenth year of Zhenyuan (798) require special attention. The first is the thirteen poems written by Han Yu during the examination of the Jin Dynasty shogunate in Bizhou, and its fourth poem reads: "There is no master, the way of the saint is unknown, and those who cover Yang Mo have invaded and chaotic, and the world is salty and obedient at that time." Mencius replied to this by saying that he had both "begun" and asked the beings who "learned the way of the saints." Second, Zhang Yu wrote twice to encourage Han Yu to "make it a book to revive the way of the saints" ("The Book of Shanghan Changli"), and although Han Yue had concerns, he replied with "Please wait for fifty or sixty and then do it" ("Reply to Zhang Shu"), but clearly put forward: "My own way is the way of the Master, Mencius, and Yang Xiong", and showed that "if heaven does not want the people to know, then my fate cannot be expected; if the people of the People of The Book of The Lords know, who is not me?" ("Reply to Zhang Shushu") a high degree of self-confidence. It can be seen that at the age of thirty-one, Han Yu's Daoist thought had basically taken shape. After this, his exposition of the Tao increased. For example, "Healing is ancient... Those who understand their words, the one who is willing to be the ancient way is also. ("Title (Ouyang Sheng) After The Lamentation", written at the age of thirty-four) "The desire to heal the ancients is not only good for his words, but also for his good way." (The Book of Answers to Li Xiucai, written at the age of thirty-five) "Yu Zhizhi is in the ancient way, and his words are very good" ("Reply to Chen Shengshu", written at the age of thirty-five).

"Five Plains", especially "Original Road", is a landmark work of Han Yu's ideological breakthrough. Scholars mostly believe that Han Yu's "old works" including the "Five Plains" in the "Book of Li Shilang of the Shangbing Department" written by Han Yu in the first year of Yongzhen (805) "Respectfully dedicate a volume of the old text, help the tree to teach the Tao, and have some understanding", thinking that the "old works" in it should include the "Five Plains", and their writing time should be before this year. Yan Qi's Commentary on the Collected Works of Han Changli believes that "the works of the Original Dao should be in the fifteenth and sixth years of Zhenyuan", which can be followed. In the sixteenth year of Zhenyuan (800), Han Yu was thirty-three years old, had not yet officially served in the dprk, and was still in the most difficult, hopeless, and even life-threatening period of his life, and his idea of "Taoism" was formed in this life dilemma. Mencius said, "The ancients, the one who attained the will, the zega in the people; the unmotivated, the self-cultivation is seen in the world." The poor are good at themselves, and the poor are good at the world. (Mencius, Dedication to the Heart) Han Yu, when he was "unmotivated", he wanted to "be good to himself" and not give up "being good to the world", so he could finally "be a hundred masters and a hundred masters, and a word for the law of the world" (Su Shi's "Chaozhou Hangong Temple Stele") This is not only a clear breakthrough in Mencius's thought, but also injects a new content into the spirit of traditional scholars, and its spiritual realm and personality charm can also be seen more clearly here.

Guangming Daily (13th edition, October 18, 2021)

Related manuscripts

The marriage life of Yuan Shu and Pei Shu and the gift of qin poems

https://news.gmw.cn/2021-10/18/content_35238732.htm

The "mountain dwelling" life of the literati of the Southern Dynasty

https://news.gmw.cn/2021-10/18/content_35238731.htm

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily