The image of "Liangzhou" in Ming and Qing poetry

Author:HOU Dong (Associate Professor, College of Literature, Northwest Normal University)

Liangzhou, known as Guzang in ancient times, is now Wuwei City, Gansu Province, located at the eastern end of the Hexi Corridor, is an important town on the ancient Silk Road, known as the "Ancient Capital of Wuliang" and "Hexi Metropolis", and is also an important economic and cultural exchange center during the Han and Tang Dynasties, and its political, military and commercial importance has made it a strategic fortress painstakingly operated by successive dynasties. In the second year of the Reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (121 BC), Huo went ill and attacked Hexi to defeat the Xiongnu, and from then on "Jincheng, Hexi and Nanshan to Yanze, there were no Xiongnu" ("Book of Han, Zhang Qian Biography"), and the Han Dynasty set up Wuwei as the first county of Hexi, subordinate to the Liangzhou Assassin History Department. It was once the capital of Former Liang, Hou Liang, Southern Liang, Northern Liang and Early Tang Dynasty Liang during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and was also the capital of Western Xia, and has since been a county, prefecture and prefecture. As a hub for multi-ethnic integration and multicultural convergence and exchange on the Silk Road, "Liangzhou" has become a highland in The history of Chinese culture and a typical image in poetry creation. During the Tang Dynasty, Liangzhou has become an international metropolis in the northwest after Chang'an City, not only a window for opening up to the outside world, but also a stage for Tang Dynasty scholars to make meritorious achievements and display their ambitions. Many outstanding poets of the Tang Dynasty have left footprints here and written popular poems. The poems of Gao Shi, Cen Shan, Wang Zhizhuo, Wang Han and others reflect the style of this ancient city of Biansai from different angles, making the name of "Liangzhou" spread far and wide, and with its heroic and unrestrained artistic conception and exotic style, it gradually formed a unique "Liangzhou Word" in the field of poetry creation, and this creative tradition continued until the Ming and Qing dynasties. In Ming and Qing poetry, the image of "Liangzhou" appears frequently, if "Liangzhou" is mainly expressed in Tang poetry as a symbol of the ambition and enterprising spirit of the prosperous world, then with the changes of the times, "Liangzhou" in Ming and Qing poetry has a richer meaning.

The admiration for the Han and Tang Dynasties. Liangzhou, because of its unique geographical location, from the Western Han Dynasty to the Sheng Tang Dynasty, has always been the forefront of the dynasty's opening up to the outside world, and it is also the "headquarters of the Tang Dynasty to operate the Western Regions" (Wang Yongxing, "Military Research on the Northwest in the Early Tang Dynasty"). From the Han Dynasty, the "Four Counties of Hexi" were set up, and the Sui and Tang successively used them as a basis to set up the "Four Counties of the Western Regions" and the "Four Towns of Anxi". The bustling Liangzhou has become a symbol of the prosperity of the Han and Tang Dynasties. It can be said that the Han and Tang Dynasties weather, half in the Hexi Corridor, especially Liangzhou is the most. Descending to the Ming and Qing dynasties, although the role of the silk road gradually declined, liangzhou also changed from a gateway to the outside world to a throat to control the west, but the poets looked back at the past, and when they admired the glory and dream of the Han and Tang dynasties, the plot of "Liangzhou" has always been its sustenance. For example, the Ming Dynasty Wang Guangyang composed "Liangzhou Song": "The pipa was first tuned to ancient Liangzhou, and the wind spring of the Wanyuan refers to the inferiority." Good is the Kaiyuan No Incident Day, Yuchen Palace according to the new autumn. The author expresses his admiration for the prosperity of the world with the idleness of Xuanzong Xuanzong of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, and the same work also includes the Qingren Li Xisheng's "August 5th Work": "Wangxian downstairs is noisy, and the new Liangzhou Fa Qu is translated." I want to see the opening of the heavens in its heyday, sitting in the Yuan Dynasty in August of each year. The "Liangzhou Faqu" referred to in the poem is a large song with exotic flavor that Bian will offer, and Zheng Qi's "Kaitian Biography" of the Tang Dynasty records: "Western Liangzhou folk music is good, and the new song is called "Liangzhou", and it is listed in kaiyuan to offer it." Guo Maoqian's "Collected Poems of Lefu" contains: "Liangzhou, Gong Tune." In the Kaiyuan Dynasty, Guo Zhi, the governor of Xiliang Province, entered. "This kind of music" not only integrates the elements of Hu Le, but also maintains the true color of Central Plains music. But it is different from any of them, which makes it sound both exotic and familiar and intimate in the Central Plains style. ([Beauty] Sheikh "Foreign Civilization in the Tang Dynasty") Liangzhou Daqu is also a kind of trophy to some extent, which was popular at the peak of the Tang Dynasty, and it was also a symbol of the Tang Dynasty's expansion of territory and national strength, which was deeply loved by Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei, and the Ming dynasty Dong [~symbol~] has a poem to remember its events: "The sound of karma drums dances high and the sleeves are long, making small pipes from the King of Zining." Tai Zhen loves "Liangzhou Song" alone, and gives money to the mother. In addition, the enterprising spirit of the Tang Dynasty scholars, who longed to worship the general and the marquis, actively invested in the side of the plug, also always inspired and influenced the Ming and Qing poets, such as Zhang Heng's "Liangzhou Words" in the Ming Dynasty: "The wine is ripe and fragrant, and the horse foot spring is deep and the alfalfa is long." Drunk listening to the ancient music, the ambition is cool in the west. "Quite the heroic mood of the Tang Dynasty's border poems. Another example is the Qing Dynasty Chen Gongyin's poem: "The grass outside the Jade Gate is Xiao Xiao, and the Liangzhou Road is not far away." Mo Dao shusheng has no swallow jaw, and the border people now know Han Banchao. ("Send Chen Songshan to Observe Ren Liangzhuang") The Eastern Han Dynasty Ban Chao has the ambition to make meritorious contributions to the exotic land since childhood, and the people have the appearance of "Yan Jaw Tiger Neck", and the appearance of the "Marquis of Wanli", the later official to the Western Regions, the Seal of the Distant Marquis ("Hanshu Ban Chao Biography"), the poet borrowed Ban Chao's canon, expressing the pride of his desire to make meritorious achievements. Xu Mengqing's "Autumn Thoughts" poem also has the sentence "After all, the strong heart cannot be poured, and the spelling will be drunk and sing "Liangzhou"".

Sustenance for patriotic feelings. Due to Liangzhou's strategic position of "passing through the vast desert and controlling the throat of the five counties", it has also become a place where soldiers must fight. With the chaos of An Shi, the Tang Dynasty flourished and declined, Hexi fell to Tubo, and Liangzhou also changed from an international metropolis where "cars and horses intersected, and songs blowing and the sun blowing", to a sad place for literati to express the sorrow of losing land and the lament of wolf smoke. The fall of Liangzhou, an important node in the Western Regions, of the Tang Dynasty had a great impact on the tang dynasty's national power, according to the "Old Five Dynasties History Tubo Biography": "In the beginning, the Tang Dynasty divided the world into ten provinces, and the thirty-three prefectures of Hexi and Longyou, liangzhou was the largest town. Tianbao placed eight prisons, 300,000 horses, and put all the capitals under control. During the Rebellion of An Lushan, Emperor Suzong was in Lingwu, and Hexi Shu was summoned to recover the two capitals, tubo took advantage of the false take of Hexi and Longyou, and millions of Chinese fell into Tubo. In this situation, in the works of poets after the Middle and Tang Dynasties, Liangzhou was also given the sigh of Mai Xiu, which became the sustenance of patriotic feelings, and the poets' pens also added the content of recovering lost land and nostalgia for their homeland. Based on this historical sentiment, Ming and Qing poets often used "Liangzhou" and its related imagery in their poems to satirize the border generals and rulers, revealing their inability to recover the lost land and the ugliness of indulging in pleasure, and longing for the virtuous and virtuous to be able to safeguard the sovereignty of the country. For example, the Ming Dynasty Dai Liang's "Liangzhou Xing" describes the corruption of the border generals with "the husband and wife are half dead in the army, and the beauty is still singing and dancing", and Zhu Chengyong's "Liangzhou Words" has "the three armies worked hard to find a marquis, and the border war was endless all year round." What is Meng Tuo with fighting wine, at that time talking about laughing at Bo Liangzhou" sentence, using the late Han Dynasty Meng Tuo to bribe the eunuch Zhang Rang with Western Liang wine, the official worship liangzhou assassination history of the allusion to satirize the darkness of the government. Yang Yiqing, "only because there is no beacon in the border, forget that Guan Shan is a long journey" ("Will Go to Liangzhou"), expressed his gratitude for the peace of the border plug. Qu Dajun of the Qing Dynasty used the sentence "Liangzhou has no big horse" ("Hanging Yuan Inspector") to satirize the Ming Dynasty monarchs and courtiers for being dimwitted and self-destructing the Great Wall, causing them to lose their teachers and lose land. Historically, the Western Liang Terracotta Warriors and Horses were known for their bravery and good fighting, which used the allusion of the Jin Dynasty Liangzhou Toshi Zhang Rail. Zhang Yongningzhong once led the Western Liang soldiers and horses to defeat the rebel Wang Mi, and the anonymous "Jingshi for Zhang Rail Song" Yun: "Liangzhou Big Horse, rampaging the world." By the late Qing Dynasty, the border plugs were eventful and the imperial court was extremely corrupt, and the Liangzhou in the poem had more realistic direction, Lin Zexu's sentence "The clown jumped on the beam and who perished, and the Central Plains Lan Yuanwang clarified" ("Zimao Bojun sent Yu yu to Liangzhou from Lanquan and gave the Seven Laws and Four Chapters to give the second rhyme to the answer"), the desire to defend the country and the insult overflowed into words. Zhang Jin's Lefu poem "Abandoning Liangzhou" points the spearhead of criticism directly at the ruler, Shi Yun: "Sharp weapons should be wrong, and Shengqing is responsible for the grandeur." The courtiers are all meat, and what is the abandonment of Liangzhou. ”

Selection of frontier objects. Liangzhou is located on the Silk Road, all kinds of merchants gathered, four winds and objects gathered, Ming and Qing poets in the Chant liangzhou related wind objects, often choose the image with Liangzhou characteristics. Liangzhou is "located in the west, often cold and cool" ("Book of Jin"), but the climate characteristics of large temperature difference between day and night and strong sunlight illumination make this place suitable for growing grapes, alfalfa, sand dates and other crops, and these images with border plugs have gradually become an extension of Liangzhou imagery in Ming and Qing poetry. One of the most famous images is grape (pu peach) wine, Tang Wanghan's poem "grape wine luminous cup, want to drink pipa immediately urge", making Liangzhou wine famous in Shenzhou. Liangzhou has a long history of growing grapes, Zhang Qian sent to the Western Regions to bring back grape varieties, Liangzhou wine has become a popular luxury in the Eastern Han Dynasty, according to the "Records of Heaven" recorded: "At the end of the Han Dynasty, the government was castrated, and The Wind Meng Tuo offered the Western Liangzhou wine to Zhang Rang, that is, the history of The Thorns of Liangzhou. Song Leshi's "Yang Taizhen Wai Biography" also contains: "Princess Taizhen holds a cup of pear seven treasures, drinks The peach wine of Xiliangzhou, laughs and leads the song, and the words are very thick." It can be seen that the wine produced in Liangzhou is very popular with the rulers. Since then, the literati have also used wine to refer to Liangzhou, such as Zhang Heng's "Liangzhou Words" in the Ming Dynasty, which has the sentence "The wine is ripe with grapes, mazuchun is deep and alfalfa is long", Wang Hong's "The line is always Xuan Ende, without grapes and alfalfa returns" ("Send Chen Yuan's foreign envoys to the west"), Mao Qiling of the Qing Dynasty "out of the horse sativa, into the customs people carry green grapes" ("Liangzhou Words"), Tian Wen "Wine prices are too rogue in autumn, usurped with Liangzhou ancient grapes" ("Autumn to drink under the laurel tree"), Wu Qi "who heals the garden disease, Liangzhou brews a liter" ("Grape"), Tao Tingzhen This trip to Liangzhou terroir is close, horse fat alfalfa wine peach", etc., all use grapes as typical images to refer to Liangzhou.

In short, in the poetry of the Ming and Qing literati, the glory of Liangzhou in the Han and Tang Dynasties has gradually generalized from the imagery of geographical space to a kind of "Liangzhou complex", which has become a spiritual highland in the dimension of cultural space and poetic space, inspiring and leading future generations in the dark.

Guangming Daily (2021.07.26. 13th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily