Self-made epitaph
The Tang Dynasty literati were good at making epitaphs for others, originally because the epitaphs were very rich, and for the sake of silver, they made many praises, which were called "tombs" at the time. The Literati of the Ming Dynasty were very different. The literati of the Ming Dynasty were good at writing epitaphs for themselves, and before they died, they evaluated themselves, more self-suppressing, and even self-destructive. And although the Tang people's epitaph is a style, but in the end it is to be stone, to remain in the tomb, the Ming Dynasty literati only as an article to do, made into a kind of biographical sketch, they want is the meaning, is to be able to appreciate the emotion of play, do not see anyone really want to take it carved on the stone stele, left to future generations to examine the origin.
If it is said that the behavior is strange, then compared with the literati of previous generations, of course, wei and Jin must be counted first, but the literati of the Ming Dynasty also have their own special features. In their treatment of their own personal value, the Wei and Jin literati insisted on looking at the "big" place, standing in the world, eating men and women, and behind their individuality, they all had a "natural road", so that they could not put the sages in their eyes, they could be proud of the world, and make many unruly frenzies. The Literati of the Ming Dynasty, on the contrary, always looked at themselves as "small", in their hearts, individuals were extremely small, they lived in a world of powerlessness, life was poor, everything was not worthy of praise, they could not find a strong way of shelter, so they appeared very weak. As a result, the literati of the Ming Dynasty lost the confidence to face the world directly, lost a sense of tragedy, and began to alienate themselves from the world in which they stood, turning their personal helplessness in history into a kind of humor, a kind of ridicule, a kind of game sound, and a kind of humor of the last days.
Self-made epitaph is a great humor to retire the world with "pretending to die". It vividly renders the historical helplessness of the Ming Dynasty literati, and at the same time it completely opens up to the world the upside-down nature of survival. Xu Wenchang's "Self-made Epitaph" said:
Ming Yue: "The whole baby, the disease is complete, there can be no death, the death and injury are forgiven; the competition is solid, allowed to receive the Yong, can be lifeless, what is the basis for life?" Drowning and throwing, early scorn; both hair and thorns, late pity melting. Kong micro-service, Ji Yu crazy, three compound people, shame on the other and the other. ”
In the reading phrase that Xu Wenchang used to summarize his life, we see not only his investigation and explanation of life and death, but also more of a discourse about abandonment. It is the self-deprecating effect of this kind of speech that gives him a sense of ease of survival beyond his personal smallness and weakness. Therefore, Xu Wenchang could smile lonely like that, and Xiao Xiaoran wrote the following line: "The burial place is the Shanyin Wooden Grid, and its sun and moon are unknown, nor are they books." ”
Compared with Xu Wenchang, who was even more depressed about the inability to survive personally, there was Zhang Dai, the son of Zhang Zongzi, who was more than seventy years late. Zhang Dai was at the time of the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and he had no confidence in life at all. In the face of the power of history, man is so insignificant, this great contrast between man and the living world, Zhang Dai in his notes on "Watching the Snow in the Pavilion of the Lake" written in December of the fifth year of Chongzhen, the metaphor is very clear. The kind of gloom that, through the vastness of nature, calls man "only two or three grains" is the expression of the small mood of life. Therefore, seeing that Zhang Dai used his best words in his "Epitaph of Self-Made" and said that his life was useless, you know that he could not but use a self-deprecating way to dissolve and replace this insurmountable survival path and regret.
You might as well copy a little more of his text:
Shu people Zhang Dai, Tao Anqi number also. Less for the stupid children, very much love prosperity, good house, good beauty, good child prostitution, good fresh clothes, good food, good horses, good lanterns, good fireworks, good pear orchards, good trumpets, good antiques, good flowers and birds, and tea and orange abuse, bookworm poetry, toiling for half a life, all become dreams. In the fifties, the country was destroyed and the family died, and he took refuge in the mountains. Those who survive, the broken bed, the broken sickness, and the number of broken books, the lack of bricks. Cloth and vegetables, often to the point of cooking. Looking back twenty years ago, it was like a lifetime away.
Often self-evaluation, there are seven inexplicable: to the Webb and the proposed prince, now to the family and the beggar, so that the noble and the disorderly, can not be solved; the production is not as good as the Middle, and want to drive the Golden Valley, the world has many shortcuts, and the only plant is in the mausoleum, so that the rich and the poor are unsolvable, the second; the bookish and the field of the horse, the general and the house of the article, so that the literature and martial are wrong, can not be solved three; accompany the Jade Emperor without slander, accompany the beggars of the Sad Tianyuan without arrogance, so that they are humble and inferior, and cannot be solved four; the weak are spit and willing to do their own work. Strong can ride alone and can go to the enemy, so it is wide and fierce, unsolvable five; seize the name of the people, after the people, watch the game, willing to let people first, so that the slow and urgent fallacy, can not be solved six; the game of the tree, do not know the victory or defeat, sip tea and taste water, you can distinguish between the water, Zi, so the wisdom is foolish, can not be solved seven. There are these seven unsolvable, self-incomprehensible, anwang people to solve? Therefore, it is possible to call it a rich and noble person, and it is also possible to call it a poor and unworthy person; it is also possible to call it a wise person, and it is also possible to call it a stupid person; it is also possible to call it a strong person, and it is also possible to call it a weak person; it is also possible to call it a lazy person. The study of books is not successful, the study of swords is not successful, the study of festivals and righteousness is not successful, the study of articles is not successful, the study of immortals, the study of Buddhism, the study of agriculture, and the study of gardens are not successful. Let the world call it a loser, a waste, a stubborn person, a blunt talent, a sleepy man, and a dead old charm.
In an era when sentient beings are upside down, and people's value to themselves is not only "contemptuous", can you find more appropriate humor than this? If you have ever had the ideal of making a contribution in this world, but the world has been ruthlessly deprived of it, and finally left you with nothing, then in what posture will you express the greatest and final boredom and frustration in this life? Zhang Dai is seventy years old, and in the face of all this, he has transcended all confusion and pain, and has become a real cynic, an old naughty boy who no longer worries about right and wrong, and no longer measures himself. Therefore, he spoke before the world without scruples, and with this scrupulous speech he bore the "lightness of life." Perhaps this is the heartfelt song that Zhang Dai expected to "also look for the three wildlings, Fang Xiao's heartfelt song".
However, reading the Ming Dynasty literati's "Self-made Epitaphs", you can't help but feel that in their strange self-deprecation and self-deprecation, there is a spiritual scale that measures life. Whether it is ridicule or self-deprecation, it seems that everything can be viewed as a game, but behind this is their deep thinking about survival. That is, when they are in a small position in the world and are helpless, where will they try to escape? In that era of extreme poverty, the literati of the Ming Dynasty knew very well in their hearts that they were a group of "mortals", so they knew that as "mortals", there was only one "dead" road, which was the real path they could take, and if they went down this road, they could reach the place they could reach. There is no doubt that contemplating "death" and seeing "death" as the sacred measure of human life is the most powerful destiny of these Ming dynasty literati who managed to escape at all costs. In this way, these "mortals" could not sing their endless journey in that era of poverty without the Epitaph of Self-Made.
Now, on this road, do we modern people still meet those literati who sing and walk, going to the depths of death?
The style of The Ann
Among the late Ming Dynasty scholars, Wang Siren can probably be called the first master of humor. Wang Siren calls himself a mockery, which shows that he is more good at humor than others.
San'in is really a strange place, and there are always some people who fall out of Takuchilei. If nothing else, let's take the article together, as if as long as it comes from the writing of the San'in literati, there is a special kind of proud backbone. Under this kind of backbone, they are easy to dismiss the world's affairs, so they often have a sneer in their eyes, and the so-called "don't have eyes" is probably talking about them. Therefore, the San'in literati you see are both vulgar and worldly, thus showing their distinct style in the Ariake generation, especially in the late Ming Dynasty.
The three most representative people of the Shanyin literati, the former xu Wenchang, the latter Zhang Zongzi, Wang Yu'an lived among them, but Wang Yu'an can be said to be the development of Xu Wenchang, and directly affected Zhang Zongzi. "Mr. Gai is brilliant, dexterous, humorous with people, outspoken, and slightly unscrupulous." This is Zhang Dai's evaluation of him. Once, Cai Jingfu, the governor of Chuanqian, was idle at home because wang Siren was old in the same year, so he invited him to join the curtain. On the day of Wang Siren's arrival, Cai Jingfu hosted him at the Tengwang Pavilion. At that time, when the sunset on the river was born, Wang Siren told Cai Jingfu that he could not imagine that Wang Bo's "Preface to the Pavilion of King Teng" would be fulfilled again today. Asked what is the reason, Wang Siren said with a smile, Sunset Xia and Lone Bird fly together, today is Falling Xia, and Nian Brother squints at one eye, lonely eyes fly together, probably means That Is Year Brother you. This ridicule made Cai Jingfu extremely embarrassed and embarrassed on his face, but it was not good to have a seizure. Wang Siren knew that he was annoyed in his heart, and his luggage did not open and turned around and went home.
It is reasonable to say that Wang Siren and Cai Jingfu are friends in the same department, and Cai Jingfu is kind enough to invite him to praise XiangWeiwei, Wang Siren is so harsh, it seems a little impersonal. However, Wang Siren's unscrupulous words are not only because he is "handsome in his eyes", but also because he is too arrogant. He was twenty years old in the township, and the next year he won the Jinshi, "Fang Shu out, a moment of paper Gui Luoyang." Even the village school children of Shilin and even the village school children recited Mr. Shilin's texts." Such an unworldly talent, but to bend down to be a curtain guest, this is a thing that cannot make him happy in his heart, so he wants to use the topic to play a prank, in fact, it is also to show his unfairness. The laughing person laughed to himself, and Wang Siren naturally understood his psychology in the Tengwang Pavilion better than others. He was willing to use this kind of mockery to find balance in his life, and presumably Cai Jingfu could not understand it and therefore could not forgive him.
Indeed, some people often blame Wang Siren's mocking attitude toward the world. But this kind of blame is mostly due to the pedantic insight that the so-called morale is light and useless in the world, and it is not possible to see that in the case of the world's unknown, humor is precisely a kind of wisdom that can be used in the world. We know that after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the dictatorship of eunuchs, the laxity of the rule of officials, the corruption of society, the people's livelihood were poor, and the affairs of the world were already very difficult. Among the upright people, if they want to do something for the people, one is like Hai Rui, who is not afraid of power and has a straight face; the other is to use his wisdom and wit to act. The so-called humor played a special role at this time, wang Siren was. "Sir's administration, the removal of adultery,...... It's all about being ridiculous. Zhang Dai's "Biography of Mr. Wang Chen'an" records an incident in Wang Siren's tenure in Dangtu County, Anhui Province:
Zhongshu Cheng Shouxun asked to open a mine, and went out of Beijing with Da Heng Xing Long, intending to mine, and from Dang Tu to Mr. Nan. Shou Xun stayed in Guazhou, while The Earner arrived first, and the magistrate performed the ceremony of the officials, and there was a commotion in Yiyi. Sir: "No problem. "Rushing to Chi Huang, he called him a dependent in a silk robe, and he was angry, saying that the county officials were not obedient." Mr. Said: "Non-also, the customary hanging is to serve the vegetarian, the public here to celebrate also, so do not obey the vegetarian and serve the silk." He explained slightly, and repeated: "Why is ling thorn called a family member?" Sir: "I am a son-in-law of Gu'an Yang Yuanyuan, and I have something to do with the public." Laughing, mr. Yang sat down and drank with great pleasure, because of the words of Yokoyama. Mr. Said: "Hengshan is the head of the Dragon Head of Emperor Dinghu, and Qiao Su does not dare, dare to ask mining?" The question must be asked to be discussed by the lower part. "So much at stake." I was in the emblem. The gentleman whispered, "Gong Wu whispered into the emblem also." The emblem is large and formless, and there are many people who are willing to be willing to be right and right, so I prepare more pawns for the public to protect the public. "I won't come, but I keep my training and earn me." Mr. Said: "The Hui people hate shouxun to cut bones, think of their flesh, and feed dogs with bones, and drain to wait and see Guazhou, and earn public money first into the tiger's den." "The proverb is that I will return to Beijing and resume my life with the proclamation." "When Tu and Huizhou were able to block as before, Mr. Huizhou also had the strength to laugh at them.
From this incident, it can be seen that Wang Siren's humor is not just a vain remark, but a real act. "Using things with ridicule", as Wang Siren's personal behavior style, deserves praise here. However, the "power of a slur" can actually walk away from the powerful, protect the land and the people, and not be harassed, and in the final analysis, because the people in charge are arrogant but very stupid and incompetent, so with a few words, they can manipulate the power between the palms of the shares, which is how meaningful it is. However, although humor can be used, it cannot be done in the dark era, and it only shows a kind of personal intellectual excellence in the context of the world's dim social and political background. Its force was actually very weak compared to the powerful decay forces of that era. Therefore, Wang Siren, who is good at humor, is no better than Hai Rui's encounter in his career. Such ups and downs can fully show that even if the intelligent people of the Ming Dynasty, such as Wang Siren, can only float and sink in the black vortex of politics, they cannot resist.
It can be said that in that era, it was inevitable that all literati who wanted to make a difference were treated unfairly. The more intelligent you are, the easier you are to be hated, which is a common thing in history. Wang Siren was attacked twice and suffered heavy injuries, "one wounded by Li Sancai, and then traumatized by Peng Ruiwu." Although being squeezed out and attacked by Li Sancai's generation because of political disagreements, it is certainly one of the ends, but the main thing is that after the Ming Dynasty Wanli, the party's power to fight against different powers was very severe, and the scholars and scholars who were involved in the party dispute often became victims. Since political disasters are so incapable of turning back, how can we maintain personal discipline and spiritual integrity in the situation of a hurt life? Wang Siren still chose his humor.
Therefore, at this time, humor became his spiritual weapon to resist harm: "People are looking at the tiger and will be Mr. Shishi, and Mr. Will laugh at it and insult him, and the humor is as usual, and he refuses to be less self-deprecating." "In that political environment, a literati may naturally build a strong human dignity as long as he keeps his own nature, and political evil can destroy human life, but it must not destroy this human dignity. No matter how many times you hurt, I will not "debase", and who can "degrade" me! This may be an important revelation that Wang Siren gave to our descendants. Humor, in Wang Siren is not only a personal style of his behavior, but also, as a strong and profound embodiment of spiritual personality, its righteousness is great.
In his later years, Wang Siren changed his name to Tan An and wrote a "Repentance". Zhang Dai said, "Carving 'Remorse' is based on one's own ambitions, but everyone is still witty and witty, and abuse of poison is even more beneficial", which shows that he has adhered to the spirit of humor and has no regrets or abandonment to the end. In 1644, the Qing army attacked Nanjing, the Hongguang Dynasty collapsed, and the powerful minister Ma Shiying "called the empress dowager system and fled to Zhejiang". For this Ma Shiying, who only knew how to hold the king's self-respect and form a party to gain power, so that he "moved by public opinion and spread the land of the society", Wang Siren wrote a book, laughed and cursed, and vividly, and a sentence recited by future generations came out of this letter: "Fuyue is a country of revenge and shame, and it is not a place where dirt and filth are hidden." ”
Scyth, humorous? Whoops? But only one wave of spiritual righteousness is enough to make those thieves who harm the country and the wrong people smell discouraged.
This year, Yu'an was seventy years old, only two years before he went on a hunger strike and martyrdom.
Elegant gossip
Yuan Zhonglang is also a rather witty person.
At that time, some people compared him with Su Dongpo and said that he had Dongpo 's "funny mouth". In fact, whether Yuan Zhonglang is as funny as Su Dongpo is not certain, but the Ming Dynasty literati admire Dongpo more, so they often have to go to him. In terms of humor and humor, probably the literati have always had such a temperament, from the Oriental Shuo of the Han Dynasty to the literati of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there is no lack of examples, of course, because Su Dongpo is closer to the Ming Dynasty, and it is not unreasonable to regard Yuan Zhonglang's humor as the legacy of Dongpo.
Dongpo's behavior is mostly recorded in Song people's notes, such as Ye Mengde's "Record of Summer Retreat in stone forest", Luo Dajing's "Crane Forest Yulu", Fei Gun's "Liangxi Manhua", etc., among which Dongpo's humor and humor are often recorded. Dongpo is a very open-minded Homo sapiens, and his intelligent style of traveling life is enough to make people fall for it. However, Dongpo's final misfortune due to being attacked and framed by others may not have anything to do with his unobstructed ridicule of current affairs and the people involved. After Dongpo degraded Hainan, although he had experienced ups and downs and knew the world's conditions well, his friends were still not at ease, and Yu Sent a poem admonished him, saying, "Don't get the bright moon to the sand side, and countless pearl divers in the middle of the night." This, of course, requires him to keep his mouth shut, otherwise he will be as easy as in the past. However, Dongpo's personality is so, I am afraid that he will not change until he dies. It is true that Dongpo is wise and broad, but his willful attachment to the affairs of the world has made his wisdom more glorious.
Looking at Yuan Zhonglang from the life of Su Dongpo, it is obvious that Yuan Zhonglang cannot be Su Dongpo after all. But what we have to say is not here, the difference in comparability between them is in another way. The same is witty, is sarcastic, in terms of words and speech, Yuan Zhonglang may be very close to Su Dongpo's humorous and funny style, but there is a more important thing outside the text, that is, ideological awareness and spiritual realm, take it to compare, needless to say that from the difference in their humorous personality, it has practical significance.
Compared with the literati of the Song Dynasty, the literati of the Ming Dynasty were both very narrow-minded and narrow-minded, and very weak and lonely. On the one hand, because the living conditions of the Literati of the Ming Dynasty were much more difficult than those of the Literati of the Song Dynasty, on the other hand, the Literati of the Ming Dynasty could not find a broad way out in the process of trying to break out of the science of science, so they could only retreat to the inner square inch to seek a living. Therefore, the literati of the Ming Dynasty often blindly limited themselves to the scope of their own disposition in terms of ideological awareness, and knew the free meaning of their own lives, so that their personalities would become more and more internalized and interesting, and they might also be open-minded, but this kind of openness was not a living realm expressed in the sense of more fearless spiritual freedom, but under the pretext of rejecting external restraints, the coldness and alienation from the outside world, that is, the so-called personal body and mind of the Ming Dynasty literati had reached a "place where there was no smoke and fire". Therefore, in most of the Ming Dynasty literati, it is rare to see their spiritual realm of caring for the world, and some are just too precious of their personal life interests. In this way, humor and humor for some Ming Dynasty literati have completely become a kind of personal life sentiment for them, a simple need to express inner pleasure, whether it is witty or mocking, in the end it is only about sexual spirit, but it only reflects their cleverness and enlightenment. In the period of the Public Security Brothers and Jingling Zhong and Tan, there were almost no important figures in the Ming Dynasty literary circles who were not like this. Compared with Su Dongpo, what many Ming Dynasty literati clearly lacked was the kind of sharpness that dared to attack and deny in the face of reality, the kind of lofty sentiment that did not compromise with the surrounding living environment for spiritual freedom, and all the witty ridicule became "small ornaments" for fun and fun. The Song people often used the term "Ya Chen" to refer to the humor and humor of literati like Su Dongpo, but in fact, the word was used on the Literati of the Ming Dynasty, which can be said to be narrowed down to the original meaning of its words. The personal characteristics of Yuan Zhonglang's "funny mouth" and the ideological and spiritual connotation of the Ming Dynasty literati he represents are also here. His younger brother Xiao Xiu wrote the preface to his complete works, saying, "Mr. Shi's poems, such as "Jinfan" and "Liberation", are intended to break people's attachments, so there are game languages from time to time." The purpose of using "game language" to "break the shackles" is precisely to avoid the entanglement of the worldly environment and seek a kind of "fixed" inner satisfaction. Yu Deyuan, who was at the same time as Yuan Zhonglang, also said in the prologue to "Liberation Collection", that Yuan Zhonglang's funny is to "trick himself into the net ugly field" in the "Earth One Pear Garden", using himself as humorous material, breaking the world in the infinite fun of the game, so as to be a "liberation lang". From these evaluations, we can not only see Yuan Zhonglang's intention to use comics to stabilize his personal body and mind, but also very clearly see the Understanding and Appreciation of Yuan Zhonglang's intention by the Ming Dynasty people.
Perhaps, Yuan Zhonglang will understand more consciously than others that he is from the point of pursuing the true interest of man, returning himself to a childlike and childish funny state, he said:
When it is a child, it is not interesting, but it is not fun. The face is gratuitous, the eyes are fixed, the mouth is murmuring and wanting to speak, and the feet are jumping and uncertain. The greatest happiness of life is really beyond this time, Mencius's so-called not losing the naked child, Lao Tzu's so-called able baby, Gai refers to this also. Fun is the best of enlightenment.
The funny purpose of being able to get a childlike child is Yuan Zhonglang's most important discovery of life, and at the same time, it is also his greatest masturbation and satisfaction in life. It is not difficult to imagine that in Yuan Zhonglang,the humor of the literati was given a state of nature that was most completely meaningless, and as he thought, this was the most complete way to save life from the world. We cannot but say that Yuan Zhonglang has brought the wisdom of the literati in choosing the destination of life to the extreme. The "supreme" interest of the so-called "right enlightenment" thus becomes another interpretation of the term "ya".
However, have we noticed that when "Ya Yan" fully became a form of embodiment of the most interesting life of Yuan Zhonglang and other Ming Ji literati, what was reflected behind it was no longer the superiority of intelligence, but the weakening of the ideological ability and the retreat of spiritual vision of those literati with intelligence in that era. For the more they understand the "true nature" of life, the more they will give up their thoughts about the world, and the more they will self-exile themselves from the world and be sealed in a spiritual land of their own nature.
Perhaps we can't help but take the problem too seriously, not to mention that it was the ideological and spiritual defects of Yuan Zhonglang and other Ming Dynasty literati hundreds of years ago. But I think that in any era, especially when the survival of the literati is particularly difficult, it is not necessarily a good thing for the literati to be too clever in the face of the world. As a literati, you use humor and humor to make the solution to life, so that you can enjoy yourself and be interested, but you just can't imagine that it is your cleverness that makes you lose your weight in the world you are in. Even if you have a "funny mouth", your incomprehensible remarks are just some elegant gossip.
Those intelligent and penetrating Ming Dynasty literati have already told us how they experienced more than two hundred years of emptiness and uselessness.
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