introduction
According to the different emphases of literary writing in different historical periods, the process of fame of the Yellow Crane Tower can be roughly divided into three stages: the early period, the heyday period, and the late period.
From the Song and Qi dynasties to the Tang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, the Yellow Crane Tower was only seen in Zhiwei novels during the Song and Qi dynasties, and the Yellow Crane Tower was written in the official history after Liang and Chen, which surpassed the local fairy tales, but the main value of the Yellow Crane Tower at this stage was still reflected in the military function; the Tang and Song dynasties were the flourishing period of the Yellow Crane Tower, and its literary function was gradually explored.
This period opened the grand occasion of the writing of poems and stories and legends of the Yellow Crane Tower, and the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties were the late period of fame, in addition to the continuous accumulation of poetry and writing, which deepened the literary heritage of the Yellow Crane Tower.
The frequent and diverse cultural and political activities not only opened up a new path for the Yellow Crane Tower to become famous, but also promoted the comprehensive expansion of its cultural functions.
1. The early days of fame: from only appearing in Zhiwei novels to being written in official official histories
Before the Tang Dynasty, although there are few historical materials about the Yellow Crane Tower, there are distinct stage characteristics, between the Song and Qi dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, the name "Yellow Crane Tower" first appeared in the two strange novels of "Shu Wei Ji" and "Qi Harmonic Ji", and it was only at the time of Liang Chen that the Yellow Crane Tower was officially recorded in the official official history.
However, at this time, the Yellow Crane Tower is mostly linked to the war, and its main value is still reflected in the military function, and the fame fast track with the help of cultural dissemination has not yet been opened, and the Yellow Crane Tower is still in the early stage of fame. According to the county chronicle, the Yellow Crane Tower was built in the second year of Huangwu in Eastern Wu, and was originally used as a military sentry tower.
But strictly speaking, whether the corner tower at that time has been given the name "Yellow Crane Tower" or whether the prototype of the Yellow Crane Tower is this corner tower remains to be verified, and as an ordinary military observatory that has just been built, there is neither the general staff to climb the tower to write poems, nor the baptism of war and gunpowder to make its name immortal.
It is not surprising that Chen Shou (233-279), who was born a little later than the time of the construction of the building, only mentions the construction of the city by Sun Quan in the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, without mentioning the repair of the building.
This is not a strong evidence to deny that the Crane Tower was built in the Three Kingdoms period, but it is clear that according to the documents of the Three Kingdoms and Jin Dynasty that can be seen so far, the Yellow Crane Tower at this time has not yet been named, let alone named. The name "Yellow Crane Tower" first appeared in the two novels "Shu Wei Ji" and "Qi Harmonic Ji".
There are two theories about the authors of the "Narrative of Differences" are Zu Chongzhi (425-500) and Ren Fang (460-508), and Ren Shu follows the name of Zushu.
First of all, in terms of time, according to the time when Zu Chongzhi and Ren Fang lived, we can roughly infer that the writing time of this Zhiwei novel was between the Song and Qi dynasties, and then in terms of content, as a notebook novel in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, although the story model is suspected of being fabricated, the content of it "must be appreciable".
Ban Gu of the Eastern Han Dynasty once pointed out that the novel originated from folklore, which is not only of great significance for understanding the prototype of Chinese novels, but also suggests that this genre has a certain "documentary", so the name of "Yellow Crane Tower" that appears here is by no means fabricated by the author out of thin air.
The legend of the immortal driving the crane may have been tied to the Yellow Crane Tower at that time, the myth is passed on by word of mouth in the name of the Crane Tower, and the Crane Tower is famous by the power of mythology, and the reputation of the Yellow Crane Tower may have spread. However, there is no mention of it in historical books and poetic works.
In the sixth year of Emperor Xiaowu of the Song Dynasty (462), when the famous poet Bao Zhao went to Jingzhou with Liu Ziwei, he passed by Huanghu Mountain to write a poem "Climbing the Yellow Crane Rock", but did not mention that there was a building on the rock.
In addition, when Xiao Zixian wrote the "Book of Southern Qi", although he mentioned the rumor that "Zi'an drove the crane to ascend to immortality", he did not clearly link the rumor with the Yellow Crane Tower, but only briefly described it as "the border river is steep and dangerous, and the building is dangerous".
Although the name of the Yellow Crane Tower was spread in the Liu and Song dynasties, its fame was still small at this time, and the way to become famous with the help of culture had not yet been opened.
It is natural for poets from other places to climb the mountain without writing their names, but on the contrary, as a notebook novel that searches for strange things and originates the path, it relies on these folk anecdotes to support the main body of its text.
And by entering the actual places and characters to win the trust of the audience to the greatest extent, to achieve the greatest degree of "Zhiwei" purpose, which is also in line with the description of the Yellow Crane Tower in the Southern Song Dynasty and Qi literature.
2. The heyday of fame: the grand occasion of the writing of poems and stories and legends of the Yellow Crane Tower
The Tang and Song dynasties were the period when the Yellow Crane Tower was famous, and it was also the beginning of the Yellow Crane Tower's fame all over the world.
During this period, according to the different emphases of the literary writing of the Yellow Crane Tower, the history of the Tang Dynasty was divided into the history of the Tang Dynasty with poetry writing as the main transmission channel and the Song Dynasty history of the Song Dynasty with stories and legends as the main transmission channel.
From the perspective of poetry, compared with the later dynasties, there are not many poetry records of the Yellow Crane Tower in the Tang Dynasty, but from the Tang Dynasty to the late Tang Dynasty, the five dynasties have been endless. The poet Wang Majie of the Tang Dynasty said goodbye to Kang Tai Punctually at the Yellow Crane Tower, and described the "Yellow Crane Tower by the River" as "Zhu Yan will be powdered, and the river will reflect the long".
Meng Haoran, a landscape idyllic poet, also borrowed the phrase "flying the Yellow Crane Tower" to express his nostalgia.
Of course, the first poem in the Yellow Crane Tower must belong to the "Yellow Crane Tower" by the Tang Dynasty poet Cui Hao, which is full of poetic meaning and poetic tension, especially the two couplets describing the Yellow Crane Tower, reflecting the majestic momentum and the wonderful poetry of lofty feelings.
Therefore, the Song Dynasty poetry critic Yan Yu recommended this poem as the first of the "Seven Laws" of the Tang Dynasty in "Canglang Poetry Commentary", and contemporary scholars also spoke highly of it.
In addition, Li Bai has several poems related to the Yellow Crane Tower, the most famous of which is the sentence "The old man left the Yellow Crane Tower in the west, and the fireworks went down to Yangzhou in March" in the Seven Uniques "Yellow Crane Tower to Meng Haoran's Guangling", and other farewell poems such as "Last year, I went down to Yangzhou and sent the Yellow Crane Tower".
"Snow Drops and Cuiyun Qiu, Send Jun Yellow Crane Tower" also takes the Yellow Crane Tower as the place of practice. It is worth mentioning that Wuhan has the reputation of "River City", which originated from Li Bai's inscription in "Listening to the Flute on the Yellow Crane Tower with Shi Lang Zhongqin": In the late Tang Dynasty, the Yellow Crane Tower was still a banquet for literati and ink visitors.
Ascending to the place of singing harmony, Du Mu, a great poet in the late Tang Dynasty, described the landscape around the banquet with "Han water rushing to Shu Lang Divided, and the lonely clouds at the dangerous building point" in the poem "Sending the Ox to the Yellow Crane Tower".
In the late Tang Dynasty poet Li Qunyu's pen, the Yellow Crane Tower is the "Flower Tower on the River" full of spring scenery, "the green water of the spring will be sad, and it will not be returned to Wuyun's eyes." "It's full of spring, full of leisure and elegance, and it makes people forget to leave.
On the contrary, Luo Yin, a poet who repeatedly ran into a wall in the late Tang Dynasty, showed consistent cleverness and loneliness in his poem "Yellow Crane Tower", and rarely had a gentle atmosphere.
Singing wine market is not crazy, munching on the slaughter door is also accidental. From the perspective of art and literature, the art and literature of the Yellow Crane Tower and the poems left by the Tang people are rarely recorded, and there are two reasons for this.
First, there is no record in the history books that the Yellow Crane Tower has undergone a large change in the Tang Dynasty, and there is even no clear repair record, so that the Tang Dynasty Crane Tower is not like the Ming and Qing dynasties and other periods that have left a large number of repair records.
Second, it was influenced by the ancient literature movement of the Middle and Tang dynasties, which marked the prose of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties to carry the Tao in a clear way, and led the prose to the use of politics and religion.
In terms of form, most of the sentences are composed of 46 and gorgeous and neat sentences, and they are not integrated with the prose, so most of the literati and writers have chosen poetry as the best style of their lyrical expression, so it is rare to see the text of the building in the Tang Dynasty.
However, there is a "Yellow Crane Tower" or is considered to be the first year of Daizong Yongtai (765), Ezhou Thorn Shi Muning repaired the Yellow Crane Tower and ordered Yan Bojin to make an account of Yan "Ji" is the first record in the history of the Yellow Crane Tower, which describes the Yellow Crane Tower at that time from three perspectives.
The first is the reason for writing the text, the second is to write the long-standing legend of the immortal driving the crane, and the third is to write about the appearance of the Yellow Crane Tower at that time. From the text, we can know that at that time, the Yellow Crane Tower was already "leaning on the river Han, facing the river below, heavy eaves wing pavilion, four clouds and clouds, sitting on the well, overlooking the clouds and smoke".
It is worth noting that the inscription of the Yellow Crane Tower was engraved after the text of the Yellow Crane Tower, which was written by Wei Wancheng and engraved by Li Yangbing, and was passed on to the Southern Song Dynasty. In this way, the Tang Dynasty "deserved" the statement that the poetry writing of the Yellow Crane Tower was "well deserved".
In the Tang Dynasty, the poetry and writing of the Yellow Crane Tower had already built the foundation of its entire way of becoming famous and famous historical tales, and it can be said that there was a Tang generation at the end.
The journey of the Yellow Crane Tower's fame has reached a historic height, and the subsequent dynasties continued to move forward along the Tang Dynasty's poetry and writing method, which continued to contribute to the Yellow Crane Tower's poetry and writing.
epilogue
So far, with the help of the Yellow Crane Tower-related literary writing and other documents, the process of the Crane Tower's fame can be roughly summarized as follows: from the Liu Song Dynasty to the Southern Qi Dynasty, the Yellow Crane Tower was clearly recorded in the fairy tales but not mentioned in the official history of the poems.
Liang Chen to the Tang Dynasty, although there are few historical materials, but see the Crane Tower is clearly recorded in the official history, this period is a major breakthrough stage in the process of its fame, marking that the fame of the Yellow Crane Tower has surpassed the locality, beyond the people, and laid a solid foundation for the upcoming Tang and Song dynasties.
In the Tang and Song dynasties, according to the different emphases of the Yellow Crane Tower's literary writing, the Tang Dynasty history of the Tang Dynasty with poetry writing as the main way of transmission and the Song Dynasty history of the Song Dynasty with stories and legends as the main way of communication were divided.
This may have a certain relationship with the ancient literary movement of the Middle and Tang Dynasty, in the Song Dynasty, the story and legend of the Crane Tower had both inheritance and innovation, and there was both the inheritance of the previous "motif".
New celebrity stories and new myths and legends have emerged, opening up a new image. In the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, in addition to deepening the literary heritage of the Yellow Crane Tower through poetry and writing, frequent and diverse cultural and political activities expanded its new ways of fame and development stage......
Along the way, the Yellow Crane Tower has developed into a comprehensive cultural carrier integrating military functions, cultural functions, entertainment functions and political functions from the beginning of the military outpost tower, to the literary landscape of the Tang and Song dynasties, to the cultural exchange places of the Ming Dynasty, and then to the political gifts of the Qing Dynasty.
bibliography
"Ancient Novel Hook and Sink"
"Examination of the Rise and Abolition of the Yellow Crane Tower in the Song Dynasty"