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Yuan Mei is a famous poet, essayist and literary critic in the Qing Dynasty, is one of the "three masters of the sexual and spiritual school", the writing is as famous as the college student Ji Yun, known as the "old man in the garden", his representative works are "Suiyuan poems", "Suiyuan food list" and so on.
Born in 1716 in Qiantang, Zhejiang, Yuan Mei received a good education since childhood, he was gifted and very studious.
In 1735, Yuan Mei participated in the scientific examination, the results of fame and fortune, the next year he went to Guangxi to play, when his uncle was there as the governor's staff, recommended by his uncle, Yuan Mei's poems won the appreciation of the local governor, so the governor wrote a special song to recommend him.
In 1739, Yuan Mei was admitted to the Jinshi and was selected to enter the Hanlin Academy, 3 years later, he was transferred because of the failure of the Manchu exam, and served as the magistrate of Shuyang, Jiangning and other places.
Although Yuan Mei was an official and diligent and had a great reputation among the people, his career was not smooth, so in 1749, after the death of Yuan Mei's father, he took the opportunity to resign from his official position.
Subsequently, he purchased an abandoned garden in Jiangning, which is now Nanjing, which was originally a garden woven by Jiangning during the Kangxi period, but it has been abandoned for a long time.
After Yuan Mei bought it, it was renamed "Suiyuan", and the garden was renovated according to local conditions, and a private garden integrating landscape and cultural landscape was built.
After its completion, the elegance and tranquility and unique characteristics here attracted many literati and artists to gather, and since then, Yuan Mei has also lived a leisurely life here.
At the same time, Yuan Mei created a large number of works that expressed his own temperament, and received many disciples, and many like-minded literati gathered and wrote poems together, and lived a very comfortable life.
It can be said that it is the picturesque free life of Suiyuan that has achieved Yuan Mei's position in the literary history of the Qing Dynasty. Yuan Mei once said in his work that the Grand View Garden in Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Mansions is the predecessor of Suiyuan.
Suiyuan is located in Nanjing's Xiaocang Mountain, is the largest garden in the Jiangnan region at that time, built by Cao Yin, Cao Yin is Cao Xueqin's grandfather, Kangxi was the Jiangning weaving.
Later, after the Cao family was raided, the garden was transferred to Sui Hede's ownership, and later the Sui family was raided again, and after several turns, it was bought by Yuan Mei.
Yuan Mei renovated the garden, he not only made achievements in literature, but also had a business acumen, he renovated the garden, and successively restored and built more than 20 exquisite scenic spots such as the gold stone collection, the incense ring, the incense sea, etc., which not only welcomed the literati and ink writers, but also attracted a lot of people and tourists.
After buying Suiyuan, Yuan Mei also bought all the mountains and forests around Suiyuan, and rented them to more than ten households to plant various fruit trees and vegetables, raise chickens, ducks and poultry.
In this way, Yuan Mei can not only collect land rent, but also provide tenants with fruits, vegetables and food that he needs every day.
Yuan Mei also has a lot of research on food, and he also wrote a book "Suiyuan Food List" to praise the subtlety and deliciousness of Suiyuan's food, which makes some food lovers flock to it.
For a time, the food business in Suiyuan was booming, and Yuan Mei seized such popularity and sold his series of works such as "The Complete Works of Suiyuan" and "Suiyuan Food List" in the garden.
Just by selling books, his annual income is very good, and after he became famous, many people admired him to write all kinds of articles, as long as he made money, he could write, and he could make a lot of money.
After the fame of Suiyuan spread, many literati and scholars, and even dignitaries and nobles wanted to experience Suiyuan, and the fame spread to the emperor for a while, and when Emperor Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, he sent Yin Jishan to inform Yuan Mei in advance, saying that he wanted to live in Suiyuan.
Yin Jishan used to be Yuan Mei's boss and his teacher, and he appreciated Yuan Mei more, originally he thought that this was a good opportunity for Yuan Mei to be promoted, but Yuan Mei did not agree.
The reason he gave was that if he did this errand well, Qianlong would let him go back to being an official, he didn't want to go back, and he was not comfortable, if he didn't do it well, he would cause trouble and his life would be difficult to protect.
Also, if the emperor is received, the garden will definitely have to spend a lot of money to renovate, and the emperor will only live for a few days, and he will waste money and money, and he does not want to go through such a big effort.
His teacher Yin Jishan had nothing to say when he heard it, and he couldn't force it, so he went to reply to Qianlong, although Qianlong was unhappy, but he couldn't help it, after all, Yuan Mei was very famous among the literati at that time, and the emperor couldn't do anything with him.
In this way, Yuan Mei, who pursued freedom, lived in Suiyuan freely, and also married a wife and six concubines, often traveled everywhere, lived a comfortable and rich life, and lived until he was 82 years old.
His teacher Yin Jishan was punished several times for offending the emperor, and I have to say that Yuan Mei really saw it through, said goodbye to officialdom early, and lived his life according to his own heart, not burdened by fame and fortune, only for freedom and freedom, which also achieved his literary status.
People say that the greatest success in life is to spend your life in the way you like, and this is the case with Yuan Mei.