Wu Wenying's first reaction may be: "Why is this name so familiar, but you can't remember it!" That's right, he is the lyricist in the Song Dynasty who won the first place in the number of lyrics in "Three Hundred Song Songs", and 25 excellent works were selected! Compared with famous artists such as Su Dongpo and Xin Qiji, Wu Wenying has more lyrics. But why is this master of lyrics so little known today, and even some people just want to turn the page quickly when they read his lyrics?
Wu Wenying, a lyricist known for his brilliant lyrics during the Southern Song Dynasty, has gradually been forgotten in the long river of history. His nickname "Dream Window" may indicate his dreamlike life and style of words. His words, like a dream fantasy, are brilliant and complex, and people can't help but feel an elusive distance and profundity while admiring their beauty.
Wu Wenying's life is full of legends. His original surname was Weng, and he was later passed to the Wu family in Ningbo due to family changes, and since then his surname has been changed to Wu. In his life, he did not pursue fame and fortune, but chose a transcendent way of life, traveled to the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, met friends with words, and lyricized with words. His footprints have traveled all over Suzhou, Hangzhou and other places, and with his unique attitude to life and outstanding poetry, he has become a good story among literati and artists.
Wu Wenying's lyrics were not fully accepted at the time. His style of writing is gorgeous, his imagery is complex, and he often has a fantasy that is out of reality, which is extremely controversial in the literary world of the time. His words are considered by some to be "form over content", such as "seven treasures of the tower, dazzling people's eyes", beauty is beautiful, but not tolerant of fine taste. To a certain extent, this kind of evaluation has affected the dissemination and reception of Wu Wenying's words.
However, neither praise nor criticism can hide Wu Wenying's unique achievements in the world of words. His words are mostly used to express personal emotions, especially to express the feeling of parting and loneliness, such as "Tang Duoling: Farewell" wrote: "Where is the sorrow." Leave people's hearts in autumn. Such words and sentences directly express the deep sadness of parting, concise and affectionate, so that readers can quickly feel the emotional state of the person in the words.
Wu Wenying's words are often full of yearning and nostalgia for beautiful things, and his "Eight Voices Ganzhou Lingyan Accompanies Yu Mu Zhugong Tour" is an example. The words read: "The sky and smoke are far away, what year is it, the blue sky and the long star?" "Through the depiction of natural beauty and the sigh of the passage of time, it shows a nostalgia for the good old days and a sense of uncertainty about the future. The complexity and depth of this emotion make Wu Wenying's words not only literary works, but also a true portrayal of his personal emotional world.
Wu Wenying's style of words is too novel, and his status in the world of words is not smooth sailing. In the late Qing Dynasty, Zhu Zumou, a master of lyrics, highly admired Wu Wenying, and he was even known as "Li Shangyin in words", which is enough to see the profundity and artistic value of his lyrics. When Zhu Zumou compiled the "Three Hundred Song Songs", he was very fond of it, and selected as many as 25 Wu Wenying's words, which was unique at that time. It can be seen that Zhu Zumou highly values and respects Wu Wenying's word art.
Words are like people, and the detachment and loneliness expressed in Wu Wenying's lyrics are also a true portrayal of his life. He was born in a big family, but he did not bend his waist for five buckets of rice, he was unwilling to chase fame and fortune, and preferred to meet friends with words and entertain himself with words. This attitude is fully reflected in his words, and it is this unique way of life and thinking angle that makes his words not accepted by the public at that time. From a modern point of view, this unique artistic pursuit has added a bit of legend.
However, it is a pity that Wu Wenying's words have not received the attention they deserve in later generations. Despite the reputation of "Li Shangyin in the words", ordinary readers are often deterred by the difficulty and obscurity of his lyrics. This situation still exists today, and many people find it difficult to understand and accept Wu Wenying's words when they read them, and prefer to skip them. This may be because his lyrics require more emotional resonance and cultural accumulation to be truly understood and appreciated.
Despite this, Wu Wenying's lyrics have a place in the history of literature. His style of words is unique and emotional, and he has had a profound influence on the poetry of later generations. For example, although Zhang Yan, a lyricist in the late Southern Song Dynasty, had a negative attitude towards Wu Wenying's words in his book "Etymology", believing that they were "broken down and not formed into fragments", this also reflected Wu Wenying's formal innovation and attempts in words. His words, like his life, are full of unusual colors and flavors, a unique cultural landscape of the era.