Liu Xia | master storyteller: Li Liufang's ancient text

Liu Xia

Li Liufang (1575-1629) was a master of storytelling in various prose texts. Whether it is a prologue, a travelogue, a line, an epitaph, an altar text, or a collection, a praise, or an inscription, he can tell a meaningful story, which not only shows his special connection with the people in the text, but also dyes the personality characteristics of the person involved with light brushstrokes, and only one or two details render the tone of his life. Conciseness and eloquence are his brushwork and characteristics, and the emotions of depression and frustration are the main line, always shooting rich and multi-layered narratives. It can be said that this skill is learned by the light.

He said that his ancient text was "written with intention" and had no ancestral descriptions, but Tang Shisheng believed that "grace and elegance, the rest is broad and flat, and its taste is often deeper than those outside the meaning" (Li Yizhi's "Afterword to the Tanyuan Collection", Ming Chongzhen's second year carved Qing Kangxi twenty-eight years Lu Tingcan re-revised the beginning of the "Tanyuan Collection"). Later Lu Yuanfu pointed out that the value of Jiading Si (Tang Shisheng, Lou Jian, Cheng Jiaxuan, and Li Liufang) in the Ming Dynasty was that he inherited the ancient "upright" and passed it on to Guangxu and guangzhi. The ancient Chinese school of integrity is based on the history of the scriptures and the use of the clear body, which is intended to carry the Tao and express the true disposition in the text, rather than simply compiling the words and phrases of the "History" and "Han" to exaggerate. "Hooking through history" like Gui Youguang is not only a way to master learning, but also a way to ensure that ancient writing has roots and must go through the cultivation and construction of vision, so that we can write articles with roots, deep roots, and bright weather. Li Liufang regarded li liufang as a teacher, and his ancient text must belong to the narrative style of "yuanyuan original, qualitative and literary" and "deep and elegant, and light and delicate" (Lu Yuanfu's "Re-engraving the Afterword of Mr. Li Changsheng's Tanyuan Collection", "Tanyuan Collection" Volume Beginning).

(i)

Li Liufang is natural and frank in nature, even if it is a very strongly formatted system, what he appreciates is also the text of heaven and heaven, and he does not like the worldly. "Xu Sikuang's Order of Righteousness" Yun:

For this reason, the cover three changes. Its beginning is depressed and high, there is the thought of cold springs and stones; even if it is for the sake of performing the Yang Mianmiao, then the view of the river and the sea and the victory of the Great Forest Hills and Mountains are also slightly indulgent; it is already a subtle and subtle, looking for ecology, and the management commission, such as shrinking thousands of miles in the inch, and the structure changes in the millise, its ingenuity and the wrong work? ...... Suitable in the mountains, the flowers are rotten, the hope is like snow, from the yuan obscure to think of the text, reflect the flowers and read it, every time you do a piece, cite a big white, you must not be able to do it, and you think of the wilderness, not suitable for the world, and cry.

He said that he was "liked" and not "known" by the world, and he chose to "be from what I liked", so he even wrote naïve and unrestrained articles. Such articles may not have been the best prologues for promoting righteousness at the time, but now it seems that many of the famous people have disappeared, and their articles have been mixed with dust, and Li Wen has been applauded by later readers for following his nature. In the preface of the time, just because of the change in analysis style, it can portray the characters and describe the spirit, and it can be seen that Li Liufang has the talent to shape characters and tell stories. His various articles are basically people with their own, all have a true temperament, even if it is a social essay, it will not be kitsch, exaggeration and sentimentality, the writing is frank and smooth, and the details are vivid and interesting.

Regarding the "law" of the text, he believes that "if you are interested in the law and cannot work, you will not be able to see yourself in the world if you are reckless and unscrupulous" ("From zi ji zhong geng xin cao sequence"). Obviously, Li Wen is closer to "impossible", he is full of energy, his spirit is clear, the preface often has a strong, close to the natural breath of life, focusing on describing the happy life that is in line with the protagonist, and the realm is simple and poetic. He is good at using the freehand techniques in painting, and a few details of life can make the whole article lively, as if the prologue jumps out of the text to move and tell the story. Only a person who sincerely lives and is superb in art can dye a life scene full of interest in three words and two words, not so much that he has paintings in the text, but rather that he integrates all kinds of art, in and out of the way, any genre can be very dusty in his pen, and the spirit mood language is everywhere. "Zou Fang Hui Qinghui Pavilion Grass Sequence" Yun:

At the age of the guest, Mengyang Pavilion Yu Yu Xiaozhu, Zi Jiang, Fang Hui Reading Chenghuai Pavilion, Moving the Bed on Yu Qinghui Pavilion, Shangluo Art Literature, Side and Song Calligraphy and Painting. Towards the sunset, the landscape and water change, and the life is relatively smooth and then stop. Sometimes carrying the flower moon port, worshiping the stone Ziyang, picking the heart of the lake, and the lotus pond, it is not impossible not to share it with Fang Hui. Yu Sex did not like the literature of lifting the industry, and the times used calligraphy and painting, Fang Hui xi poetry painting, and Gu Dushi replaced it with the text of the lifting industry. Fang Hui's text, Xia's jade and jade, looking at it, every art is shown to be yu, reading is not finished, and it must not be called, such as seeing Tao Weishi and Mijia landscape. Although Yu does not like to raise his career, he cannot but dislike Fang Hui's text, such as Fang Hui does not write poetry and painting, but likes Yu's poetry painting, the reason why the two of them entertain themselves and get along is so.

He compares Zou Fang's Huizhiyi to Tao Wei's poems and the paintings of Mi Fu's father and son, praising their clean and moist atmosphere, reflecting their views on the mountains and rivers by the West Lake, and talking about the life mood of poetry and art with the empty mountains and lakes, the changes of clouds, and the passage of the sun and the moon, so that readers "know that it is not just the text, but also the poems of Fu Yu and the paintings of Yu Zhi." After reading it, I feel that the mouth is fragrant and the aftertaste is endless, Zou Fanghui's zhiyi and Li Liufang's poetry and painting complement each other and the Landscape of the West Lake, harmonious and harmonious, and the whole text presents a seamless clarity, comfortable and wonderful and harmonious. There is no direct commentary, and the characteristics of Zou's system of righteousness are written in a completely flattering and figurative way, so that the preface can be described as "without a word, as far as the wind flows". The intertwined friendship and the plot of reading and traveling are like prose poems and small novels.

Li Liufang's papers always require that he know his people and then know his text, and the person he prefaces to it must also be like his person, or that those who are not humanities cannot enter his eyes. Most of his prelude masters are people who are not met, showing a rich or idyllic temperament, when people "eyes are like beans, with smells of the skin", there is no time to appreciate the art of the next person, therefore, the introduction of the character of the preamble has become a precursor description and commendation of its meaning, in the deep regret, the charm of the preamble master's text has also unconsciously increased. "Xu Tingkui Swallow In the Grass Sequence" Cloud:

Tingkui is outward and middle-aged, and his writing is as strong and thick as his personality. The winter is cold and the night is long, when the bonfire is held with Tingkui, relative to the thesis, and the matter of the life, it is endless, or to Shendan. There are two pavilions in the palace where he lives, and after each snow, he carries wine to the sky, and the beauty of the Western Mountains and the magnificence of the Great Inner Palace. Occasionally, famous wines will be drunk against each other, and they will not be drunk and returned.

The preface is less than 500 words long, telling three stories: his friendship with Xu Tingkui, the encounter between the lower and the new upstart, and the very different intentions of Fang Mengxuan and Zhang Binwang. The first story is dashing and bold, the second is indignant and sharp, and the third is helpless. One singing and three sighs, one body three layers, there are pictures, narratives, discussions, lyrics, personnel floating in a number of words at a glance, the emotion of indignation and lamentation runs through the encounters of life. Li Liufang's principle of making friends is to respond with the same voice and seek the same breath, there are not many friends who can enter his eyes for the preface, "Tanyuan Collection" has been deleted by him personally, and the selected preface must represent his life ambition and taste, and can depict the hills and souls in his heart with words, so writing a preface for friends is also singing a twilight song for himself. In the eyes of today's people, it is these softly chanted words that soothe Li Liufang's soul that cannot be relieved, and echo his contradictory voices that combine sorrow and openness.

(ii)

Li Liufang's writings also present the characteristics of rich details and full of interest. "The Record of Liu Yu Ge" tells the story of Zhang Zisong of Kunshan who built the "Liu Yu Ge" to keep Li Liufang. Li wrote a note of this, hoping that Zhang Shi would be good and virtuous, had been known, and had good deeds, and that he would follow the benefits of the sages' size, "to serve the heavens, to merge with the sundanese, and to restrain desires", "to spur them to the reach and to seek benefits from a wide range", and to "to increase the diligence of learning for the sake of goodness, so that the sages will become more and more intimate, and the unworthy will have nothing to participate in." The account begins with his friendship with the Zhang clan, then describes the quiet and lovely nature of the cabinet, then recounts the reason for the note, discusses the name of the sage, and finally sends a message to the Zhang clan. The layers of writing are stacked, such as the wind on the water, the natural waves, the low and the high, the righteousness is concise and just, the personnel scene and life situation are calmly unfolded, called the Cabinet Record, which is actually a documentary of life and friendship. The most wonderful thing is the view of the high pavilion depicted in a few light strokes:

Then Zi Song has built a high pavilion in the corner of the East City, the Xuan Window is lined, the wings are new, the cool is warm, and it is prepared. Neighbors are beautiful and shady, and the pavilion straddles it, and it is as good as it can be, handing over the leaves and covering up several cases. Its yin overlooks the Jade Mountain in the distance, the red chamber is green, protruding above the scales of the ten thousand tiles, the dawn and sunset, the thin yin and the snow, and its perversion is also terrible.

Writing scenery is Li Liufang's strength, a paintbrush shuttles through various genres, adding a lot of color to the article, the green window smoke lan should be and the spirit of wisdom, and the gentleman's friendship is also full of tenderness and honey. The memories of "The Book of Swords and Dragons" and Xu Zhaoji's book boy Tsuen-chi are particularly gentle and moving. He writes about the withering and changing of personnel affairs in exquisite and poignant essays, expressing the consciousness of love and dreams, which has a philosophical meaning:

Sword Metamorphosis, Shimonya. To Yu ShuGu Xiao Shi Tsuen Zhi, good feelings. Suddenly the dream of Tsuen's transgression, the middle of the serenity, out of it, a snake metamorphosis also. Its length is long, and it is caught and thrown into the yu tata. Fearful, draw your sword and draw it. Jue And Zhanzhi said, "Metamorphosis, Transformation, Sword, Cut." He is illusory, and I cut it with wisdom, and the good of Yu and Tsuen is not the end! Because Of Yan Qizhai "Sword Metamorphosis" to understand it, and the title Dongpo two words in the wall said: "After the incident, it is laughable, and there is nothing in the dream." "However, the rest of the twilight is getting worse, and everyone laughs at it, and Fu Gu also laughs." There is nothing to do, and Tsuen Zhi died of paralysis, and The Valley also died violently, and when he mourned, he realized that the dream began to be realized.

This text is similar to the "Xiang Ridge Xuanzhi", which records the naming of "Sword Metamorphosis" and the same-sex love of silk. Beginning with a dream and ending with waking up from a dream, Li Liufang borrowed the impermanence of ren Zhai to compare the process of birth and destruction in the world as a dream bubble, and in the big dream of the vicissitudes of the world, there are small dreams of personal sorrow and joy. If "Xiang Ridge Xuanzhi" is nostalgic for the love of family mother and son, then "Sword Metamorphosis" extends to a wider range of brotherhood and friendship in humanity. The abrupt tone of "Never Dream Again" is also a tribute to the sentimentality of "the pavilion is like a cover" of the light.

Li Liufang's travelogue can be described as a dusty article. "You Shihu Xiaoji", "You Hushan Bridge Xiaoji", "You Yushan Xiaoji", "You Jiaoshan Xiaoji", "You Xishan Xiaoji", etc., are all clear and clear, beautiful and idle, and friendship floats in it. For example, "Notes on You Hu Qiu":

On the tenth day of the first month, he went to the county and visited Tiger Hill overnight. The moon is very beautiful, tourists are still rare, the wind pavilion and the moon pavilion, embellished with one or two teams of red and pink sheng songs, are not evil, but in the end it is not as quiet as the mountains and the air, and the heart will be alone. Taste the autumn night and the weak students sit fishing on the moon rock, there is no contact in the dark, when the wind is heard, and the Buddha lamp looms in the forest pole. And in the spring of this year, with the endless and the nephew and the visit to Zhonghe, the night and the moon rise, no one is with each other, sitting on the stone platform, no longer drinking, no more talking, in order to calm it, feel leisurely want to go with the scenery.

Li's pursuit of "mountain air people quiet, alone to meet the heart" of the atmosphere of the tour, autumn night tiger hill, whether there is a moon or not, as long as it is quiet, is beautiful. The wind and the Buddha lamp constitute the unique charm of Tiger Hill, quiet, leisurely and clear, which is the most authentic tiger hill in his heart. One of the characteristics of his travels is that every trip is full of memories, and each new outing immediately becomes a memory, accumulating the joy of friends traveling together. Temporarily free from the shackles of the world, the mountain light and the wind and moon are all for it, and his scenes exude a relaxed and comfortable sense of movement. It is understandable that travelogues, like calligraphy and painting, are his way of soothing the hearts of those who have been injured by the failure of their careers. The last article of the "Tanyuan Collection" is "Inscription Album Fu Son Hangzhi", which is of great significance and can be regarded as a summary and explanation of his life made by his descendants:

This volume was painted in the winter of the early days, when Master ShiXiang was at the White Crane Temple, Yu Yan went to tanyuan to give a lecture on the "Theory of Rising Faith". Zhang Zi was asked questions day and night, and he was quite developed. Every time the Dharma is divided into the night, or when he is tired, he will make a small scene under the lamp. Zi Salary loves to paint good and sick, so as to entertain him. However, the book was carried by Hang'er, and the child's salary did not want to take it, so he had to keep it alone. During the eight years of pitching, the elephant master drowned, the son died of a miasma, and Yu became old and lazy, and was impatient to make small frames. Zhan looked indignant, and did not feel tears, because of the repetition of this question, belongs to the son of good hiding. The sense of survival of the teacher and the friend and the taste of the old man's Joy and Zen joy are all in this, so do not lightly teach people.

With the nostalgia and emotion of returning to the light, he depicts the scenes of "the survival of the teacher and his friends" and "Fa Xi Zen Yue", telling the story of the last intersection of sorrow and joy, which shows that he has a deep affection for his teachers and friends, and seeks the Tao of piety. His nephew Li Yizhi praised Mr. Jiading Si for "being able to run the world and the customs, to study the ancient Ming Dao, and to pull out the middle and late to restore the beginning of the beginning". Li Liufang can be described as a typical example of poetry, calligraphy and painting, Buddhism, and teachers and friends, and this judgment can be confirmed by many stories in his ancient texts.

Editor-in-Charge: Yu Shujuan