He is a talented man in the flower room, cynical before the bottle of wine, and promised himself in beautiful and gorgeous words;
He was also a disciple, arrogant and upright, arrogant in the era of decadence and chaos.
He was the poet Wen Tingjun of the late Tang Dynasty.
Wen Tingjun almost exhausted the talents of the literati, not only did he know everything about musical words, but also mastered the composition of music, and was respected by posterity as the originator of the "Huajian Word School".
However, although Wen Tingjun was a winner in the field of literature, he was a loser in his career.
Because he liked to satirize the powerful, he was disqualified from the entrance examination for many years, and only became a Liupin scholar in the year of Hua Jia.
It seems to be a drunken dream of a game life, in fact, what he wants in his life is only an official and a half-job.
Laughing at himself and cherishing economic strategies, he did not put his heart on Xu Yanxia
Wen Tingjun was born in Taiyuan, his ancestors were the prime minister of the early Tang Dynasty, although by his generation has declined, but he can also be regarded as a famous family.
Wen Tingjun has been a well-known prodigy since he was a child, and it is said in the Biography of Tang Caizi:
"Less sensitive, talented, able to write into ten thousand words."
When Wen Tingjun thinks, he likes to cross his hands together, and he can form eight rhymes with eight forked hands, so he has won the reputation of "Wen Eight Forks".
It can be seen that he is extremely rich in poetry, quick in his thinking, and when he was a teenager, he was also ranked first in the examinations in his hometown.
Not only that, Wen Tingjun is also extremely talented in musical rhythm, giving him a rubber band can pop a key;
Give him an artifact with holes and you'll be able to play a beautiful piece of music.
However, Heaven gave him extraordinary talent, but did not give him a good skin bag.
The New Book of Tang commented on him as follows:
"Thin lines without inspection width".
Unlike the mercurial talent, Wen Tingjun is not only ugly, but also does not trim the edges, so he has a nickname of "Wen Zhongkui".
However, under the rough appearance, there is a delicate heart, and his words are very tender and delicate.
For example, "Bodhisattva Man":
The hills overlap the golden ming extinction, and the sideburns want to burn the snow. Lazy to draw moth eyebrows, make up and wash late.
Look at the front and back mirrors of the flowers, and the flower surfaces are mirrored. New post embroidered grosgrain, double golden partridge.
Wen Tingjun's poignant words hide a lot of worries about women.
His writings influenced the history of Chinese poetry, and the Later Shu Zhao Chongzuo's Compilation of the Collected Works of Flowers, which opens with Wen Tingjun's sixty-six poems.
The first genre in the history of Chinese words, the "Huajian School", was born, which is also the source of the "Euphemism School".
Since then, in the Ming Dynasty, there has been a warm word fever among the literati, and there has even been a scene of "everyone reading flowers and reciting Wen poems for a long time".
That's the beauty of talent.
After several years of hard work with Jun, the mourning and joy are empty
According to common sense, such a birth coupled with extraordinary talent, no matter how you live, you can embark on the peak of your career.
However, fate can always have unexpected results, a good hand, and Wen Tingjun played a different result.
When he was young, Wen Tingjun, like most of the readers, also wanted to pass the entrance examination and become a high official, so when the time came, he was ready to go to Chang'an to take the imperial examination.
When he passed through Yangzhou, the official Yao Xun was very optimistic about Wen Tingjun's talent, so he gave him a large amount of money to let him prepare for the exam, but Wen Tingjun, who liked fireworks and willow lanes, went to the Qinglou to spend the money in the blink of an eye.
Wen Tingjun was also driven out in this way, and his bad reputation was also spread.
Later, Wen Tingjun finally came to Chang'an, when the literary form of "word" gradually spread in the folk, and Wen Tingjun became a red person in Chang'an City by writing parting words.
Such moving words as "Linglong dice an red bean, into the bone acacia do not know" were sung in the streets and alleys of Chang'an, and various necklaces, bracelets and other ornaments made of dice were immediately popular in Kyoto.
A group of sons of magnates admired and sought after him, and by chance, Wen Tingjun and Prince Zhuang Ke became friends and became the prince's companions.
Everything seems to be in front of the eyes, but in fact, the undercurrent is surging and people don't know.
The good times did not last long, and some people impeached the prince who only knew how to play, and broke the law, suggesting that the emperor depose the prince, and it was not long before the prince died.
At that time, it was Wen Tingjun who accompanied the prince to play, and his own reputation was flawed, and now with this black history, the road of scientific expeditions is even more difficult to go.
At that time, the imperial examination had to pass the examination of Jingzhao Province, and after passing, he was recommended to take the entrance examination.
Wen Tingjun won the second place in the Jingzhaofu examination, and everyone thought that the merit was in the hands of the hand, but he unexpectedly fell off the list.
Some people said that he did not go to the entrance examination because he was ill, and some people said that he offended the emperor because of the matter of the prince and was disqualified from the examination.
The dust of history has settled, in short, Wen Tingjun's career has been blocked.
Faced with the failure of the imperial examination, Wen Tingjun began to indulge himself, mixed with ling foxes, and finally had no choice but to return to his hometown.
I thought that such a process would be very tortuous, but in fact, his tragic life has just begun.
Wen Tingjun's scientific expedition was so arduous, mainly because he had offended the then prime minister Ling Fox.
At that time, the emperor liked "Bodhisattva Man", so in order to please the emperor, Fox Silk asked Wen Tingjun to ghostwrite and told him not to say it.
However, Wen Tingjun told the secret when he was drunk, and from time to time he satirized the prime minister.
Ling Huxian once asked him about the words "Jin Bu Yan" that could be used against the battle, and Wen Tingjun blurted out "Jade Stripe", and satirized that he had not read "Zhuangzi" as a minister of state, which was simply "a general sitting in the Zhongshu Hall".
Ling Fox gradually alienated Wen Tingjun, and he said to the emperor:
Wen Tingjun is talented, but his character is too poor, and such a person cannot let him enter the army.
Wen Tingjun, with his talent and fame, mixed with a group of officials and second-generation officials, while spitting on the darkness of the officialdom, he also longed to enter the army by making friends with powerful people.
The conceit of the literati made him miss many opportunities and bury his future with his own hands.
However, the gains and losses in this world can never be clearly explained.
Perhaps that official eunuch single-handedly covered the sky in the late Tang Dynasty, Wen Tingjun's career path had already been decided long ago.
The evacuation is not idle and the wish is finally fulfilled, and the prosperity and decline are empty to see the original heart
Not only is his career like this, Wen Tingjun's love path is also not smooth, and his love story with the Tang Dynasty female poet Yu Xuanji is also a bleak ending.
Yu Xuanji's original name was Youwei, she was the daughter of a down-and-out reader, but she was born smart, and at the age of eleven or twelve, she became famous in the Chang'an literati circle.
Wen Tingjun is a person who loves talent and cherishes talent, specially went to the fish's house to meet this little poet, and also accepted her as an apprentice, and the fate of the two people began to be entangled from this moment on.
Fate is sometimes very wonderful, and the beauty and talent gradually develop feelings because of worship in the poetry and song.
The beauty is waiting to be released, but the talent is already dying.
In the face of the obsessive gaze of the young girl who had just opened the love dou, Wen Tingjun flinched, he could not escape the entanglement of the name of the master and apprentice, nor could he cross the thirty-two-year-old age gap, and he could only pretend to turn a blind eye to The love of Youwei.
In the end, Wen Tingjun used the official transfer to avoid the entanglement of this love, and then matched Youwei to marry Li Yi, a new branch scholar, after all, the rich children with a promising future can at least ensure that Youwei has no worries about food and clothing for a lifetime.
There is no right or wrong in love in the world, and those who move people's hearts are not first of all.
It is this step difference, Youwei's life has a different result, she was first driven out of the house by Li Yizheng's wife, and then sentenced to beheading for killing the maid, And Youwei shouted before the execution:
"Youwei has a good life, but in this life she has only loved Wen Tingjun alone."
Wen Tingjun, who is also a teacher and friend, shed tears for her thousands of miles away, which is more than ten years late, and I don't know if there is a regret of missing out.
He thought he had fulfilled his master's duty, but he forced a woman into the fire pit.
Wen Tingjun wrote all his life about spring love grievances, but he was only a giant in poetry and a deserter in love.
Although the phoenix commanded that it was fateful, the parrot was tall but tired
The road of this life, no matter how difficult, must continue.
Wen Tingjun actually tried to fight against fate, and after falling off the list many times, he lamented this in "Sick Book Huai Cheng Friends":
"Endowed with knowledge of predetermined, cold and fearful."
He understood that he could not overthrow the darkness of this world by himself, but he still gambled back to Chang'an eight years later to take the imperial examination again.
However, several examinations were not passed, and finally they simply helped others to disrupt the examination room.
He is not without a desire for a career, even very strong, but he is repeatedly in the field.
Therefore, for Wen Tingjun at this time, whether he could get the middle school was already not important, what was important was that he used his actions to show the eunuchs his spirit of never compromising.
Once, under the eyes of the examiner, he also helped eight people to cheat successfully, so he received the nickname of "saving several people".
The most outrageous time was that a son of an official got the test question in advance, and after Wen Tingjun answered on his behalf, the official's son took the exam, which alarmed the emperor, and many people were degraded.
Unexpectedly, Wen Tingjun actually came to operate because of this incident and was sent to Sui County, which was relatively remote at that time.
Later, after the recommendation of the noble xu shang, he became the assistant teacher of Guozi, although the level was not high, at least a Beijing official.
His life was not clear, and now that he had just entered the official arena, he was pushed to the brink of death.
After Wen Tingjun took office, he presided over the autumn examination of a Guozijian.
He thought about his own experience, in order to show fairness and justice, did not adopt anyone's recommendation, took out the examination articles and published them, and many articles that attacked the shortcomings of the times offended many powerful people.
He single-handedly fought against the Tang Dynasty's imperial examination system, no doubt hitting a stone with a pebble, a piece of paper derogatory book, so that the old age has been hot Tingjun no longer turned over, and finally died of depression.
The final ending of a generation of talents is only five words in the "Biography of Tang Caizi":
"He died in exile."
Many people commented that Wen Tingjun's work was a "side lyrical song", and his poems were also limited to the ornate boudoir, and only showed his talent in the words between the flowers.
Wen Tingjun did not want to be a "sage" who assisted Ming jun, but looking back at the decadent and late Tang Dynasty of Wen Tingjun's life, the spirit of the times was no longer on the horse, and all that could be left for the literati to write was boudoir love.
As he wrote in "Passing Chen Lin's Tomb":
"The writer has a spirit to know me, and the overlord has no master and no mercy."
Wen Tingjun's life was full of talent, but he never gave up his struggle and efforts, so even if he fell down in this life, he had no regrets.
Most of the people in this world are ordinary people like you and me, who have never experienced the helplessness of fruitless efforts in their lives.
Regardless of the quality of an era, being able to work hard for your own life is the best life.
In this world, there will always be a glimmer of light that belongs to those who have not given up.
Author | Su Mo, Source: Mercy Book Club (ID: cihuai_dushuhui)
Image | Stills from "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an"