Wei Zhuang's luodi poem is actually not so desperate, because Wei Zhuang firmly believes that life is precious in seeing a road and going on without hesitation; where is the high line of life, you need to jump up to find it. During the Period when the Huangchao Rebellion could not be examined, Wei Zhuang did not idle, and while taking his family to avoid Luoyang, he wrote the "Qin Women's Yin", which brought great prestige to himself, which was the longest narrative poem of the Tang Dynasty, which was widely recited at the time, laying the groundwork for him to be favored by high-ranking officials later.
The Tang people have the custom of "reading thousands of books and walking thousands of miles", and "walking thousands of miles" is not a trip that can be walked, but for the sake of study. To put it bluntly, it is to take their most proud works to visit the celebrities and literary leaders of the secretaries of state in the DPRK, and once these "big V", give a preface or get a literary review, the influence index will rise rapidly. In that era when the imperial examination had not yet been pasted on the examination papers, the entrance to the imperial examination relied on fame and fame, and the second relied on the recommendation of high-ranking officials in the DPRK, so even the proud Li Bai went everywhere to visit the celebrities of the secretary of state.
Wei Zhuang visited Zhou Bao, the Zhenhai Jiedushi envoy in Luoyang at that time, with the Qin Women's Yin, and won Zhou Bao's appreciation. So Wei Zhuang went to Zhenjiang to work under Zhou Bao's curtain for three years. After the failure of the Huangchao Rebellion, the Tang Empire defeated the peasant rebel army, but the eunuch dictatorship and the rebellion in the town could not be eliminated, and the Tang Empire fell into civil strife again, and the emperor fled again. Wei Zhuang was sent to Baoji by Zhou Bao to meet Tang Emperor Who had fled due to the fall of Chang'an, but Tang Zhuang did not receive it, and when Wei Zhuang returned to Jinling, he found that Zhou Bao had been overthrown and expelled by his subordinates. Wei Zhuang went on a trip and came back to find that the leader was gone, and his heart was empty. Therefore, most of the nostalgic epic poems written by Wei Zhuang like to use the word "empty" to express a sense of disillusionment with the vicissitudes of history, such as his famous "Taicheng Liu":
The river rains and the grass are in unison, and the six dynasties are like dream birds crying in the air.
The most ruthless is Taicheng Willow, still smoke cage ten mile causeway.
The river is misty with smoke and rain, and the green grass on the riverside is like a green grass, but the capital is set in the Six Dynasties of Jinling, which does not start with comedy and end with tragedy, which is not first prosperous and then decayed in a short period of time? What did those once-bustling empires and dynasties leave behind? It was just a dream of Huang Liang, only the gentle call of the bird. The place where the willows were full of smoke at that time is now fragrant with wild grasses, and history is merciless, and the willows are still charming, touching the long pavilion of the herbs.
In fact, Wei Zhuang used the "thing is" of willow color and green grass every year to reflect the "human non" of the Six Dynasties like flowing water, and with a "empty" word, he wrote down the vicissitudes of history and the disillusionment of life. Wei Zhuang wrote ancient poems of Yong Shi Huai, liked to use the word "empty", such as "there are dreams in the country, for the dragon for the tiger is also empty", "quarry empty flowers, Wujiang river water flowing", etc., if Wei Zhuang did not have a strong Confucian ideal as a spiritual pillar, I am afraid that he would have already escaped into the empty door.
Zhou Bao was expelled, and Wei Zhuang fell into a situation of no branches to rely on. He took his family and mouth to jiangnan farther away, where he lived in seclusion for a generation in Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and by the way, he searched for teachers and friends and continued to prepare for the imperial examination. Wei Zhuang finally won the first place in the first year of Qianning, that is, in 894 AD, and he worked hard for decades to finally make his dream come true, but Wei Zhuang was no longer young, he was already an old man who was dying of old age. He was 59 years old, seven years before the fall of the Tang Empire.
Opportunities are always left to those who are prepared, and for this moment, Wei Zhuang has made preparations for nearly sixty years. "Ten years of cold window no one asked, once the world became famous", Wei Zhuang finally embarked on the career path, in just a few years, Wei Zhuang did Zuo Shiyi, which is the work of the counselor, specifically responsible for giving advice to the emperor. The problem is that the Tang Empire has entered the end of the world, the emperor is also a puppet controlled by eunuchs and Fanzhen, the emperor at the end of Tang is either replaced by eunuchs or forced away by Fanzhen, and even if Wei Zhuang has a belly full of splendid embroidery, he can't find anyone to say. Wei Zhuang was full of disappointment in the political situation of the Tang Empire, and he could not see where the way out was.
"Rich and noble do not return home, such as brocade night walking." It is reasonable to say that Wei Zhuang, who finally became an official, after returning to his hometown, cannot say that he is like Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, "the wind rises and the clouds fly", then at least he must have twelve points of pride. But when Wei Zhuang returned to his hometown, his heart was infinitely sad. When Wei Zhuang returned to Fan Chuan, where he lived when he was a teenager, he wrote a poem "Passing through Fan Chuan's Former Residence", and the mood of the last days in the poem was simply not a return to his hometown, and it looked like Qingming had come to sweep the tomb.
But to Fan Chuan to visit the old tour, the sunset faded grass Duling autumn.
After Liu liu went to the Moss Pavilion, Ji Ruan returned with a full head of snow.
It can be said that there are only swallows in chaos, and it is better to steal leisure than gulls.
Thousands of mulberries and thousands of seas were not seen, and the horizontal flute sounded an empty tear.
The meaning of the poem is that I was ordered to send an envoy to Nishikawa, and I went to my hometown of Fanchuan to revisit, and the autumn sunset shone on the decaying grass of Duling. After the poets Ying Yue and Liu Zhen of the Wei and Jin Dynasties died, moss was born in the attic, and Ji Kang and Ruan Zhi were already white-haired after their return. Who can say that the pain of chaos is only swallows, life is running everywhere, not as good as gulls know how to sneak around and live a life. No one saw the changes in the vicissitudes of Kuwata, and holding the flute and shedding tears did not help. Wei Zhuang's "Sunset Decline Grass Duling Autumn", like Li Shangyin's "Sunset is infinitely good, only near dusk", is the symbol of Datang's entry into the end of the world, and the Tang Empire is about to enter the countdown.
But Wei Zhuang's last chance came. Xichuan Jiedu made Wang Jian appoint him as the "palm secretary", equivalent to Wang Jian's chief of staff. Wei Zhuang gladly went. Because the Tang Empire at this time was already terminally ill, the Central Plains Bandang soldiers were in a series of disasters, and he was useless as an advisor. At this time, Xichuan, which is now the Great Plains area of Chengdu, was under the administration of Wang Jian, with a developed economy and a prosperous culture, and was an oasis without war. Although Wang Jian was born in a grassy manner, he liked to appoint literati, and many literati took refuge in Shu, such as Niu Zhao and Mao Wenxi, the main poets of the Later Huajian Sect, who had already made it to Chengdu. Wei Zhuang also made up his mind to leave his homeland and go to Western Shu.
After Wei Zhuang entered Shu, after the Tang Empire was destroyed, he first persuaded Wang Jian to be called emperor, and then helped Wang Jian to govern the country, Wang Jian was very satisfied, Wei Zhuang's career was smooth sailing, and he achieved "the servant under the door and the tongping zhangshi", that is, the prime minister. Wei Zhuang reached the peak of his career within 8 years, and at the same time reached the peak of the ideals of intellectuals of that era, wei Zhuang could be satisfied.
On the contrary, Wei Zhuang, who was proud of the horseshoe disease in the spring breeze of his career, was psychologically miserable and miserable, and he was almost depressed. There are probably several factors that cause his psychological depression, one is the sense of loss after success, you are the prime minister, and your life's work has been realized, what can you do next? The second is that life is close to twilight years, wealth is not long, life is not like an arrow, he can not avoid the sigh of life is easy to grow old. The third is the deep thought of the homeland, the Central Plains is the time of turmoil, it is difficult to return home, let alone return to the hometown, even if it is sneaking back, it is impossible, he may be a wanderer in a foreign land.
The most important point is that the companion is like the companion of the tiger. Wang Jian was born in a reckless grass, Wei Zhuang must be careful, some things, "uncle can't bear it, aunt can't tolerate it", but Wei Zhuang must endure. According to ye shi records, "Zhuang has a favor, a brilliant qualification, a good word, a good word, a jianwenzhi, entrusted to teach people to speak, and robbed them." Zhuang remembered and wrote "Lotus Leaf Cup", "Little Heavy Mountain", and "Gurudwara Golden Gate", all of which were written by Ji, and their words were poignant, and people passed them on to recite, and Ji Hou heard them, and did not eat and die.".
It is said that Wei Zhuang had a beautiful and literary favorite concubine, who was taken away by Wang Jian and entered the palace, Wei Zhuang was depressed from then on, and whenever he wrote poems to express the meaning of lovesickness, these words were widely recited, and Wei Zhuang's concubines heard it and died of hunger strike in the palace. Whether this was really a matter was unknown, but it was true that Wei Zhuang's life was not satisfactory. He said, "I am sorry for junxin, I only wish Tao Tao did not want to wake up", he only wanted to live a life of fly camp dog under the anesthesia of alcohol.
In the end, Wei Zhuang found his own spiritual sustenance in Chengdu, he found the old site of Du Fu Caotang on the bank of Huanhua Creek, rebuilt the Caotang according to the original scale and style, lived in its place and thought of his people, and recited Du Fu's poems all day long to spend his life.
Wei Zhuang's life is the epitome of the tragic life of the intellectuals of the late Tang Dynasty. He was full of Kunpeng ambitions, and when he had the ability to realize his ambitions in life, the corrupt imperial examination system left them with no way to go; when he finally got what he wanted to ascend to the throne, the Tang Empire was on the verge of extinction. Literati like Wei Zhuang, not only did Huai Cai not have nowhere to show his ambitions, but even his life safety could not be guaranteed, so he had no choice but to put aside the Confucian idea of loyalty and filial piety and enter Wang Jian's shogunate, although he was helpless, but after all, it was incompatible with morality. This was perhaps the biggest knot in Wei Zhuang's heart. In fact, Wei Zhuang does not have to be so entangled, his tragedy is the tragedy of an era, when the tide of the times surges in, we are all a speck of dust, helpless to do nothing.