In the previous lecture, we talked about Wen Tingjun, the originator of the "Huajian Sect" lyricist, who had a bumpy and difficult life, although he was burdened with the talent of Ling Yun, he was helpless to meet him, coupled with his stubborn personality, he refused to bow his head to the magnates, but instead he was debauched and unrestrained and loved freedom, with a look of "I am a hooligan and I am afraid of whom", which turned himself down for a lifetime. However, Wen Tingjun put his life's ambitions and talents into the creation of poetry, and was known as "Wen Li" with Li Shangyin in poetry, and in the creation of literati words, he created a precedent for the "Huajian Words" school, becoming a professional literati word creation since the Middle and Tang Dynasties, and is the writer with the most words. Wen Tingjun should have no regrets if he knew about the underground.
Among the writers of the middle and late Tang Dynasty literati, there is also a figure with the same name as Wen Tingjun and the twin peaks of Wen Tingjun, known as "Wen Wei", this person is Wei Zhuang, another important lyricist of the "Huajian Zi" school. Since it is the "Flower Word" school, we may wish to use flowers to compare the difference between Wen Tingjun and Wei Zhuang. Wen Tingjun wrote many noble women, think women, and singers, and his words were graceful and luxurious, like a rich peony, while Wei Zhuang's words were fresh and elegant, and the language was clear and shallow, like an orchid that emitted a fragrance.
We know that Wen Tingjun has been wandering all his life and is frustrated, so what kind of life is Wei Zhuang?
Wei Zhuang, the word duan himself. Duan zi is the meaning of self-improvement, and forging morality and self-righteousness is exactly what Confucian philosophy requires of intellectuals, and it seems that Wei Zhuang comes from a Confucian family. We know that it is very difficult to remember the words of the ancients, in fact, as long as we master the rules, you can easily remember the names and words of the ancients. Generally speaking, the ancients also had a name and called their own name, while others generally called this person's word in order to show respect. Take Wei Zhuang, for example, he calls himself Zhuang, while others want to call him Duan Himself.
There are three kinds of relationships between the general name and the word, the first is that the meaning of the two words is the same, such as the great poet Qu Yuan, in fact, his name is ping, "Guangping Yueyuan", so the word is original; and then for example, the great poet of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng, heng naiping, so it is called Pingzi; the great poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, Lu Youzi, because the view has the meaning of excursion; the same reason, the Song Dynasty sent the poet Qin Guan, the word less travel. The second is that the name is opposite or opposite to the word, such as the Southern Song Dynasty poet Liu Guo, the word is changed, because if there is a mistake, it can be changed, and it can not be wrong. The great poet of the Tang Dynasty, The Hermit Wang Ji, because "performance" is the meaning of merit, so the word is useless; the great poet of the Tang Dynasty, Han Yue, "yue" is a further meaning, so the modest point is called "retreat". The third is that the name has a related meaning to the word, Zhao Yun in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the word Zilong, because the cloud is related to the dragon, such as "Zhou Yi" said "cloud from the dragon, wind from the tiger".
After talking about the names and words of the ancients, we will continue to talk about Wei Zhuang's ups and downs in life. If you travel to the Tang Dynasty and meet someone with the surname Wei, then you should be polite and maintain the greatest respect, because in the Tang Dynasty, the Wei family was a prestigious family. Perhaps you remember that when we talked about the Tang dynasty literati, we once talked about a tang xuanzong's imperial bodyguard, who later became Wei Yingwu, a famous poet of the Suzhou Assassin History and the famous Shanshui School, who was the fourth ancestor of Wei Zhuang. And their distant ancestor was more cattle, the prime minister of the Wu Zetian era. The Wei family was absolutely powerful in the Tang Dynasty, and there was a saying of "Jingzhao Wei Du, away from the heavens and rulers", saying that the Wei surname and du surname of Chang'an were the closest families to the imperial power center, so it can be seen that the Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu was also a family prince.
It is said that the entire Tang Dynasty Wei family produced sixteen prime ministers, two empresses, three imperial concubines, and eight horses. However, the Wei family began to decline gradually in the era of Wei Yingwu, and there were no high-ranking officials and dignitaries for many years. When we arrived at Weizhuang, although the old house in Chang'an was still there, in the chaotic world of the late Tang Dynasty, the house was neither demolished nor valuable, and the Wei family was basically about to degenerate into commoners.
Living in such a family, Wei Zhuang felt a lot of pressure. On the one hand, the glory of his ancestors prompted him to dream of re-entering the political arena and making a big career; on the other hand, the decline of the family made him without "Zu Yin", and he could not be like his fourth Zu Wei Yingwu, even if he was young and cockfighting, drinking and gambling, he could still become Tang Xuanzong's imperial bodyguard. And Wei Zhuang only had to rely on his own efforts, he only had one way to go, and it was also the only way for Han intellectuals, that is, to study hard and rely on the imperial examination to embark on the career path. As a result, Kao Jinshi became the only target in Wei Zhuang's heart.
Although Wei Zhuang studied hard and thought quickly, he was quite bumpy in the matter of entering the military. He spent most of his life either on the way to the entrance examination, or on the way to the entrance examination, and did not pass the examination until the age of fifty-nine. But by the time he was admitted to the Jinshi, the Tang Empire was already dying and was about to perish. This is the tragedy of life, such as when you wear heavy makeup and sing and play, and when you are ready to take the stage, you just emerge from the background with a square step, the stage collapses, and the audience is gone; for example, you wait for Godot, and in the end, you find that Godot is a legend. But there is no invincible road, the Tang Dynasty is dead, but followed by five generations of frequent wars, in the fertile Chengdu Plain, a Wufu Wang Jian founded the Shu Kingdom, Wei Zhuang was founded by Wang Jian to be responsible for all the work of the founding of the country, and finally became the Prime Minister in the Shu Kingdom, which can be said to be the East is not bright and the West is bright, and the Tang Dynasty is destroyed as the Prime Minister.
This is Wei Zhuang's legendary life. Wei Zhuang's seventy-five years of life, just from Tang Wenzong to Tang Zhaozong, experienced the Huangchao peasant uprising, and then to the demise of the Tang Dynasty, which can be said to be a political and social history of the late Tang Dynasty.