Han Yu, one of the "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties", when he was serving as Jing Zhaoyin, once traveled, the frame of the car was hit by a down-and-out student riding a donkey. At that time, the scholar was taken down by the guards and escorted to Han Yu to let him fall. Although Han Yu was not a person who made a big fuss, he was still a little angry at first in the face of this rude student. This student riding a donkey only knows how to go forward but does not look at the road, it does not matter if he bumps into himself, after all, he has a frame and guards to guard, if he hits ordinary people, then how to be good? So he asked the student why he was like this.
When this scholar was first arrested, he was also very ignorant, and after being questioned by Han Yue, he realized that he had run into trouble, so he hurried to apologize to Han Yue, and also explained why he lost his mind and forgot to look at the road. It turned out that this scholar was considering the words in the poem, he had a poem "Bird staying in the pond by the tree, the monk pushed the moon under the door", but he felt that the word "push" was not used appropriately, and wanted to change it to the word "knock", but he felt that the word "knock" was also somewhat inappropriate, and he accidentally crashed into Han Yu's frame when he wanted to get into the mind.
Han Yu was also a lover of poetry, and after listening to Shusheng's answer, he not only did not rebuke him, but on the contrary, he also helped Shusheng to think about which word to use. After thinking about it for a long time, Han Yu said to the student that it is more appropriate to use the word "knock", first of all, knocking on the door is more polite than pushing the door, and secondly, the overall atmosphere of these two poems is relatively quiet, and using the word "knock" will make a sound in the environment, and it will also increase the anger in the verse. After hearing this, the scholar couldn't help but clap his hands in praise, so he confirmed that the poem would use the word "knock", and he became a close friend with Han Yu.
This down-and-out student is none other than the famous "Shi Nu" Jia Dao. From this story, it is not difficult to see that Jia Dao really worked hard to write poetry, and the precision and tempering of words are extremely demanding. This is actually the common creative attitude of the "bitter bards" of the Tang Dynasty. What they praise in writing poetry is not the inspiration of "the article is natural, and the clever hand is even obtained", but the refinement of the rhythm, duality, and words, and they believe that only in this way can they write excellent poems.
Such "excellence" is actually not a special case for Jia Dao. Jia Dao had a cousin, the two had been monks together, and later Jia Dao was taught by Han Yu, so he chose to take the imperial examination in the hope of showing his talents. And during the examination of the imperial examination, he and his cousin Wu Shangren lived together in the Caotang Temple outside Chang'an City, and when the imperial examination was released, Jia Dao's name fell to Sun Mountain, so the No Shangren also no longer stayed, preparing to travel south to Lushan, so Jia Dao wrote a wonderful poem to bid farewell to him.
"Sending the Unworthy"
Gui Feng Ji is new and sends this caotang person.
The tail is the same as the temple, and the singing is temporarily separated from the relatives.
Walk alone in the shadow of the pond, counting the trees.
Eventually there will be smoke and the roof as a close neighbor.
The first two sentences of the poem describe the farewell scene and environment, everything looks fresh after the rain in the mountains, and the poet also comes to send off the incomparable. The third and fourth sentences are from the top to the bottom, one writes to send, one writes goodbye, and leaves the temple with Wu Wu and says goodbye to him in the cry of the stinging insect.
The next "lone shadow at the bottom of the pond, counting the trees" is an imagination of the situation on the way for his cousin to leave, he walks alone by the waterhole, only the lone shadow reflected at the bottom of the pool is with him, and he is tired and resting on the way, and only the trees around him are accompanied. These two sentences can be said to be written very quietly and coldly, both writing about the cousin, but also not writing about themselves, with a sense of loneliness, but also a little homeless sorrow, let people read for a long time. Finally, the poet's relief and wishes, the cousin is not too sad to go here, after all, he is in response to the yanxia covenant, and Tiantai Mountain as a close neighbor.
Although Jia Dao's poem is only 40 words, it is really well written and has always been praised. In particular, the "lonely pond bottom shadow, counting the trees on the side", is widely praised, the Ming Dynasty poet Xie Hazel said in the "Four Ming Poetry" that these two sentences "the meaning of the word is leisurely, it will be obtained by chance, and it is difficult to match." The meaning is that these two sentences are written so brilliantly that it is difficult for other sentences in the whole poem to match them, so these two sentences must have been obtained by chance.
And Jia Dao's poem is actually inscribed with another poem "After the Inscription Poem", which confirms Xie Hazel's statement. For the two sentences of "the shadow at the bottom of the lone pond, counting the edges of the tree", Jia Dao wrote in the "After the Inscription Poem" that "two sentences and three years, one groan and two tears". His statement is that these few 40-word poems, especially two of them, were repeatedly tempered for more than three years before they were written, and finally became classics, which can be called the most painstaking poems in all Tang poetry. Although it seems to be a bit exaggerated, combined with the "deliberation" and tempering of the poems in Jia Dao's life, it may not be true in my opinion.
Jia Dao's wandering mood and painstaking creative attitude of "bitter bard" sometimes make us wonder whether talent is more important or harder when writing poetry. After all, when we look at these great poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu, we always feel that they often write poems "with their hands", and they are not as "laborious" as Jia Dao.
In fact, this problem is universal, no matter in which field, for the person standing at the top of the pyramid, talent is more important than effort, because talent determines the "upper limit"; but if it is at other levels, then effort is more important than talent, because effort determines the "lower limit". However, the two are not unrelated, they are complementary to each other, which is very much like the logic expressed in the phrase "the harder you work, the luckier you get". So no matter what you do, no matter what your talent is, don't forget to work hard.