Zhang Yuan, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, came from a humble background, talent is difficult to show, people in middle age life is still a chicken feather, teenagers leave their hometowns, young people are stranded in the end of the world, middle-aged but depressed by career, eye diseases, sometimes have the nickname of "poor blind Zhang Taizhu"; in his later years, Guanda is still poor, and he is still poor, and he is walking towards the end of his life in a depression, such a situation is almost the same as that of Mengjiao.
Perhaps it is precisely because Zhang Zhi has experienced too much poverty, but has honed an extremely rich heart, he is as delicate as a hair, writing poems, emotional outpouring is subtle and euphemistic, his poems are not decorated, not fake carving, in the easy and smooth to see the deep, known as the "poetic intestine" Zhang Yuan, in his own way, comfort his life's suffering!
It is worth saying that Zhang Zhi's fate in life is not good, poor and poor, but his great luck is that there is no lack of noble people around him, Han Yu, Meng Jiao, Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi and other people are close to him, friendship is very strong, that rich heart under the care of good teachers and friends, more and more calm and quiet, gentle and firm, this may be his good recipe against suffering.
Zhang Zhi was born in a poor family, the last life has no examination, it can be seen that his ancestors rarely have high-ranking officials and nobles, the children of poor families have long been in charge, if you want to change your fate, you can only study and enter the world.
When he was a teenager, Zhang Zhi left his hometown early and studied everywhere:
Nian Jun's young man did not have relatives, and he was a guest for thousands of miles.
At first, he studied in the Area of Queshan Zhangshui, traveled from place to place, and later studied with the poet Wang Jian, who was equally famous with him, for ten years, the two were like-minded, and their personalities were equally fierce, and this classmate experience made the two establish a deep friendship. The two exchanged literature and exchanged poems:
In the old days, the same preaching, Qing Xiang was next to the teacher. Provenance is due to two causes, such as the other cloth and the cloth. - "Sending Zhang Zhi back to Jiangdong" ... Make the throne go down to listen to Yi, and the virgin court will meet the poetry in the night. The new composition sentences are borrowed from each other, and the idleness seeks righteousness and thinks together. - "Every King Jianyou Gift"
Zhang Zhi left his hometown for several years.
After completing his studies, Zhang Zhi, who was full of ambition, went to Chang'an to seek an official, because he did not have any fame, and the results were all frustrated.
Subsequently, the young Zhang Zhi began a life of wandering in the world, and the purpose of the trip was to "seek self-development at a young age". Judging from his travel poems, his footprints have traveled to Jin, Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi and other places in the north, although Zhang Zhi has been wandering the world for many years and running around, but he has not found a place to stand. The rich experience of long-term travel to a foreign land, the constant pursuit and constant encounter of bumps in the wall, made him taste the cold and warmth of the world, and experienced the wind and frost of the world. It was a very unfortunate period for his personal life, but it was a very precious period for the creation of a realist poet.
It was this arduous experience that gave Zhang Zhi the opportunity to have extensive contact with the people at the bottom, to observe life with his heart, and to see through the various ills of society. These are the deep soil on which the towering tree of art grows.
During this period, a lot of realist poetry was also bred, and he painted for us a historical picture of the suffering life of various working people in the Middle and Tang Dynasties, including farmers and old people, recruiting people and complaining women:
The flooded hands and feet were all sores, and the mountain flies flew in their clothes. ("Gangmura Line") The seedlings were not allowed to be eaten, and the imported official warehouses were turned into soil. (Wild Old Song) Poor children rent less than enough, and the husband dies and is not buried in prison. ("Mountain Deer") The domesticated man is the gateway, and today he is the king's city. ("The Word of Building a City") The woman went out with the rebels, and the husband did not dare to cry before he died. (Yongjia Xing)
In his youth, Zhang Zhi's most admired poet was Du Fu, and the poems he composed also had some taste of Du Fu. The reason why these poems that shine with the brilliance of realism can come from Zhang Zhi's hands is to a large extent due to the tempering of this arduous experience.
Zhang Zhi returned home in frustration in the wind and dust of the servants, but his poetic title has gradually spread with the footprints of the long journey, and the "Autumn Thoughts" has already won him a good review in the poetry world:
Seeing the autumn wind in Luoyang City, I want to write a book with great meaning. Fear hurriedly said no end, pedestrians before the opening and opening. - "Autumn Thoughts"
In 796, Zhang Zhi, who was nearly standing at home, ushered in an opportunity to change his destiny.
That year, with the help and encouragement of Han Yu, Mengjiao, at the age of 46 and his first returnee, when passing through Bian Prefecture, praised Zhang Yu's poetry to Han Yue, and then visited Zhang Zhi in Hezhou.
In the winter of the following year, Zhang Yu went north to visit Han Yu in Bizhou, Han Yu praised him, and left Zhang Yu to study in his academy to take the exam, it is worth mentioning that compared to Han Yu, Zhang Yu is a few years older, but Han Yu has been a jinshi for 6 years, and now he is Xuanwu Jiedushi pushing official, the two are relatively comparable, and the central acid can be imagined.
With Han Yu's appreciation, in the autumn of the following year, Han Yu was an examiner, and Zhang Zhi won the first place in the examination, and then in 799, Zhang Zhi was the first in one fell swoop.
At that time, being a middle soldier did not mean that he had successfully entered the career, nor did it mean that he could have no worries about food and clothing.
Keju and the first, Zhang Zhi thought that he had ushered in the opportunity of "time to run", but he did not know that what was waiting for him was still "fate and luck", and soon after he and the first returned to their hometown, their mother was sick and lost.
It was not until six years later that Zhang Zhi transferred Taizhu of Taichang Temple, a minor official of the Nine Pins, whose duty was to "hold the master of the gods, and the sacrifice was to kneel and read the blessing text". Ben has no family wealth, is also sick, has a long-term lowly job, and the Zhang family lives in extreme poverty. Yao He describes his life as:
Wild guests open the mountain to borrow, neighbor monks and rice cooks. …… There are many sorrows, and it is rare to hear about the end of debts. - "Gift to Zhang Zhi Tai Zhu"
He himself wrote about his miserable life during this time:
The house is wet but leaky... Eat less letters. - "Seeing the Mail in the Rain of The Han Sacrifice Wine" Chang'an is sick and has no livelihood, and the medicine shop doctors ask for money indiscriminately. ("Gifting Lazy")
He was too poor to eat and could not afford medicine, and what was even more serious was that because he had no money to prolong medical treatment, he was in danger of blindness in his long-term illness, and he was once dismissed from his official life because he could not see things.
In such a lifeless day, Zhang Zhi passed for ten years, and during the ten years, the imperial court paid no attention to Zhang Zhi and did not promote him. Han Yu repeatedly recommended it, but there was still no result.
Zhang Zhi once expressed his envy for Bai Juyi in "Sending Bai Bachelor's Will in Illness":
The Emperor's son is duty, and our side is sick.
The reality is cruel, and Bai Juyi can only sigh in "Heavy to the City Seven Absolute Zhang Eighteen"
The unique poetry Zhang Taizhu did not change the old official title for ten years.
In fact, what made Zhang Zhi most sad during this period was not the torture of poverty and illness, but the sadness that his life's ambitions were difficult to exert. Although he entered the career, he was placed on the boring altar and knelt down to read the blessing for ten years, and he finally realized that the "ideal situation" in which he had placed great hopes was nothing more than an illusion!
In "Sigh of the Ancient Nobile", he compares himself to an ancient nobile buried at the bottom of a well, so it is easy to expect to be salvaged, but because it does not match the jewelry, it is stuffed into a box and sealed:
The ancient well has no color, and it is now regained in a hundred feet of mud. The phoenix is like an ancient instrument, and it is not time for jewelry. The female companion did not know the Lord, and Luo Sleeve wiped the radiance. The ointment has been half folded, and the carving is carved without years. Although it is from the bottom of the well and into the box, it does not need to be the same as the time of the fall.
This is his lament for his fate!
After suffering, he did not crush Zhang Zhi, but made his poetry go straight to the realm, and his poetry was once famous, and his text could be on a par with Han Yu.
He continued to engage in the creation of poems that were "indoctrinated on the top" and "reasonable on the bottom", hoping that they would "smell the supreme in time" and thus achieve the purpose of supplementing the current politics. His long-term creative practice has made his poetic art more and more mature. Yao He praised his poems:
Wonderful Jiangnan song, desolate and resentful female words, The ancient style has no opponents, and the new language is known
Jia Dao wrote "Throwing Zhang Tai zhu" from the distant Fan Yang to Zhang Yuan, praising him: the wind and bones are older, and the early spring is yang.
Bai Juyi praised him for "Reading Zhang Shu Gule Fu": You Gong Le Fu poetry, and the generation is less Than Qilun.
Old classmate Wang Jian also praised the "New Residence of Zhang Zhi in Luozhong": Zijun moved to no more days, and the walls were full of green moss.
In the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi also left a sentence: it seems that the most strange things in the ordinary, as easy as it is difficult.
Zhang's poetry has become a great success, and his position in the poetry world has been confirmed, and people with rich hearts can always tear a hole in the dark life and then bloom out of the light.
Ten years of stagnation consumed all of Zhang's career thoughts. On the contrary, at this time, Zhang Yuan's official fortunes flourished. Under the recommendation of Han Yu, Zhang Zhi served as the doctor of The Guozi Supervisor Guangwenguan, and then as the water department member Wailang, and then moved three times in three years until the Guozi Supervisor Siye.
Bai Juyi wrote a poem and said: Today, when I heard that Jun removed the water department, I was happy to be provincial.
Zhang Zhi, who had suffered repeated setbacks, had only slightly improved his situation, his eye disease had improved, and his house had moved from the west of the street in the civilian area to Jing'anFang, which was convenient for the Upper Dynasty, and was a neighbor of Han Yue.
But at this time, Zhang Zhi's heart was self-extinguishing, even if even Han Yu's invitation to the spring was too lazy to move, Zhang Zhi wrote "Reward Han Shuzi" to politely refuse this request:
The secluded part of West Street is suitable for laziness. The temple is a long way away, and the borrowing of books is often late. The family is poor and has no easy things, and when he is sick and idle. Whoever is lonely asks, he should only know himself.
Although there is more idle effort, but the body is sick, more and more lazy, even the borrowed books, often too late, the end of the poem also expresses the gratitude of the confidant.
Han Yu was still not dead-hearted, and became more and more worried about this friend who was both a student and a confidant, and after several unsuccessful invitations, he wrote two famous poems "Early Spring Presenting Water Department Zhang Eighteen Members Outside":
The light rain on the sky street is as moist as crisp, and the grass color is close but not there. The most is the benefit of spring of the year, which is better than the smoke and willow full of imperial capital. Mo Daoguan is busy with the boss, that is, there is no young man who chases the spring heart. Relying on Jun to look at the head of the river first, the willow color is not deep now.
Han Yue exhausted his talents and left behind the popular Wing Chun poems, hoping to use the beautiful spring colors to attract Zhang Zhi to go out to the spring, between the lines, there is a bit of a provocative tone, Han Yue's compassion for Zhang Bi can be seen.
The so-called teacher and friend, the most moving part is just this!
Some people say that in the Tang Dynasty, there was nothing that a poem could not solve. In this regard, Zhang Zhi has done a very outstanding job.
After the Middle and Tang Dynasties, the feudal towns were divided, and many knots made collusion and co-optation of literati and central officials for their own use, and some undesirable literati were also happy to attach themselves to these feudal officials. At that time, The Pinglu Ziqing Festival made Li Shidao, who also served as the inspector Sikong and the Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, and his power was so hot that he used ancient books and heavy gold to win over Zhang Shu, and Zhang Shu used a poem "Festival of Women's Yin", which was a euphemism to refuse, and his poems were reasonable and well-founded, not humble and unobtrusive, and could be called a model of rejection:
Junzhi concubines have husbands, and give concubines double pearls. The sense of the king is lingering, tied in a red robe. The concubines' high-rise buildings are even raised, and the good people hold the Mingguang Li. Zhijun's heart is like the sun and the moon, and the husband vows to live and die together. Jun Mingzhu's eyes were weeping, why not meet when they were not married.
Zhang Yuan's emotional intelligence can not be said to be high, the "concubine" in the poem is Zhang Zhi's self-comparison, and "Jun" refers to Li Shidao. Ostensibly, the poem is about a faithful wife who rejects the pursuit of an amorous man, but in fact Zhang is showing his political resolve.
The tone of the poem is lingering, but the intention of refusal is very firm, not only does not offend Li Shidao, but also stands firm in the face of great right and wrong, keeps the bottom line of his personality, and also achieves a good story in the poetry world.
In his later years, Zhang Zhi's thinking was indeed more depressed than before, and the social poems that sent greetings and answers in his works, the leisure poems that sent love to the landscape, and the lyrical poems expressing envy for the retired life gradually increased.
Although he was promoted successively in his career in his later years, he still said in the poem "Sacrifice and Retirement" that "there is no gift for poverty", and in the "Book Huai", it is said: "The boss ascends to the dynasty like a dream, and poverty is like a village", indicating that he has not been able to get rid of the plight of poverty until death.
Decades of official ups and downs made him feel bitterly that there was no possibility of realizing the aspiration of "benefiting the whole world" in this life, so he retreated to the second place, and maintained the late festival with "being alone", sending affection to the landscape and visiting monks to seek the Tao, at least a manifestation of passive resistance that did not want to go along with the flow.
The most enjoyable thing is a story between him and Zhu Qingyu.
In the first year of the Bao calendar, Zhu Qingyu, a son of Yuezhou who was about to take the imperial examination the following year, presented a line poem he had written, "Recently Testing zhang shuibu", to Zhang Yuan, who was fifty-four years old at the time:
The cave room stopped the red candle last night and waited for Xiao Tang to visit his uncle. Makeup whispered to the husband-in-law, when the depth of the thrush is not there?
The so-called line scroll, that is, before the examination, to hand over their own poems to the court magnates, popularly speaking, it is to mix their eyes in advance, in the hope of getting a little more impression points when changing the volume, when the line volume became the trend, this kind of "cheating atmosphere" of zhengda guangming also caused praise and criticism controversy later.
Looking at Zhu Qingyu's poem again, the last sentence "Thrush depth into the time is nothing?" "Exposing the careful thinking is just asking: Is there a drama in this exam?"
Zhang Bi read the whole poem, and then attached a poem to the poem:
The new makeup of the more female comes out of the mirror heart, and she knows that she is more moaning. When Qi Yi is not enough, people are expensive, and a song of Ling song is against ten thousand gold.
One gives, one gives, one question and one answer, the question is subtle, the answer is clever. This pair of confidants of all ages is really implicit to the extreme, and obscure to the extreme. Zhu Qingyu did not say that he would definitely be able to pass the exam, which was much smarter than Cui Hao!
Sure enough, Zhu Qingyu, who was publicized and introduced by Zhang Yuan, was admitted to the Jinshi in one fell swoop. Their reward poems have been passed down forever and have become an excellent model for future generations to reward talents.
Zhang Zhi admired Zhu Qingyu so much, in addition to a public heart for the selection of materials for the country, he may also have seen some shadows of his own year.
Because at that time, his teacher did the same to him.