The Southern and Northern Dynasties inherited the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Sui and Tang Dynasties, which was a special period of cultural convergence and ethnic integration in Chinese history, of which the Southern Dynasty was an era of prosperity. However, most of the Southern Dynasty style is gorgeous and empty, and it looks like a beautiful painting skin without any blood temperature.
However, among the many Southern Dynasty resignations, Jiang Yan can be called the leader. It is said that during the Liu Song Dynasty, Dr. Tan Chao, was highly talented and had no one in sight, and he regarded the world's talents as his own, and he did not pay attention to others. After the people of the time referred to Tan Chao and Xi Chao, the famous soldiers of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, these two townships who were also Gaoping, and called them "Gaoping Second Chao", Tan Chao was still quite dissatisfied and disdained to be on a par with Xi Chao. However, it was such a task with eyes above the top that after accidentally reading Jiang Yan's writings one day, he was also pleased and sincere, and introduced him.
However, it is precisely such a writer who has written ancient and strange texts such as "Hate Endowment" and "Other Endowments", but in his later years, he rarely wrote. Even if there are occasional articles, it is far less talented than when I was young. Therefore, the Southern Dynasty literary critic Zhong Rong, in "Poetry", explained the change in Jiang Yan's talent as the reason for the "five-color pen", and thus extended the allusion to Jiang Lang's exhaustion. But is this really the case? In fact, when we look into the turbulent years of frequent regime changes in the Southern Dynasty, we may be able to gain insight into one or two.
Jiang Yan was born at the end of the Song Dynasty, died in the early Liang Dynasty, and lived for more than sixty years. The first half of his life was bumpy, but he was proud of the literary world; the second half of his official field was smooth, but it was difficult to have leisure to write articles. The reason for this situation may be due to the vicissitudes of his conservative life in the first half of his life, and in the second half of his life, he did not want to repeat the same mistakes, and finally put more energy and wisdom on his career, and slackened off the practice of literary attainment.
During the Southern Jin Dynasty, when the Shijia Hao clan controlled the center of power, Jiang Yan was an outlier. He was poor as a young man, and his father died when he was 13 years old. But he was intelligent and studious, writing poetry at the age of 6 and beginning his career at the age of 20. However, his career path was not smooth at first, and most of them rose to the top of the aristocratic circle by virtue of their talents and fame.
Jiang Yan first served as an aide to Liu Jingsu the Prince of Jianping in the last years of the Liu Song Dynasty, but it was not long before he was falsely accused of corruption and bribery and imprisoned. Indignant and indignant, Jiang Drown wrote a long letter of grievance in the middle of the prison, which made Liu Jingsu feel excited and moved to see the new liu jingsu. In the end, Liu Jingsu decided to release Jiang Yan. However, at that time, under the rule of Liu Yu, the deposed emperor of the Song Dynasty, the situation of Liu Song was chaotic, so Liu Jingsu was eager to move, and conspired with several henchmen to rebel. After Jiang Yan became aware of it, he wrote 15 poems to Liu Jingsu in a row, advising him to quickly close his hands. Of course, this move aroused liu Jingsu's disgust, and Jiang Yan was denounced by Liu Jingsu as Jian'an Wu Xingling. In the end, Liu Jingsu was defeated and killed, but Jiang Yan was reprimanded and finally escaped the disaster.
After leaving Liu Jingsu, Jiang Yan always lingered at the bottom of the post, depressed and discouraged. Many of his classic masterpieces were born during this period. With the circulation of a large number of words, the reputation of Jiang Yan became more and more popular. At the end of the Liu Song Dynasty, when Xiao Daocheng was in power, because he had heard of jiang yan's name, he was transferred to Jiankang, and he was appointed as Shang Shu Driving Department Lang and Hu Qi to participate in the military, and began to be reused. Since then, Jiang Yan has been in the official field, opening the road of his career.
During the Southern Dynasty, wars were frequent. The four dynasties of Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen changed, and Jiang Yan experienced it twice, but he never fell. A dynasty of heaven and a courtier seemed to have failed in his place.
Xiao Daocheng controlled the political power of the Liu Song Dynasty, which caused dissatisfaction among the Assassins of Jingzhou. Shen You raised an army against Xiao Daocheng, causing Xiao Xiao to worry. At this time, Xiao Daocheng remembered jiang yan, who often talked and laughed together, and asked him about the situation. Jiang Yan was passionate, his eyes were poisonous, and his thinking was extremely clear, and he said to Xiao Daocheng: "There are five victories for the public, and four defeats for the other." and advises on how to do it. Hearing Jiang Yan's words, Xiao Daocheng's confidence exploded, and the next year Shen You was indeed defeated.
Originally, Xiao Daocheng liked to read Jiang Yan's articles very much, often gave Jiang Yan wine and food, and asked him to write on the spot. Jiang Yan can always be unhurried, eating meat and drinking wine while writing and writing. After experiencing shen you's rebellion, Xiao Daocheng became more and more concerned about jiang flooding, and handed over almost all the documents in the army to him to draft. Later, after the establishment of the Qi Dynasty, Jiang Yan served as an official such as Zhongshu Shilang, Shangshu Zuocheng, and Yushi Zhongcheng, and presided over the compilation of the history of the country, and has always held a high position.
In order to successfully usurp the throne of Liu Song, the "Zen Table of the King of Qi" was written by Xiao Daocheng and Jiang Yan. Not only Xiao Daocheng, but also the later Qi Ming Emperor Xiao Luan and the Qi Dynasty Emperor Xiao Baojuan all had great respect for Jiang Yan. Xiao Luan praised it as "a solo step in the recent world". However, during the Xiao Baojuan period, when Cui Huijing rebelled and besieged Jiankang, many courtiers went out of the city to defect, but Jiang Yan hid in his home on the pretext of illness. In the end, Cui Huijing was defeated by Xiao Yi, and Xiao Qi's Jiangshan was temporarily saved.
However, Jiang Yan's choice was more of a super political sense, so when Xiao Yan attacked Jiankang, Jiang Yan, who was originally ill, chose to defect to Xiao Yan, and after Xiao Yan's great victory in establishing the Liang Dynasty, he once again became a minister of the Dragon and was given the title of Marquis. Three years after the establishment of the Liang Dynasty, Jiang Yan died.
From the second half of Jiang Yan's life, we can see an excellent bureaucratic image who always grasped the key node of the development of the event in the turbulent situation of the DPRK. Perhaps, Jiang Yan later put too much energy into how to deal with himself in the turbulent situation, slackening the tempering of his writing; or perhaps, after his career was open, he did not need to open the way, but preferred to be a low-key, mediocre courtier, who could rest assured that he would be in a high position and live a life of fine clothes and jade food.
Now that we have long been unable to verify it, Jiang Lang has exhausted the true source of that idiom. If it is true that it began with a dream from the mouth of the river, then perhaps the allusion itself is evidence that he is full of wisdom and willing to bear the name of mediocrity. If the wise man is foolish, he is more foolish than a fool!