Most of the poets of the Tang Dynasty did not have a full reading of poetry books, and in order to be admitted to the jinshi, the literati had a similar experience of hard reading in the cold window. However, in that era of the Tang Dynasty, when the poetry world was full of stars, there was such a different kind of person, who was stunned to become a poetry master from a hooligan. He is the male protagonist we are going to talk about today, Wei Yingwu.
In the historical records, Wei Yingwu's poems are known for the hidden wind of "idyllic and lofty, the clouds are light and the wind is light", most of the poems are based on the theme of landscape pastoral, so he is considered to be a representative poet of landscape idylls, and posterity will also call him and three other famous poets, Wang Wei, Meng Haoran and Liu Zongyuan, "Wang MengWei Liu". Su Dongpo once praised: "Lotte is three thousand long and short, but he loves Wei Lang's five-character poems." ”
In the second half of Wei Yingwu's life, he composed a large number of poems, in addition to the ten volumes of anthologies, there are also two volumes of Wei Suzhou Poetry Collection. However, before we understand Wei Yingwu's story, we may not be able to imagine that he was a villain that no one could afford to offend when he was a teenager. The bully attribute usually has three points: not learning no skills, bullying others, and running amok, and these three points are all occupied by Wei Yingwu.
So, how did Wei Yingwu change from an evil boy to a poet?
This starts with the Anshi Rebellion that affected sheng Tang.
The Anshi Rebellion was the key point of the Tang Dynasty's transition from prosperity to decline, which not only changed the national fortunes of the Tang Dynasty, but also changed the fate and life of every Tang Dynasty subject. Those poets who lived in sheng tang were also more or less affected by the Anshi rebellion. For example, Li Bai, because he stood on the wrong line, also wrote "Yongwang East Tour Song Eleven", but did not want to become a prisoner of Tang Suzong:
Yongwang Zhengyue went out of the east, and Tianzi remotely divided the Dragon and Tiger Banner.
The building boat was quiet in one fell swoop, and Jianghan turned into a pond of geese.
The north of Sanchuan is chaotic, and the four souths of the sea are like Yongjia.
But with Dongshan Xie Anshi, for the jun to talk and laugh Quiet Husha.
The thunder drum is noisy in Wuchang, and the cloud flag has hunted xunyang.
Qiu did not commit the three Wu Yue, and the spring day looked at the five-colored light from afar.
The dragon pan tiger is in the imperial state, and the emperor Jinling visits the ancient hill.
The spring breeze tried to warm the Zhaoyang Hall, and the bright moon also passed through the Que Que Building.
The Second Emperor's tour did not return, and the Five Tombs Pine Cypress made people mourn.
Another was Du Fu, who, when Tang Suzong ascended the throne, settled his wife and children and prepared to defect to Tang Suzong, but accidentally fell into the hands of the enemy halfway through the surrender and became a prisoner of the Rebels of An Shi. Du Fu looked at Chang'an City, which was attacked by An Lushan, especially thinking of his relatives in the distance, and could not help but feel sad from his heart, and wrote down the famous poem "Spring Hope":
The country is broken by mountains and rivers, and the city is deep in spring grass and trees.
When I feel the flowers splash tears, I hate the birds and be frightened.
The flames lasted for three months, and the family letter arrived at ten thousand gold.
The white head scratches are shorter and more overwhelming.
Wei Yingwu, on the other hand, was most directly affected after the Anshi Rebellion, but it was also the one that was changed most thoroughly, and there was no second.
Before the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, Wei Yingwu's origin was very high, his family was very prominent, and he was an aristocratic prince. His great-grandfather served as prime minister during the Wu Zetian period, and his father also had a certain reputation in the society at that time, so it is true that Wei Yingwu was born with a golden key. Probably because the Wei family was too spoiled with this child, Wei Yingwu had no fear since childhood, and no one dared to provoke him.
As for the piece of reading, he also never paid attention to learning, and the Wei family felt that he might not be this piece of material, so he had to go with him. Yes, in modern times, he is a straw bag without learning and no skills, and there will be no future. However, when he was a teenager, he easily became Tang Xuanzong's bodyguard.
Obviously, I have not read a book, why can I still become a guard?
In fact, there were three levels of bodyguards in the Tang Dynasty: Qinwei, Xunwei, and Yiwei; generally speaking, as long as the previous generation had held official positions, the next generation of people would automatically become the three guards. Therefore, the older generation of officials, the next generation is a pro-guard; the smallest official will automatically become a guard; and the smallest official is a Yiwei. Later, Wei Yingwu wrote a poem recalling that when Tang Xuanzong was hunting, it was "the night of the wind and snow in Lishan Mountain, when Changyang Yu was hunting".
Obviously, Wei Yingwu was not far from the emperor's side, so he should be the highest-ranking guard. As a result, at that time, he was arrogant. It can be said that except for the emperor, everyone else is not in the eyes.
How arrogant is Wei Yingwu?
Historical records have such a record of this: "Emperor Wu of Shaoshi, a rogue and selfish. In the middle of the body, the family hides the outlaws. Towards the holding of the Fan Pu Bureau, Twilight steals the East Neighbor Ji. Si Li did not dare to catch it, and stood on the white jade mound. This is the typical "my father is Li Gang" persona, just this role setting, whether it can survive the first episode is really difficult to say, but it is precisely because of the chaos of An Shi, otherwise, future generations will not know that there was still such a character as Wei Yingwu in history.
At this time, The Sheng Tang Dynasty, a magnificent atmosphere, Wei Yingwu, who was not afraid of heaven, from the first day of being the personal bodyguard of the Heavenly Son, he had the identity of the "Imperial Guard", and he was more unobstructed than before, and he did not think about how to do practical things all day, but indulged in love and bullied the township, which was the lack of morality that he loved to do the most. Looking at the whole of Chang'an, no one dared to say that he was not, even the official government, and there was nothing to do with him. From the poem he later wrote in retrospect of his past, you can see how arrogant he was at that time:
Emperor Wu of Shaoshi, a rogue and a scoundrel.
In the middle of the body, the family hides the outlaws.
Towards the holding of the Fan Pu Bureau, Twilight steals the East Neighbor Ji.
Si Li did not dare to catch it, and stood on the white jade mound.
Lishan Mountain wind and snow night, long Yang Yu hunting time.
I don't know a word, and I drink recklessly.
Emperor Wu ascended to immortality, emaciated and deceived.
It's too late to read, put pen to learn inscription poems.
The two provinces began to reap the traces, and the Nangong was falsely deduced.
Non-talent is intolerable, out of the caress.
Suddenly, yang kaifu, on the old snot is hanging.
The only thing that the guest knows is the one who knows.
- "Feng Yang Kai Fu"
If there was no anshi chaos, Young Master Wei, who didn't even know how to write the word "sorrow", thought that even if he didn't know a word, it would not affect his eating, drinking, and having fun, and he would still be able to live his life happily.
However, he could never have imagined, perhaps, that no one living in Sheng Tang had imagined that a catastrophe was about to happen. With the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, sheng tang's national fortunes soon went downhill, in one sentence: "The homeland is in turmoil, and the masses are divided." When An Lushan was about to reach Chang'an, Tang Xuanzong Li Longji fled in a hurry, and also took Yang Guifei and some guards who could protect and fight.
However, this defense team did not include Wei Yingwu.
Just as the so-called "national unfortunate poet is lucky", without the big tree, there is naturally no place to cool off, so Wei Yingwu's good days will never return. Without the aura of the Heavenly Son's bodyguard, coupled with the fact that wei Yingwu was helpless, Wei Yingwu was living more and more miserable, from arbitrarily bullying the master of others to being bullied by others, and the degree of misery could be said to be "the martial emperor ascended to immortality, and was emaciated and deceived." Even if he was bullied, Wei Yingwu, who had been accustomed to eating and drinking since he was a child, did not even have the same means to make a living, and he could not read a basket of big characters.
In this way, the torrent of the times violently shattered Wei Gongzi's golden carved dream, and Wei Yingwu, who woke up, looked at everything that collapsed and was completely confused. Therefore, this turmoil is a shadow that has always lingered on him. During such a special period, he began to have some changes in his heart, and while he was full of human sufferings, he also saw the habitual coldness of the world, which he had not noticed as a bodyguard. But it was precisely during the darkest period of his life that a woman who was very important to him came to him, Yuan Ping.
If this upheaval changed his future, this woman completely changed the trajectory of his life.
Yuan Ping married him at the lowest point in his life, even if there is no turmoil, Yuan Ping's origin is still a little higher than Wei Yingwu, she is considered a noble daughter of the family. When she married the Wei family, she was only sixteen years old, a full four years younger than Wei Yingwu. However, at this time, Wei Yingwu also had no capital that was once invincible, and did not dare to make a mistake, only to double his love for this wife. In fact, the character of his wife Yuan Ping is not messy, on the contrary, she is very gentle, not only filial piety and virtuousness, but also full of poetry.
In this way, an arrogant young master, after suffering too much, really understood the impermanence of the world, and he looked at such a good person around him who was willing to be a companion, and he cherished it very much. Although his home country is still in a turbulent situation, for the sake of this family, all he has to do is to consider how he can obtain the foundation of his life. Wei Yingwu's first thought was to enter the career, but if he wanted to enter the career, he must take the scientific examination. As a result, Wei Yingwu began to re-examine his life.
What really made Wei Yingwu's mind change dramatically was reading.
When he calmed down and read, he knew what was gain or loss, what was the rise and fall, what was cultivation, and what was the responsibility. Although, in the past, he had studied in Taixue, but there was no difference between him and not reading anything. In short, since then, Wei Yingwu seems to have completely changed as a person, and his former arrogance has gradually faded, and now some of them are just pure-hearted. His daily life was spent burning incense, sweeping the floor and reading.
Just when he thought that the reversal of life was about to succeed, Wei Yingwu failed to pass the entrance examination, which meant that the road of entering the military through the scientific examination was not feasible for him. Fortunately, at that time, Wei Yingwu wrote a lot of poetry, which was a little famous. In this way, his talents successfully attracted the attention of the imperial court, and eventually, at the age of twenty-seven, he entered the dynasty as an official.
In the next thirty years, Wei Yingwu went to no less than ten places to become an official, and his wife Yuan Ping also followed him to the east. The two supported each other and survived all kinds of ups and downs of Wei Yingwu's dismissal. Unfortunately, the two still failed to realize the good wishes of returning to the same place. In the year when Wei Yingwu was forty years old, Yuan Ping died quickly due to a serious illness, and died at the age of 36.
The funeral was held in a temporary rented house in Taipingfang outside the Hanguang Gate of Chang'an City, which also showed that Wei Yingwu's family was relatively poor at that time. After Yuan Ping left Wei Yingwu, he never came out of his grief, and every time he recalled his wife's voice and smile, he was so distressed that he could not sustain himself. Wei Yingwu once personally wrote an epitaph for her: "Ignorant of its safety, suddenly the disaster will come, Fang will join hands with the old man, and he does not know the cloud of the middle road." ”
Just by looking at this sentence, there is a feeling of blood and tears. From this, it is reminiscent of more than a dozen mourning poems such as "Wounded Death" and "Sending the End" in volume VI of the "Wei Suzhou Poetry Collection", which are sincere and touching, and some verses have similarities with Zhiwen:
The one that is dyed white is black, and the wood is burned to ashes.
Thinking of the people in my room, I will not return when I pass away.
Twenty years of hair, the hospitality is as good as ever.
Carrying the genus Shi Tun, Qi Kuo is troubled.
Soft and bright for the table, the etiquette should be deserved.
Public is not as good as private, Pepsi Commission.
Once inside the boudoir, the four rooms were covered in dust.
The Scythians are already gone, touching but wounded.
During the single-family season, weeping and caressing babies.
Knowing that delusion is to be dispatched, and it is difficult to judge the feeling of imminentity.
Dreams flickered and lingered.
This heart is good, around the house to grow artemisia.
- "Wounded Death"
The season is overdue, and the sun and the moon are good.
Xiao Xiao was sad and the ancestors were sent to the middle hall.
Lives together, once alien.
Si Su also benefited and finally reinstated Yamaoka.
Go out of the south gate and look south to the lush sky.
The sun enters the clouds, weeping and weeping.
Morning migration is overlooked, but not to mention.
Fang Dangyong dives and looks up at the daylight.
The pitch is finally over, and the sealed tree is desolate.
Alone can not be returned, want to go to the colon.
The child knew what was lost, and cried out to catch me.
The years are unforgettable.
- "The End"
Among them, what is touching is that the evil youth that was brash and brash before is completely gone. When he became a local parent official, Wei Yingwu always put the needs of the people first, was diligent in his duties, cherished the people, and was a good official who really thought about the people. But Wei Yingwu felt that he had not done enough, and from time to time he would always think from the perspective of the people, feeling ashamed that he had not done better and still took the state's money.
Last year's flowers were parted, and today's flowers bloom for another year.
The world is unpredictable, and the spring sorrow is gloomy and sleepy.
Sick and sick in the field, Yi has exile and is ashamed of money.
Smell the Tao wants to come to inquire, how many times does the West Building look at the moon?
- "Send Lee Dan Yuan Xi"
This is a poem written by Wei Yingwu to a friend in his later years when he was serving as an assassin in Suzhou, especially "Thinking of many diseases in the field, Yi has exile and is ashamed of his money." This sentence, his great image of worrying about the people and loving the people suddenly jumped on the paper, which moved countless readers, and said in a comment by the scholar Shen Deqian: "This is really a sentence with a conscience." ”
I don't know whether it was caused by turmoil or influenced by his wife, in short, a brother who was raised from a young age and treated well, after becoming a local parent official, actually achieved a clean wind in both sleeves. Especially in his later years, whether in material or spiritual terms, Wei Yingwu achieved poverty. Rather than the prosperity under the prosperity, he prefers to look down and admire the ordinary idyllic scenery.
Therefore, Wei Yingwu wrote a poem "Chuzhou Xijian", which was also called the benchmark work of his pastoral poems by later generations:
The lonely grass is born on the side of the stream, and there are yellow orioles on the deep tree song.
The spring tide brings rain to the evening, and the wild ferry has no one to cross itself.
The gist of the poem is: the grass by the mountain stream grows silently in a quiet place, and there are some yellow oriole birds, deep in the woods on both sides, and they have been chirping non-stop. The spring tide, with the evening wind and rain, made the water more turbulent, and at this time there were no people to ferry at the wild ferry, but the boat was still lying alone in the river.
This is a poem written by Wei Yingwu when he was in chuzhou, passing through the scenery of the mountains and forests in the west of the city, the grass, the yellow oriole, the spring tide, the twilight rain, the wild ferry, and the boat in the poem, which are obviously some ordinary scenes, but his film-like writing method creates a quiet and indifferent poetic environment.
In fact, in addition to "Chuzhou Xijian", there is another poem that many people should be familiar with, at least one of which has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts:
Poor snow white song, did not meet the acquaintance.
Under the trepidation of the brigade, wading along the huaihai seashore.
The stream trees contain morning rain, and the mountain birds are still spring.
I have a scoop of wine to soothe the wind and dust.
- "Jane LuZhi"
In fact, if you only read these few poems he wrote, you would never think that this person was once such a stupid boy with explosive desires. When we learned about his story, we were a little surprised. How did Wei Yingwu transform from a clumsy teenager into a light-hearted poet? Perhaps, the Tang Dynasty was a magical era.
It is a pity that this good official who has changed his former wrongs did not get a good ending.
Wei Yingwu did not receive a new appointment after the expiration of the Suzhou Assassination History. However, at this time, he was destitute, and without a little entanglement on his hands, he could not return to Beijing to wait for his will. I have been an official for most of my life, but in the end I did not leave a little spare money for myself, and I did all practical things for the people. In desperation, he had to live in Suzhou Wuding Temple, and finally, in 791 AD, he died in Suzhou at the age of about fifty-five. After that, he was transported back to Chang'an in the same year, and in November he was buried with his wife.
Throughout Wei Yingwu's life, in the first twenty years of his life, he was a bohemian, innocent teenager; after the age of twenty, he changed his past wrongs, completed the transformation of rebirth, and became a gentle, calm and compassionate literati, and also a good official with two sleeves of clean wind. It can be said that it is the reversal of phoenix nirvana, but what really makes him complete the counterattack is the poems he has written, otherwise, he who has not made great achievements, I am afraid that he has long been drowned in the vast river of ordinary officials.
Compared with him as a clean and dedicated petty official, perhaps, only in poetry is he truly reinventing himself, a new self. Although, the ups and downs he suffered symbolized the unbearableness of his youth, and also symbolized the tears and pain when he fell. After being abandoned in the era of passive chaos, he did not give up on himself, but with scars, he walked a long way in life, presumably he must have endured the unimaginable loneliness of ordinary people, drank the loneliness that others could not understand, and finally arrived at the state of mind of "I have a scoop of wine, which can comfort the wind and dust".
Wei Yingwu was a poet of the Shanshui Pastoral Poetry School, and his descendants were known as Wang Mengweiliu. Its landscape poetry is beautiful, the feeling is deep, fresh and natural and there is business. The magnificent scene of "Xi Sai Mountain" shows the majestic side of Wei Shi. The essence of his pastoral poems gradually became political poems reflecting the sufferings of the people, and his representative works include "Guan Tian Jia":
The light rain is new, and a thunder sting begins.
The Tian family was idle for a few days, and farming began from then on.
Ding Zhuangju was in the wilderness, and the field garden was also taken care of.
Returning to Jing Changyan, drinking the water of the west stream.
Hunger is not self-suffering, anointing and joyful.
There is no storage for the warehouse, and the servitude is still not over.
Fang Kuo does not cultivate, and Lu eats out of Luli.
In addition, he has some works of emotional generosity and grief. But some of the psalms are negative in thought, lonely and low. Wei Shi is long in all shapes, and the tone of the seven words and songs is beautiful, "in addition to talent, it is quite close to irony" (Bai Juyi's "Nine Books of The Yuan"). The five laws flow in one breath, and the love and text are intriguing. The sentence "Spring Tide Brings Rain to the Evening rush, and the wild ferry has no one to cross itself" in "Chuzhou Xijian", which is picturesque and praised by future generations.
Finally, according to historical records, Wei Yingwu had only one son, Named Qingfu, whose mother was under the age of one when he died, and who was fifteen years old when he died.