Under the water rock of Changshu Yushan Mountain, there is an earthen tomb, if it is not a standing tomb pavilion, it is difficult to attract the attention of the world, and the stone stele behind the tomb shows people the unusualness of the tomb owner. One is the bluestone stele "Tomb of the Old Man of Dongjian" written by Qian Yong of the Qing Dynasty, and the other is the granite stele of the Republic of China "Tomb of Mr. Qian Muzhai". It turned out that qian Qianyi, a literary master of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, was buried here, and not far away was his favorite concubine Liu Ru.
Qian Qianyi is a talented man in the history of Suzhou, and even more a giant in the history of Ming and Qing dynasty literature. However, his life was quite controversial, "in his whole life, he suffered from the disaster of the party, and was listed as the second minister", so there were "people who despised his people and his poetry". However, if we meticulously examine and examine his poetic works and biographical materials today, we can not only feel Qian Qianyi's demeanor as a generation of literary sects, but also secretly feel his lifelong "painstaking forbearance and retreat from Obscurity."
The corners of the head are revealed
On the 26th day of the ninth lunar month of the 10th year of the Ming Dynasty (1582 AD), Qian Qianyi was born in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, to a family that believed in Buddhism. His father's meaning of "full of losses, humble benefits" is named after humility, and when he becomes an adult, he uses it as a word.
Under the tutelage of his father, the young Qian Qianyi not only learned the writing skills of the Eight Strands System, but also dabbled in many historical books, with a broad vision and unique insights. At the age of fifteen, Qian Qianyi wrote the historical treatises "The Theory of Staying Hou" and "The Theory of Wu Zixu" that were praised by the old Confucian Festival. It was also in this year (1596), Qian Qianyi accompanied his father to Wuxi, was received by Gu Xiancheng, the representative figure of the Donglin Party, and called him "Little Friend", and taught him the academic essence of the Donglin School.
In the thirty-fourth year of the Wanli Calendar, the twenty-five-year-old Qian Qianyi went to Nanjing for the first time to participate in the township examination, and won the third place in the Tianfu Township Examination in Zhongnan Zhili. In the thirty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar, Qian Qianyi went to Beijing for the second time to participate in the examination. In the palace examination after the successful inscription of the examination, Qian Qianyi was greatly appreciated by Ye Xianggao, the chief examiner of the first assistant minister at the time, and wanted to be set as a champion. Before the list was issued, the eunuchs and the palace power officials all reported good news to Qian Qianyi, and just when Qian Qianyi was full of ambition, when he passed on the temple, Zhuangyuan actually became a Zhejiang han jing, while Qian Qianyi became a Tanhualang. Behind this unexpected change is the fierce party struggle in the political arena of the late Ming Dynasty. Ye Xianggao, Wang Tu, Sun Chengzong, and other chief examiners were all representative figures in the Donglin Party, and they particularly appreciated Qian Qianyi, and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of the imperial examination to recruit talents and expand the portal, so they tried their best to promote Qian Qianyi, which was naturally hindered by the opposition. Since Qian Qianyi first entered the career, because of this layer of relationship with the Donglin Party, he was immediately involved in the whirlpool of party struggle in the late Ming Dynasty, just as Qian Qianyi said in the poem: "Once from my party travels, the magnet will always take each other" also.
Suffer from the party
After entering the army and the first, Qian Qianyi was appointed as the editor of the Hanlin Academy, and worked with the first assistant Ye Xianggao. Soon after, Qian Qianyi, who belonged to the Donglin Party, was ostracized and left idle for a long time, living in his hometown of Changshu. For this experience, Qian Qianyi has a cloud in "The Words of Marrying a Woman": "Guining has been more than ten years, and the road is obstructed and long. ”
In the first year of the Apocalypse (1621), Emperor Mingxi appointed Qian Qianyi as the chief examiner of the Zhejiang Township Examination, and with the enthusiasm for the royal Yanna talent, Qian Qianyi came to Zhejiang. As everyone knows, Han Jing, who was vying for the title with him at that time, was a Native of Zhejiang, and in order to avenge the impeachment and dismissal of the Donglin Party ten years ago, he conspired with Shen Defu, a Xiushui man, to frame and impeach Qian Qianyi on charges of fraud in the Zhejiang Township Test Field and "joint bribery". Although Qian Qianyi's bribery charge was cleared when the case was finally closed, he resigned and embarked on the journey back to his hometown. The "spurious" case of Zhejiang's being trapped has always been haunted, and along with Qian Qianyi's life, every time there is a party struggle in the future, the opponent will turn over this confused old account as a handle and excuse for the attack.
Four years after the apocalypse, Qian Qianyi was once again summoned to Beijing. At this time, when the struggle between the Donglin Party and the eunuch party headed by Wei Zhongxian was in full swing, Qian Qianyi was in beijing with Yang Lian and others in the Donglin Party, and the eunuch party listed him as the "prodigal son of Tianqiao Xing" in the Donglin Party, and used the old Zhejiang case as an excuse to impeach Qian Qianyi and cut him back to his hometown.
Until the Chongzhen Emperor succeeded to the throne, he eradicated the castration party and revived the Donglin party. Among the surviving Donglin Party members, whether they are knowledgeable or senior, Qian Qianyi is enough to be respected as the "Nanji Beidou". In July of the first year of Chongzhen (1628), with full of joy, Qian Qianyi hesitated and was full of ambition on the road to Beijing, and said excitedly in the poem: "If you repeat the old tears to the west wind, how can you repay the favor for the rest of your life?" However, Qian Qianyi, who had just arrived in the capital, was attacked by his rivals Zhou Yanru and Wen Tiren because the imperial court would push the cabinet ministers. Wen Tiren presented a letter to the Chongzhen Emperor Jin, repeating the old Zhejiang saying that Qian Qianyi was "a traitor to the world". The Chongzhen Emperor's partiality of faith immediately removed Qian Qianyi from his official position and ordered him to return to his hometown. After several years of living in the township, Qian Qianyi was framed by the townsman Zhang Hanru, and Wen Tiren wanted to take the opportunity to put Qian Qianyi to death and escort him to Beijing. After arguing and being rescued by friends, although Qian Qianyi was able to get rid of the crime, he finally ended up with only a cut. In his poems, he poured out his incomparable frustration and sorrow: "The wind of the secret temple is high in the day and the sun is overcast, and the clouds of the heavenly steps are heavy in the day"; "The lonely minister stands in the inside of the tong, and the king's door is full of tears."
Under the double attack of internal and external troubles, the Ming Dynasty ushered in his doom in the storm. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Li Zicheng's rebel army captured Beijing, and the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself at Coal Mountain (present-day Jingshan, Beijing). At this time, Qian Qianyi, like many scholars, had the luxury of relying on the Yangtze River Heavenly Graben, supporting a new emperor in the southern capital, temporarily confronting the Manchus across the river, and then making a later plan. Qian Qianyi came to Nanjing with hope, and originally wanted to restore his official position by supporting Zhu Changshu, the king of Lu, and usher in a new world of his eunuchs. However, under the planning of Ruan Dacheng and the arrangement of the four towns in Jiangbei, King Fu came to Nanjing before King Lu and ascended the throne first. In the midst of great disappointment, Qian Qianyi chose to return to his hometown and watch. The following year, Qian Qianyi supplemented the Rebbe Shangshu of the Southern Ming Hongguang regime, and after experiencing the ups and downs of the eunuch sea, he actually wrote such texts as "Ya Yu Zhongxing Shu", and vigorously praised Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng as "all generous and generous men". He even asked his favorite concubine Liu Ru to move the table to Ruan Dacheng to serve wine, in order to favor Bo Nguyen. Even with such flattery and surrender, Ruan Dacheng still wanted to put him to death, and his actions were also spurned and despised by the Qing.
The deeds of the Southern Ming Dynasty greatly reduced qian Qianyi's prestige and reputation accumulated over the years, and the subsequent demotion of Qing Shiqing, ranked as the second minister, made him a literary scholar who was controversial and criticized in the history of Chinese literature.
Tie the knot Willow Hime
Just when Qian Qianyi was caught in the turbulent eunuch storm, what made him talk about masturbation was to meet and marry Liu Ruyi, a famous prostitute in Jiangnan, and Huang Zongxi once said: "Liu Ji made love, and she was extremely proud of Mu Lao's life, and she was haunted by chants, which were often seen in poetry. "Liu Ruyi, whose real name is Yang Ai, a native of Jiaxing, Zhejiang, was sold into the Qinglou at the age of ten, initially as the maid of Xu Fu, a famous prostitute in Wujiang Shengze Town, and later bought by Zhou Daodeng as a concubine, and because of the jealousy of the prostitutes, he was once again expelled and sold into the river house. Since then, she has successively befriended Zhang Pu, Chen Zilong and other celebrities in the Fu Society and several societies, and in her dealings with them, Liu Ru has a very clear understanding of the righteous activities of the people in the party and society, and she also has great sympathy and support for them. After going through the ups and downs, she decided to make Qian Qianyi the person she entrusted for life. Qian Qianyi gained this red face confidant, and said with emotion: "It is not worth this life!" ”
When it comes to Qian Liu's marriage, it is quite romantic and legendary. In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen (1640), Liu Ru was dressed in Confucian clothes, dressed as a man, drove a flat boat to Yu, visited Qian Qianyi in his new residence Banye Hall for the first time, made money to invest in the name of thorns, and concealed Yang Ai's real name, Yi "Yang" to "Liu", Yi "love" to "yes". Piercing in, Qian Qianyi thought that he was a layman, and he did not see it for a reason. The next day, Liu Ru wrote a poem to give, the poem was slightly exposed, Qian Qianyi was surprised by his poem, and asked the concierge: "Yesterday's assassin, the scholar?" Woman huh? The Gatekeeper said, "The scholar also." Qian Qianyi was quite surprised, so he rushed to visit Liu Yuzhong, and when he saw it, he was a beautiful woman. Liu Ru asked Qian Qianyi to correct the seven-word near-body poem he composed, and Qian rewarded his poems, loved his books, and invited him to the Banye Hall to speak all day, and the two of them made a conjunction and the alliance began. In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen (1641), the sixty-year-old Qian Qianyi, despite the opposition of his family and the rebuke of public opinion, held a formal wedding with Liu Ru, who was only twenty-five years old, and began Qian Liu's romantic and arduous years for more than twenty years.
Ranked second
In May of the second year of Shunzhi (1645), after conquering Yangzhou, the Qing army directly approached Jiangnan, and the northern soldiers crossed the river, and the Hongguang Emperor, Ma Shiying, and Ruan Dacheng rushed out. At a critical juncture, Liu Ru advised her husband to martyr the country, Qian Qianyi "could not thank you", and Liu Ru was "eager to sink in the pool", willing to work with her husband to save his reputation, and finally because his family "could not enter". In the history of the wild, there is even a saying that Qian Qianyi rejects it because "the water is too cold".
In mid-May, Duo Duo, the Prince of Yu, led an army into Nanjing, and Qian Qianyi, in his capacity as Shangshu of the Southern Ming Dynasty, accompanied by Zhao Zhilong, the governor of Nandu, and Wang Duo, a member of the Cabinet University, led the civil and military officials to hold a surrender ceremony. After Prince Yu's shaving order was issued, Qian Qianyi quickly shaved his hair. In order to please the Qing people, Qian Qianyi, after presenting several Jiangnan beauties and a generous gift to Prince Yu, also offered advice to Duoduo: "Wu Xiamin's style is weak, the flying can be fixed, and there is no need to use soldiers." "Do your best to be flattering. Although Qian Qianyi later wrote a letter to Cao Yuanfang of Changshu County that he was completely for the purpose of "protecting the border and the people", these beautiful excuses and pretexts could not hide his greedy nature and fear of death, and washed away the stain of begging and begging. After the fear of life was relieved, the Confucian moral precepts gradually surged out in Qian Qianyi's mind, coupled with the accusations and scorn of the scholars' public opinion, Qian Qianyi's heart was undergoing a fierce moral torture. Just when Prince Yu summoned his subordinates, Qian Qianyi entered from the Hongwu Gate, suddenly knelt down, bowed to The Fourth Emperor, burst into tears, and deeply reproached himself: "Emperor Taizu Gao's three-hundred-year-old royal business, once it is abolished, can be painless!" ”
Qian Qianyi and many former ministers who had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty went north as usual and went to Beijing to take up posts in the Qing court. Liu Ru stayed in Nanjing, resolutely refused to accompany him, and showed awe-inspiring righteousness. In the first month of the third year of Shunzhi (1646), Qian Qianyi was appointed as a bachelor of the Inner Secretarial Academy and a waiter of the Ceremonial Department, and served as the vice president of the History of Ming. After Qian Qianyi was snubbed in Beijing, his remorse for his defection and surrender increased day by day, and after only six months in office, he begged for his bones with old age and illness, and returned to his hometown after being approved.
Secret anti-Qing
After returning to the south, Qian Qianyi, on the one hand, had to be criticized by the public opinion of the scholars, and on the other hand, under the persuasion of Liu Ruyi, secretly contacted the anti-Qing zhishi in the south and on the sea. In the third year of Shunzhi (1646), Huang Yuqi of Jiangyin raised a division against the Qing in Zhoushan, and Qian Qianyi secretly sent Hedongjun (Liu Ruyi) to the sea to be a master, which is what Mu Zhai said in his "Qiuxing Poems": "The heart of the boudoir hangs on the sea Yuqi, and every time the Fang Clan rejoices and sorrows"; after yao Zhizhuo's defeat, Qian Qianyi sent Liu Ru to "do his best to use his capital and start an army".
Because he had written a preface to Lu Shi's "Du Shixu Banknote", in March of the fourth year of Shunzhi (1647), after the lu shi and Xie Yi cases occurred, Qian Qianyi was also implicated in this, arrested and imprisoned, escorted north, and imprisoned in the prison of the Punishment Department. Liu Ruru was accompanied by the sick, wrote a letter to express his feelings, Qu was mediated, vowed to die in his place or from death, and there were "rumors that he paid a bribe of 300,000 gold and was spared." ”
In May of the fifth year of Shunzhi, Huang Yuqi's anti-Qing case occurred. Qian Qianyi was implicated because he had left Huang Yuqi at home and allowed him to help recruit soldiers, and was arrested again and imprisoned in Jinling. Liu Ru is running with all his might, pouring out his family to rescue, please mediate. Qian Qianyi's act of secretly contacting the anti-Qing righteous division also won the sympathy of many remnants in Nanjing, who helped each other, and with the efforts of everyone, Qian Qianyi was spared the misfortune and released from prison and was imprisoned in Suzhou, living in the Humble Administrator's Garden. It was not until the sixth year of Shunzhi that he was completely pardoned and returned to Li.
After the Huang Yuqi case, Qian Qianyi's anti-Qing ambition did not fade. After returning to Changshu, he and Liu Ru moved to Hongdou Mountain Villa, ostensibly staying at home, secretly communicating with the Yongli regime in the southwest and the anti-Qing revival forces in the southeast sea through its two protégés,——— Qu Shiyun and Zheng Chenggong. In the sixth year of Shunzhi (1649), Qu Qianyi stayed in Guilin, and Qian Qianyi secretly wrote a letter to plan a military deployment for Qu Shiyi; in the thirteenth year of Shunzhi (1656), Zheng Chenggong lost the Northern Expedition and retired to Chongming Island, and Qian Qianyi drove a boat from Changshu baimao to meet with him to discuss the plan for recovery.
In his later years, qian Qianyi exhausted his energy and wealth in support of the anti-Qing, and Kangxi died in the third year of Kangxi (1664) in the midst of poverty and illness, at this time the family was already high in debt and destitute. Even in his dying breath before his death, at the age of eighty-three, he had to work hard to earn his funeral expenses and find ways to earn a polish. After Qian Qianyi's death, it triggered a fierce family change, liu ru was unable to bear the Qian clan people to chase money, insulted personality, hanged himself, and ended a bumpy and heroic life.
After Qian Qianyi's death, Huang Zongxi wrote in the Eight Lamentations to mourn the deceased friend: "Fifty years of the Four Seas Sect Alliance, after the end of the heart period, with whom to pass on." Burn the words with a candle and write a letter to pay off the debt. Red beans are lost in the moon road, and the beauty wants to finger the strings. Who is the confidant of the ordinary life? Can not be for the sake of justice! This is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and best summary and evaluation of the life of the elderly.
Writings are here to stay
Behind Qian Qianyi, it seems that it does not stop, it can be said that it is a series of bad luck. The experience of the second minister not only became the focus of many people's criticism of him, but also became an excuse for the Qianlong Emperor to ban all his writings. However, even after a severe ban, in the era of the Iron Case and the crowd's ability to shovel gold, there were still many scribes and scholars who gave high praise to Qian Qianyi's status in literary history and academic history, after all, his status as a suzerainty in the poetry circles during the Ming and Qing dynasties was difficult to hide. To this day, our evaluation of Qian Qianyi cannot simply and rudely erase his academic and cultural achievements because of his great losses.
Qian Qianyi's knowledge is extensive, and he has extensive knowledge of zi, history, literature and Buddhist collections, so his achievements are also multifaceted, the most famous of which is his literary creation, which are concentrated in his "Beginner's Collection", "Youxue Collection", "Toubi Collection", "Wu Ji", "Bitter Sea Collection" and other works. He advocated "turning to many teachers" in poetry, advocated learning from the Tang and Song Dynasties, wrote poems with both learning and temperament, and practiced them in his own poetry creation, and vigorously swept away the ancient decadence of the seven sons before and after the Ming Dynasty, creating a new situation for the development of Qing poetry. The poems composed after entering the Qing Dynasty have more alluded to the deep mourning of the subjugation of the country and the sense of vicissitudes of life, and the deep elegance of toxing, the sense of mourning and the excitement of desolation are combined into one, which is particularly distinctive. With him as the grandmaster, an important poetic genre in the early Qing Dynasty ——— the Yushan Poetry School was formed.
Qian Qianyi relied on the rich collection of books in "Daiyun Lou" to devote himself to writing and writing many important academic works. His greatest wish in life was to complete the history of the country privately, but in the fifth year of Shunzhi, the Daiyun Building was burned, and only hundreds of copies of the Ming Dynasty Zhi biography were written and escaped this disaster because they were piled outside the building. In the midst of all the thoughts, Qian Qianyi sold the remaining zhichuan manuscripts to The Wujiang people Pan Qizhang, and on the basis of the qian manuscripts, Pan and Wu Yan worked together to write important historical books such as "Examination of the History of the State" and "History of the Ming Dynasty". And Qian Qianyi's own books are only the "Taizu Shilu Dialectic" and "The Founding Group of Heroes" that were completed in his early years.
Fortunately, a year before the fire in DaiyunLou, the "Collected Poems of the Dynasty", which condensed Qian Qianyi's painstaking efforts, had been handed over to Mao Jin, a Changshu engraver. This book imitates the style of the Jin Dynasty Yuan's "Zhongzhou Collection", and combines the collection of poems and the history of The Book, although the name is the end of a generation of poetry, it is actually "borrowing poetry to save history". The academic doorway of "preserving history with poetry" is also reflected in Qian Qianyi's other academic masterpiece, Qian Zhu Du Shi. He annotated Du Shi, using historical evidence poems, in which he alluded to the current situation of the Ming Dynasty and his own political encounters. "Qian Zhu Du Shi" is not only an outstanding representative of Du Fu's poetry annotations in the Qing Dynasty, but also an indispensable classic for the study of Du Shi today, and the path of "mutual verification of poetic history" pioneered by Qian Qianyi is also of great benefit to today's academic research. (Yang Xuhui)