The "transparent person" of the Tang and Song dynasties - Zeng Gong

The Eight Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, also known as the "Eight Greats of Tang and Song Prose", is a combination of eight essayists of the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, namely Liu Zongyuan, Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu, Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Rui, Wang Anshi and Zeng Gong of the Song Dynasty. When we think of Liu Zongyuan, we may think of "a thousand mountain birds flying away, and ten thousand paths of people disappearing." Lonely boat, fishing alone in the snow of the Cold River. When we think of Han Yu, we may think of "Teacher, so preaching and receiving karma to solve puzzles." Mention Ouyang Xiu, we may think of "drunkenness does not mean wine, care about the mountains and rivers also." Speaking of Wang Anshi, we may think of a child prodigy named Zhongyong who later became popular with "Wounded Zhongyong". Mention Su Xun, we may think of him as Su Shi's father, one of the famous "Three Sus", mention Su Rui, we may think that he is Su Shi's younger brother. When we think of Su Shi, we may think of his many classic literary works and Dongpo meat. But when we mention Zeng Gong, who is also one of the eight masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, I estimate that most people are probably confused and have black lines. "Who, who is this person, tang and song dynasties, do you have this person?" This is certainly the reaction of most people to Zeng Gong. If this is the case, then why can Zeng Gong be listed as one of the eight masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, is it really because eight is an auspicious number, and Zeng Gong is used to make up the number? If there is such a thought, it is really very wrong.

Zeng Gong

Zeng Gong, born on September 30, 1019, that is, August 29, 1019, died on April 30, 1083, that is, on April 11, 1083, Yuanfeng 6, Zigu, a native of Nanfeng, Fuzhou, Jiangxi, was born in Nanfeng, JianchangJun (present-day Nanfeng County, Jiangxi Province), and later lived in Linchuan, a Northern Song Dynasty writer, historian, and politician.

Zeng Gong was an important backbone of the New Ancient Literature Movement in the Song Dynasty, advocating the combination of the First Way and the Later Literature and the Combination of Literature and Taoism in the theory of Ancient Literature. The style of writing originates from the Six Classics, and also combines the heads of Sima Qian and Han Yu, which is plain and simple, gentle and elegant, and is taught by the people of the time and future generations. Wang Anshi said: "Zeng Zi's article is nothing, the battle of the water river and the Han star." Su Shi said: "Zeng Zi is uniquely superior, lonely and ugly." Zhu Xi also admired him for "reading zeng's books, and sighed without covering up the books of the tang, and he shizhi knew that gong was shallow." His poems have been translated into English and distributed abroad.

Zeng Gong was young and famous, and from an early age, he was very talented and had a very strong memory, and he could read and blurt out when he was young. His ancestors were scholars in the family, and his father saw that Zeng Gong had such a good talent, so he gradually introduced Zeng Gong to everyone, and by the age of twenty, Zeng Gong's reputation had spread to all directions.

Although Zeng Gong was not shallow in talent and became famous at a young age, he was not smooth all the way on the road of Keju. The reason is that he is very good at policy planning, light on the time, and repeatedly failed. Even Ouyang Xiu, the leader of the literary league at that time, couldn't look at it anymore and said, What is being by the division, is it a good law? "This means that even people like Zeng Gong can't be admitted, and the standards that can't be taken by the exam are really good methods." Finally, in the second year of Jiayou (1057), Ouyang Xiu presided over the examination, insisting on the ancient text and policy theory, and the poetry endowment as a supplementary proposition, and Zeng Gongcai and his brothers Zeng Mu and Zeng Bu and his cousin Zeng Fu ascended to the Jinshidi together.

When Zeng Gong was 18 years old, he went to Beijing with his father and interviewed Ouyang Xiu, who admired his articles very much. Later, in the examination he presided over, Zeng Gong was also admitted. Ouyang Xiu, as the leader of the literary circles at that time, was very fond of Zeng Gong, and he once said that there were hundreds of thousands of people who had passed through our door, and it was a joy to be born (Zeng Gong) alone. It can be seen that Ouyang Xiu loves Zeng Gong, and as the leader of the literary circle, he wants to choose his own heir to inherit this position, and before Ouyang Xiu met Su Shi, he had already decided that the suitable candidate was Zeng Gong.

In fact, the fame of Zeng Gong in history is not as it is now, in the Southern Song Dynasty, due to the admiration of theoreticians, Zeng Gong's reputation has surpassed Su Shi, and then continued to be unanimously respected by mainstream literary schools such as the Tang and Song dynasties of the Ming Dynasty and the Tongcheng School of the Qing Dynasty, and has been popular until the Republic of China. It was only after the New Culture Movement, the May Fourth Movement, that Zeng Gong would be snubbed because of aesthetic and conceptual problems.

Zeng Gong, who has been on fire for 800 years, has been snubbed for more than 100 years, which is the choice of history. When we look at Zeng Gong from a higher perspective, we will find that being listed as the Eighth Emperor of the Tang and Song Dynasties is by no means a waste of time. I believe that with the advancement of time, with the change of thinking and aesthetics, Zeng Gong may still be on fire.