Du Yu (about 645-708), a Xiangyang poet in the early Tang Dynasty, also had two famous figures in his family: one was his eleventh distant ancestor, Du Yu, a famous Jin Dynasty poet. He had been guarding Xiangyang for seven years, and had both military and political achievements in Xiangyang, as well as an academic monograph "Biographies of Zuo's Family in the Spring and Autumn Period", which was honored as "Du Fu" by Xiangyang people at that time. The other is his first grandson, the great poet Du Fu.

Du Fu, a family with a long history of Confucian poetry, should have a gentle and honest family style. In addition, Du Fu always gives people a feeling of worrying about the country and the people, and he is serious. People can't help but guess that his grandfather should also be a gentle and humble gentleman, right? However, the description of Du in Historical Records completely subverts this impression.

According to the Records of Two Tang Dynasties and Biography of Tang Dynasty, Du was an arrogant person. A lot of what he said, in our view today, is simply bragging! Its most classic boast is:

I wrote Qu, Song was an official, and my pen was Wang Xizhi's North.

This means that my article will definitely make Qu Yuan and Song Yu his subordinates, and my calligraphy and even Wang Xizhi will bow down to me in the north. I have seen many conceited talents in the Tang Dynasty, but I have never seen anyone so conceited. Is Li Bai arrogant enough? It's just a lot of big words, such as "My heart is full" and "I try every word every day, and I can wait for me by my horse". I dare not directly challenge the ancient masters of literature and calligraphy by name.

There's nothing to brag about, but it's just the habit of people with flamboyant personalities. The problem is that his boasting also hurts others:

In the dry seal, Su Weidao is the assistant minister of Tianguan, and he was pre-selected. After the trial, people said, "Su Weidao will die." People asked him why, saying, "You should be ashamed to death when you see my verdict!"

During the official seal, Su Weidao was the assistant minister of Tianguan, and Du participated in the election of officials. After the trial, Du went out and suddenly said to people, "Do you know? Su Weidao must die! " Everyone was shocked and asked him what was going on. Du said: "He will be ashamed to death when he sees the judgment I wrote." How hurtful you are to say that! He used Qu Yuan, Song Yu and Wang Xizhi as footstools. They are all ancient people, and they can't argue with him. But this Su Weidao was as famous as he was at that time, and was called "Four Friends of Articles" by the world (the other two were Li Qiao and Cui Rong), so he mocked and humiliated contemporary poets. Will we meet again?

You may think that this may be a joke between scholars. Don't take it seriously, right? Then look at the following things:

At first, the judge said that he was very ill. What about Wenzhi, Wuping and other provinces in Song Dynasty? He replied, "It's unfortunate that children are suffering. Why should we talk about it?" However, I am here, and I have been waiting for the public for a long time. It's a great comfort to die now, but I hate not seeing others.

When Du was seriously ill, Song, Wu Ping and others went to visit him. Others kindly asked him how his illness was, and he replied, "I have suffered a lot from my children." What can I say? But I'm still alive. I've been on your head to keep you from getting hot. Now that I am dying, this is really the most gratifying thing for you, but unfortunately I can't see my replacement! " It goes without saying that nature, which is regarded as God by people, is "the son of nature" in his mouth. Song is a good friend. He often sings with him and has a deep friendship. Both of them have a bachelor's degree in Xiuwenguan and are colleagues in the same department. Besides, Song was also a famous poet in the ruling and opposition at that time. I'm sorry, I'm not even qualified to be his successor. You know, when he was seriously ill, he seemed to be confessing. "People are dying, and words are kind." He spoke so sincerely, so sincerely. Do you still blame him for being arrogant and looking down on others?

Is Song angry about this? In other words, was he persuaded? After Du's death, Song wrote an article "A Trial Speech to Du". After talking about the "four outstanding figures in the early Tang Dynasty", there is a passage:

Only the spirit is bright, the more philosophers there are; Words must be handsome, and words must always make sense. It contains moisture, and if the wind is about to start, it will shake the dew in the spring forest; Beautiful, like cool rain and semi-sunny, sunshine hanging in autumn water.

This means that Du has obviously surpassed the philosophers of Wang Luo. Du Fu's poems are beautiful in language and profound in meaning. It is full of moisture, just like the dawn breeze spreading dew in the spring forest; It is brightly colored, just like the sunshine in Chu Qing shining autumn water after the rain. Later, there were "* * Xu, the wind showed his face", "Knowing the stone is closely related to the stone, and regretting the shallow friendship between the articles", expressing the regret that he made good friends with Du Fu and did not have a deeper exchange of poems. It seems that Du is really convinced.

Du Fu, another famous poet in the early Tang Dynasty, also spoke highly of it. Chen Ziang thinks that the famous poets Xu Gan, Chen Lin, Angelababy and Liu Zhen in Jian 'an period and the outstanding writers He Xun, Wang Rong, Shen Yue and Xie Tiao in Six Dynasties are not enough to compete with Du. Sun Tzu Du Fu once boasted again and again that "the ancestors wrote ancient poems", "Poetry is my family's business" and "following my family's poems as an example and sweeping away the atmosphere". This simply regards writing poetry as his unique skill of the old Du family! The pride of having such a grandfather is beyond words. In this way, Du's "bragging" does have some capital.

There are ten volumes of collected works left by Du Fu, and only over forty poems have been handed down. His main achievements are embodied in five-character poems, and he is regarded as the founder of five-character poems. In addition to "only wanderers can come, and the new beauty is shocking", the most famous one is "Spring Tour in Jinling Lucheng". White clouds on the sea, red clouds on the sea, spring scenery in the wild, especially Li and Jiang Liu. In other poems, such as "The sun is full of residual rain, and the clouds in the sunset glow send thunder", "The wind is dripping, and the sun is pulling the rainbow", "The day disappears with the pod, and Chun Qing wears apricot flowers". All these reflect its ability to grasp the unpredictable scenery and subtle emotions.

Du's literary talent was once appreciated by Wu Zetian. As a court poet in Wuhou era, he also wrote many poems that should be done, but those things that only cater to the imperial edict and whitewash the peace are doomed to have no long-term vitality. His really good poems still come from the experience of "ten years of poor officials, Wan Li walking alone". In his later years, when he was exiled to Fengzhou by Xiangyang, he also contributed a masterpiece:

Du: Climb Xiangyang City.

I traveled abroad, but I didn't expect it to be in September. Now standing in this city and looking around, I feel happy.

Crossing the ground and extending to the river, the water potential of the Han River seems to be connected with the sky and twists and turns away.

Frank Owen Gehry's crown is no longer valuable and proportional to the status quo; Zhanghua can only be the name of the old platform.

The scenery by the pool is different from that of that year, and there is no longer the beauty of that year. What you see on the road is full of dust.

The first couplet begins with a dialogue: In September when the autumn is crisp, the poet climbed the Xiangyang Tower and looked around, his mind suddenly opened up, as if the magnificent scenery of mountains and rivers swept away the sadness in the hearts of wanderers.

The couplets then describe the beautiful scenery of the mountains and rivers in front of us: Wanshan, Qianshan and Xianshan in the suburbs are scattered, like rising from the ground; The vast Hanshui River winds around the mountain and turns to the southeast, as if the sky is back again. This is indeed a unique view of Xiangyang landscape from the tower. The two words "Chu" and "Hui" are common verbs, but when they are combined with "Hengdi" and "Tian Jie" respectively, they have a strange vivid effect, showing the majestic beauty of mountains and rivers. Hu Zhenheng, a famous writer in Ming Dynasty, commented on this couplet and said: "Hongyi is a tough guy, and Shaoling's family style is graceful." In other words, this kind of landscape painting is obviously Du Fu's housekeeping skill. You can know that Hu's statement is true by comparing Sun Tzu's "The river is choppy and the clouds cover the ground" with Grandpa's "The Chu Mountain runs out and the Han River meets the sky".

Necklace began to imagine, but turned to nostalgia: "The crown is not new, the old platform in zhanghua" is not a scenic spot. The crown cover was originally on the road from the south of Xianshan to Yicheng, and the site of Zhanghuatai is further away (there are the sayings of Qianjiang, Shashi and Jianli). It is invisible for the poet to stand on the Xiangyang rostrum, so this is all an imaginary scene. The word "new" and "old" are embedded in two proper nouns respectively, which not only solves the taboo problem caused by Zhang Huatai's direct entry into the even sentence, but also makes the sentence novel and unique, and the meaning of the sentence flows back and forth, which strengthens the heavy feeling of lamentation. There is no such thing as a cloud of dignitaries in the "pass", and "Zhanghuatai" only leaves traces of the past. All the splendor in the world can't last long, and the calm narrative tells the injustice in the poet's chest.

The tail ends with a scene. There are many places of interest in Xiangyang, but the poet points out that "the scenery of the West Pool is different", not only because the pool is beautiful in landscape and pavilions, but also because it is a drunken place for Jin people and the former residence of writers who study hard. The poet did not directly show his nostalgia for his predecessors, but said that the strange scenery of Xichi attracted many tourists. And this kind of meaning is only to describe the dust flying on the way home and set off the grand occasion of traffic through the sideline pen. It is not difficult to imagine the confusion and melancholy that the exiled poet felt when he stood alone in Xiangyang City. Although Deng Xiangyang City was written in adversity, the familiar scenery in his hometown inspired the poet's true feelings, and his brushwork became vigorous and powerful, sweeping away the decadent style of court poems he was good at, showing an extraordinary style.

(Originally published in Xiangyang Daily on February 4, 20 19)