Chapter 39 Du Fuyi

Among the poets of the Tang Dynasty, there was one who seemed to live with a frown all the time, and his name was Du Fu.He is thin and tall, with a cane, walks slowly, looks like what people describe as old.His eyes are downcast and sometimes half closed, giving him a drowsy look.But these eyes can see the misfortune in the whole world, just like Guanyin Bodhisattva can see the suffering in the world.The difference is that Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva has boundless magic power, and she can save the suffering with a moving smile, while Du Fu can only frown and write the boundless suffering into his vast poems.

He has a poem called "The Song of the Thatched House Broken by the Autumn Wind", which begins with the words: In August, the autumn wind howled and rolled the three layers of thatched grass on my house.In autumn, when the sky is high and the clouds are light, Du Fu does not write poems.The wind blows, but the inspiration comes with the wind.People knock their teeth with mold and water, and the autumn wind bullies him, sweeping away the triple thatch on the house.Mao Fei crosses the river and sprinkles on the outskirts of the river. The tall ones hang on the tops of the long forests, and the low ones float around Shentangao.A group of boys from Nancun deceived me to be old and weak, and I could bear to be a thief in the face, and openly embraced the grass...

Du Fu is really unlucky.In this thatched cottage in Chengdu, the whole family relies on it to keep out the wind and rain.The autumn wind was blowing, and the child was laughing while snatching the thatch. He stared blankly, "the lips are scorched and the mouth is dry."Most of the thatch has been turned into firewood.The dark wind is going away, and the black rain is coming again, making the old man who has been insomnia worse for many days. The cloth quilt has been cold as iron for many years, and Jiaoer is lying on the floor and cracking. There is nothing to do at the bedside and house, and the rain is like hemp.

Jiao'er lay down badly, and the old cotton wool kicked out of the big hole.Du Fu listened to the leaking rain all night, and it is conceivable that he was in a panic.At the time of "Anshi Rebellion", Du Fu avoided the chaos in Chengdu.Wet in the long night, worrying about the family and the country, the haggard poet looks forward to the dawn.The poems in the chest flowed out, echoing and resisting the continuous autumn rain of bullying.The concluding sentence rises sharply, shouting out the heroic words of Chinese scholars: There are tens of thousands of mansions in Ande, which shelters the underprivileged all over the world, and is as safe as a mountain without being affected by wind and rain!Woohoo, when I suddenly see this house in front of my eyes, it will be enough for my hut to be broken and frozen to death!

This poem can be called a sketch of Du Fu himself, covering his whole life. During this period, he also wrote "The Phoebe Tree Is Sighed by the Wind and Rain", "Withered Palm", "Sick Orange", etc. Just by looking at the titles of the poems, one can know his state of mind. He is a poet of suffering in China, integrating the suffering of individuals, countries, and nations. In my opinion, the word suffering reaches him better than words like realism. He did not live to be sixty years old and died on a broken boat in Dongting Lake.He was hungry for several days, and it is said that he ate beef to support himself to death.Mr. Guo Moruo verified that it was a sick cow and the beef was poisonous.If this theory is true, then Du Fu was both strangled and poisoned to death.

This article just wants to ask a question: Why can Du Fu's eyes see so much suffering? Du Fu, courtesy name Zimei, was born in Gongxian County, Henan Province. He had a family honor different from that of ordinary people: Du Yu, a famous general in the Western Jin Dynasty, was his distant ancestor, and Du Shenyan, a prominent official and famous poet during Wu Zetian's time, was his grandfather.Under the influence of his family, he firmly remembered these two names and boasted to others all his life.Chinese people have a strong family consciousness, and Du Fu's family consciousness is stronger than that of ordinary people.Understanding his inner world, this is a key.A strong family atmosphere permeated his childhood.Freud said: Childhood experience will affect a person's life.

Du Fu's relationship with his family may be the opposite of Li Bai's.Li Bai's family consciousness is invisible, or it can be called subconscious. Du Fu's mother, Cui Shi, also came from a famous family. She died of illness within two years after giving birth to Du Fu.However, in heaven she will see how her ordealed son will excel. Du Fu lost his mother in his early years, but he had many uncles scattered all over the place.He wrote poems to praise: "The virtuous belong to the Sheng family, and my uncle is well-known." It can be seen that most of his uncles are outstanding.

On the patrilineal side, there was an uncle named Du Bing, the second son of Du Shenyan, who committed a major event when he was sixteen years old: he stabbed his father's enemy with a short knife and was beaten to death on the spot.The enemy was seriously injured and died. Before he died, he lamented that if he had known that Du was not a filial boy, he would not have an enmity with Du Shenyan.Du Bing's life stopped at the age of sixteen, but his reputation has been passed down from generation to generation among Du's clan.In his later years, Du Fu was still proud of Du Bing's nephew.

Mr. Feng Zhi has detailed records of this matter.Feng Zhi is a famous modern poet. He wrote about Du Fu, and there are many outstanding places.However, he believes that family stories have only a negative impact on Du Fu, "not only does not help Du Fu's development much, but may play a restrictive role." What made Du Fu?Feng Zhi turned to society and targeted Du Fu with social determinism.At this critical point, Mr. Feng Zhi's conclusion is obviously ill-considered, and it erases the individual characteristics of Du Fu as Du Fu, so that we can only see the forest but not the trees.

This kind of common grand narrative for historical figures has been hidden for several years. I actually think that family background plays a very important role in Du Fu's growth. Du Fu was very sick when he was young, his mother passed away, and his father was busy being an official, so he lived with his aunt in Luoyang.Sick children see the world differently from healthy children.Luoyang, when Empress Wu Zetian was in power, it was renamed Zhoudu. It has been in operation for more than 20 years. Its prosperity is second only to Chang'an, and Hu people and foreigners can be seen everywhere.The Hu people danced and danced in the streets, splashing cold water on each other in the cold winter to celebrate their Songkran Festival; when they got carried away, they screamed naked and the Han people looked sideways at them, and the government intervened.

Du Fu was about five or six years old. He took his aunt by the hand and went to the street, looking around, startled.He is a boy who is easily frightened. He went to Yancheng to watch Aunt Gongsun's "Sword Dance" and never forgot it.The young, beautiful, strong, and wild Gongsun Aunt is a famous court dancer. She holds two swords and wears a military uniform. She tours various places and performs in the Central Plains.She herself is of Xianbei descent.Han people watch barbarians dancing, just like European and American white people watch black people carnival. Zhang Xu, who is known as the "Sage of Grass", saw Gongsun Da Niang dance with swords and swords, and realized the charm, which greatly improved cursive writing. What did Du Fu see? Fifty years later, he wrote a poem recalling: "The viewers are as depressed as the mountains, and the sky and the earth are low for a long time!" It may be because Aunt Gongsun's rhythm is too fast and her movements are too wild. Du Fu was frightened, his little face turned pale, and he judged others by himself. This famous poem brings out Du Fu's physical and mental characteristics.Scholars mostly skim over it and don't go into it. Du Fu lives in the warmth of his aunt.Perhaps when he was three years old, he and his aunt's son contracted the disease at the same time. The aunt took care of him as much as possible, but the son lost his life.Du Fu has a vague memory. When he grew up, when others mentioned it and told the details, he burst into tears, which was unforgettable.When her aunt passed away, Du Fu guarded the funeral for her as if she were her biological mother.His gentle eyes on the world are inseparable from these early memories.Today, we need to see not only society, but also human nature. Du Fu wrote poems at the age of seven, practiced big characters at the age of nine, and wasted countless pens and paper.He has the diligence of a good boy, which is different from Li Bai's diligence of a child prodigy.Hu Yan, a native of the Ming Dynasty, saw Du Fu's calligraphy in the cabinet, and described it as "the calligraphy is very strange and magnificent".And Du Fu discussed calligraphy in his poem: "When the calligraphy is hard and thin, it will become magical." The word "hard and thin" is like Du Fu's own style.When people describe Du's poems, they usually say: gloomy and frustrated.Neither hard nor thin, so why the frustration? Thanks to his aunt's careful care, Du Fu's health improved year by year, and his personality also became cheerful.In his later years he recalled: Recalling the past fifteen hearts are still children, and come back as healthy as a yellow calf. Before the court, pears and jujubes are ripe in August, and they can climb a tree a thousand times a day. Du Fu has a superb ability to copy memories, which not everyone can do: after a long time, many people's memories will be out of shape, and their feelings will be deformed.Du Fu has been sick since he was a child, so he has a special sensitivity to health: he is as healthy as a yellow calf.This poem is about the joy of transitioning from a sickly childhood to a healthy teenager. You can climb a tree a thousand times in one day!Our generation was like this when we were young, but unfortunately now... middle school students and elementary school students can surf the Internet a thousand times a day. Feng Zhi explained the song "Baiyou Jixing" and said: "His spirit and his body have become healthy with the times he lived in." This is puzzling.Times squeezed out the figure of Du Fu's aunt, and we already know that if this aunt is a little bit off-guard, Du Fu's life will be gone, so how can we talk about health?As for the so-called healthy age, we might as well keep our eyes open to see what kind of health law it is. Du Fu had no worries about food and clothing since he was a child.His family, although his father's generation is not as good as his grandparents, still has privileges and dignity in society.For example, tax exemption, military service exemption, and important events during festivals, relatives and friends come to the door one after another.The family is heading towards a dilapidated direction, but it is slowly showing up, and Du Fu doesn't feel much.Everything was fine until my father died.He is not a child from a poor family, and he does not have such a shadow in his heart.When Lu Xun was a child, he went to the pawn shop for his father's illness, and felt great humiliation. His family fell into poverty, and he was deeply impressed all his life.Du Fu had no similar experience.Childhood, adolescence, youth, he lived a middle-of-the-road life, at least it felt that way.Family legends gave him a sense of pride and honor, and his aunt gave him tenderness and warmth.His material environment and spiritual environment should be said to be relatively clear.He has a strange maternal love, covering the tenderness that his mother gave him when he was babbling.His "body memory" has a double maternal love. He grew into a gentle and refined young man, made friends with celebrities in Luoyang, and went in and out of wealthy families.Li Guinian, the number one court musician, had met many times, and later wrote a poem saying: It is common to see it in King Qi's house, Cui Jiutang heard of it a few times ago. that was nice scenery at Jiang Nan, met you again in autumn. ——"Jiangnan meets Li Guinian" Grandma Gongsun's sword dance and Li Guinian's singing were both top-notch arts at that time.Du Fu was fortunate enough to experience it at close range, which would be of great benefit to him in refining his poetry in the future. At the age of twenty, a weak year, he will leave his warm home and roam the world.It was common for scholars in the Tang Dynasty to wander around, "traveling" to gain knowledge and "traveling" to gain a future.It is said that the examiners at that time depended on the reputation of the candidates, and the examiners would give priority to candidates recommended by celebrities or politicians.Students are all poets, and poets are roaming.Children from wealthy families are usually able to travel far.The son of the poor, the range of travel is small, unless he has the ability to make rich and noble friends while traveling.The empire has developed transportation, rich materials and cheap prices, which also provide convenience for poets to roam. Du Fu's first roaming trip was to the south of the Yangtze River. After traveling for four years, the purpose of seeking an official position was not clear.He had financial support, either from his father or from his aunts and uncles.This is similar to Li Bai, although he is far less generous than Li Bai.Before leaving, his father and aunt may have told him that he nodded frequently, but once he was on the road and swam out, he would be overwhelmed and carried away by the scenery of a different place.The young man with a thin face cast his clear eyes on the water village in the south of the Yangtze River.Traveling alone, leaving the hometown far behind.With no clear purpose, it feels right open to the world.On the road during the day and in bed at night, all kinds of new things come one after another.He swam to Suzhou, Shaoxing, and Jinling, full of curiosity about the world.He did not write much poetry, and we have no way of capturing the richness of his feelings in words.Begging for an official position and writing poems has not yet formed a strong subjective will.If Du Fu had thought of becoming a great poet at the age of twenty, then he would most likely become a young poet.I vaguely feel that he formed the above two wills after he was down and out in his thirties.Actually that's fine.The emergence of a great poet should be rich in feeling first, followed by strong will. Determined too early, it is bound to block the feeling. But right now, all art categories are overwhelming, and it feels like a depression.Everyone is seeking differences, but the result is convergence. It is a pity that we have no way of entering the sensory world of the young Du Fu.We only know that he has read many books, roaming in the gentle south of the Yangtze River with a tender heart cared for by motherhood. In the past four years, experts who have studied Du Fu have often mentioned it briefly.The joy in the suffering poet's life is dismissed lightly. Four years later, he returned to Gongxian County and took an imperial examination, but failed.He didn't care, packed his bags and hit the road again.This time roaming Qi Zhao, now Shandong and Hebei.Like Sima Qian and Li Bai, he doesn't think about starting a family, and believes that a good man has his ambitions everywhere. This seems to indicate that he felt pretty good when he visited Wuyue last time.