Chapter 18 Peach Blossom Poetry Case—Where does the Taoist who grows peaches return?Former Liu Lang is here again

Stubbornness and Fortitude As time goes by, whose wind is surging and whose dust is settled, in the annals of history, it is just a few thin lines of writing, which cannot match the romance of a poem. After reading Liu Yuxi's "From Langzhou to Beijing in the 10th Year of Yuanhe Period, A Show Presented to the Gentlemen Who Watch Flowers" and "Revisiting the View of Xuandu", I couldn't help but smile.What an interesting person, with a stubborn and strong personality, a bad temper and a hard temper. To put it nicely, he is unyielding, and to put it badly, he is unrepentant.Let’s first look at his two popular peach blossom poems:

Zimo Hongchen came towards him, and everyone looked at the flowers. There are thousands of peach trees in Xuandu Temple, all of which were planted by Liu Lang after he left. ——"From Langzhou to Beijing in the 10th year of Yuanhe, the show is presented to gentlemen who watch flowers" The one-hundred-acre courtyard is half covered with moss, and the peach blossoms are all in bloom.Where does the Taoist priest planting peaches go?Liu Lang from the past is here again today. —— "Revisiting the View of Xuandu" These two poems, I am used to calling them "You Xuandu View" and "Revisiting Xuandu View", are separated by ten years.The unrestrained agitation in this person's character is still the same.

It is easy to be a fighter once in a while, but it is commendable to be a fighter persistently as always. Ten years ago, he finally returned to the capital from the place where he was relegated. When he went to the suburbs to watch flowers, he couldn't understand the arrogance of the emerging rich and powerful, so he wrote poems to ridicule him.The implication is, what's so great about you jumping beam clowns, you are considered to be the younger generation of Lao Tzu.Wealth and wealth for a while, let's see how long you can be prosperous?It was all the fault of his literary name. Once the poem was passed on, Liu Yuxi was relegated again, and he packed his bags before leaving the capital.

I am not a person who shouts for Liu Yuxi and is indignant. With his stubborn personality, he is in the officialdom.Once you enter the officialdom, it is like being in a prostitute. Once you enter this door, whether you are popular or not, it is not up to you. It is impossible to say who is pitiful and who is not.The result of political struggle is bound to be life and death, some happy and some sad. Ten years later, he triumphantly said: "Where does the Taoist priest who planted peaches go? The former Liu Lang is here again." Look, he also looked at the fallen people in front of him with a complacent attitude and never pitied them.Just like his poem "Waves Washing the Sand" is self-evident: "Don't say slander as deep as waves, don't move guests like sand sinks. Although it's hard work to wash thousands of times, you can only get gold when you blow all the sand."

There are ups and downs in life.I was just thinking, how many decades are there in life, can people spend as much as they want?If he fails to come back ten years later and dies in the place of relegation, then later generations may have a different mood when interpreting this poem.There are a few more layers of pity for the poor life, not today's jokes about the rich and powerful who are blown away, and singing the triumphant return of the brave poet. Would it be a pity that he gave others a handle, just returned to the capital, and when the future was uncertain, he rashly spoke and acted recklessly before he had a firm foothold?It's not wrong to do so, it's just not worth it.There are not uncommon examples of people being convicted of crimes for their words in all dynasties.Liu Yuxi is not happy, but I am not happy if I am rich and powerful!Definitely give him some color.

Speaking wild words, you haven't suffered enough, have you?Then go and suffer some more. This time, Liu Yuxi's victory is not because of his excellence in poetry, but because of his exuberance of life and his optimism not to be crushed by the harsh environment.The rich and powerful lost in time, but he came back from time with his head held high.He survived in time, so he became the victor. A person in adversity, no matter how many ups and downs, how many tribulations, still put his soul on a high place, fight against fate, but also know how to reconcile with fate, look at each other with a smile, all previous grievances are gone, this is really precious.

Liu Yuxi's fighter character does not stop at officialdom.He also strives for new ideas when writing poems, opening up in a situation that has never been mentioned by the predecessors. Let's look at his two "Autumn Ci": Since ancient times, autumn is sad and lonely, and I say that autumn is better than spring.In the clear sky, when cranes line up on the clouds, the poetry will be drawn to the blue sky. (one) The mountains and rivers are clear and frost comes at night, and the trees are dark red and light yellow.Trying to go up to a high-rise building is as clear as the bone, it is like the spring scenery that makes people crazy. (second)

To be honest, spring sorrow and spring hatred have been chanted for many years since ancient times.In spring, when the spring comes together, sentimentality is a common problem of literati, which is human nature, and it is impossible to change the atmosphere because of his two poems.The spring breeze blowing on his face seduces so many emotional thoughts and poetic feelings, but he is such a person who will never follow others' words.Be sure to praise autumn and write with a different style. Not surprisingly, he has a long history of not conforming to others.Turn back the time and look forward to see why he was relegated in the first place, and you will understand the cause and effect.

Beginning in 805, the innovation movement that occurred during the reign of Emperor Shunzong of Tang Dynasty was known as "Yongzhen Innovation" or "Eight Sima Incident".In just 146 days, a massive reform was carried out, which was popular among the people at first.At this time, the successive edicts issued by the new emperor from the inner court were very satisfying: one edict dealt with the corrupt official Jing Zhaoyin Dao Wang Li Shi, and the market cheered as soon as the edict came out; A famous minister; an edict released three hundred women in the harem and six hundred women in the Jiaofang. When the family members came to welcome them at the gate of the palace, the crying of the people mixed with sorrow and joy shook the sky; money"; an edict announced amnesty, and at the same time exempted all money and food owed to the government, and stopped the "promotion" of the emperor by Jiedu envoys other than the regular tribute.Several measures pointed out the current disadvantages, greatly reduced the burden on the public, and won praise.

As a young official beneficiary of the reform, Liu Yuxi is also full of ambition.Wang Shuwen praised him as "a prime minister". "Liu Yuxi's Biography" in "Old Tang Book" said that at this time Liu Yuxi was "happy and angry, and the people in the capital dared not name him. The road was based on the eyes, and he was called the second king Liu Liu". Usually, what we see through the poems of Liu Yuxi and Liu Zongyuan is how they feel pain after being relegated, and how they still pay attention to people's livelihood and strive to improve their governance in a dangerous situation. This is a fact, but we cannot see other facts that are covered up by words and poetry .

When the reform was in full swing and the situation was very good, the "two kings Liu Liu" once got hotheaded and touted each other as the rebirth of Yi Yin, Zhou Gong, and Guan Zhong. They estimated the situation too optimistically and didn't know what they were dealing with. The feudal town Jiedu envoys and veterans in his hands.Their biggest backer is Shunzong who has been ill for a long time and cannot speak.The emperor himself was largely under the control of eunuchs.The foundation it relies on is too shaky. Liu Zongyuan was lonely and cold by nature, while Liu Yuxi was domineering.Wang accepted bribes, and specially built a large wooden box to store the bribes under the bed, enjoying the pleasure of sleeping on the pile of money—it was a simple and low-key luxury.After Wang Shuwen's mother passed away, he wanted to observe the funeral at home without following the rules of etiquette.These have become the focus of their attacks. At the same time, the disadvantages of entanglement with cronies and cronyism also appeared.The promotion of internal personnel is extremely fast, attracting attention.In the later stage of the reform, the disputes caused by power became more and more serious, and the few veterans who supported them turned around.The powerful figures Wang Shuwen and Wei Zhiyi disagreed in their decisions, which directly led to many missed opportunities. The reform was in full swing at the beginning, because it hadn't touched the root, the sharp knife hadn't pierced the military and political aspects, and it hadn't stimulated the acupoints of eunuchs and feudal towns.Once the military and political aspects were involved, the eunuchs and the feudal towns joined forces, refused to hand over the military power, and then hit a heavy blow—the prince Li Chun was pushed out to supervise the country, and the Shunzong Zen was forced to become the Supreme Emperor on the grounds of his health. After the Anshi Rebellion, in addition to the domineering vassals and towns, the eunuchs who ruled in power also became the festering wounds of the Tang Dynasty that could not heal.The reformists who are determined to innovate have a shallow foundation and cannot control such a complicated court situation.A group of literati with pens but no swords are almost helpless in the face of counterattacks. At the time of crisis, Wei Zhiyi's father-in-law, Du Huangshang, came up with an idea to ask Wei Zhiyi to lead all the officials to invite the prince to supervise the country. This is a good idea to judge the situation and seize the opportunity. After a while, it won't be too ugly when it is liquidated in the future.However, Wei Zhiyi refused. From this point of view, not being good at compromise is not the fault of Liu Yuxi alone, but a common fault of their group.After Shunzong abdicated, the honeymoon ended, and a vigorous reform came to an end.The reformists who lost their reliance were liquidated, Wang Shuwen was demoted to Yuzhou Sihu, and was given to death by his political opponents who missed him in the second year; Wang was demoted to Kaizhou Sima, and soon died in office, avoiding the end of death; Wei Zhiyi, Liu Yuxi, Liu Zongyuan, Ling Zhun, Han Tai, Han Ye, Chen Jian, and Cheng Yi were also demoted to remote places as Sima.This is the famous "two kings and eight Sima" incident. Like the famous reforms of other dynasties in Chinese history, the road to reform is full of hardships, and the ideal of revitalizing the Tang Dynasty seems out of reach.Stumbling forward amidst labor pains and swings, "Yongzhen Innovation" will inevitably end in failure.No matter how brilliant the process was, it was a silent and bleak ending for the instigators who participated in the reform.