Chapter 17 Qin Guan

Among the "Sumen Four Scholars", Su Shi's favorite is Qin Guan.Therefore, in folklore and novels, Su Shi was given an extra younger sister, Su Xiaomei, who was extremely smart and married Qin Guan. Qin Guan was known by Su Shi, learned from Su Shi, but also suffered from Su Shi, and finally fell into the Yuanyou party struggle, was demoted again and again, and finally died in Tengzhou before Su Shi. Qin Guan (1049-1100), with the word Shaoyou and the word Taixu, is known as the Huaihai Layman in the world.Yangzhou Gaoyou (now Jiangsu) people.When he was young, he was very poor, and he was doing Huangben collation in the capital.He once wrote a poem to Qian Mu's father, saying: "Three years in Beijing, the temples are like silk, and new flowers grow old branches. The spring clothes in Japan are not wine, and the family has been poor for a long time." He failed in the Jinshi examination, but has not yet Depressed, he likes to read military books, and he also likes "big and big pens" in composition.

With Su Dongpo's encouragement and recommendation, he finally passed the Jinshi examination in the eighth year of Shenzong Yuanfeng (1085), when he was thirty-seven years old.At first, he served as chief bookkeeper of Dinghai and professor of Caizhou.At the beginning of Yuanyou (1086), Su Shi recommended him as the secretary of Shengzheng, and also as the editor of the Academy of National History.Shao Shengchu (1094) was a member of the Yuanyou Party and served as the general judge in Hangzhou. He was demoted to prison in Chuzhou, Chenzhou, Hengzhou, Leizhou and other places.After Huizong ascended the throne, he was sent back to the north and died in Tengzhou on the way.

Song Ci developed to the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, and there were two styles, positive and variable.Bian refers to the faction of Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi, and Su Shi, who rose up in the Ci circle with a desolate and unrestrained style.Zheng, refers to the word "Yan Ke", and the development of the so-called true nature of the word must be coordinated with the law. This school of poets is represented by Yan Jidao and Qin Guan. Qin Guan's character is not as open-minded as Su Shi, nor as accessible as Huang Tingjian, so he suffers more from setbacks in his official career.However, he is more persistent than Su and Huang in emotion, and close to Yan Jidao, so his style of poetry is also different from Su and Huang.

Qin Guan's most famous poems are almost all given to singing girls, such as "Man Ting Fang": This poem has been widely recited, especially the first two lines, which even Su Dongpo admired very much, and jokingly called Qin Guan "a scholar of Qin with clouds in the mountains".But this term was also criticized by Su Dongpo. In fact, there are not many erotic sentiments in Qin Guan's poems, but there are quite a few ones that describe true feelings, such as "Magpie Bridge Immortal" which is the most widely circulated in later generations: "If the two loves last for a long time, how can they be in the morning and evening", I don't know how many lovers who are separated from each other and staring at the makeup building have been comforted, and they are still broadcast in the population.

Qin Guan's words are very particular about the choice of words, which are often unexpected.In the first two poems, the word "mo" in "Mountains Wipe Clouds", the word "Lian" in "Tianlian Decaying Grass", the word "Dian" in "Jackdaw Counting", and the word "Dian" in "Slender Clouds". The word "Nong" is used very precisely.Let's take another look at his other noun "Taking Sha Xing": The character "lose" in "fog lost tower", the character "miser" in "moon maze ferry", and the character "build" in "build this hate without repetition", all of them are extremely skillful.

Later generations spoke highly of Qin Guan's Ci, thinking that he was the representative of the Wanyue School in the Northern Song Dynasty, and even called him "the first pearl, the crown of poets in the Song Dynasty" (Li Tiaoyuan's "Yucun Cihua").Although it is a bit exaggerated, it can also be seen his status in the minds of future generations.But Sun Jing said it well in "The Preface to the Old Man's Words at Zhupo": "Su Dongpo's speech is better than emotion, Liu Qiqing's emotion is better than speech, and the winner of both speech and emotion is Qin Shaoyou."