Before dawn, in a small yard in Suizhou, young Ouyang Xiu got up early. He took a dustpan, poured the sand into the yard, spread it out, squatted on the ground with a sharpened grass brush, and carefully practiced calligraphy one by one. Soon, immature handwriting was left on the sand.
In the fourth year after Ouyang Xiu was born, his father died. Although my father was a small official before his death, he was honest and clean, leaving no money. All the burdens of family life fell on Ouyang Xiu's mother Zheng. In order to make a living, my mother had to move from Luling to Suizhou with Ouyang Xiu, who was under 4 years old. Ouyang Xiu's uncle is in Suizhou and can take care of poor orphans and widows in life.
Ouyang Xiu still remembers the hard work at that time, and his mother Zheng took him to Wan Li Road. Even so, he did not forget to educate him. Zheng is a knowledgeable and diligent woman. She was born in poverty, but she was lucky enough to study for a few days, and later married a noble and capable husband. Unconsciously, Zheng is quite good at educating children. When I first arrived in Suizhou, I didn't have much money at home and couldn't go to a private school. Zheng told the young Ouyang Xiu a story about how to be a man and enlighten children's wisdom.
Every time Zheng tells a story, he will make a summary, so that Ouyang Xiu can understand many principles of being a man. What she teaches her children most is not to follow the crowd, not to follow the crowd. When Ouyang Xiu was a little older, Zheng tried to teach him to read and write. One is to teach him to read the poems of Zhou Pu and Zheng Gu, poets of the Tang Dynasty, and nine monks at that time. Although Ouyang Xiu had a little knowledge of these poems, he enhanced his interest in reading.
Soon, Ouyang Xiu reached school age, but his family was still poor, and he couldn't afford to go to a private school. Lian Bi and paper were all gone. Ouyang Xiu can only copy copybooks on the table with his fingers and recite them in his heart. Zheng saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart. But Xiao Ouyang Xiu was very sensible and said to his mother, "It doesn't matter, he can read."
One day, Zheng went out and saw the pond in front of the yard covered with slender grass, which was very dense. It suddenly occurred to her that the grass was long and thin. Can you cut it for a pen? So she immediately picked a few weeds and gestured impatiently on the ground. But the soil is not flat enough, and the grass brush is soft and difficult to write. Zheng came up with a new method of spreading sand to make paper and began to teach Ouyang Xiu to practice calligraphy.
After seeing this brush and yellow sand paper, Ouyang Xiu applauded happily and said, "I also have a pen and paper, which I can write repeatedly." He followed his mother to practice writing on the floor one by one, practicing over and over again, and writing again when he made a mistake until he wrote neatly and carefully.
Under the education of his mother, young Ouyang Xiu soon fell in love with poetry collections. But there is no money to buy books at home. Zheng took him to borrow books from people with a lot of books nearby. Although Xiao Ouyang Xiu can recite it once, there are still many good books that can't be read at once, so he has to copy them down.
One day, Ouyang Xiu went to the Li family to borrow books. He found a six-volume anthology of Han Changli in an old wastebasket and took it home with the owner's permission. I opened it, opened my eyes, and then I forgot to eat and sleep, reading day and night. The genre of articles in the early Song Dynasty followed the ethos of the Five Dynasties. Literati write elaborate articles, but they are gorgeous and empty, and Han Yu's style of writing is completely different. Ouyang Xiu was moved by Han Yu's fresh and natural articles. He happily told his mother that there are such good articles in the world.
Although Ouyang Xiu is still young, he may not fully understand Han Yu's literary thoughts, but he laid the foundation for his later thought of advocating the elimination of flashy writing style. It was inspired by this thought that an idea of learning from Han Yu and getting rid of the bad atmosphere in the literary world at that time rose in his heart.
Later, after Ouyang Xiu became a bachelor of Hanlin, he actively advocated changing the style of writing and getting rid of bad habits. One year, the capital held a Jinshi exam, and the court sent Ouyang Xiu as the examiner. He thinks this is a good opportunity for him to select talents and reform the style of writing. When marking papers, he found flashy articles and refused to accept them.
After the exam, a group of so-called literati withdrew from the election, and they were very dissatisfied with Ouyang Xiu. One day, Ouyang Xiu rode out and was stopped by a group of malicious people on the way, shouting abuse at him. Then the soldiers on patrol came and drove these people away. After this storm, although Ouyang Xiu was under some pressure, the style of writing in the examination room changed, and everyone learned to write rich and concise articles.
But these are later stories, and young Ouyang Xiu is still reading without sleep. In the eighth year of Tiansheng (AD 1030), he took an exam in Beijing, won the Jinshi, and won the first place in Nangong palace examination. He was elected as the first division and transferred to Xijing as an official. Then make friends with celebrities at that time and write poems. For example, Hemei and Mei were both famous literati at that time. In this way, Ouyang Xiu became famous all over the world with his articles. Soon, he was elected to the imperial court to tidy up the pavilion.
Ouyang Xiu, an official, is more strict with himself in literature. On one occasion, he was asked to write an article called Xiang. Ouyang Xiu wrote a colorful article with a wave of his hand, including two sentences: "Officials will be in the same position and return home with wealth." Someone took the article, and after reading it, he felt that the text was simple but rich. He said to Ouyang Xiu, "Teacher Wang's article is really a must." Ouyang Xiu smiled and said nothing, but he was still thinking about the content of the article.
After much consideration, Ouyang Xiu patted his thigh and said to himself, "No, it must be changed." But the man took the article and left. He quickly sent someone to ride back the manuscript, revised it and sent it back. Strangely, someone took a cursory look at the revised manuscript: isn't it exactly the same as the original?
After careful study, I found that the original full text only changed "official rank, wealth to the countryside" to "official rank, wealth to the countryside", while the trotters only restored the word "and"; But after he recited it repeatedly, he still couldn't help but marvel and marvel. The word "he" added to the original revised sentence, although the meaning has not changed, is cadenced. No wonder Ouyang Xiu was so impatient and asked to add these two words.
Ouyang Xiu has always been good at refining Chinese characters. In addition to the word "harmony" in the article, there is also a story that can reflect his rigorous style. One morning, Ouyang Xiu took three subordinates of the Imperial Academy to travel. There are not many pedestrians on the official road. They walked slowly, singing poems and writing words, very complacent.
They saw a yellow dog lying on the road, lazily basking in the sun, looking very leisurely. While guiding the way, suddenly a surprised horse flew by the roadside, and the yellow dog couldn't dodge and died under the horseshoe. In the face of this scene, all four people showed unbearable expressions. At this time, Ouyang Xiu suggested: "It is unfortunate that such a thing happened. Let's record it. "
I saw that one of the subordinates thought for a moment and took the lead and said, "There is a yellow dog lying on the road. The horse was frightened and flew, and its hoof died." Another person went on to say, "There is a yellow dog lying on the road, trying to escape from the horseshoe and kill it." Finally, the third man said, "There is a dog lying on the road, and the lying dog was killed by it."
Ouyang Xiu laughed after listening: "How many volumes do you have to write like this?" Then the three men quickly asked, "What do you suggest?" Ouyang Xiu said: "One horse kills a dog in the road, and six words are enough!" Hearing this, the three men blushed and smiled at each other. Compared with his own redundancy, Ouyang Xiu was impressed by the brevity of the article.
Later, Ouyang Xiu became the leader of the poetry innovation movement in the Northern Song Dynasty. He is a detached man, so people all over the world gather around him and respect him as a teacher. Ouyang Xiu encouraged him to fall behind, but he was afraid of inferiority. Most of the people he admired became celebrities.
Ouyang Xiu's articles, whether natural, full or concise, all meet the standards. He is concise, clear-minded, well-founded in argument, informative in content, citing classics, classifying and listing, and thorough in analysis, so he can convince people.
Later, someone asked Ouyang Xiu how to write a good article. Ouyang Xiu replied: "There is no other way. Only by studying hard and writing more can the article be written well; The disadvantage of the world is that you write too little and are lazy to read. I want to surpass others every time I write an article. How can you achieve your goal? The shortcomings of the article need not be pointed out by others. As long as you write more, you can find it yourself. "
Reason for selection:
Genius is not the only reason for success, but education and hard work the day after tomorrow are the most important.
Ali's words
Ouyang Xiu has a saying that "the meaning of drunkenness is not in wine, but in mountains and rivers". The joy of mountains and rivers, the place where the heart belongs, the place where the wine belongs. "This sentence is often quoted by later generations, and it always expresses the meaning of another plot in a dark way. However, the reality is far from the ideal. When Ouyang Xiu wrote the preface to the drunken pavilion, he appeared as a leisurely and affectionate scholar.
Although Ouyang Xiu wrote this article, it is the second time that he has been demoted by the emperor. After entering the palace, he was exiled by the imperial court and became a local official in Chuzhou, Anhui. This huge political gap did not disappoint this man. In feudal times, the demotion of officials not only means the darkness of the future, but also may be beheaded by the emperor's old son. Ouyang Xiu has been an official for more than 30 years, during which he was demoted several times. But fortunately, his head finally grew steadily on his neck.
Interestingly, he was appreciated by the emperor and promoted all the way because of his daring to speak, straightforward temper and fair handling. But for this reason, he was constantly demoted, and he was able to change from a prime minister to a county magistrate, completing seven sesame officials from one person to ten thousand people. It's not easy to come to Ouyang Xiu.
Ouyang Xiu has tried several times in officialdom, but he hasn't learned his lesson yet. Song Shi commented on him like this: "He has talent and courage. Although he was trapped in the front, he triggered it, ignored it, and he was exiled and displaced. As for repeated efforts, he is self-aware. " Character determines fate, and the ancients did not deceive me. It is widely rumored in the Jianghu that Ouyang Xiu offended people to the point of "treating people as enemies". There are many people in the dark, in the light, I hope he will die soon.
At this time, Ouyang Xiu still looks like a pair of necessities. When Ouyang Xiu was in power in North Korea, he never talked about research and always "asked if he could". Even if the emperor Lao Tzu and the court dignitaries did something against the rules, Ouyang Xiu would lose face and face it calmly. No wonder the emperor demoted him to 108 thousand miles away, out of sight and out of mind.
This is the literati. Ouyang Xiu is neither a politician nor a literati politician. Although he has served as a senior official, such as deputy special envoy of parliament, he has participated in political affairs and other important positions. But he still can't learn to play tricks with power or pat the horse on the head, so he was demoted several times. So Ouyang Xiu, an official, failed, while Ouyang Xiu, a scholar, was very successful.
First of all, he is the first of the "Eight Masters in Tang and Song Dynasties". At that time, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the articles of Yuanyang Butterfly School were popular in the literary world. Whether the article is well written depends on whether you can use adjectives or not. Ouyang Xiu's childhood idol was Han Yu, and Han Yu's articles were steady, peaceful and natural, so his naturalistic style followed Han Yu's. However, if you want to be popular, you have to have your own ideas. Ouyang Xiu put forward that "the text is the carrier, the article is decorated with words, and things can be seen in later generations", saying that the article must have content, and then you should try your best to revise it. Just like a house, you must lay a good foundation and build the house before you try to decorate it, otherwise it will be a castle in the air. Later, he also launched a vigorous new ancient prose movement, which successfully created a hard and simple style.
Therefore, Ouyang Xiu, who was demoted as an official, was not in pain. He also called himself a "61 layman". What do these six ones mean? He proudly said, I bought more than 10 thousand books and compiled 1000 volumes of antique records. There is nothing in my house except a piano and a broken chessboard. Often drink a pot of wine, plus an old man like me. To sum up, it is six ones. You see, the old man sees himself thoroughly. So he showed a heartless look, thinking only of a good day to go up the mountain to drink and go down the mountain to write.
A person who can bear the burden of humiliation, not condescending, and enjoy himself at the bottom should be regarded as a person with wisdom in life. I think Ouyang Xiu is one of the real flavors.