The "Chu Shi" referred to in Mencius Teng Wengong (the debate of Chu Shi, the words of Yang Zhu and Mo Zhai, all over the world) is also a hermit, referring to a virtuous person who lives in seclusion. But this "Chu Shi" refers to someone who has never been an official. Like Tao Yuanming, being an official first and then living in seclusion is also called a hermit, but it can't be called "Chu Shi".
In the old society, people who thought they lived in seclusion did not seek officials, fame or profit. "Old Tang Shu Seclusion" says that "the highest person walks alone" and "the most important person avoids fame". Yi Gu said, "Don't be a prince, be a noble person." Seeking heights in seclusion is a man of noble character, so "hermit" is also called "Gao Shi". Changshu, Jiangsu Province still preserves the tomb of Huang Zhi, a great painter of the Yuan Dynasty, and the stone tablet on the tomb was immediately called "Huang Zhi's Tomb". Ni Yunlin, another great painter in Yuan Dynasty, was also called "Ni". During the Jin and Song Dynasties, Dai Kui and his sons, Dai Bo and Dai Qing, were famous painters, sculptors and musicians. They all lived in seclusion, so the Book of Famous Paintings in Past Dynasties called it "a seclusion, and the Jin and Song Dynasties were full of vitality". Both Dai and his son are great artists, but their biographies were not included in Wen Yuan or Yiwen, but were included in Hermit because of their talents, and they were called "hermits" because of their "hermits". According to Records of the Historian, the ancients said, "Be too virtuous, then make meritorious deeds, and then make a statement". It seems that the hermit established virtue, so the official history is the biography of the hermit. But where is Germany? But it is worth studying.
Yan Guang, for example, refused to be personally courted by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and lived in seclusion in Fuchun River. Fan Zhongyan said in "Mr. Yan's Ancestral Temple": "Yunshan is gray and the rivers and seas are vast. The wind of a gentleman, the mountain is high and the water is long. " It is said that this "wind" was originally written as "virtue". In Fan's eyes, his virtue is as lofty as a mountain. Yang Wanli, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, said in his poem Reading the Biography of Yan Ziling: "How can a guest star make up for the prosperity of the Han Dynasty? There is a breeze in the air and it is as cold as ice. Send my aunt to move to Ding Han early, where there is Yanling on the earth! " Zhu Yuanzhang hit the nail on the head. He said in the article "On Yan Guang": "At the beginning of national rejuvenation, people's livelihood was depressed and talents were scarce in Yan Guang in the Han Dynasty. I'm worried about the monarch, but I'm also afraid that my poor morality will cause people's livelihood suffering, and I'm very eager for virtue. It was a party with Zhou in North Korea. I don't know when the gift will arrive, so it just floats away. But I still think I am happy beside rocks and water. ..... If Red Eyebrows, Wang Lang, Liu Penzi and other generations are all confused, where will the light catch? At that time, my family was too careless to eat enough to take care of my life. Did I have fun fishing? ..... I think the sinners at that time were no bigger than Yan Guang and Zhou Dang. " (See "Liu Qing Ri Za", Volume 11, Attached to Zi Ling Agriculture and Fishery Institute) Although Zhu Yuanzhang is a lout and a tyrant, there is something worth thinking about in this passage: Is seclusion high?
In fact, hermits can be divided into ten types: one is true seclusion and complete seclusion, such as Zong Bing in the Jin and Song Dynasties and Zhenwu in the Yuan Dynasty. They never went to be officials, and even if the emperor ordered him to come up, they did not deal with those in power. The second is to be an official before hiding, such as Tao Yuanming. Tao is a famous hermit, and he is listed as a "hermit" in the Book of Song Dynasty and Three History. In fact, he is not a pure hermit. He became an official and lived in seclusion because he was dissatisfied with officialdom. Shen Zhou of the Ming Dynasty was included in The Hermit for a day without being an official. One of his students, Wen Zhiming, worked as an academician in Beijing for one year and lived in seclusion until his death, but his biography was not in The Hermit, but in Wen Yuan. Tao Yuanming was an official before he retired, but his reputation of "seclusion" was too great, surpassing his poetic title, but Tao Yuanming really retired later. There are many hermits like Tao Yuanming who first became an official and then retired. The third kind is semi-official and semi-secluded, such as Wang Wei, who started as an official and later became afraid. But if he resigns and lives in seclusion, he has no salary and no guarantee of life, so although he is an official, he is actually living in seclusion. Such people are not hermits by name, but they have hermit thoughts. The idea of seclusion is the same ideologically. Fourth, officials suddenly disappeared. For example, Wang Meng and Dong Qichang worked as officials for several years and went to live in seclusion. They were recruited by the court, or when the situation was favorable, they came out as officials again and went back to live in seclusion after a while. This kind of person is indecisive and unresponsive. Wang Meng created a dull style. Dong Qichang's brush is fuzzy and too dark, which is related to their personality. The fifth is hiding in North Korea. This kind of person is an official, but his thoughts are relatively hidden. He is an official and doesn't ask about political affairs. "There is no official in the official, which has nothing to do with this." Go with the flow and protect yourself. This kind of person is the most harmful to the country. Six is false concealment, such as Chen Jiru in the Ming Dynasty. Although he is not an official, he is good at dealing with officials. Someone wrote a poem and laughed at him for "flying cranes in the clouds". The seventh is a hermit, such as Tao Hongjing in the Qi and Liang Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, who was called the hermit of Tao. Although he lived in seclusion in the mountains, he also asked him for advice on major issues in the DPRK and China, and was called "the prime minister in the mountains." This kind of person is a hermit, but in fact he has no hermit thoughts. He is an official not only for freedom. The eighth is to seek high officials by hiding, such as Lu Zangyong in the Tang Dynasty. According to Liu Su's "Da Tang Xin Yu Seclusion", Lu Zang was admitted to the Jinshi, and first went to Zhongnanshan in Chang 'an to live in seclusion, waiting for the court to call him up. Later, he was hired as a Gao Shi, and he was given an official position. Later, another hermit, Sima Chengzhen, was also called up and insisted on not being an official. He wanted to go back to the mountain, so Lu Zang sent him, pointing to the cloud in Zhong Nanshan: "This is a great advantage." This is a "shortcut to the south". Those who seek high positions by seclusion are not real hermits. The ninth is that they have to remain anonymous and actually engage in the most fanatical politics, such as Gu and Huang Zongxi in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. They "lived in seclusion" just to show that they didn't cooperate with the Qing Dynasty, but in fact they were fighting the fiercest anti-Qing struggle. So is Xi Shi. After his defeat in the anti-Qing dynasty, he lived in seclusion in order to escape persecution, but he was loyal to the Ming dynasty and opposed the Qing dynasty all his life. He was so excited that he never calmed down. These people are not hermits in the true sense. The tenth is to live in seclusion first, which is basically true, but when the opportunity comes, you will be out of the mountain. Can't wait, just hide. Such as Yi Yin in Shang Dynasty, Zhuge Liang at the end of Han Dynasty and Liu Ji at the end of Yuan Dynasty. Secondly, there is a kind of hermit who is helpless in life, such as Hong Ren in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. In the early Ming and Qing dynasties, he fought against the Qing Dynasty and had to live in seclusion after his failure, but later he changed his mind and really disappeared. As long as the mind is really hidden, what is shown in thought is based on lightness, softness and remoteness.
The situation of hermits in each era is different, but in general, there is still a problem of the times. Talking about history, "An Shi Rebellion" can be regarded as a turning point in feudal society. Before the "An Shi Rebellion", feudal society flourished. After that, it went from bad to worse The times have a certain influence on intellectuals, and intellectuals have a greater influence on the times. Because in any era, the actual leader of society can only be intellectuals. Only when intellectuals unite and think of the country together can the country have hope, otherwise it will be the opposite. From the group point of view, before the Tang Dynasty, intellectuals could think of the country. Ma Yuan famously said in the Han Dynasty, "People die in the frontier and their ears are buried in riding boots. How can he lie in bed and do evil in the hands of a woman? " (The Biography of Ma Yuan in the Later Han Dynasty) inspired countless people with lofty ideals to die for their country. Intellectuals in the Tang Dynasty "don't live in a fortress, but only report your death", "report your intention to Jintai and hold Yulong as your death", "If you want to grow up and serve your country, you don't have to enter Yumen Pass first" and "Yellow sand must wear golden armor in every battle, but you can't return it if you break Loulan". Qi Xin, the minister of the Tang Dynasty, worked together to make the country strong. The intellectuals in the Song Dynasty were still good. Although they are not as eager to serve the country as the intellectuals in the Tang Dynasty, and some of them are still decadent, most people are still worried about their country. Intellectuals in the northern song dynasty "worry about advancing and retreating" and "live high in the temple and worry about their people; If you are far away in the rivers and lakes, you will worry about your husband. " Intellectuals in the Southern Song Dynasty were "all over the country" and "humble and unwilling to forget the country". In the early Southern Song Dynasty, Yue Fei and Chen Dong served the country. In the middle period, poets such as Lu You and Xin Qiji struggled in the front line of resisting gold. Later, Wen Tianxiang, Zhang Shijie and Lu Xiufu died for their country. What's more, in the mountains and Hailing Mountains, the soldiers and civilians who fought against the Yuan Dynasty collectively sacrificed, and no one defected. What spirit is this? It disappeared after the Yuan Dynasty.
Hermits are generally weak in both early and late stages. They can't stand the reality, or struggle or make progress, so they have to retire, but they have more time to engage in literary and artistic creation. They either lead a leisurely pastoral life or build houses on the mountains, so China's pastoral poems and landscape paintings are particularly prosperous. Moreover, although the styles of landscape paintings and pastoral poems written by hermits are different, there is a general style in general, which is related to the basic consistency of hermit personality. As mentioned above, there are roughly three styles of recluse culture: one is soft (weak), the other is light, and the third is far. This problem deserves attention.
Although Tao Yuanming once "glared", the general tendency of his poetic style was still "soft" after his seclusion, and there was little vigorous trend; So is Wang Wei. The style of landscape painting in Nanzong, from Wang Wei to Dong Yuan, from Huang to Zhenwu, is also characterized by softness. Wen Zhiming and Dong Qichang in Ming Dynasty and the "Four Heavenly Kings" in Qing Dynasty, their paintings are all soft. "Softness" is the realm of Laozi and Zhuangzi, especially the realm of Zhuangzi. Just like hermits in history, the early "softness" is very different from the later "softness". Laozi and Zhuangzi's "softness" is softness outside and rigidity inside. Laozi said: "Weakness is better than strength", "softness is better than strength", "weakness is the highest", "softness is the strongest in the world" and "the world is not weaker than water, and the strong can't win". Therefore, Laozi takes softness as strength, "Excellence" and "softness". Doing nothing is to "govern by doing nothing", so is Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi's "softness" takes infinite strength and soaring momentum as its connotation and overlooks the room as its height. Therefore, the first article in Zhuangzi talks about "carefree travel", which is really carefree, but "flying in anger, its wings are like clouds hanging in the sky", its great "I don't know its thousands of miles", its back "I don't know its thousands of miles" and "Peng's migration". He also wants to "ride the clouds to subdue the dragon and travel around the world", which is impossible without great internal strength.
During the Six Dynasties, the study of Laozi and Zhuangzi was the most popular. People in the Six Dynasties read, talked about and learned from Laozi and Zhuangzi. Ji Kang, like Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, dared to be "not thin-minded" and laughed at the murder of your son Zhong. Ruan Ji studied under Laozi and Zhuangzi, dared to pretend to be drunk and refused to win over the emperor, and dared to sigh that "when there is no hero, there is no hero, and Zongzi becomes famous." Until the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai was still vigorous and vigorous, and their works were never weak and gentle. Before the Tang Dynasty, although the lines were soft and round, they contained great and vigorous vitality. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, people learned from Laozi and Zhuangzi, but the inner rhythm of life was still eager to try. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, people had lost their inner essence when studying Laozi and Zhuangzi, only being gentle without being strong, which can be seen in the paintings of Dong Qichang and the "Four Kings". This is the spirit of the times.
Even if you are not strong and do not resist, you are still easy to be beheaded, beheaded, slapped and killed. A phone call can come, and if you leave, you must leave. There is a literary inquisition waiting to sigh. In order to survive, as mentioned above, scholars have lost both rigidity and toughness, so how can they be strong when they are shaped in "state" (literary works)? Therefore, the early "softness" and the later "softness" are very different: the early "softness" is to see the rigidity in softness, and the later "softness" is to be soft without bones.
Simplicity: the "lightness" of Laozi and Zhuangzi certainly means that nature has no decoration, that is, "simplicity", which is simple but not clever. Zhuangzi said: "My teacher is almost, my teacher is almost ... covering heaven and earth, carving many shapes, not clever." In addition, the "light" in Zhuangzi also means purity, quietness and understanding. "Zhuangzi" said: "clear but not miscellaneous, static and unchanged, light and inaction, moving and taking heaven as the sky." "It's easy to be a vegetarian and do nothing." Then the early "light" has the meaning of nature, simplicity, purity, tranquility and clarity. Jin Renyuan Haowen said that Tao Yuanming's poem "Does an old man write poetry?" He really wrote a poem. " Huang Valley's Inscribed Bamboo Stone says that "the old man in Dongpo, Gong Hanlin, vomited ink on his chest after drinking". This can be seen in early literary works and paintings. However, although the "lightness" in the later period seems natural and unadorned, the "lightness" deliberately pursued cannot be concealed, and it is completely portrayed by skill. The "lightness" in the early stage is like the true mountains and waters in nature; The later "lightness", like rockery and water in the garden, of course pursues the same as real mountains and water, but people can see differences in the same. Of course, the skill of the latter is much higher than that of the former. Dong Qichang and the "Four Heavenly Kings" have better painting skills than their predecessors, but what people see in their paintings is only skill, not a special mental state. If the latter has a mental state, it is only a listless mental state. Like Yunnan Tian, he is a real hermit. His paintings are characterized by "lightness", but it can be seen that it is a high degree of skill to achieve lightness, not natural lightness.
Distant: Yi Shi became a hermit because they were far away from political power and officialdom. They either don't want to climb mountains or retreat from heights, and they all stand in "far" places, with their hearts far away from themselves, and their poems and paintings also have their own sense of "far". Tao Yuanming's "leisurely seeing Nanshan" and Wang Wei's "opening the door full of snow" both give people the feeling of "far away". I once wrote the article "Poetry has three distances", saying: "Tao Yuanming's leisurely seeing Nanshan is far away, and Li Bai's I climb to the top. I view the sublimity of the world, and Du Fu's boundless valley is far-reaching near Jingmen. " The hermit's "far" is only "flat", and there are few "high" and "far". Painters with hermit thoughts only seek "Pingyuan" in painting landscapes. Painters in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties even regarded "height" and "distance" as depression and danger, and almost all landscape paintings were "flat" scenes. Especially Huang, Zhen and Wu. As far as influence is concerned, painters who have no idea of seclusion also develop to "Pingyuan". In fact, "high" and "far" are more imposing. Hermits (including those who hide in the city of Chaohe) focus on "ping" for a hundred years, and "ping" is closer to "ping". They should also "turn rigidity into softness and coarseness into elegance", and even "rigidity" and "coarseness" should be opposed, because this is inconsistent with "plain" and "plain". The plain gives people the feeling of "melting" and "diluting", and will not bring any oppression or stimulation to people's spirit. Generally speaking, "Pingyuan" uses relatively light ink, only draws the middle scene and the distant scene, and understates the close scene, which leads people's emotional thinking to the realm of "far" and "light" of peace and distance, which is more in line with the hermit's mental state and is also a more mature realm of landscape painting in art.
Finally, I have to say a question. Scholars have always opposed hermits, believing that hermits should be responsible for the decline of the country because they escape from reality. Of course, seclusion should not be advocated, and seclusion among young people should not only be advocated, but also opposed. But the splendid and rich culture created by hermits is undeniable. Moreover, seclusion is rooted in political turbidity and power rule, and it is this group of lonely thieves and despicable people who should be whipped. There is a saying in "South History Seclusion": "People who live alone are biased, so they can learn their names because they can't destroy their ambitions and bend their ways. If my husband meets a believer and comes at the right time, how can I let his feelings flow and escape from the mountains and rivers? This is the last resort. "What's going on in the world, if you can work hard, of course, you should work hard, but sometimes it's hard to help. Su Dongpo's "On the Princes" has a cloud: "The trend of the world lies in the villain. If a gentleman wants to attack it, he will die. " The conclusion is: "Not only is it different, but the situation in which you live is also different. "For example, Wu Zetian and Cixi, there is only one woman, but the world is in its hands, and hordes can't stand it, let alone powerless literati. Of course the strong can resist, but it doesn't matter if they fail. What about the weak? It is better to retire than to go with the flow.
On the surface, hermits are detached from their thoughts, but in fact, they have endless pains in their hearts.