In Wangjiangta Park, Chengdu, Sichuan, there is a couplet circulating: The ancient well is getting cold and sinking day by day. Ask a few words, where is the school gate lane? The river bends over the sill, occupying the first floor of Yanyue, and the thatched cottage of the Ministry of Industry should be divided equally. Wangjiang Building, also known as Chongli Building, was built in the Qing Dynasty to commemorate a woman who was on an equal footing with the poet Du Fu and show her talent. However, since ancient times, beauty has been unlucky and her fate has been quite bumpy. She is Xue Tao, a famous poetess in Tang Dynasty.
Comparable to talented women in Zhuo Wenjun.
Xue Tao's father, Xue Yun, was an official in the imperial court and was knowledgeable. He regards this only daughter as the apple of his eye and has taught her to read and write poems since she was a child. Her talent is very high, which sometimes surprises her father.
One summer, Xue Yun rested under the buttonwood tree in the yard. The leaves of buttonwood rustled as the breeze blew. He suddenly realized something, chanting, "Except for an old buttonwood tree, it swelled to the clouds." Then he said to his daughter who was playing by: Can you continue this poem? Without looking up, Xue Tao casually replied, the branches welcome birds from the north and the south, and the leaves send the breeze. That year, Xue Tao was only eight or nine years old.
Hearing this, Xue Yun had mixed feelings, both happy and worried. I am glad that my daughter is young, but she is intelligent and eloquent; Worryingly, seeing off is an ominous sign for a girl. Sure enough, misfortune soon came to this family.
Xue Yun is honest and dares to speak. As a result, he offended the powerful people of the dynasty and was exiled to Sichuan. His family moved from the prosperous capital to the distant Chengdu. A few years later, he died of boils in Nanzhao.
Xue Taocai 14 years old when his father died. Without the support of the family, the life of the mother and daughter was immediately in trouble. As a last resort, Xue Tao joined the Music Society at the age of 65,438+06, and became a prostitute with her beautiful appearance, fluent temperament, eloquent eloquence and poetic sentiment.
Prostitutes in the Tang Dynasty were supported by the state finance and formally established, with stable wages. Their main job is to serve wine, write poems and play songs to entertain guests when officials are drinking and partying.
At that time, officials were often born in imperial examinations and had a high cultural quality. To make them pay attention to their eyes, they need not only beauty, but also talent, eloquence and knowledge, which is Xue Tao's strong point. The history books say that apart from poetry and wine, she only argues when she sees it and is good at catering.
Song people recorded an anecdote of Xue Tao in Tang Yulin. On one occasion, Lizhou secretariat hosted a banquet and proposed to set a "thousand-character text". The decree of this drinkers' wager game is to take a sentence from Qian Zi Wen, which must bear the names of birds, fish, birds and animals. The Secretariat took the lead in proving the existence of redundancy. It is estimated that this adult didn't know how to recite the Thousand Characters when he was a child, and mistook Yu for a fish. All the guests heard the fallacy, but because the host did so, they had to hide their faces and smile, and no one dared to stand up and say that they would be fined. In a short time, the drinkers' wager game turned to Xue Tao, and she replied, Zuo's Ah Heng. The secretariat immediately recognized the problem and stood up excitedly: there are no fish or birds in your four words, so you should be punished! Xue Tao replied with a smile: Anyway, there is a small fish in the middle of the word "horizontal" in my sentence, and the word "swim" written by the secretariat doesn't even have a small fish. They couldn't help it any longer, and laughed, which embarrassed the secretariat's adult.
Xue Tao is best at writing poems. Being in a casino made her associate with many famous poets at that time, including Bai Juyi, Zhang Ji, Wang Jian, Liu Yuxi, Du Mu and Zhang Hu. According to records, Xue Tao wrote more than 500 poems. However, most of these poems have been lost, with only 90 poems left, which is very regrettable.
Poetry is well written, and Xue Tao's calligraphy is also very famous. The evaluation of Xuanhe's book spectrum in the Northern Song Dynasty is that her writing style is not feminine, her brushwork is sharp and her calligraphy is beautiful, which is quite similar to Wang Xizhi's method. Reading less will also defend your wife. It means that with a little effort, she can compete with Mrs. Wei, the calligrapher of Jin Dynasty and the first teacher of Wang Xizhi, which shows the beauty of her calligraphy. According to "Yuesheng Calligraphy and Painting Collection", Jia Sidao, the prime minister at the end of the Song Dynasty, once collected her original poem "Hemerocallis", but it was a pity that she could not see its true meaning later.
Xue Tao has extraordinary talent and can compete with Zhuo Wenjun, the most famous talented woman in Shu. Later generations called her, Yu and Yu as the four great poetesss in the Tang Dynasty.
Dashuaifu Girls' School Book.
In the first year of Zhenyuan (785), Wei Gao was appointed as our ambassador to Jianchuan. Wei Gao is a strategist. He ruled Shu for 265,438+0 years and made great achievements. Breaking Tubo 480,000, with outstanding military achievements. He is also a refined poet, who once wrote a wonderful sentence that the Yangtze River can't see the fish book, in order to send his homesickness to Qin, and he is a man of considerable artistic level. It was his arrival that made Xue Tao quickly popular.
At a banquet, Wei Gao asked Xue Tao to write an impromptu poem. Xue Tao calmly picked up a pen and paper and raised the pen. In the poem, he wrote: Every morning under the balcony, Chu died because of the rain; There are many willows in front of the temple, and the thrush comes to the sky in spring. Wei Gao looked at it and was amazed. Although this poem is written in Yu Yun, Wushan, there is no vulgar entertainment for the public, but it has a kind of overlooking the mountains and rivers, nostalgic taste, great momentum, and doesn't look like it was written by a little girl.
A poem made Xue Tao famous. From then on, every time there was a banquet in the Shuaifu, Xue Tao became the perfect person to serve the banquet, and soon became the red man around Wei Gao.
With the increase of contact, Wei Gao felt that it was a waste of time to let Xue Tao be a vase in the banquet hall because of her talent, so she was allowed to participate in some case work, which is equivalent to the current female secretary. These things are just a piece of cake for Xue Tao. When she writes official documents, she is not only rich in literary talent, but also careful and rarely makes mistakes. Wei Gao still feels overqualified. One day, on a whim, he reported to the court and applied for the proofreading job of Xue Tao (played by Wu).
The main job of the school bookkeeper is to write official documents and organize books. Although the rank is only from the ninth grade, the threshold of this job is very high. According to the regulations, only people with Jinshi background are qualified for this position. The great poets Bai Juyi, Wang Changling, Li Shangyin and Du Mu all started from this position, and no woman has ever served as a school bookkeeper in history.
Wei Gao's innovative move was unanimously opposed by the staff. He was advised to be an official when military affairs were hectic. If the court thinks it's indecent, won't it bring trouble to Ben Shuai and clear his name? Even if you are lucky enough to be allowed, wearing red will inevitably undermine the dignity of the government, and it is easy to leave an excuse for those who refuse to accept it. I hope you think twice! The meaning is clear. First, please let a * * * be an official, which is detrimental to your lofty reputation; Second, there is a girl in a skirt sitting in the yamen, which is a bit indecent. This matter aside, the name of the girls' school book spread like wildfire.
It is obvious that Xue Tao is highly valued by Wei Gao, no matter whether his name is school boy or not. One year, South Vietnam gave Wei Gao a peacock and Wei Gao liked it very much. Xue Tao suggested opening a pool in the official's son's home to live in, symbolizing the prosperous national luck of the Tang Dynasty and the governance of Wei Shuai Zhuo Yue. Her suggestion was readily adopted, greatly exaggerated by the literary world, and became a much-told story because of the charm of beauty assisting politics.
Xue Taohong's purple color makes him proud. According to He Guangyuan's Lessons in the Five Dynasties, there were many people who sought audience with Tao in each Shu, and Tao was arrogant and arrogant, regardless of suspicion, and his gold and silk were often collected. This means that officials who came to Sichuan sought audience with Wei Gao through the back door of Xue Tao, giving her gifts and bribing her one after another, and Xue Tao is crazy, so I dare to accept it if you dare to send it. However, she doesn't love money. After accepting it, she left nothing and handed it all in. Even so, the noise she made was too loud, which made Wei Gao very dissatisfied. In a rage, she was ordered to be sent to Songzhou (now Songpan County, Sichuan Province) as a punishment.
Songzhou is located in the southwest border, sparsely populated, shuddering, walking on such a desolate road, Xue Tao felt very scared. She recorded her feelings in poetry: I heard that the border town is bitter, but now I don't know. However, the goalkeeper sang and went to the dragon's head. She began to regret her thoughtlessness and publicity, so she took this feeling to the pen and wrote a touching poem "Ten Farewells". It says: After four or five years of training and disturbing others, the mammoth is full of pity for its master. Bite a family guest for no reason, don't sleep on the carpet in HongLing. In ten poems, she used dogs, pens, horses and other things as metaphors, and compared Wei Gao to the owner, hands, stables and so on. , cleverly expressed a kind of dependence and regret for the master, with sad but measured feelings, without flattery.
Ten Poems was sent to Wei's master, and his heart suddenly softened, so he ordered Xue Tao to be recalled to Chengdu.
This ordeal made Xue Tao see himself clearly. She said in the poem: But I will let my son go, and I will never look at the landscape screen again. Shortly after her return, she took off her music book and became a free woman. She lives near Huanhua River in the western suburbs of Chengdu, and the yard is full of loquat flowers. That year, she was only 20 years old.
Always aloof in front of senior officials
After Wei Gao's death, Liu Pi was appointed as our ambassador. He rebelled and tried to win people's hearts with the help of Xue Tao's celebrity effect, but both threats and inducements were flatly rejected by Xue Tao. Liu Pi was furious and sent her to the border. This time, Xue Tao didn't feel at a loss and panic for the first time. She is relaxed and doesn't want to be forgiven. After Gao Chongwen rebelled against Liu Pi, he sent someone to welcome Xue Tao back.
Starting from Gao Chongwen, it is surprising that our times have changed like a lantern. Every time our times are attracted by Xue Tao's stunning beauty and talent, she is honored as our guest. Xue Tao has always maintained a detached attitude towards these senior officials.
When Gao Chongwen was in Shuzhen, he once ordered wine at a banquet and asked for pictographic rhymes. Gao Chongwen said first: Words are like empty words, and Xue Tao immediately replied: Sichuan is like three rafters. Gao Chongwen shook his head and said, you three rafters, why is the first one bent? Xue Tao replied: A tall man used a broken barrel without a beam to be such a big official. I'm just a hostess, and the rafters at home are a little bent. What's so strange about this? Hearing this, everyone could not help laughing.
When Li Deyu was guarding Xichuan, he ordered people to build a border defense building in Chengdu. When the building was completed, he held a grand banquet on it. Xue Tao was invited to come, wrote a poem on the spot, and wrote the famous seven-character quatrain "The Side Building": The clouds are in the sky, the birds are in the autumn, and the surprisingly strong forty states. The general is not greedy for Qiang horses, but will meet him. This poem is heroic in poetry, bold in style and profound in artistic conception, which makes Li Deyu and others sigh.
Strong love of brothers and sisters.
Although Xue Tao's status is low, the people he contacts are very high-end, either high-ranking officials or celebrities. However, most of the time, she just takes part in accidental amusement, and few people can get into her eyes. However, at the age of 42, she was disturbed by the arrival of a person.
In March of the 4th year of Yuanhe (809), Yuan Zhen, a poet at that time, was ordered to be a local consultant. He had already heard of Xue Tao's name, so when he arrived in Shu, he specially asked her to meet him in Zizhou. For Xue Tao, this is an ordinary social activity. As soon as I saw Yuan Zhen, I was attracted by the handsome appearance and outstanding talent of this young poet, who was only 365,438+0 years old, and stirred up ripples in my heart like a girl.
This is not surprising. Yuan Zhen, the descendant of Tuoba, the imperial clan of the Northern Wei Dynasty, is a tall and handsome husband and a typical image of Gao Fushuai. His talent is even better. He entered Jinshi at the age of 25 and ranked first in both policy exams. His poems are as white as Bai Juyi's, and each chapter is full of words, which spread like wildfire. There is only one sentence in his poem, eternal amber, which once made the world cry.
Once the fire of love in Xue Tao burns, it is extremely fierce. Although she has entered middle age, she has never been shocked and told by * * * that this man is the one she dreams of, so she despaired and threw herself at the flame of love like a moth. The next day, she wrote a poem full of true feelings, "Two Birds on the Pond", and said with infinite yearning: On the amphibious green pool, we flew back together at dusk; The days between concentric lotus leaves will be busier. There is no such calmness as looking down at the railing and thinking hard about the past. It is completely a childish little girl's demeanor.
Although love came a little late, it made Xue Tao feel the happiness he had never had before. They wandered along the Jinjiang River, accompanied by Qing Chuan of Shushan. That time was the happiest day of Xue Tao's life. However, happiness is always the shortest. In July this year, Yuan Zhen was transferred from Sichuan to Luoyang. After careful calculation, they have only been together for three months.
Parting is inevitable, and Xue Tao is very helpless. The rain darkened Meishan River, leaving people standing tall buildings, which is a true portrayal of her lonely mood. To her delight, she soon received a letter from Yuan Zhen, which also entrusted her with a deep feeling: after parting, acacia is separated from smoke and water, and kudzu rises five clouds high.
Old Yan separated, and their feelings were far apart. At this time, there is only one poem that can repose her lovesickness. It must have been a hard day. Xue Tao, who couldn't get away, fell in love with writing stationery. She likes to write four quatrains, but she often writes only eight sentences in regular poems, so she often thinks that the paper used to write poems is too big. There is a tradition of paper-making in Huanhuaxi, and Xue Tao likes red, so he reformed the paper-making technology, boiled the pulp with hibiscus skin as raw material, added the juice of hibiscus flowers, dyed the paper pink, and cut it into delicate narrow strips, which are especially suitable for writing love letters, called Xue Tao strips.
Writing poems for Yuan Zhen with this kind of stationery has a special charm. Xue Tao wrote in the poem "Peony": Last spring was scattered in late spring, tears were wet and red, and I hated parting ... I just wanted to put a pillow by the bar and talk about acacia at night.
To Xue Tao's disappointment, Yuan Zhen is a person who loves with wisdom, not with his heart. Yuan Zhen's first love was Cui Yingying. He abandoned him for fame and fortune, so he wrote Yingying Biography (also known as Huizhenji), which is the prototype of the famous The West Chamber. After the death of his wife Wei Cong, he married another concubine, An Xianyu, and continued to marry Pei Shu, all of whom died later. In the third year of Changqing (823), Yuan Zhen went to Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province to serve as the secretariat of Yuezhou and an observer in eastern Zhejiang. After the age of no doubt, his old love suddenly sprouted, and he intended to catch up with Xue Tao, which he had not seen for more than ten years. Unfortunately, he met Liu Caichun, a famous prostitute in eastern Zhejiang, so he left Xue Tao. In his words, although her poems are not as good as Tao's, her beauty is beyond Tao's.
Although Yuan Zhen was such a playboy, Xue Tao's thoughts about him were unforgettable. She misses her so much, just like an empty daughter waiting for her husband's return in the distance, full of bitterness and longing, which has gathered into a famous sentence "Spring Hope" that has been passed down through the ages, which reads: flowers are rewarded, flowers are sad; Ask acacia, when flowers bloom and fall, they are full of branches and translated into two acacia segments; Hosta hangs in the mirror, and Chunfeng knows this.
A thin piece of peach paper can't keep the illusory feelings in love after all. It's just a pity that Xue Tao never got married for the promise of Yuan Zhen's original lovesickness.
Wear cassock for the rest of my life.
Acacia bitter, Xue Tao don't regret it. That kind of mentality is a bit like what modern singer Faye Wong said: I don't know if he will let me down, but if I finally meet someone I like but dare not love, then I will let myself down.
In fact, Yuan Zhen didn't come back for his own reasons. Their age difference is too big. 365,438+0 years old is the prime of life for men, while Xue Tao is 65,438+065,438+0 years old, which is charming. In addition, more importantly, Xue Tao's musical background is equivalent to a prostitute, which has only a negative effect on Yuan Zhen's career, but no positive energy. For these, Xue Tao can also want to understand, so very calm, no general little girl that kind of lovelorn and suicidal manner.
However, from then on, she took off her favorite red dress and put on a gray cassock, and her life changed from fiery to indifferent. There is still a lot of traffic and people coming and going next to Huanhuaxi, but her heart is stuck in a clean place. As she said to herself: Dewdrops are far away, and the wind blows several leaves together. Sounds like people, each living in a branch.
There was a saying at that time that male poets wrote poems. The first one wants to show it to the emperor, and the second one wants to show it to Xue Tao. Liu Yuxi wrote in a poem for her: Peach leaves are lyrical and bamboo branches are resentful, and Shui Yue is infinite flow. Wang Jianze said: Wan Li Bridge girls' school books, closed doors loquat flowers. It's better to lead the spring breeze than to sweep your eyebrows. Admiration is beyond words. Even in her later years, she was admired by the young poet Du Mu: leaning against the jade window, caring for her hair, and being jealous and charming when brushing away the dust. In Du Mu's eyes, she is still so beautiful, dressed as a Taoist, with dust in her hand.
With the passing of life, Xue Tao began to get tired of the hustle and bustle of this world. She left Huanhuaxi, moved to Bijifang (near Chengdu today), built a poetry building, and spent her last time alone. In the summer of the sixth year of Daiwa (832), Xue Tao closed his eyes peacefully. The following year, Duan Wenchang, a former prime minister, personally wrote an epitaph for her, which read "Give Up the Book of Girls' School, Tomb of Xue Tao Hongdu".
Xue Tao passed away peacefully, but her reputation has never faded for thousands of years. Those who praised her commented on the novelty and elegance of her poems, while those who slandered her valued her reputation. Xue Tao loved bamboo all his life. She once wrote in "Appreciating People and Playing with Bamboo after Rain": It is her lifelong character pursuit to enjoy being late. In any case, there is no doubt about Xue Tao's influence in history and literary history, and the bamboos that can be seen everywhere along the Jinjiang River are the best memorial to her.