Appreciation of Eight Poems on History

The eight poems of Zuo Si in the history of Chinese literature are famous for being recited through the ages. Zuo Si's life, although "Liangtu" into a dream, ambition did not get to stretch, but did not therefore to the power of the noble bowed down, rolled into the dirt in the quagmire, but categorically cut off the common thought, "return to the hidden idyllic garden," the end of the cleanliness and self-improvement. Written in the early years of the "Eight Songs of History", Zuo Si became a life of thought, characterization of integrity, the study of Zuo Si's important information.

The specific time of writing of the Eight Songs is difficult to determine. Only from the situation provided by the poem, it can be said that it was written not long after Zuo Si entered Luoyang and before the destruction of Wu by Jin. The poem describes Zuo Si's life in Luoyang and the peculiar feelings formed by this life. Zuo Si came to Luoyang with his family because his sister Zuo _ was chosen for the palace. In 273 A.D. (the first year of Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty, Tai Shi), Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty chose virgins from the families of civil and military officials of middle rank and above to be admitted to the palace, and in the following year chose 5,000 virgins from the families of civil and military officials of lower rank and the common scholarly families to be admitted to the palace. Zuo Si's father was the royal secretary of the palace. The time of Zuo Si's entry into Luoyang can be roughly determined to be after 273 AD. Zuo Si came to Luoyang mainly because he wanted to show his full of wisdom, in order to obtain a smooth career and pave the way for the realization of his own political ideas, but the result was unsatisfactory. Zuo Si learned about the political corruption of Jin from the difficulties and hardships he encountered in his career, which were reflected in his Eight Poems on History. These poems could not be said to have been written after Zuo Si had lived in Luoyang for a long time. In the poem, there is a line "A long whistle stirs up the breeze, and I aspire to be free of the Eastern Wu" (one of the lines). Since the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Eastern Wu in the year 28_ A.D. (the first year of Emperor Wu's Taikang reign), it is certain that the Eight Poems on the History of Song were written before 28_ A.D.

Zuo Si's "Eight Songs on History" was written before 28_ AD. The success is not honored, long bowed to return to the field hut." (a) Zuo Si's motives, whether it is as pure as he said, the letter of the United States, is the need to make a specific analysis. However, the unification of China, stabilize the situation, is the historical task at that time. At the end of the Han Dynasty, the strongmen and warlords were in a state of division and chaos, destroying the development of society and economy and bringing deep disasters to the people. Afterwards, the situation of the three kingdoms was still far from unification of the whole country, even though many small rulers were eliminated and a favorable situation was created for the unification of the whole country. In the latter part of the Three Kingdoms, the Sima group, which rose in Wei, became the representative of a new force in the trend toward national unification. After the formal establishment of the Jin regime in 265 A.D., favorable conditions were created for the unification of the whole country, and at the same time, Sima's group was eager to consolidate their rule in the unification of the whole country. It became a unanimous call to seize the Eastern Wu and pacify the riotous forces within the borders. Zuo Si, who lived under such historical conditions, was driven by the situation, and the idea that he was interested in the unification of the whole country and the creation of his own career probably did not come about in a day. It was only when he arrived at Luoyang and had a clearer understanding of the situation in the world that his thoughts, which had been brewing in his heart for a long time, matured and broke out, and he put them into his own poems. Some commentators in the past, when talking about Zuo Si's thought, pointed out that Zuo Si had a very strong "meritocracy", which is undoubtedly correct. However, it is also necessary to put Zuo Si's this "meritocracy" into the specific historical conditions to determine what is given by the times and what is determined by the position of the class in order to evaluate Zuo Si's thought more clearly and accurately.

Zuo Si, with his ambition of national unification, did not make big words and talk on paper, but made many practical preparations. One of the most important is as he said: "Chouxian see Rang Tho" (one), that is, read the military book of the art of war. In feudal society, the practice of martial arts, although it is not uncommon, however, in the social system of the clan, but it is necessary to have some courage. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the scholarly system was dominant. Scholars to "accumulated generations of industry Confucian" for the noble, Zuo Si was born in a generation of industry Confucian lower-class scholar family, can not help but be affected by this corrupt concept. But he was able to break the shackles of the concept of lineage and aspire to go to the battlefield to seek his own fame in the cause of realizing the unification of the motherland, which was valuable. Moreover, Zuo Si lived in Luoyang, saw and heard the situation of "bitter dysprosium in the border city, the feather diabolism flying to Kyoto" (1), and was more anxious and eager to try. Although Zuo Si knows his own military talent as blunt as a lead knife, but for the cause of the unification of the motherland, even if there is a cut of the use, is also able to comfort their own life's ambition.

But Zuo Si's good wishes were suppressed and destroyed by the scholarly system. In Jin, the system of "door selection" was implemented to protect the interests of the scholarly group, thus creating a situation of "the top grade without the cold family, and the bottom grade without the family". What's more, some of the clans with a strong sense of family, also decided to discard articles based on the level of their family. The Book of Jin - Zuo Si biography recorded such a story: Lu Ji heard that Zuo Si conceptualized the "Sandu Fu", laughed with his palms, and said in a letter with his younger brother Lu Yun: "There is a rustic father who wants to make the Sandu Fu, and he wants to make it a success when he covers the wine ___ ear." Later, due to the esteem of Sikong Zhang Hua, his fugue was able to make a big name for itself. Zuo Si's family is cold, although the talent is high and the ambition is clear, but it is difficult to break through the hard and thick shell of the scholarly system and make a difference in politics. The cold reality, so that Zuo Si dedication no door, no time to serve the country, with infinite indignation. The second part of the poem "Winged History" is a reflection of his indignation. In the poem, he like his own high position of the humble children of the cold family, a metaphor for the pine and cypress at the bottom of the stream; to rely on the ancestral property in the key to the poor quality of the talent of the poor quality of the scholarly fop, a metaphor for growing on the mountain top of the weak sapling. The reason why the talent like pine and cypress is blocked by the soft and weak people is that "the terrain makes it so", which is caused by the clan system itself. However, the clan system is "not a dynasty". The children and grandchildren of Han Zhang Tang and Jin Ri_, by virtue of their ancestor's virtue, have enjoyed great honor and glory for several generations. And Feng Tang, who was outstanding, was still not utilized until his white head. Here, Zuo Si not only pointed his sharp criticism at the social reality of the time, but also criticized the past system of the scholars. The contrast between the object of affirmation and the object of denial makes the poem's exposure of the clerical system even more powerful.

When the time of fame and fortune came, Zuo Si resolutely took a step back, and the reader can find clues to understand the reason in the eight poems of "Wing Shi". Zuo Si lived in Luoyang, facing the "poor alleyway Shi, holding the shadow of the empty hut" (its eight), shame and hatred, recognizing that he came to Luoyang is a misstep. Therefore, he blamed himself and said: "Since I am not a dragon climber, why did I suddenly come to visit?" He wanted to follow in the footsteps of Xu Yu: "Vibrate my clothes to a thousand refuges and wash my feet from ten thousand miles of streams." (E) Although he wanted to be a Duan Ganmu or Lu Zhonglian type of character, "The world is noble and uninhibited, and he can resolve disputes in times of trouble." (3) However, the Jin Sima's ruling group within the killing each other, more and more intense; here there is no like Wei Wenhou, Prince Pingyuan, the kind of courtesy to the character. Moreover, the corrupt politics and the cruel killing and seizing make the honor and disgrace change rapidly. "To look down on the birth of glory and splendor, duh, and then carve and wither." In such a time, the supine rat that "drinks from the river with a full belly" and the wren that "nests in the forest and perches on a branch" "can be a model for the great scholar" (viii). Zuo Si's inevitable path was to abandon the rich and powerful and retire to the countryside in order to clean himself up. The idyllic life, far away from the center of killing and plundering, made Zuo Si happy and contented, enjoying himself (see Recruitment of Hiddenness, no. 2). However, Zuo Si was not in a peaceful mood: "I have a high ambition to live in the four seas, but I keep an empty hall. I do not always live with my strong teeth, but I am always generous at the end of the year." ("Miscellaneous Poems") can also be seen Zuo Si choose to retire to the countryside road, is a last resort, is with infinite sadness and pathos.

In this way, Zuo Si's Eight Poems on Singing History, with its unique and profound social content, melted Zuo Si's ideals of his life, and laid a solid position in the history of Chinese literature. In addition, "Eight Songs on History" also has its own specialties in art.

Firstly, it is an effort to correct the decadent literary style of Taikang, and to inherit the robustness of Jian'an.

In the early Jin Dynasty, the general creative tendency of Taikang literary world is: deliberate imitation of ancient works, rarely combined with the reality; the pursuit of rhetorical splendor and neatness of the couplets, the formation of the formalist fashion of the beautiful and pompous. In front of this decadence, Zuo Si set up a unique banner, represented by Eight Songs on History, and continued to carry forward the excellent tradition of Jian'an Literature, which is "to write with feelings and to be textured with text". Although Zuo Si was not the first one to write about history, he was able to start from real life, carefully choose historical facts, skillfully integrate his thoughts and feelings, and express his feelings by writing about history, and ridicule the world by expressing his feelings. This not only breaks through the predecessor of the historical poem is limited to one thing, "stacks of few changes" limitations, but also with the Taikang literature deliberately copy the ancients, detached from the reality of the formalist tendency to fight. Zhong Rong said, Zuo Si's "eight poems on history", "the text of the classic to the complaint, quite exquisite, ironic. It is very much in line with the reality of Zuo Si's poems. In the art form, "eight poems" is not not pay attention to, the poet from the ornate to seek simplicity, in the generalization of the outside to seek the depth of the simple and natural, unrestrained and somber, never carve traces. Summarizing the above two aspects, Zhong Rong praised Zuo Si for creating a unique "Zuo Si style" ("Poetry"). Wang Fuzhi, on the other hand, said, "The Three Kingdoms descended into the Western Jin Dynasty, and the style of writing was greatly broken, and it is not the case that people who are not Tai Chong have not returned to the country?" (The Selection of Ancient Poetry, Volume 4) These comments are fair.

Secondly, the combination of talent and ambition is a perfect blend.

Chen Joming once said, "Taichong is a great man of his generation, with a vast chest and a flowing flow. Like Meng De and to add to the flow of beautiful, imitation of Zi Jian and can only noble simple. Created into one, showing a thousand years. Its male in the talent, and its high in the will. If you have talent but no ambition, your words will be false; if you have ambition but no talent, your tone will be difficult to be staccato." (Cai Beans Tang Ancient Poems, Volume 11) Chen Joming was right when he pointed out that the reason for Zuo Si's success lay in the combination of talent and will. Zuo Si's artistic talent makes the Eight Poems on Singing History, each of which can be independent and reflect a certain social significance; at the same time, it uses a golden thread of high ideals and sentiments to connect the first poem together, making it an integral whole with a tight inner structure that makes it inseparable. First, the positive expression of their own ideals, which can be called the general outline of the whole group of poems; second, write the repression of the valve system and the grief and indignation; third, expressed the need to Duan Ganmu, Lu Zhonglian as an example of a different way, in order to serve the country; fourth, write their own willingness to be lonely and concentrate on writing, to achieve their own; fifth, and then write that this way is not possible, and want to run after Xu Yu; sixth, praised Jing Ke, to disclose the feelings; seventh, from the history of many handsome figures Shen buried, and the first poem, the first poem is the first poem of the group of poems, which can be described as the general outline of the whole group of poems. On many handsome characters Shen buried bureaucratic, to comfort the heart of the injustice; its eight, write the darkness of society, determined to avoid the world, and seek to clean themselves up. In these works, thought and emotion like a torrent of water, rushing and tossing; and like the Yellow River, twists and turns back and forth, a chorus of three sighs, repeated. In the midst of generosity and sadness, there are delicate and charming; within the bass and delicate gas, there is a rolling thunder. Zuo Si to the rich and varied thoughts and feelings, respectively, written in each of the first, just like a giant hand of skillful craftsmen to the scattered beads into a complete and exquisite garland. Thus, the Eight Poems on History "became the greatest song of all time" (Hu Yinglin's words), and in the history of Chinese literature, the poem on history and Zuo Si's name were tightly linked together.

As a feudal literati, Zuo Si was in a dark and sinister political environment, and his Eight Poems on History could not be written without a distinctive class imprint, and could not fail to leave behind the influences of his time, such as the idea of passive avoidance of the world and the idea of nothingness. The reader should not ignore the feudal dross contained in Zuo Si's Eight Songs on Winged History because it is rich in essence, though light in comparison.