01
The Tang Dynasty had just calmed down after the An Shi Rebellion.
On the outskirts of Chang'an, at the foot of the Terminal Mountain, the door of a villa was closed.
A group of people gathered outside the door. Some of them have quilts with them, and have obviously waited here all night, with a sign at their feet that reads: queue on behalf of, ten taels of silver.
It was already dawn, and the crowd was beginning to get agitated and talk to each other.
Suddenly, the door opened. A schoolboy, trashcan in hand, dumped a pile of waste paper outside the door. The crowd swarmed over it, snatching it up in an instant.
Some shouted, Wow! It's a painting, a draft of "Rim River Drawing", I'm rich.
Some shouted: "I don't see anyone on the empty mountains, but I hear people's voices", wow, it's a draft of a poem.
Another person shouted: "I can't believe it's a music score! My son can pass grade 8 on the pipa, oh yeah.
Of course, some people were disappointed when they opened the ball of paper and read "Death to the paparazzi" or the Wi-Fi password.
After an hour, the crowd slowly dispersed and quiet returned to the entrance of the villa.
An older man pushed open the gate, poured out the dregs of tea, and took a glance at the lawn that had been trampled by the crowd: "Hahaha, I can't even get a clean slate even if I want to", he said.
This villa is called "Rim Chuan Bieye". This man is the owner, and his name is Wang Wei.
02
As we all know, there is a market for "chicken soup literature" in any era.
Wang Wei's idyllic poems have always been regarded as a pot of old chicken soup. People put their hands on skewers, hold their teacups, recite a few lines of "when you are at the end of the line, sit back and watch the clouds rise", and then go to sleep to the sound of domestic road rollers. When you wake up the next day, you're still swollen inside.
But that's not how you read Wang Wei's poem.
That year, at the age of 15, Wang Wei traveled from his hometown in Shanxi province to Chang'an to seek his fortune. Unlike his coal-boss hometown, Wang Wei set out his ambition from the start:
I will conquer the world with my talent.
He wasn't bragging. Since the age of nine, Wang Wei has been proficient in poetry, calligraphy, painting and, in his spare time, playing the pipa. While other children were still watching cartoons, young Wang Wei was already a top student. At the age of seventeen, while other children were still reading the best compositions, Wang Wei had already become a Netflix star with his poem "Thinking of one's relatives during festivals". At the age of twenty, Wang Wei's life had already begun to hang. In the poetry world, he threw out a fresh "red beans born in the South, spring hair a few branches"; in the painting world, his works beyond many of the old-timers, and repeatedly hit the auction record of living painters; in the singing world, his "Yu wheel robes" red all over the north and south of the Yangtze River, from the Square Dance to the "Spring Festival Gala of the Great Tang Dynasty", are the finale song. The song is the grand finale of the program.
He is an all-rounder.
And his circle of friends extends from the middle class to the celebrities. Xuanzong's brothers, King Ning, King Xue and King Qi, and his sister, Princess Yu Zhen, all stood up for him. Li Guinian, the heavenly singer of the Great Tang Dynasty, was proud to sing his words.
At this time, Li Bai, Gao Shi and Meng Haoran were still casting their resumes everywhere, and Du Fu was still carving the word "early" on his desk.
With the recommendation of a group of bigwigs, Wang Wei was successfully sent to the first prize. A new star rises in the night sky of the Great Tang, radiating a sexy light.
Every time night falls, the voice of scolding children comes from the house of Chang'an citizens: look at other people's children.
Seeing this, is not particularly envious and jealous: how come I don't have Wang Wei's talent?
Don't worry, there are more to make you even more envious.
03
From the Wei and Jin dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were five famous families in China: Cui, Li, Lu, Zheng and Wang. Among them, there were two branches of the Cui surname, two branches of the Li surname, and ****seven clans, or in short: five surnames and seven hopes.
The children of the famous family get married, pay attention to the family. Otherwise, even if you have five suites in Chang'an, you can't marry a girl from their family.
In Yuncheng, Shanxi, a young man from the Wang family married a girl from the Cui family. Their eldest son, was Wang Wei. Other people who belonged to the same Taiyuan Wang family as Wang Wei were Wang Bo, Wang Zhilu, and Wang Changling.
So if you traveled to the Tang Dynasty and met someone named Wang or Cui, don't call them "Wang" or "Cui", or the consequences will be very serious. If your neighbor happens to be the "old king next door", you must also make good neighborly relations.
All in all, with his noble birth, all-around talent, and "wonderful white" face, the young Wang Wei was a perfect man.
So, after scolding their children, women would also take their husbands with them: look at Wang Wei.
At one time, no matter men or women, when they hear Wang Wei, they are always ready to offer their knees.
At celebrity parties, poetry symposiums, and music festivals, it's not uncommon to hear conversations like this: "May I ask your name, sir?"
Wang Wei waved a hand:
"Don't 'kneel'. My surname is Wang."
04
When he was young, he became famous, and he was happy in spring.
Wang Wei, at this time, exuded a murderous aura, and every word in his work was hot with blood. He wanted to build a career:
Ten thousand buckets of Xinfeng wine, how many years of Xianyang wanderers.
Meeting with the spirit for you to drink, tied horse high building willow side.
I'll pay for a bucket of ten thousand dollars of good wine. Come on, young man, it's okay to get drunk, the BMW is parked downstairs.
Born in the Han Dynasty, he was the first to join the Hussars in the battle of Yuyang.
Who knows, if you don't go to the border, even if you die, you will still smell the scent of chivalry.
We are from a prestigious family, but we are the first to join the army of the guards, and we will follow the general to the battlefield of Yuyang. If I'm not allowed to go, I'm not happy. Even if I die, I have a backbone.
Wang Wei's poems, including "Looking back at the place where he shot the eagle, a thousand miles of twilight clouds" and "Ten miles of horseback, five miles of whip", are not weak at all, even if they are placed in the first-class border poems.
However, destiny is a comedian, and will play a joke on you.
Just as Wang Wei was about to reach the peak of his life, the An Shi Rebellion came.
05
As we all know, the An Shi Rebellion was the equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction for poets, and neither Li Bai nor Du Fu escaped it.
Wang Wei was no different.
An Lushan, the great warlord, attacked Chang'an, searched the area, and, at a glance, managed to capture a superstar alive. Without further ado, he took Wang Wei hostage in his army and put him in prison.
In prison, Wang Wei has no spoons and no Michael brothers, and has failed to escape several times.
After the An Lushan group collapsed, the court settled scores and wanted to kill Wang Wei as a rebel.
Just at the moment of life and death, Wang Wei fished out a poem from his pocket: Your Majesty, I really swore to die, I didn't become a rebel.
This poem, called "Nimbus Pond", was written in a very patriotic and touching way:
Ten thousand households are sad with wild smoke, when will the hundred bureaucrats ever face the sky again?
Autumn acacia leaves fall in the empty palace, and the strings are played at the head of the Ngingbi Pond.
By this time, Emperor Xuanzong had already abdicated, and the new emperor, Emperor Tang Suzong, saw the poem and was so moved that he cried out snot bubbles, and he immediately promoted Wang Wei to four ranks and made him the right minister of Shangshu.
Alas, if Li Bai had done the same, perhaps he wouldn't have been exiled to Yelang.
But then there would have been no "a day's return from Jiangling".
06
Though it was a shock, Wang Wei had seen it through.
At this point in time, the Great Tang was no longer the Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong. Officialdom was hooked, villains were in charge, and bosses listened only to praises, not to people.
Numerous nights, Wang Wei went home from work, sat in the car, silently lit a cigarette. The cigarette burns out, illuminating a middle-aged, tired face:
These days, don't want it.
So Wang Wei began another life.
The young man who sang little love songs disappeared, and the cynic who drank heavily and killed his enemies with a long sword disappeared. He plunged headlong into the landscape and fields, brushing his screen with a country ballad.
At one time, it was like people were drinking nourishing chicken soup: I also want to be indifferent to fame and fortune, I also want to drink tea and play with strings, I also want to look down on the wind and clouds.
Whenever this time, Wang Wei will faintly smile: did not go through the wind and clouds, where is the lightness of the wind and clouds?
Because people only see him "traveling to the end of the water, sitting and watching the clouds rise", but not see the "occasional value of the forest old man, laughing and talking without return".
This is the kind of freedom you can only have after you have achieved financial freedom and don't have to go to work.
People only see him "sitting alone in a bamboo grove", but he could not see him "playing the piano again long whistle".
That's half a lifetime away, returning to the youthful whistle of a teenager.
People can only see an uncle "leaning on his staff outside the wood gate, listening to the cicadas in the wind", but they can't see him "getting drunk again and singing wildly in front of the five willows".
That was the laughter of the sea after a happy life.
People can only see that "after the new rain on the empty mountain, the weather comes late in the fall", but not "at will, the spring fragrance rests, the king and grandchildren can stay".
This is the view he depicted in his villa on the Rim River at the end of the South Mountain. What is the concept of having a villa in Changan? Think of Sheshan in Shanghai and Xishan in Beijing. If you're not a wealthy businessman or an aristocrat, can you stay in the area?
See, you think he burned incense and Buddha is beyond the world, in fact, people just shielded the circle of friends, do not want to go on the class, can not; do not want to see the people, can not see.
He can find woodcutters and village women to chat with, and can also find the king's grandchildren and aristocrats to fish. Happy, he will "pine wind blowing untied, the mountain moonlight play qin"; want to be quiet, he will "a long way to Song high down, return and closed".
Wang Wei at this time, just do not do big brother for many years.
In fact, he is still a big brother.
07
In terms of poetic talent, Wang Wei is slightly inferior to Li Du, but in terms of life wisdom, he can kill a number of big names.
Wang Wei was a man of great talent, but in terms of life wisdom, he could have killed all the greats.
Wang Wei was a man of great talent.
Wang Wei's lightness of touch is fascinating because he once reigned supreme.
Nothing accomplished to look down on the wind and clouds, that's pretentious; after the success of the light, that's the realm.
So, the correct posture of reading poetry is like this:
The teenager should read Li Bai, who makes you arrogant and bloody; the middle-aged should read Du Fu, who gives you humanistic care and sense of responsibility; as for Wang Wei, you can read at any time.
He will tell you how to enter the world with a bang and how to leave the world with dignity.