That was 1087, the second year of Yuan You in the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, Song Zhezong, the seventh emperor of Zhao and Song Dynasties, was only twelve years old and had been enthroned for nearly three years.

Summer and autumn this year, summer? A world-famous gathering of cultural circles in the Northern Song Dynasty was held in Xiyuan, a private garden in Wang Shen. It was called "Elegant Collection of Xiyuan" and was the only elegant collection of literati in the history of China, which was as famous as Lanting Elegant Collection in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Just as Lanting Yaji gave birth to the preface to Lanting Yaji, a famous calligraphy work by Wang Xizhi, a calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Xiyuan Yaji also gave birth to Li's famous calligraphy and painting works and Mi Fei's Xiyuan Yaji's calligraphy and painting works in the Northern Song Dynasty, which became the top IP in the history of China's calligraphy and painting, and produced countless masterpieces copied by later generations.

Unfortunately, because there is no clear time mark in Li's "Garden of Xiyuan Yayuan" and Mi Fei's "Garden of Xiyuan Yayuan" (unlike the preface to Lanting Collection, which says "Yonghe is nine years old, and Lanting will meet in the mountains at the beginning of spring"), the original works have been collected by the people, so there have been many disputes about this masterpiece and even this elegant collection. But anyway, this IP is already very valuable. For example, a beautiful picture of the West Garden copied by Chou Ying, a painter in the Ming Dynasty, sold for 6 billion yuan at Sotheby's auction in 20 12.

Of course, our protagonist today is not it, but the people who participated in this "West Garden Elegant Collection".

The owner of this party is Wang Shen (Jin Qing), a painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. He is not only a descendant of the founding general of the Song Dynasty, but also a left general named Xu because he married his daughter and sister, princess royal of Shu. On kinship, when Ji Ya happened, the little emperor Song Zhezong Zhao Xu should call Wang Shen uncle.

Although Wang Shen is the host of Ji Ya, it actually belongs to a gathering of friends of Su Shi and Su Dongpo. Because the sixteen big coffees attending this big gathering are all cultural celebrities with Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism as the core in the Northern Song Dynasty, they are cultural masters Su Dongpo, Huang Tingjian (writer and calligrapher), Chao (writer), Qin Guan (writer) and Su Zhe (writer), Su Dongpo's younger brother. Su Dongpo's friends are (collector and painter), Li (collector and painter), Mi Fei (painter), (painter), Li Zhiyi (poet), Zheng Jinglao (poet), Wang (bibliophile), Zen master (monk) and Chen Bixu (Taoist). As the writers of the Southern Song Dynasty said, "Look at Ya Ji, you can see that Po (Su Shi), Gu (Huang Tingjian), Zhang (Lei) and Qin (Guan) are all great men for a while, and you can see them clearly."

Let's take a look at their main friend, 16, and put on this "Song of Songs" which is admired for ages: reading and writing together, composing poems and writing lyrics together, painting poems and stones together, playing the piano and playing the piano together, singing together, talking about classics together, pondering and asking questions together, and having a wonderful time. It is no wonder that Mi Fei has such a sentence in his Notes on the West Garden and Elegant Garden: "The water and stones are gurgling, the wind and bamboo are swallowing each other, the smoke from the furnace is curling, and the vegetation is fragrant. Happiness in the world is clear, but that's all. Hoo hoo! For those who are surging in the field of fame and fortune and don't know how to retreat, how easy is it? "

Indeed, Su Dongpo is at the peak of his life at this time!

After the death of 1085, the young man succeeded to the throne, and the high queen mother listened to politics. From 1086, the Yuan Dynasty was renamed Yuan You Year, and the famous historical event "Wang Anshi's Reform" led by Sima Guang was being staged. As a former representative of the anti-reformists, Su Shi was suppressed by the reformists on the trumped-up charge of "Wutai Poetry Case" and exiled to Huangzhou and other places for five years. He finally waited for today's "quick rehabilitation" and was promoted to a bachelor's degree in Hanlin (the person who drafted the imperial edict for the emperor), becoming a political star in Beijing. At the same time, Su Shi's relatives and friends, including his younger brother Su Zhe, were also "revived and reused", and Zhongshan was also revived.

Among them, Huang Tingjian, a good friend who had been in contact with Su Shi's poetry books and admired each other for 13 or 14 years, also came to Beijing at this time to work as a library assistant in the secretary province and history museum. Under the recommendation of Sima Guang, the prime minister of the dynasty, he participated in the compilation of Zi Tong Zhi Jian and Zong Shen Shi Lu, and became Huang Taishi (a person who wrote history for the emperor).

As a result, Su Shi and Huang Tingjian, two "great writers of the Northern Song Dynasty", were teachers and friends, and finally met in the capital, which opened the eternal story of "Su Huang singing harmony" and created the literary legend of "Four Bachelor of Su Men" and the calligraphy master of "Su Huang Camouflage" in Song Sijia. Whether in political career or in humanities and arts, they all belong to the peak of each other's achievements!

At that time, they were just like the romantic, elegant, graceful and heroic spirit in "The Elegant Collection of the West Garden", and they were definitely "top stars" in the literary world!

Since then, Su Shi and Huang Tingjian have become the most famous, representative and far-reaching super CP in the cultural history of China, and they are neck and neck in the name of "Su Huang". Su Huang's profound friendship, which has been formed for more than 30 years, became the magnetic field of the cultural circle at that time, and gathered a large number of literati groups. Centered on "Su Huang", they displayed a colorful alternative "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" in the Northern Song Dynasty with rich and varied works of poetry and art.

This is really worth telling for thousands of years! However, today after 934, "Su Huang" seems to have no comparable influence on the once top traffic CP.

Su Dongpo's story is still circulating today. In the new wave of "cultural renaissance", he has become a different "life expert" and "slash male god", and has become a "Millennium network celebrity" seen in various media and video numbers.

However, what about Huang Tingjian? How many people can always remember or mention it today! In addition to the College of Literature and History and the circle of calligraphy experts, many people may have a question mark about Huang Tingjian's Who Are You, not to mention Su Shi's Fans All over the World.

So, might as well introduce here:

Huang Tingjian (1045- 1 105), a native of Lu Zhi, was born in Fenning, Hongzhou (now Xiushui, Jiangxi), a famous writer and calligrapher in the Northern Song Dynasty, and was also called "Su Huang" with Su Shi. In literature, it ranks first among the four bachelor's degrees in Sumen, and in calligraphy, it ranks among Song Sijia. At the same time, with its unique "valley style", it became the originator of Jiangxi Poetry School, the first poetry school with a formal name in the history of China literature, and also one of the protagonists in the story of Twenty-four Filial Pieties. Su Shi once praised it as: the magnificent writing is wonderful in the world; A trip of filial piety to the ancients.

Although it is really difficult for Huang Tingjian to compare with Su Shi in the height and influence of his official career, his poetic attainments and calligraphy achievements, despite their different styles, were comparable at that time, and perhaps Huang Tingjian's influence on calligraphy was even more profound than Su Shi's. Then why is Huang Tingjian's voice far inferior to Su Dongpo, who was called "Su Huang" after the Northern Song Dynasty, especially in today's era?

Because compared with Su Shi's poems, Huang Tingjian's poems are "more brain-burning" because they are profound and mysterious! If Su Shi belongs to the idol school of Xian Yi and Xian Yi, then Huang Tingjian belongs to the strength school of high and low; Or more appropriately, Huang Tingjian belongs to the "academic school" and Su Shi belongs to the "liberal school".

Therefore, Pan Deyu, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, said: "(Although) Su Huang also said that (style) is actually the opposite. Su Hao is vertical and horizontal, but the injury rate is easy; Gold is calm and painful because of unfamiliarity. Zhu (Zhu) said that "the arrangement of yellow poetry fees" is good. However, Huang Zhi went deep into that place, and Sue couldn't come. What is the "deep place" that Su Shi can't go?

In Huang Tingjian's own words, it is: "It is the most difficult to make your own words. Lao Du retired when he wrote poetry, and there was no place for a word. Gai's descendants read less, so it is said that Han Du made his own words. People who could write articles in ancient times really cultivated everything. Although the old saying has entered calligraphy, it seems to be a panacea. "

"A word is nowhere" is Huang Tingjian's poetic thought and the "deep place" of Su Shi's "can't go". This passage can also be said to be Huang Tingjian's "standard" and belief in writing poems and compositions all his life. We can understand it from three levels:

First, where does this poetic origin of "no words and no place" come from? Huang Tingjian has his own teacher. Many people say that Su Shi is very much like Li Bai, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, because his style is free and easy. Huang Tingjian, on the other hand, admitted with great fanfare that he had imitated the great poets Du Fu and Han Yu in the Tang Dynasty. In his view, Du Fu and Han Yu have a very important writing experience, that is, writing functional words has a source, and they don't "make their own words", especially praising Du Fu's "reading thousands of books and writing like a god". Because, if poetry wants to "come from learning", it must be learned from ancient times.

Secondly, Huang Tingjian has his own rules on how to use this creative skill of "no words and no place". I collected the materials and words of my own poems from various works of the ancients, and built an ivory tower from bookshelves and books. How to use it in concrete practice? This is Huang Tingjian's well-known method of "turning iron into gold" and "robbing the fetus for bones", that is, skillfully integrating ancient allusions into poems and songs to raise tonality, or innovating in the artistic conception of predecessors to keep pace with the times. It is this methodology that led Huang Tingjian to create Jiangxi Poetry School, so in a sense, Huang Tingjian was the first person to teach "writing class" or "success study".

Third, Huang Tingjian has his own judgment on how many audiences there are in this kind of works. It is precisely because of the "mystery" hidden in his poems that Huang Tingjian's poems have a very obvious feature, that is, "thin, hard and strange", which few people understand. Huang Tingjian is also self-aware, just as he said that the poems of Du Fu and Han Yu were misunderstood because "later generations read less". When commenting on Huang Tingjian's poems, Mr. Qian Zhongshu also said: "People who read widely may see that his words are" the words of the ancients "and understand what he said; People who "read less" only feel as if they have gold powder in their eyes, so they can't open them, let alone see things.

Seeing this, we finally understand: Huang Tingjian, who once formed a CP with Su Dongpo to achieve the top literary world, today, after 934 years, why is the fan base and popularity thrown out of three or four blocks by Su Dongpo, a good friend!

In fact, although it is difficult for Huang Tingjian to become a "serving dish" in the folk street, there have been many people who have studied Huang Tingjian's poems and books since the Southern Song Dynasty, and their academic works are also very rich. In recent months, as the thirty-second grandson of Huang Tingjian, the author has been trying to systematically study Huang Tingjian's cultural thought, philosophy of life and the lifestyle of literati in Song Dynasty by reading his poems and books. As a result, I found that "when I entered the Yellow Gate, I only blamed myself for being uneducated"-every sentence really took a long time to ponder, and I often didn't know where the stalk was buried.

At the same time, we also found that whether his poems can be read or not, whether each of his poems is good or not, not to mention whether his methodology of "turning the stone into gold" has been criticized by many scholars, but we have to admire that Huang Tingjian himself is simply a living China cultural museum, and he can apply "allusions" to the present at any time and anywhere. We don't know how many books you have to read in your life to be so knowledgeable, but he has a famous saying: "If you don't read for a day, the dust will grow in it;" If you don't study for two days, it will be boring; I don't study for three days, and my face is disgusting. "

For those of us who often ask ourselves "how long have you been studying", not to mention how extravagant and shameful it is to bury ourselves in the "old paper pile" and pick up ancient books to read! Therefore, we have an idea to save time, energy and wisdom for everyone:

As fellow readers, we use the study notes formed in the deconstruction reading process of Huang Tingjian's poems, that is, the essence of traditional culture that can be directly applied in the "Museum of Chinese Culture" where he walks, and build a * * * learning * * reading platform for everyone through the story expression of "grounding gas and telling people". You don't need to read a subset of the classics and history of the Four Books and Five Classics, and you don't need to be familiar with the tactics of the Qin and Han Dynasties. We use poetry to review or coach those cultural treasures or pearls that we have learned but forgotten, or only know their meaning, so that we can maintain goodwill and respect for the background of Chinese culture at the moment of "national tide" and cultural rejuvenation.

If you must ask, what is the use of these "old antiques"? In fact, we don't fully understand it, but we are convinced that: in the final analysis, we can achieve more; If you have inside information, you will be more sure. As Mr. Qian Mu said in the preface to the Outline of National History:

It is believed that citizens of any country, especially those who claim that their knowledge is above the horizon, should know something about their past history (and culture). Otherwise, at most, it is only a knowledgeable person, not a knowledgeable citizen. The so-called people who know a little about their country's past history are bound to be accompanied by a kind of warmth and respect for their country's past history.

So, you might as well join us and become a pupil of the sage Jianzi (Huang Tingjian) in the Northern Song Dynasty after 1000 years, that is to say, Jianzi was born.

Of course, we must tell the truth: we are just a scholar who reads * * * *, even if we are sincere, it is difficult to get the whole article right, and life is precious in one issue.