Lu You’s life

Lu You (1125--1201), with the courtesy name Wuguan and his nickname Fangweng, was a native of Shanyin, Yuezhou (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang

). In the second year after Lu You was born, the "Jingkang Disaster" occurred. His family followed the common people and began to live a life of wandering and escape. The experience of "avoiding Hu soldiers to death as a child" left a deep impression in his memory.

Lu You's father, Lu Zai, was a scholar-bureaucrat with a strong sense of patriotism. In his family, he often talked about the country's situation, which had an important impact on the formation of Lu You's later patriotic thoughts. When he was a boy, he set his ambition to "mount his horse to attack Kuang Hu, and dismount his horse to draft military instructions" ("Impressions of Guan Da San Guan Tu").

Lu You rarely had a literary name. He took the Jinshi examination at the age of 29 and ranked first. Because he was usually "happy to talk about recovery" and was ranked in front of the grandson of the treacherous minister Qin Hui, he was ranked first in the re-examination. Qin Hui was removed

. It was not until Qin Hui's death that Lu You was appointed and began to enter his official career.

The main experiences of Lu You's life can be divided into three periods:

1. Before the age of 45, he served in Fuzhou and Lin'an because he supported the main battle general Zhang Jun's Northern Expedition and opposed the powerful minister Long Da. Yuan and others, so after Zhang Jun's Northern Expedition failed, Lu You was first demoted to Zhenjiang, and then dismissed from his post for "handing over the platform to admonish, singing about right and wrong, and urging Zhang Jun to use troops" (the original biography of "Song History"). He stayed at home for three years.

2. 45 years old - 65 years old, entered Shu and dismissed from office. After Lu You turned 45, he worked in Kuizhou, Nanzheng, Chengdu and other places. He served under Wang Yan, the envoy to Xuanfu of Sichuan in Nanzheng, for only more than eight months, but it was the most precious and cherished time in Lu You's life. In order to commemorate this period of life, he named his collection of poems "Jiannan Poetry Draft". He often wore a military uniform, rode a war horse, and galloped on the front line of the northwest border defense at that time. This kind of life broadened his horizons, and his poetry creation entered a new realm. However, Lu You's insistence on resisting the Jin Dynasty and his upright and outspoken personality always attracted the jealousy and ridicule of the powerful and mediocre people of the day. Therefore, in the past twenty years, Lu You was repeatedly demoted and returned to his hometown of Shanyin to live leisurely. Then he was promoted and demoted again. This is just as Zhu Xi said: "I'm afraid if I don't cooperate with this good poem, I will be punished and not be a good official." ("Reply to Uncle Xu Zai")

3. After the age of 65, he lived in Shanyin. From the first year of Shaosheng reign of Emperor Guangzong of the Song Dynasty (1190), Lu You spent most of his time in his hometown of Shanyin. In the past 20 years, he "lived among the old farmers", worked with them, and treated their children. At the same time, he wrote many poems about rural life. Of course, Lu You could not forget that the Central Plains had not yet been recovered until his death. , Jin Mau is still incomplete reality, so the 85-year-old poet wrote the poem "Shi'er" when he was dying: "

When I die, I know that everything is in vain, but I am not as sad as Jiuzhou. Wang "On the day of the Central Plains, the family sacrifices are not forgotten." This poem was considered by the predecessors to have the meaning of "crossing the river with three calls."

Lu You’s life experiences determined the changes in his poetic style. Lu You first studied under Zeng Ji, a great poet of the Jiangxi School, but life in Shuzhong in his middle age changed his creative style. He began to be dissatisfied with the early "only algae painting" poetic style, and pursued a grand and unrestrained style. He felt that only this style could best express his passionate feelings and grand ambitions, and was suitable for his wild and unruly personality. In his later years, the "eyes full of mulberry" environment and peaceful rural life gave his poems a plain and natural look. Therefore, Zhao Yi summarized the three stages of the development of Lu You's poetry as follows: "Young workers are engaged in painting, middle affairs are grand, and late works are dull" ("Oubei Poetry Talk").