"Ode to Beauty" and "Wenyuan Disease"

The poet Sima Xiangru once shocked the "Han Lord" three times with his three poems "Zixu", "Shanglin" and "Adult", and regained the title of "Thousands of Gold" with "Changmen Fu" Secondly, "Ai Qin II Fu" is used to satirize "Qin politics" and use it as a metaphor for "Han politics", which is well-known in the poetry circles. As for the meaning of his "Beauty Fu", it is quite doubtful, and it has become a long-standing public case. According to the second volume of Ge Hong's "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes":

Changqing always suffered from thirst and thirst. When he returned to Chengdu, he was pleased with Wenjun's appearance, so he developed a chronic illness. Then he wrote "Ode to Beauty" because he wanted to stab himself, but he couldn't change it, so he died from this illness. Wen Jun's death was passed down to the world.

The "beauty" is identified as Zhuo Wenjun, and the meaning is "self-thorn". The reason is that Xiangru suffers from "diabetes" (diabetes). Because "Beauty Fu" does not contain historical records of the Han Dynasty and has not been included in "Wenxuan", the Fu text first appeared in the Tang Dynasty human books "Yi Wen Lei Ju" and "Ji Xue Ji", which were collected in the "Gu Wen Yuan" discovered in the Northern Song Dynasty, so the authenticity of the author is uncertain. Between dragons and snakes. However, there are also many empirical theories in the academic world. For example, Mr. Jian Zongwu's "Diagnosis of "Beauty Fu"" (collected in "History of Han Fu") examines it as a grammar of the Western Han Dynasty from the perspective of phonology. Of course, Jian Wen also disagrees with Xiangru's motivation for this poem as stated in "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes", but Xiangru's "illness" is documented in historical books.

Regarding Xiangru's "disease", there are five records in "Historical Records·Biography of Sima Xiangru". One of them is, "When King Xiao of Liang came to the dynasty, he lobbied the Qi people Zou Yang, Huaiyin Meicheng, and Wuzhuangji. The master's disciples saw Xiangru and said that he was traveling to Liang because of his illness." Secondly, "Linqiong ordered Miao to be respectful. Ji, the more Ji you are, the more solemn you will be."; Thirdly, "The minister thanked you for being ill and could not go there, and the Lingqiong order did not dare to taste the food, so he went to welcome Xiangru." Fourthly, "When he entered the official position, he was not willing to participate in the affairs of the country. He said that he was sick and lived idle, and he did not admire his official title." Fifth, "Xiangru recovered from his illness and lived in Maoling. The emperor said: 'Sima Xiangru is seriously ill, so you can get his book later; if not, he will lose it later.' I am loyal to him, but Xiangru is dead and there is no book at home." It can be seen that "disease", "disease avoidance" and even "disease death" have become common words in writing about Xiangru's life, and the last sentence "home in Maoling" refers to Xiangru's experience after "worshiping as Xiaowen Yuanling". Therefore, Xiangru's disease was also known as "Wenyuan disease" in later generations. For example, "I feel ashamed that my illness is like Wenyuan" (Chen Yi's "Second Friends' Meeting"), "I am thirsty for Wenyuan" (Bian Gong's "Answer to Luo Yanzhou"), "After I moved away from Wenyuan, I ordered Xuan "The grass comes out of the world" (Xu Zhongxing's "Weeping for Liang Gongshi"), "The servant holds Wenyuan's disease" (Zhang Juzheng's "Admonishment with Wuchuan Tower"), etc., all use the term "Wenyuan disease" to describe and mock themselves. The most interesting thing is that Xu Ke's "Qing Yi Lei Chao" records the interesting story of Hong Jun's death due to greed for beauty, which is almost a replica of what is described in "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes":

There is Fu Caiyun, who has been famous for a long time. One is Cao Menglan, a famous prostitute in Suzhou. At the age of thirteen, he lived in Shanghai with his sister. Jun, the minister of Hong Wenqing in Wuxian County, got the title of Dakui at the beginning. He came back with the title of Shi. He was delighted at first sight and paid a lot of money to buy a house for him to stay away for the rest of his life. The auspicious harp began to be tuned, and the golden house was opened. It was brought to the capital and given a special room. Wen Qing's missionary envoys traveled thousands of miles to the sky, carrying mandarin ducks together... But Wenyuan quenched his thirst, and he died young.

Xiangru was greedy for the color of "Wenjun" and "perished", Hongjun was greedy for the color of "Caiyun" (or "Menglan") and "perished", not to mention "xiang" "The Qin Begins to Tune" is also a copy of the story of "The Qin Picks Wenjun". The difference is that Xiangru left behind a copy, which is "Fu on Beauty".

Whether this "Ode to Beauty" with the same signature is related to "Wenyuan Disease", or the text of the poem should be read. The extant poem can be roughly divided into two sections. The first section of the poem is "Sima Xiangru's beautiful leisure capital" and the first section is "The minister abandoned it but refused to allow it". It is mainly about Xiangru's explanation to the King of Liang of the origin of his "not being lewd" and the following: The story of the daughter of the east neighbor who "wanged the minister for three years" and "the minister abandoned her without permission" is explained; from "Driving east, passing by Zheng and Wei" to the end of the poem is the second section, through the protagonist's experience of "beauty" in the "pavilion in the palace" The provocative and resolute narrative leads to the conclusion that "it's not lustful". Only this, there are two points that are inconsistent with what is stated in "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes": First, the poem writes about "visitors visiting Liang", so it answers "The King of Liang's Questions", but it is similar to the historical events of "Qin Tiao Wenjun". After "The death of King Xiao of Liang, we feel like returning home, but the family is poor and unable to start a business of our own", the second is that the whole poem writes "not good at lust", which is inconsistent with the connotation of "self-thorn" for lust. Of course, the Fu family can pretend to be a poet, intertwining time and space, so that Dai Zhonglun exclaimed, "Changqing, Changqing, according to what you said, the men of Lu are nothing more than men. Is it evil in the front and behind in the Zhuo family? From the front, there is no concealment." "Speech, from the end, the words do not take into account the deeds" (Volume 1 of Deng Bo'ao's "Yi Yi"). However, when exploring the purpose of the fu, we should look at the most important description in the fu:

On the way out of Zheng and Wei, The road leads from mulberry trees, to Qinwei in the morning, and to Shangguan in the evening. ...The ministers arranged their households and built their halls, which were fragrant and fragrant, and the curtains were high. A woman is alone, Wanran in bed. Wonderful and beautiful, elegant and beautiful. Seeing the delay of the minister, he smiled and said... The jade hairpin was hung on the minister's crown, and the sleeves were used to brush the minister's clothes... So the bedding was set... The woman relaxed her upper clothes to show her obscene clothes, her beautiful body was exposed, her weak bones and strong muscles were exposed. Come to my dear minister, smooth as fat. The minister's pulse is settled in his heart, his heart is in his heart, he is firm in his vows, and he will never turn back. He lifts his head high and bids a long farewell to him.

This is the words of a fake trustee about "The Question of the King of Liang", in which he described himself as a "pornographic net" and "highly praised" a "long speech". This kind of self-narration is both inhumane and illogical. The poems are actually imitations and exaggerations of previous poems and poems.

If we trace the origin of this poem, most of the predecessors said that it was based on Song Yu's "Satiric Fu" and "Deng Tuzi's Lustful Fu". In terms of its "lustful" purpose, his creation is closer to the latter. Song Yu's "Luxe Fu" is included in "Selected Works". Not only does the poem describe Song Yu's "leisurely and beautiful appearance" and the narrative that "the son of the boss" "climbed the wall to spy on the ministers for three years" are completely based on "Beauty Fu", but also The aforementioned description is quoted from "Ode to Beauty", and the writing ideas and methods are exactly the same as the words of "Doctor Zhang Hua" in "Ode to Lust":

The minister... is calm between Zheng, Wei and Qinwei. It's the end of spring, welcoming the summer sun, the barns are crowing, and a group of girls are coming out of mulberry trees, in the suburbs. The color is radiant, the body is beautiful and does not need to be decorated. The minister observes its beauty... so the virgin seems to be expecting but not coming, suddenly seems to be coming but not seeing, the mind is dense and the body is sparse, looking up at the strange view, smiling with joy, peeking at Liuxiao. It is also called a poem:...the eyes desire its appearance, the heart cares about its meaning, and the poems are followed by etiquette, but in the end they are not bad.

Although comparatively speaking, Erlin*** in "Beauty Fu" is more exposed, but the places "Sangzhong" and "Shanggong" where the men and women meet are derived from "Poetry· "Sang Zhong" "Looking forward to me in the mulberry, asking me to go to the palace", it belongs to the same area as "Zheng Wei Qin Wei" in "Deng Tu Zi Luo Lu". As for the names of the poems "Sangzhong" and "Qinwei", Mao's preface to the poem refers to one as "thorn running" and the other as "thorn chaos", both of which are related to the love poems represented by "Zheng Feng". So we will further expand and look at Song Yu's two poems "Gaotang" and "Goddess" to describe the "Yunmeng" love story and the encounter between humans and gods. Just as "Mozi Minggui" said, "Yan has its ancestors, and Qi has its country." "In the Song Dynasty, there were mulberry forests, and in Chu there were clouds and dreams." This is the holy place for worshiping the goddess of fertility as verified by Wen Yiduo's "Analysis of the Goddess Tradition of the High Tang Dynasty".

There are three texts on this "mulberry" literary tradition: First, the Qing Dynasty Hui Shiqi's "Hui Shi Chun Qiu Shuo" quoted from "Mozi" to explain: "Gai Yanzu Qishe, where all the men and women of the country gathered to watch, was as prosperous as Yunmeng and Mulberry Forest in Chu and Song Dynasty. Just like in the third month of Zheng Dynasty, the scholars and women gathered together at Qinwei near Guanshe, but they had no intention of being in the society. , It’s just about being a woman. "The saying "Aiming for a woman" has profound meaning. The second is Chen Mengjia's "A Comprehensive Examination of the Ancestral Temples in the Suburbs of Gaohe" based on "Book of Rites, Local Officials, Matchmaker", "A daughter in mid-spring will meet men and women, so when the time comes, she can't help but rush to the meeting", and "Book of Rites, Yue Ling" "The description of "Mid-Spring Moon" and "Sacrifice in Gaohe" demonstrates the relationship between worshiping the god of matchmaking and "praying for rain" to seek heirs. Third, the French sinologist Jie Zhong's article "The Shepherdess and the Silkworm Lady" combs from Zheng Wei's "Sangjian" poem to the ancient Yuefu poem "Yange Luofuxing" of the Han Dynasty and many imitations since the Jin and Tang Dynasties, and concluded that the mulberry garden literature The theme has "two forms, namely love songs spontaneously produced in spring festival activities and condemnation by moral judges, which can be said to be the two extremes of the development of this theme" ("The Shepherdess and the Silkworm Lady" edited by Qian Linsen , Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1990 edition).

It is precisely because of the original desire of love that "can't help but rush to meetings" as shown by "aspiration for women", and the etiquette spirit that criticized "Zheng Sheng's obscenity" as represented by moralists represented by Confucius, which formed the foundation of later generations. The inherent contradictions in works that imitate the legacy of the "Spring Festival" form a certain characteristic of writing that stops talking or stops abruptly. The mood of "female" and the exaltation of "chen" in "Beautiful Man" are both absurd and comical, but they reasonably represent the organic unity of "two extremes". Therefore, before this Fu, there were other Fus from "Gaotang" and "Luxury". After that, as listed in Volume 16 of Wang Mao's "Yeke Series", "Cai Yong drafted it as "Xiehe Fu", and Cao Zhi wrote "Jingsi Fu". ”, Chen Lin’s “Ode to Stop Desire”, Wang Can’s “Ode to Xianxie”, Ying Jue’s “Ode to Zhengqing”, Zhang Huahua’s “Ode to Yonghuai”, Jiang Yan’s “Ode to Beauty”, and Shen Yue’s “Ode to Beauty”. "Beauty Poem", Zhuan Zhuangui Imitation", plus similar works such as Zhang Heng's "Ding Qing Fu", Cai Yong's "Jian Yi Fu" and Tao Qian's "Xian Qing Fu", the purpose of writing is nothing more than "to ponder and think, and finally to be leisurely and righteous" ("Preface to the Odyssey of Leisure"). Due to this creative tradition, one year I was invited by the Chinese Department of the National University of Singapore to give an academic lecture. I proposed the title "Poetry Creation and Music and Education Tradition", which started from the poem "Sangzhong". The inviter thought the title was too simple. I was afraid that it would not attract the audience, so I changed the title of my lecture to "Altar Love Songs". The content remained the same, and I was immediately approved. Another year at an academic conference, I modified this lecture into a thesis presentation. In the opening remarks, I mentioned the change of the title at that time. Mr. Chen Shangjun of Fudan University interjected: It would be better if the title was changed to "Love in BC". We were joking back then, and the sound lingers in our ears. Just imagine how that distant love developed into resistance to sexual desire. As a piece (or a stage of development) in the literary tradition of Mulberry Garden, "Ode to Beauty" is an imitation, not a new creation. Although it is not the same as Danse's "self-thorn" theory, is there indeed a "disease" in it?

Returning to the "self-thorn" theory in "Miscellaneous Notes of Xijing", the narrator thought that Xiang was like a stabbing that would not stop, leading to his death, so "Wen Jun was killed". Kao Wenjun's "Sima Xiangru Wei" first came across the "Wen Ji of the Western Han Dynasty" compiled by Mei Dingzuo of the Ming Dynasty. The author found it hard to believe Chen. The article wrote: "Recalling the good old days, Kongdu was graceful; I admired the virtues of talents. My heart is playing the piano to amuse myself; I will always be my concubine, and I will not be ashamed to serve as a stove; my life will be short and short, and my life will be hard to support." The text is taken from the original biography of "Historical Records" and "Qin Song" in "New Odes of Yutai". However, the two sentences "Graceful Kongdu" and "Pity for talents and admiration for virtue" may reflect the "Wen Yuan" in "Beauty Fu" sick". Examining the five "illness" cases of Xiangru mentioned in the original biography of "Historical Records", there are two main ones related to life behavior and emotions. One is "avoided due to illness and traveled to Liang", which leads to the reason. Work is what is said in the legend: "Serving Emperor Jing as a filial piety and serving as a constant attendant on the martial arts cavalry is not a good thing."

"Emperor Huijing is not good at writing poems", this is Xiangru's lifelong heart disease, or the feeling of "not meeting scholars", which is also a common problem among ancient literati. If it is reflected in "Beauty Fu", it is like the song "Nv Nai Ge Yue" in it. Lyrics: "When I am alone in a room, I feel helpless, and I miss my beautiful lady and feel sad. How late is it for a beautiful woman to come? As the sun sets, the beauty fades, and I dare to support myself and grow selfish. "This kind of mental illness of not being able to appreciate talents is particularly obvious when Xiangru was appointed as the "Xiaowen Garden Order". His "Adult Fu" and "Nagato Fu" also all contain the writing and metaphor of this mentality. Two "Calling Disease" "Living in leisure, not admiring the official title", its "disease" lies in the inability of conscientious scholars to reconcile with the worldly feelings of orchids and white snow, as well as the desolation and desolation of being at odds with the world. This is what Han Fu writers said about Qu Yuan's poem "Ningang is as proud as a thousand miles away" The transmission of the spirit of "preferring to yoke with the qiji" and "preferring to fly with the yellow swans" instead of "competing with the chickens and swans for food" ("Buju") is reflected in "Beautiful Man" in the words "beautiful" to each other. The description of the "idle capital" is similar to the author's self-pity or self-pity of "living alone in widowhood" and "doing nothing for entertainment". The so-called "Han prisoner and horse is light" ("Wen Xin Diao Long· Zhiyin") can be called " It is an integrated portrayal of "self-purification" and "not encountering".

When reading "Beauty Fu", if the writing is related to "lustful", then as Wu Ziliang said, "Song Yu's "Satiric Fu"... is roughly the same as "Deng Tu Zi Luo Lu Fu" is similar, but the two poems are written to satirize the king of Chu. Sima Xiangru drafted "Ode to Satire" and wrote "Ode to Beauty". He also said that if a minister is not lustful, then people will know that he is a false accusation. For example, some commentators attribute this poem to the purpose of Song Yu's "Xie Fu", but there is another deeper meaning: "The first part of the poem says that the minister is not a lustful person, and he came from the East with admiration for justice; the middle part uses Song Dynasty." The meaning of Jade's "Satiric Fu" is to caress the music of "Orchid" and "White Snow", imitating the lyrics of "Jade Bed", the lyrics are beautiful and obscene; at the end of the sentence, "The minister is convinced by his spirit..." It is also said in the comedy Extremely elegant. ... Tai Shigong's "Praise to Xiangru" said: "Although Xiangru has many empty words and excessive words, he is frugal in citations. How is this different from the wind admonishment in "Poetry"! ’ That’s what the purpose is. " (Chapter 9 of "The Development of Ci and Fu in the Han Dynasty" "Types of Ci and Fu in the Han Dynasty·Lyric Category") Such a comment may lead to a correct answer. It's just "irony" in the poem. Why should men and women be used as metaphors? Maybe people say "all kinds of evil are the first." "("Zeng Guangxian Wen")? Or maybe Confucius said, "I have never heard that loving virtue is as good as lusting after sex" ("The Analects of Confucius·Zihan"). Of course, the traditional power formed by the copying of "Sanglin" literature did not lead to The stereotyped nature of prose can be regarded as a "disease" in the world of poetry. However, the author's embrace of poetry and music and education has many new meanings that can be explored and pondered.

(Author’s affiliation: School of Liberal Arts, Nanjing University)