Yuan Zongdao

Yuan Zongdao

Yuan Zongdao (from March 12, 1560 to December 9, 1600), with the name of Bo Xiu, yupan and Shipu, was born in Gongan, Hubei Province, a writer and official of Ming Dynasty.

Wanli 14 years (1586) Jinshi, select Shu Ji Shi, granted editor, official to Prince right Shu Zi.

One of the founders and leaders of "gong'an faction", together with his younger brothers Yuan Hongdao and Yuan Zhongdao, is known as "gong'an San Yuan". He opposes the restoration of the ancients and imitates the ancients, and advocates "learning from the students and learning from the students". His poetry creation is not imitative, frank and natural. He wrote 22 volumes of Bai Su Zhai Ji.

Life of the characters

Yuan Zongdao was born on February 16, 1560, the 39th year of emperor Shizong of Ming Dynasty in changanli, Gongan County, Huguang (now Gongan County, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province). In the 14th year of Wanli reign of emperor Shenzong of Ming Dynasty (1586), he was the first in the ceremony examination, and the first Jinshi (Zhuanlu) in the palace examination. The next year, he was the editor of Hanlin academy, and he was a gifted scholar. When the retro school was very popular, he pushed Bai Juyi and Su Shi to become one of the representatives of Gong'an School. In August of the 25th year of Wanli (1597), he was appointed as a lecturer of the East Palace by the Imperial Academy. In the 26th year of Wanli (1598), Sanyuan co sponsored the organization of the "Pu Tao society" in Chongguo temple in the western suburb of Beijing. They wrote poems and articles criticizing the "seven sons". On November 4, the 28th year of Wanli (1600), he died of exhaustion in Beijing. He was forty years old. Mingguangzong succeeded to the throne and presented to the right Minister of the gift department. He is beautiful, steady and peaceful. For 15 years, he lived in the Imperial Palace and "spared friends, simplified social intercourse" and "did not take money from others". As a lecturer in the eastern palace, he only had a few dollars in his pocket after his death, so that he could not be buried. He wrote 22 volumes of Bai Su Zhai Ji. Most of his poems are spontaneous and spontaneous. His representative works include jietan mountain I, Shangfang mountain, Xiaoxitian I, etc. but his creation, like Yuan Hongdao, has the shortcoming of poor content, which is also caused by his creative ideas. Yuan Zongdao admired Bai Juyi and Su Shi, and his study was named "Bai Su Zhai". During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Shizhen and Li Panlong's style of imitating ancient literature still had a great influence. Yuan Zongdao strongly opposed it, and his younger brothers Yuan Hongdao and Yuan Zhongdao were like-minded, so they were called Gong'an School. He thinks that the gist of the article is expressiveness. In order to learn from ancient literature, we should learn from it. In order to achieve the purpose of writing, we must first have "Li" (ideological knowledge), "from students to Li, from Li to Wen", such as the famous scholars in the pre Qin period, Han, Tang and Song Dynasties, "all Li are filled in the belly, and Wen follows.". Secondly, we need to have true feelings. "If we want to laugh when there is no happy thing in our heart, or cry when there is no sad thing in our heart, we have to imitate our ears" (all of the above can be seen in the paper). From this point of view, his poetry creation is simple and natural. Travel prose such as "jietan mountain 1", "Shangfang mountain 1", "Xiaoxitian 1" and so on; bamboo prose such as "reply to tongshe 2", "send the third younger brother 2", "reply to friends" and so on, all of them are very touching. Some chapters of Shuowen, such as "Du Da Xue" and "Du Lun Yu", are simple, clear, incisive and interesting. However, most of his essays mainly focus on the leisure, reasoning and Zen of the literati, which is of little social significance. Poetry creation is inferior to prose, and there are few excellent works. In Yuan's three brothers, each played a unique role in the formation of "Gong'an School" literary theory. In the repeated theoretical struggle, Sanyuan formed an orderly echelon. Yuan Zongdao was the first to oppose the restoration of the ancients. As Qian Qianyi, a literary critic, said in his collection of poems of the liechao Dynasty, "Gong'an School" is actually originated from Bo Xiu (yuan Zongdao) Yuan Zongdao has long respected Bai Juyi and Su Shi. He named his study "Bai Su", which means to advocate popular and close to spoken language, so that his works are easy to understand.

Literary ideas

The main propositions of literature are: (1) opposing inheritance and advocating change. People of Gong'an School fiercely attacked the tendency of sentence imitation and archaism of Qian and Hou Qizi. They sharply criticized the phenomenon of "plagiarism becomes a common practice in the literary world. Yuan Zongdao also pointed out to the point that the origin of the retro school" is not imitation, but ignorance "(Thesis). (2) to express one's personality and spirit, not to stick to the style. The so-called "spirit" is the writer's personality performance and true feelings, which is close to Li Zhi's "childlike innocence theory". (3) emphasis on folk songs and novels and advocate popular literature. Gong'an School attached great importance to drawing nutrition from folk literature, which was related to their literary development view and innovation theory, and played a certain role in improving the social status of folk literature and popular literature in that period.

Character characteristics

He strongly opposed the archaism of the former and later seven sons, and shared the same ideals with his younger brothers Yuan Hongdao and Yuan Zhongdao. He opposed valuing the past and belittling the present, imitating the ancients, and emphasized that writers should have ideological cultivation and articles should have ideological content, rather than imitating the Qin and Han Dynasties in form. He said that he wanted to laugh when he had nothing to like in his heart, and cry when he wanted to cry when he had nothing to mourn. His momentum had to be imitated. That is to say, the article should have true feelings. His poetry practice his theory, frank and natural, no simulation. Travel prose such as "jietan mountain 1", "Shangfang mountain 1", "Xiaoxitian 1" and so on, and bamboo prose such as "reply to tongshe 2" and "Ji San Di 2" are very touching. The drawback of his prose is that it has little social significance. In poetry creation, there are few excellent works. He is the author of Bai Su Zhai Lei Ji. When he was 27 years old, he was the first in the examination. He was a scholar and editor in the Imperial Academy. He had asked Jiao and Li Zhi's disciples deeply. In the 17th year of Wanli (1589), he went back to Li and studied Confucianism with Zen. He wrote Hai Li Pian (now lost). Nine years later, he returned to Beijing, where he was the son of a commoner on the right side of the government and served as a lecturer in the east palace. Most of his essays are mainly composed of the leisure, reasoning and Zen of the literati. Poetry creation is inferior to prose, and there are few excellent works. He has 22 volumes of Bai Su Zhai Lei Ji. He also wrote two kinds of Zaju and some CI, which have been lost.

Historical contribution

Gong'an School has made great achievements in the style of liberation, "sweeping away Wang (Shizhen) and Li (Panlong) Yunwu" (Biography of yuan Zhonglang in Gong'an County annals). Travel notes, letters and sketches are also very distinctive. They are either elegant and fresh, or lively and humorous. But in real life, they avoid the world passively, describe more trivial things or natural scenery around them, and lack profound social content, so their creative themes are becoming more and more narrow. Its imitators are "blurting out without re checking points", "slang, delicacy and recklessness", and even "fanatical and disdainful" (Qian Qianyi's biography of the collection of poems of liechao). It is fair for posterity to comment on the literary ideas of Gong'an School. in the history of Chinese literature, the three brothers born to a mother like Sanyuan were able to ascend the elegant forest at the same time. They were highly harmonious in philosophy, political tendency, literary viewpoint, writing style, temperament and temperament, and could cooperate with each other to achieve the goal of literary innovation. This is not only a good story in the history of literature, but also a miracle.

Chinese PinYin : Yuan Zong Dao