Chen Shidao

Chen Shidao

Chen Shidao (1053-1102, January 19) was a famous scholar in Houshan. He was born in Pengcheng, Xuzhou (now Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province). He was the grandson of Chen Ji, the Vice Minister of salt and iron of the third division. He was a minister and writer in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was one of the "Six Gentlemen of the Sumen school" and an important writer of Jiangxi poetry school.

In the early years of Yuanyou, Su Shi recommended him as a professor of Xuzhou, a doctor of Taixue, a professor of Yingzhou, and a secretary. All his life, he lived in poverty and contented himself. He was known as "looking for words behind closed doors and Chen Wuji". Chen Shidao is also able to write CI. His style of Ci is similar to that of poetry, and he is good at being sharp and alarming. However, there are some problems in his poems, such as narrow content and difficult meaning.

On December 29 (January 19, 1102), the first year of Yasukuni in Jianzhong, he died in 1949.

Life of the characters

Chen Shidao came from an official family. His grandfather, Chen Wei, was a vice minister of salt and iron in the third division of the government and presented to the Minister of the Ministry of industry. His father, Chen Qi, was a doctor of Guozi and a general judge of Jiangzhou. When Chen Shidao was born, his family declined, and his childhood was miserable. But when he was young, he was diligent and eager to learn. In his early years, he married Guo Gai's daughter. Forced to make a living, his wife and daughter ate at his father-in-law's house. When he was 16 years old, he was surprised to see Gong's famous article. Zeng Gong kept Chen Shidao to study under his door.

At that time, the imperial court used Wang Anshi's Confucian classics to select scholars. Chen Shidao didn't think so and didn't take the exam. In the fourth year of Yuanfeng (1081 AD), Zeng Gong was ordered to revise the history of this dynasty and recommended Chen Shidao as a subordinate, but failed because of his cloth. Dr. Taixue was recommending Chen Shidao as Xuelu, but he refused. Zhang Dun, the ruling minister at that time, asked Chen Shidao to pay homage to Qin Guan and invite him to visit him for recommendation. However, he replied, "if a scholar does not pass on Zhi as a minister, he will not see him as a prince." (with Shaoyou book), refused to meet.

In 1087, Su Shi, Fu yaoyu and sun Jue recommended him to be a professor of Xuzhou studies. Four years later, Su Shi became the governor of Hangzhou. He passed by yingtianfu in Nanjing (now Shangqiu in Henan Province). Chen Shidao saw him off in Nanjing. He left his post without permission and was impeached. He was soon reinstated and transferred to Professor Yingzhou. At that time, Su Shi was the governor of Yingzhou, hoping to accept him as a disciple. Chen Shidao declined politely by saying that he had always had a fragrance and respected Zeng Nanfeng. But Su Shi didn't think he was disobedient, so he still guided him.

In the first year of Shaosheng (1094 AD), he was dismissed as Su Shi's remaining party by the imperial court. His family is poor, but he still specializes in writing, and wants to pass on poetry to later generations.

In the third year of Yuanfu (1100 A.D.), he was appointed Professor Dizhou. On his way to office, he changed the name of secretary Sheng Zhengzi, and died on December 29 (January 19, 1102) in the first year of Jingguo in Jianzhong.

Main achievements

Chen Shidao's literary achievements mainly lie in his poetry creation. He himself said: "at the beginning of poetry, there was no poetic method." Later, when he saw Huang Tingjian's poems, he couldn't put them down. He burned his past poems together. After learning from Huang, they put emphasis on each other. Jiangxi poetry school classified Huang Tingjian, Chen Shidao and Chen Yuyi as "three schools". In fact, Chen Shidao only studied Huang Tingjian's poetic style in a period of time, and later found that Huang Tingjian was "too strange, not as strange as Du's encounter with things" (Houshan poetry talks), so he devoted himself to learning from Du. Huang Tingjian also expressed his admiration for the realm he had achieved by learning from Du Fu. He once said to Wang Yun that Chen Shidao "knew the key of the ancients in his composition, and his poems were well versed in Lao Du's syntax, which is not the same as today's Poets" (collection of titoshou mountain by Wang Yun). In Fang Hui's yingkuiluzui, there is a saying of "one ancestor and three schools", that is to say, Du Fu is the ancestor, and the three schools are Huang Tingjian, Chen Shidao and Chen Yuyi. Fang Hui also said: "Lao Du's poetry is the top of Tang poetry, and Huang and Chen's poetry is the top of Song poetry." ，

Generally speaking, Chen Shidao's poems are influenced by Huang Tingjian, so he has to write poems without any word or origin. However, his knowledge is not as good as Huang Tingjian's, so he needs to "tear down the east to make up the west to make a belt" (Xihu migration of fish by Sugong in Xiyun). In the aspect of learning Du Fu, they only focus on formal rules, so although they are similar in form, they often lack Du Fu's deep and vigorous. What he succeeded in learning from Du was his five or seven character poems, such as "when he was late, why did he ask for help, and when he was in front of the lamp, the guests were not empty.". Half a life of hardship, a dream is not in. Short hair, white hair, red wine. I sing and dance, and I'm a little bit the same (give a little chapter to wine on the eve of the Spring Festival) and "the broken wall is written with rain, and there is no monk Yan in the old house.". I want to go out and laugh, but I don't like the dust. The wind turns the cobweb, and the thunder moves the hive. We have repeatedly lost the appointment of Nanlin in spring, and so far there are still some flowers (spring bosom shows neighborhood). The former can be seen in his efforts to follow the syntax of Du Fu's poems, while the latter is similar to the rejuvenating physique in Du Fu's poems. His five ancient works are hard to depict, which requires the independent creation of words and meanings, but the inflexibility is still in the habit of Jiangxi School. He also has some poems with simple and sincere feelings, such as "extremely happy but speechless, and tears are all the same." (Shi Sanzi); "what's the use of fame? Don't worry about it." (sending my uncle to Kui Xichuan for punishment). The latter poem exhorted my uncle, and Fang Hui commented that he was "like Lao Du, who is lifelike, thin and vigorous, deep and quiet." (Ying Kui Lu SUI). Some of his poems are quiet and tasteful, such as "the book should be pleasant, the reading is easy, the guest can't come." (jueju); there are also elegant and beautiful ones, such as: "the spring breeze always closes the lane, so that the brothel gets its name by mistake. Do not hesitate to roll up the curtain to pass a look, afraid that you are not clear with your eyes. " It's a pity that it's rare. It is said that he works very hard in poetry writing. When he travels, he is eager to return to his hometown and lie down in his arms when he has poetic thoughts. Sometimes he groaned for days and heard people's voices, so Huang Tingjian called it "Chen Wuji looking for a sentence behind closed doors" ("the Jingjiang Pavilion is just a matter of illness"). This kind of serious creative attitude is worth affirming, but his poems are not deep enough and difficult to understand.

Chen Shidao was quite self-confident in CI, claiming that "Yu TA Wen could not reach other people, only in CI, he could not reduce Qin Qi Huang Jiu." (after the old words). However, his existing works, few of which are excellent, are not commensurate with his own valuation. His prose is quite successful. Ji Yun commented that "Jian Li is not under Li Ao and Sun Qiao." (General Catalogue of Siku Quanshu).

Chen Shidao's "Houshan poetry talks" puts forward that "poetry should be clumsy rather than skillful, simple rather than elegant, rough rather than weak, secluded rather than vulgar", which is still in the same line with Huang Tingjian's idea. He also said: "those who are good at writing are extraordinary because of their affairs, and the river is just running smoothly. When they reach the mountain and go to the valley, the wind blows the things and excites them, and then they make the most of the changes in the world. " It is a pity that his creative practice is not consistent with his own theory. Because of the dissatisfaction with Su Shi, Huang Tingjian and Qin Guan in this book, the general catalogue of Siku Quanshu thinks that it is "not like the teacher's language", which seems to be out of rigour. However, there are some things about Chen Shidao after his death in the book, which should be supplemented by later generations.

Character evaluation

Chen Shidao's imitation of Du Fu's syntax is more obvious than Huang Tingjian's. He wants to achieve "every vulgar speech" and "no words, no place to come", but his capital seems not as strong as Huang Tingjian's, and his knowledge is not as rich as he is, so he often finds himself in a dilemma. He once said that his poetry writing was like "tearing down the east to make up the west" and "tearing down the east to make up the west to make up the belt". He also said that "tearing down and making up the new poetry to offer a reward", which may be an honest confession. Therefore, although he looked down upon those writers who "steal numbers within a sentence" in Du Fu's poems, his works were very suspicious. His feelings and thoughts are more profound than Huang Tingjian's, but he expresses them reluctantly and often doesn't speak up. Maybe his theory of reducing words and sentences in order to "simplify language and benefit work" has hurt him. If reading "Valley Collection" is like listening to foreign people speak their dialect, but they don't understand it very well, then reading "Houshan collection" is like listening to someone who stutters or is slightly ill, watching his full speech not smooth and worrying for him. As long as Chen Shidao didn't just tear up the old idioms and make up for them in the west, or excessively abbreviate the words and sentences, he could write very simple and sincere poems.

Anecdotes and allusions

On the poor

Chen Shidao's daily life was so poor that he couldn't support his family. He had to let his wife and three children go to his father-in-law. Poems such as "sending home", "sending to my uncle Guo", "Dong'e", "sending to my uncle Guo to raise the punishment in Xichuan", "BIE Sanzi" and "Shi Sanzi" describe the pain of "poor and humble separation" with their relatives.

Not wearing Qu's clothes

Zhao Tingzhi, a supporter of Wang Anshi's reform, had a deep grudge with the Conservatives such as Su Shi and Huang Tingjian. As a censor, Zhao Tingzhi impeached Su Shi several times, or Luo Zhizhi accused him of writing an imperial edict that "the people stop Su" as "defamation of the former Emperor", or far fetched to say that his "defense and examination office" became a big problem. Su Shi and his followers were not willing to be outdone, and they did their best to satirize Zhao Tingzhi. The contempt of Su men scholars for Zhao Tingzhi can be seen from one thing: Chen Shidao went to the Royal ancestral hall in the suburbs late at night to keep vigil. Because she had no leather clothes to keep out the cold, her wife went back to her mother's home and borrowed one from her younger sister. Chen's wife was Guo Gai's daughter, while Guo Gai was a famous "wise eye pick your son-in-law" in the Northern Song Dynasty political arena. Chen Shidao and Zhao Tingzhi, the son of an official from a poor family, lived in her home. When Chen Shidao learned that his wife borrowed Zhao Tingzhi's fur coat, which was close to the front of his wife's neck but was as powerful as water and fire, he was humiliated and furious with his wife: "don't you know that I don't wear Qu's clothes?" In the winter of the third year of Yuanfu, Chen Shidao took part in the sacrificial ceremony in the suburb. He had no cotton padded clothes to keep out the cold and died of illness. According to reports, after Chen Shidao's death, his family had no money to bury him. The imperial court gave him 200 pieces of silk to buy before he could be buried.

Historical records

Chen Wu has tasted Xining

Chinese PinYin : Chen Shi Dao