Wang Fanzhi

Wang Fanzhi

Wang Fanzhi (who lived from the end of Sui Dynasty to the beginning of Tang Dynasty), a poet monk in vernacular in the early Tang Dynasty, was born in Liyang, Weizhou (now Junxian County, Henan Province). His original name is Fantian. The year of his birth and death, his name, his life and family background are unknown. Yang Guangzhi, Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty, lived around the reign of Li Zhi, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty. Most of the poems are based on reasoning, mostly admonishing the world to do good and stop evil according to the Buddhist doctrine, satirizing and teasing the world's situation and human feelings, and occasionally involving social problems. Most of the works are negative in thought and low in style. The language is simple, popular and humorous. It often contains the philosophy of life in the irony. The art is rough, but it has a certain reference value for understanding the early Tang society and studying the development of vernacular poetry. It has a certain impact on the elegant parallel couple poetry prevailing in the early Tang Dynasty. The original collection has been lost. There are 348 poems in Wang Fanzhi's poetry collection.

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Wang Fanzhi (who lived from the end of Sui Dynasty to the beginning of Tang Dynasty), a poet monk in vernacular in the early Tang Dynasty, was born in Liyang, Weizhou (now Junxian County, Henan Province). His original name is Fantian. The year of his birth and death, his name, his life and family background are unknown. Yang Guangzhi, Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty, lived around the reign of Li Zhi, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty.

Gui Yuan congtan and Taiping Guangji Volume 82《

Wang Fanzhi

》It is said that he was born in the Sui Dynasty and was adopted by Wang dezu, a native of the east of Liyang City, from a withered tree. "He can speak at the age of seven" and "write poems to satirize people, which is of great significance.". The Dunhuang manuscript Wang Daoji Yang Junwen said that he was a "master of tongxuan". You can know that his creative activities were mainly in the early Tang Dynasty.

According to Hu Shi, Zheng Zhenduo, Zhang xihou and others, Fanzhi lived from the end of the sixth century to the middle and lower part of the seventh century. He was over 80 years old. He was born in a wealthy family. When he was young, he had slaves at home, lived a comfortable life, and read Confucian classics and poems. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the war broke out, and the family declined, leaving only 10 mu of thin farmland. Living for his family, he was busy farming and went out to do business in his spare time. In the early Tang Dynasty, heavy taxes and natural disasters forced Fanzhi's family to be in a state of ruin, resulting in poverty and being forced to work as a hired or helper. He used to be a casting supervisor, honest and upright, but he was dismissed before the end of his term of office. Fanzhi had five men and two women, but his children were unfilial, which made him a "hard poor man" with "nothing in his body" in his later years. He was even forced to beg along the door because of his lack of clothing and food. His poor and miserable life forced him to become a monk on the way. In his 50s, he converted to Buddhism to seek relief. However, he was not a monk who strictly abided by the Buddhist precepts, but a vagrant living. This period was the climax of his poetry creation. Until he was about 80 years old, he wrote many poems recalling his rough life. Wang Fanzhi has experienced many vicissitudes and hardships in his life, which has laid a solid foundation for his poetry creation.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Fan Yu wrote a book, Yunxi Youyi, which recorded 18 poems

Wang Fanzhi

There are 15 quatrains of five characters and three quatrains of seven characters. There are also introductions about Wang Fanzhi. There may be some ignorant scholars who want to talk about Wang Fanzhi's poems. Fanzhi, a native of the western regions, was born in the forest of the western regions because of its name. Although his words are despicable, his reason is true. The so-called Guizhen Wudao, favoritism and obedience.

Shortly after Fan Yu, a man signed "Feng yizixiu" wrote a series of talks on Guiyuan, which recorded Wang Fanzhi's biography in detail. This is all recorded here: Wang Fanzhi, a native of Liyang, Weizhou. Fifteen miles to the east of Liyang City, there was Wang dezu. In the Sui Dynasty, there were mallow trees at home, which grew galls as big as a fight. After three years, the gall rotted. When dezu saw it, he removed its skin. Then he saw a child who came out with the baby in his arms. Because he was adopted, he was seven years old and could speak. Xiang said, "who raised me? What's my name?" dezu told him with truth: "born of trees, it's called Brahma. Later it was changed to fanxi. My family's name is Wang Ye. " It is meaningful to satirize people by writing poems, which is also a manifestation of Bodhisattva.

There is another saying in Fan Yu's Yunxi Youyi: "Fanzhi was born in the forest of the western regions, because it was named after Fanzhi. Though his words are contemptible, his reason is true. " According to this theory, Fanzhi was born of trees, but its birthplace was changed from liyang to the western regions, and its mystery is still very strong. Because of the lack of credibility of the forest theory, some people think that Wang Fanzhi is not a person. Fortunately, more than a thousand years later, a memorial to his friend Yang Yun was unearthed in Dunhuang Grottoes. It is not only confirmed that Wang Fanzhi is a real person, but also confirmed that Wang Fanzhi's native place is Liyang. Because Wang Fanzhi's memorial to sun Wangdao was written in the 27th year of Kaiyuan (739), it can be inferred that Wang Fanzhi lived in the age of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian of Tang Dynasty.

"Taiping Guangji" Volume 82 also received this article, notes: "out of the" historical heritage. " The so-called "historical heritage" is a volume in "Gui Yuan congtan", not another book. Apart from his mythological part, this story shows that Wang Fanzhi was born in the Sui Dynasty. Because he lost his biological parents and was adopted in the Wang family, he took Wang as his surname. He wrote many poems that influenced the world, among which there was Taoist thought, so Jiaoran thought that his poems were Taoist love poems. Most of them are Buddhist thoughts, so it is said that he is the incarnation of Bodhisattva.

Poetry

characteristic

Wang Fanzhi

His poems are mainly based on reasoning and attach importance to the social function of punishing evil and persuading good. Some of the poems have positive significance of satirizing the world, such as: "the creation of Zhuangtian has not been completed, and the crying in the hall is dead. People who cry are full of money. They are happy when they cry. " The style of poetry is simple, plain and sometimes witty. It often contains philosophy of life in mockery and banter, and sends laughter and abuse in trivial things. It creates a popular poetry school that uses slang words into poetry. However, there are also quite a number of works advocating feudal ethics and Buddhist doctrines, with shallow content and low style.

Excerpts

(1)

Fanzhi turns over his socks. Everyone is wrong.

I can stab you in the eye and not hide my feet.

[appreciation] most of Wang Fanzhi's vernacular poems are concerned with the trivial things of daily life, and come down to some real meaning of life, which has the interest of Zen. All socks have positive and negative sides, the front is the outer layer, which is smooth and beautiful, the back is the inner layer, which is rough and ugly. People often wear the smooth side on the outside for beauty, while the rough side is not comfortable close to the skin. "Fanzhi" turns the socks over and wears the rough side on the outside, which may be due to carelessness, but it may also be intentional, but most people who see it say that he is not comfortable It's the wrong dress. However, right and wrong are what people say, and "everyone is right and wrong" is not necessarily wrong. People like Fanzhi think that it's better to let others feel uncomfortable than to let their own skin suffer. It's the people who are wrong.

No matter what people do in the world, they all like to pursue vanity, regardless of the actual effect. What's terrible is that they regard this kind of behavior of pursuing vanity as correct and as their principle.

Like other poems written by Wang Fanzhi, this poem is simple and natural in language, just like ordinary words, but it can reflect the truth from the small, which is rare in ancient poems. From this, we can see the poet's natural and relaxed character.

Huang Tingjian said: "in Wang Fanzhi's poem, it is said that" when Fanzhi turns his socks, everyone is wrong. I can stab you in the eye, but I can't hide my feet.) All living things are upside down, so are all kinds. But I know that Fanzhi is a great master. In the past, Mao Rong Jiwei, Tian jiazi'er and Guo Linzong used grass as food. Lin Zong began to worship him and became a famous scholar all over the world. This is also the way to turn the socks. Today, people serve their guests with precious food and their relatives with grass. If they are in harmony with the world, they will be called relatives. If they are not in harmony with the world, they will be called relatives (Volume 56 of the first collection of yuyinconghua in Tiaoxi)

(2)

Outside the city, local steamed bread and stuffing grass are in the city.

If you eat one for each person, don't think it's tasteless.

There is no one in the world who has lived for a hundred years.

Strike iron for threshold, ghost see clap hands smile.

[appreciation] most of Wang Fanzhi's poems are untitled. The contents of these two poems affirm the transience of life and the inevitability of death. It can be interpreted as negating the idea of immortality, that is to say, ridicule the world, and it has the characteristics of "black humor", that is, facing the fact that death is inevitable, the poet has no choice but to laugh at himself.

"Tumantou outside the city" is used to describe the tomb in such vernacular as tumantou. Although it is cruel, it still makes people laugh. If "tumantou" is abandoned outside the city, we can see the loneliness of the world after death, and the glory and wealth of life is meaningless. Since the grave is a local steamed bread, the people in the grave are the meat stuffing in the steamed bread. This metaphor is almost ridiculous. It is obvious that the dead are the meat stuffing, but they are "in the city". It can be seen that life and death are inevitable. Suddenly, there are two worlds: "one person eats one."

This kind of vernacular can even be used in poetry. Only Wang Fanzhi, who has such a thorough understanding, dares to do it. There is only one life, and death is rare. Whether you like to eat this "local steamed bread" or not, you have to eat one, and only one. The lonely life outside the city after death can't be compared with the colorful life in the city. However, even if the life inside the "local steamed bread" is tasteless, it's not up to you to choose. It's better to be honest and "don't feel tasteless"!

In this poem, the poet calmly faces life and death, and his tone is light and humorous. However, it is not irresponsible and easy to see life and death as a child's play, nor is it pretentious and easy to force a happy face. It is a satire to the world after facing up to the laws of nature and fully understanding life and death. The sense of humor in the second song seems to be less, but the sarcasm is more intense. "There is no one for a hundred years" means that no one can live forever, which is actually known by every normal person. However, many people do not want to face up to this point. Instead, when they are living, they buy a lot of land or seek for immortality, and dream of immortality. This is called "qianniandiao" . It is said that Chen sengzhi, the descendant of Wang Xizhi, wrote Yongshan,

Chinese PinYin : Wang Fan Zhi