Liu Dakui

Liu Dakui

Liu Dakui (Ku í, 1698-1779 or 1780), a native of Tongcheng, Anhui Province (now from chenjiazhou, Tanggou Town, Zongyang County), was named Caifu, Gengnan and Haifeng. In the middle of Qing Dynasty, he was an ancient writer, poet and representative writer of Tongcheng school.

In his early years, Liu Dakui held the ambition of "applying the Sutra to practice", but he failed in many tests. In 1726, Liu Dakui arrived at the capital at the beginning of his life. He was rich in years, and moved to the capital. In 1729 and 1732, they took the Gongsheng examination twice, and only got on the Deputy list. In the sixth year of Qianlong (1741), Fang Bao recommended him to take part in the examination of erudite Hongci, but he was defeated by Zhang Tingyu. In 1750, Zhang Tingyu recommended him to take the Confucian classics examination, but he was not admitted. In 1767, he went to teach in Yi county.

In 1771, Liu Dakui, 76 years old, returned from Shexian county to his hometown of Tongcheng Zongyang, where he gathered disciples to give lectures. He died in 1779 or 1780. He was 82 years old. He was known as one of the "three ancestors of Tongcheng" and was the backbone of Tongcheng school after Fang Bao.

Liu Dakui summarized and developed the prose theory of Tongcheng school. He emphasized the unity of spirit, syllable and sentence, and attached importance to the artistic appearance of prose, which played a very important role in promoting the formation and development of Tongcheng school.

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Life of the characters

a family of scholar

In 1698, Liu Dakui was born in Tongcheng, Anhui Province. In his childhood, he studied with his father and brother. For generations, the Liu family lived in chenjiazhou, and later in Sixiang, Zongyang town. Although Liu Dakui was born in a scholarly family, he had a poor family. In his early years, Liu Dakui had the ambition of "applying the Sutra to practice". At the age of thirteen or fourteen, he studied with his brothers under Wu Zhi. He was very ambitious in his youth, looking forward to making contributions and serving the country. It can be said that "life is for the country's work, death is for the national war". When Liu Dakui was young, he met his fellow countrymen Yao fan, ye you, Qian zhizeng and Fang Fudu. They discussed political gains and losses and article creation with each other. At this time, his circle of friends was limited to Tongcheng. In the 60th year of Kangxi (1721), Liu Dakui studied under Wu Zhi and did not finish his studies. At that time, he was only 24 years old. When he was in his twenties, Liu Dakui established a good relationship with the Zhang family in Tongcheng, among which he had a close personal relationship with Zhang ruoju. He was appreciated by Wu Shiyu when he took part in the imperial examination in Beijing and lived in his home.

No chance of imperial examination

In the third year of Yongzheng (1725), he was promoted by Yu Zhaosheng, a scholar in Jiangnan. Liu Dakui, a student of Tongsheng, entered Beijing for the first time. During his stay in the capital, Liu Dakui lived in the house of Wu Shiyu, a famous official of the Qing Dynasty. After Wu Shiyu's recommendation, he was able to join Fang Bao, a professor of Imperial Academy from Tongcheng. Fang Bao saw his article and praised him as a first-class person like Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu. Therefore, Liu Dakui was famous in Beijing for a time, and most of the literati were willing to make friends with him. In 1729 and 1732, Liu Dakui took part in the Shuntian rural examination twice in a row, but he only got on the vice-president list of Gongsheng, and failed to win. In 1733, he left Beijing and returned to the province. In 1735, Liu Dakui entered Beijing for the second time and took part in Shuntian rural examination for the third time. He was dismissed by the examiners and was not elected. In the first year of Qianlong (1736), Emperor Qianlong ascended the throne and issued an imperial edict. Liu Dakui entered Beijing for the third time. He was recommended by Fang Bao to apply for erudite Hongci and was deposed by Zhang Tingyu. Later, however, Zhang Tingyu learned that Liu Dakui was the one who was deposed, and she regretted it. Around 1741, Liu Dakui entered Beijing for the fourth time. In 1744, Liu Dakui left the capital for Shanxi, where he arrived at the County Office of his elder brother Liu Dabin, and then went to the Jinci temple. In 1750, Liu Dakui entered Beijing for the fifth time. In order to make up for her regret, Zhang Tingyu recommended Liu Dakui to take the Confucian classics examination, but Liu Dakui was not admitted.

A tour of the screen

In 1746, Yin Hui was appointed as the governor of Jiangsu Province. Liu Dakui was recommended by Fang Bao to be his staff to read poems and articles. It was not until July 1748 that Yin Huiyi died in Songjiang embassy. From 1754 to 1755, Liu Dakui was employed by Chen Hao, the Hubei academic administrator, to serve as an aide in his government. During his stay in Hubei, Liu Dakui traveled to Jiangnan, Jingchu, Xianghan and other places, leaving behind such poems as "late passing Huangzhou", "wangwuchang county", "climbing the Yellow Crane Tower", "learning to enjoy the cool in the mountain Pavilion", "Wuchang Miscellaneous Poems", "seeing off guests in Jiangxia" and "crossing the lake at night". In 1757, Liu Dakui served as an aide in the office of Dou guangnai, a scholar in Zhejiang Province. In 1759, before Dou Guangding left office, Liu Dakui left Zhejiang and arrived in Huizhou.

Lecture on Huizhou

In 1761, at the age of 64, Liu Dakui went to Yixian County in southern Anhui Province to teach and teach in Anqing and Huizhou academies. His term of office was six years, until he left office in 1767. During his stay in Yi County, Liu Dakui received a large number of disciples. Through his contacts with Wu Ding, Fang Ju, Jin Bang, Wu Shaoze, Zheng Mu and other disciples, Liu Dakui's ancient prose thoughts were widely spread in Huizhou. In 1767, Liu Dakui resigned his post as a teacher of Shexian county and applied to Shexian county. Zhang Peifang, the county magistrate of Shexian County, attached great importance to culture and education. He invited Liu Dakui to lecture in Wenzheng academy and compiled Shexian annals at the invitation of Zhang Peifang, which took two years to complete (from the 35th to 36th year of Qianlong).

Home from Shehe

In 1771, Liu Dakui, 76 years old, returned from Shexian county to Zongyang, Tongcheng, where he lived. He gathered together to give lectures in his former residence by the river. He died in 1779 or 1780. He was 82 years old (yizuo was 83 years old).

Main impact

Ancient prose creation

Liu Dakui summed up and developed the prose theory of Tongcheng school. His literary activities were mainly in Qianlong period, and he created a lot of prose. His articles not only seldom praise merits and virtues, but also seldom denounce current politics and expose the darkness of reality, which represents the general ideological situation of the lower orthodox intellectuals. His thesis emphasizes "righteousness, books, economy" and advocates imitating the "air", "syllable" and "sentence" of the ancients in artistic form. He is the backbone of Tongcheng school after Fang Bao. On the basis of summarizing and developing Tongcheng School prose, Liu Dakui emphasized the unity of spirit, syllable and sentence, and attached importance to the artistic form of prose, forming a unique style. In the history of Tongcheng school, it played a key role in connecting the preceding and the following, so it was honored as one of the "three ancestors of Tongcheng". His essay notes not only affirms the importance of content, but also pays attention to rules and techniques. He used the description techniques of novels and operas in his prose writing. It is a great progress to emphasize the subtlety of words, sentences and syllables, as well as the beauty of style and artistic conception. Liu Dakui's achievements in ancient prose creation played a very important role in promoting the formation and development of Tongcheng school. He discussed the law of literary creation from the "literary ability", and concreted the "literary ability" into "Twelve noble", pointing out the essentials of literary creation. Liu Dakui's position in Tongcheng school comes not only from his contacts with Fang Bao and Yao Nai, but also from his noble conduct and his own thoughts. He advocated that writing articles should be rare, which is in line with Dai Mingshi's idea of writing articles; he advocated that writing articles should be simple, which is in line with Fang Bao's idea of writing good articles; he advocated that writing articles should be variable, which is connected with Yao Nai's idea. Liu Dakui's writing method enriched the content of Tongcheng school. Liu Dakui's position in Tongcheng school was established by his model essay, a series of summary of writing method, and the summary of rhythm and air of the essay. Later, his student Yao Nai summed up the style of the article as masculine and feminine, which should be the inheritance and development of Liu Dakui's thought.

The influence of poetry

There are many poems written by Liu Dakui, among which quite a few are bold and forthright with masculine beauty. Liu Dakui is the founder of "Tongcheng poetry school". His poetry theory has its own system. He discusses poetry with Qi, which not only develops the predecessors' poetry theory, but also has its own originality. It is the end of Zhao Yaoqing's style theory of "masculine and feminine". In ancient Chinese literary theory, there are both "the theory of expressing one's will" and "the theory of feeling", and Liu Dakui's poetic theory is both of them. Liu Dakui's exposition can be summed up in two aspects: first, the relationship between poetry and mind. He thinks that the poet's mind is the foundation of poetry and that poetry is the external expression of mind. The second is the relationship between poetry and people. Liu Dakui thinks that poetry is like people, and people's aspirations will be reflected in poetry like looking in a mirror. He thinks that poetry writers don't write poetry for the sake of poetry, but for the sake of "love"; poetry writers can't write poetry at any time, but when their emotions are too excited to restrain; the ancients didn't write poetry only for literati, as long as their emotions are excited, "the ignorant savages in the lane can't write poetry.". Its center is to emphasize that poetry is the product of emotion. Only poems that express true feelings are good poems. The so-called "Poems" that lack true feelings and moan without illness can not move people and have no vitality. Liu Dakui, on the basis of absorbing and learning from previous theories and experiences, creatively put forward the theory of "spirit" in ancient prose theory and applied it to poetry

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