Sun Chuo

Sun Chuo

Sun Chuo (314-371), the word Xinggong, Taiyuan Zhongdu (now Pingyao County, Shanxi Province) people. Ministers, writers and calligraphers in the Eastern Jin Dynasty are the representatives of Xuanyan poetry school.

Born in Kuaiji, he is erudite and good at writing. He is as famous as Xu Xun of Gaoyang, and he is the Marquis of Changle. He started as a doctor of Taixue, moved to shangshulang, and served as the magistrate of Zhang'an county. He was also the commander of Jianwei County, the commander of Youjun County, and the governor of Yongjia County. When Emperor AI of Jin Dynasty was in power, he moved to be a regular servant on horseback. He prevented the great Sima Huan Wen from moving his capital to Luoyang, moved to tingweiqing, and participated in the assembly of Wang Xizhi in Lanting. In 371, he died at the age of 58.

He is quite famous for his literary talent. Wen, Wang, Ying, Yu Zhujun's Hong, must write inscriptions, and then publish stone. You Gong's calligraphy, Zhang Huaiyu's shuduan was listed in the fourth class. He once wrote Sui Chu Fu, Tian Tai Shan Fu and sun Ting Wei Ji.

Life of the characters

Sun Chuo, whose name is Xinggong, was born in Kuaiji (now Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province) and his ancestral home is Zhongdu of Taiyuan (now Pingyao County, Shanxi Province). He is one of the influential representatives of Xuanyan poetry school in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

According to the book of Jin, biography of sun Chu and biography of sun Chuo, sun Chuo inherited his father as Marquis of Changle and successively served as doctor of Taixue and shangshulang (dealing with government affairs around the emperor). Later, he successively served as the commander of Jianwei, the commander of the right army and the governor of Yongjia. During the reign of Ai Di, he moved to be a regular official (admonishing the emperor about his mistakes) and took charge of the writing of documents. In 362 of the first year of Longhe, Emperor AI of Jin Dynasty, the great Sima Huanwen, after the northern expedition to recover Luoyang, conspired to usurp the throne and wanted to move his capital to Luoyang. He also invited all those who had gone south from the "Yongjia rebellion" to move to Henan. The imperial court and other officials were awed by Huan Wen's power, and no one dared to raise objection. Only sun chuoting wrote "remonstrance to Luoyang". The book says: moving the capital is "a country of peace and contentment, a country of good habits and disorder, and a place of peace and security, a place of exhaustion." If you move the capital, it will stop. Before long, Zhuan tingweiqing was still in charge of writing. Thus sun Chuo became famous in history. Sun Chuo was the most famous scholar at that time. He was the chief of Wen, Wang, Xi and Yu. He had to write inscriptions and then publish them. It can be seen from the prosperity of literary reputation.

He died in 371, the sixth year of Taihe. The collection of sun Tingwei was compiled by the people of Ming Dynasty. There are 15 volumes of anthologies, "Sui Shu", "Tang Shu Jing Ji Zhi" handed down to the world.

Anecdotes and allusions

In his early years, he was erudite, good at writing and broad-minded in landscape. He wrote suichu Fu and Tiantai Mountain Fu. Consult with Gao Yang Xu as a "celebrity". People in those days "either love high and lofty, then they are contemptible; or love high and talented, but not from high and noble.". He once asked sun Chuo, "Why are you like this? He asked him how he compared with Xu Xun. Sun Chuo replied, "my disciples have long accepted my lofty sentiments, but if I chant them, I will go to the north.". He claimed that he was not as good-natured as he was.

Sun Chuo believed in Buddhism and had contacts with famous monks Zhu Daoqian and Zhidun. Relying on metaphysics to carry out his own religion, he wrote many articles on Buddhism, such as Mingde Samantha Lun mu, Daoxian Lun, etc. In the treatise on Daoxian, he attached seven famous monks from the two Jin Dynasties as the "Seven Sages of the bamboo grove" between the Wei and Jin Dynasties: Zhu FA protecting Bi Shantao (Juyuan), Zhu FA Cheng comparing Wang Rong (junchong), Bo Yuan comparing Ji Kang (Shuye), Zhu Daoqian comparing Liu Ling (Bolun), Zhi Dun comparing Xiang Xiu (Ziqi), Yu fanbi Ruanji (heizong), Yu daoshen comparing Ruan Xian (Zhongrong), and he thought that they were all elegant, understanding and outstanding People.

Anecdotes and allusions

Wang Wendu's younger brother, ah Zhi, is not only bad. He is old, but no one has married him. Sun Xinggong has a daughter who is also very eccentric and unreasonable, and has no way to get married. He goes to visit Wendu and asks to see ah Zhi. After the meeting, he pretended: "the child must agree. It's not like what people say. How can he not get married up to now. I have a daughter, not ugly, but I'm a poor man. I shouldn't have discussed with you, but I want ah Zhi to marry her. " Wendu was very happy to tell his father that Wang Shu, Marquis of Lantian, said: "Xinggong just came here, and suddenly talked about marrying ah Zhi." Wang Shu was surprised and happy. After marriage, the woman's stupidity and stubbornness will soon surpass ah Zhi's. Only then did we know that sun Xinggong was cheating.

Influence of later generations

After the Jin Dynasty moved to the south, the scholar bureaucrats who avoided chaos and went to the south of the Yangtze River brought the style of advocating Laozhuang and lightness to the south of the Yangtze River and developed it. Especially in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the prevalence of metaphysics combined metaphysics with Buddhism. Many Buddhists expressed their understanding of metaphysics in the form of poetry. Buddhist Prajna thought was a trend of thought introduced into China at the time of Jin Dynasty. Buddhists expounded their thoughts by using the concept and proposition of metaphysics, so as to make it easier and faster to enter the upper ruling class and scholar class. Taoism in the northern and Southern Dynasties also began to absorb a large number of Taoist theories and Buddhism to construct theology. After the decline of metaphysics, it was inherited by Prajna, Neo Confucianism and Zen. Sun Chuo is known as a famous metaphysical poet, but his poems are still inferior to those of Zhi Daolin.

Sun Chuo was an important local official of the imperial court at that time. When he was the commander of the right army and the prefect of Yongjia, he lived in Kuaiji for quite a long time. He was an important member of the gentry group at that time. The epitaphs and inscriptions of Yin Hao, Huan Wen and Yu Liang are all written by him. In the ninth year of Yonghe (353), Emperor mu of Jin met with 41 people, including Wang Xizhi, Xie an and Zhidun, in Lanting, drinking and writing poems. Sun Chuo and his brother sun Tong each wrote two poems, and sun Chuo was recommended to write a postscript to the collection of poems in Lanting.

Sun Chuo's Ode to Tiantai Mountain is well-known in Jin Dynasty because of its exquisite workmanship and fresh gist. Although the thought of seeking immortality is revealed in the Fu, it gives a detailed description of the scenery, such as: "the red city is built by the rising clouds, the waterfalls flow by the boundary road", "the double towers are built by the clouds, and the Qiongtai is suspended in the sky. Zhu que is exquisite in the forest, and Yu Tang is Yin Ying in the high corner. Sun Chuo regarded this Fu as a masterpiece of his life, and once said to fan Qi, "Qing tries to throw the ground as the sound of gold and stone." (Shishuoxinyu · Literature) has a collection of sun Tingwei, the original book is lost. Zhang Pu's "Han Wei Six Dynasties hundred three collection" has edition. ......

In addition, there are two "lovers' Jasper songs" and "new chants of Yutai" written by sun Chuo. However, these two poems have the characteristics of folk songs, which may not be written by sun Chuo.

Among his works, the most influential one is Yu Dao Lun. In the form of question and answer, Shuo Wen demonstrates the relationship between Buddhism and Taoism, between Zhou Confucianism and Buddhism, and whether becoming a monk violates filial piety. It is another work to defend the position of Buddhism after Mou Zi Li Huo Lun. As for what is "Buddha" and "Tao", sun Chuo said, "if you are a Buddha, you are a person who practices Tao; if you are a Tao, you are a person who guides things. Buddha is the one who understands Tao. There is no conflict between Buddhism and Tao. He believes that Buddhism and Taoism are "inaction without inaction", which leads to the emptiness of nature; and "inaction without inaction" has the mysterious function of guiding all things. He believes that Buddhism and Taoism are the most profound. People are often confined to the traditional Confucianism and can't see any more extensive and profound Buddhist doctrines.

As for the relationship between the religion of Zhou Kong and Buddhism, he put forward the viewpoint that "Zhou Kong is the Buddha, and Buddha is Zhou Kong", which is the first time in the history of Chinese Buddhism to express the theory of the unity of Confucianism and Buddhism in such a clear language. Some people asked, "why don't you kill Zhou kongzhi? Sun Chuo replied that he had misunderstood the sage. Do saints have the heart to kill? The sage didn't kill his heart, which is the ambition of the people. The sage saw that people were fighting with each other more than jackals and tigers, so he turned to seek the second place ("not to kill") in order to "save ten by removing one". Knowing the importance of it, he knew the sage's intention. He believes that Buddhism focuses on inner Enlightenment ("understanding the essence"), and Zhou and Confucius mainly focus on social governance ("saving extreme evils"). Both of them have the same starting point and purpose.

On the issue of whether it is against filial piety to become a monk, sun Chuo believes that Buddhist practice of becoming a monk is to take the road of "standing on one's own feet, practicing Taoism, and always showing respect for one's relatives", which is the biggest filial piety. In addition, yudaolun also demonstrates the Buddhist thought of karma. This paper explains the basic doctrines of Buddhism from various aspects, and explains that they are consistent with and complementary to Confucianism.

The Eastern Jin Dynasty was partial to the left side of the Yangtze River, and the trend of free talk was even more serious, which reflected the prevalence of metaphysical poetry in poetry creation. Zhong Rong, the Liang Dynasty, said in his preface to poetry: "in Yongjia, the old Huang was valued, and a little empty talk was still needed. At that time, the words were light and tasteless, and the river surface and microwave were still spread. "Sun Chuo and Xu Xun are the representatives of this poetic style. In the book of poetry, sun and Xu were called "good and tranquil poems". Sun Chuo's answer to questions is an obvious example. In the third chapter, the sentences of "Yirong, Yirong, waishenquan; Zhuozai, Xianshi, Xiude, Youxian" are actually four character poems to interpret Taoist philosophy. However, he also has some better poems, such as "cool wind in the sparse forest, condensation in the sky in the empty Xiujie; clear dew in the courtyard forest, CI rongtiao in the dense leaves" and so on, which are vivid in scenery. Sun Chuo's answer to Xu Xun: "the legacy of glory lies in the whole body. Master Zhuozai, virtue cultivation is leisure. Scattered by the Xuanfeng, polyester to Qingchuan. Or step Chongji, or tianmeng garden. The way is full of Hun Huai, and the spirit is magnificent. "

Historical records

Book of Jin Volume 56

The word "Chuo" is "Xing Gong". He is erudite and good at writing. He has noble ambition with Gao Yang and Xu Xun. He lived in Kuaiji and toured the mountains and rivers for more than ten years. He wrote Sui Chu Fu and its meaning. He tasted Bi Shantao and said, "Shantao, I don't understand. Officials are not officials, but hermits. If we take Yuanli gate as Longjin, we should point the scales of forehead.". In front of the house where he lived, he planted a pine tree to protect himself. The neighbor called it, "the tree is not so pitiful, but I'm afraid there will never be a pillar.". "Chuo replied," although maple and willow embrace each other, what evil do they do! "Chuo and the celebrities, or love to ask Gao Mai, is contemptible to Chuo, or love Chuo Cai Zao

Chinese PinYin : Sun Chao