Gu Kuang

Gu Kuang (date of birth and death unknown), also known as Bu Weng, also known as Huayang Zhenyi (some say Huayang Zhenyin). In his later years, he called himself Bei Weng, Han nationality, and a native of Haiyan (now in Haining, Zhejiang) in the Tang Dynasty. Poet, painter, and connoisseur of the Tang Dynasty. His official position was not high in his life. He once served as a writer. He offended the powerful by writing poems and ridiculing him, so he was demoted to Raozhou Sihu to join the army. In his later years, he lived in seclusion in Maoshan and published "Huayang Collection".

Story: The Red Leaves Tell the Love

The great Tang Dynasty poet Gu Kuang's poem "I am sad to see the orioles singing and catkins flying, and my heart is broken in the Yang Palace. If you don't close the east and the water flows, to whom will the poems written on the leaves be sent?" ("The poems written on the leaves flow from the garden") were summarized by later generations into a famous idiom "The Red Leaves Tell the Love". However, this is a good anecdote of the poet's personal experience. It is said that one autumn in the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty, Gu Kuang, a young poet in Luoyang, picked up a red leaf that flowed from the waterway of Shangyang Palace to the pool (today's Xixiachi Village, Luoyang City) where the royal maids lived. On the leaf there was a sad poem inscribed by the maid, "As soon as I entered the deep palace, I did not see spring every year. I talked about a leaf and sent it to my lover." ("Ti Luoyuan Wuye" by Tianbao Palace Man). The poet who was inspired by love also wrote a poem on the red leaves, and passed the red leaves from the upper pool into the palace, and actually got in touch with the sad palace maid. From then on, Gu Kuang and the palace lady often used red leaves to express their love. Not long after, the Tang Anshi Rebellion (755 AD) occurred, and the 60-day "Luoyang Defense War" conducted by the officers and soldiers to resist the rebel An Lushan failed. Gu Kuang took advantage of the war to find the palace maid who had passed poems to him and escaped from Shangyang Palace. The two married and grew old together. Since then, red leaves have been regarded as a symbol of unswerving love and have been passed down to this day. This sweet love story is also known as "Xiachi Anecdote" and is circulated in the ancient city of Luoyang. ▲

Characteristics of poetry

Gu Kuang said in the preface to "Elegy" that poetry is "the experience of rationalizing chaos, and the prosperity of Wang Hua. If you believe in sound teaching, how can you lose the beauty of literary talent?" Emphasizing the ideological content of poetry, paying attention to education. He once imitated the "Book of Songs" and wrote "Thirteen Chapters of the Ancient Shibu Xun Biography". He also imitated the "Small Preface" of the "Book of Songs" and took the first one or two words of the poem as the title to indicate the theme. For example, " , lamenting Fujian", "picking wax, complaining about luxury", set a precedent for Bai Juyi's "New Yuefu" to "mark its purpose in the first sentence". His Yuefu poems do not avoid vulgarity, are often acrimonious, and directly reflect reality. "Thirteen Chapters of the Ancient Shibu Xun Zhuan" is his masterpiece, among which " " is the most famous. In the Tang Dynasty, officials in central Fujian often used young children as eunuch slaves. The poem exposes the crimes of Fujian officials that harmed the people, which is extremely painful.

Gu Kuang's seven-character song line "The Young Master's Journey" and "Three Poems on the Difficult Journey" expose the luxurious life of the noble children and satirize the foolish behavior of the feudal emperors in pursuing immortality, which is of great practical significance. Another example is "Li Gongfeng Plays the Harvest Song", "Liu Channu Plays the Pipa Song", "Li Huzhou Ruren Plays the Zheng Song", etc., which depict the music very well through rich and vivid metaphors and the rendering of the environment. These poems are rich in imagination, unique in artistic conception, and rich in color. They were the basis of Li He's later singing career. Huangfu Si's "Preface to the Collected Poems of Gu Kuang" said that "he prefers long sentences in leisurely songs, and his horses are vigorous and vigorous. They often seem to penetrate the heart of the sky and rise out of the moon, with unexpected and shocking words, which are beyond the reach of ordinary people." Guan Xiu, a poet monk in the late Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem "Reading Gu Kuang's Songs" and highly praised his seven-character songs.

Gu Kuang’s Qijue is fresh and natural, and is full of masterpieces. For example, "Su Zhaoying" satirizes Xuanzong's quest for immortality. "Poems on Leaves Flow from the Garden" and "Palace Ci" describe the sorrow of the maids who were imprisoned in the palace. "Zhuzhi Ci" is a study of Jiangnan folk songs.

Gu Kuang has an article in "Literary Theory", and his argument is similar to that of some ancient writers in the mid-Tang Dynasty, which shows the trend of literary thought at that time. The poem preface he wrote for the poets at that time described the deeds of Tao Han, Liu Taizhen, Zhu Fang, and Chu Guangxi respectively, as well as the compilation of poems and essays, providing literature research materials for later generations. His "Preface to Dai Shi Guangyi's Notes" discusses the legendary works of the Tang Dynasty, such as Tang Lin's "Ming Bao Ji", Wang Du's "Ancient Mirror", etc., which shows that he also attached great importance to the new style of legend at that time. "Fengshi Hearing and Seeing Notes" written by Feng of the Tang Dynasty once recorded that Gu Kuang was good at painting. The miscellaneous art descriptions in the sub-part of "New Book of Tang·Yiwenzhi" include 1 volume of Gu Kuang's "Painting Criticism", which is now lost.

There are 4 volumes of "Collected Poems of Gu Buweng", compiled into "The Complete Works of One Hundred Famous Poems of the Tang Dynasty", and 3 volumes of "Collection of Huayang", compiled into "Sikuquanshu". The Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty catalogs 4 volumes of his poems, and the Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty catalogs his articles in 3 volumes. His deeds can be found in the original biography of "Old Book of Tang", "Chronicles of Tang Poems" and "Biography of Talented Scholars of the Tang Dynasty".

Life

Gu Kuang became a Jinshi in the second year of Zhide (757). From the second year of Jianzhong (781) to the second year of Zhenyuan (786), when Han Huang was the governor of Runzhou and the envoy of Zhenhai Navy, he was called as the judge of the shogunate. In the third year of Zhenyuan, he was recommended by Li Mi and entered the court as Zuo Lang. In the fifth year of Zhenyuan, Li Mi passed away, and he was demoted to Raozhou Sihu to join the army in March and April of that year. The reasons for his demotion are said to be that he was "arrogant and ruined the dynasty" (Li Zhao's "Supplement to the History of the Tang Dynasty") and "cannot be obedient and was rejected by the public" (Huangfu Shi's "Preface to the Collection of Gu Kuang's Poems"). When he was passing through Suzhou, he and Wei Yingwu sang poems together. He left Raozhou in about the tenth year of Zhenyuan and settled in Maoshan in his later years. In the 16th year of Zhenyuan, Huangfu Shi once met him in Yangzhou ("Preface to the Collection of Gu Kuang's Poems"). In the sixth year of Dali (771), he served as the Salt Supervisor of Yongjia. He once wrote "The Travels of Immortals", which describes Li Ting in the upper reaches of Feiyun River who went up the mountain to cut down trees.

The dates of Gu Kuang's birth and death are set in the "Inscription of the Crane" handed down from generation to generation between the 13th year of Kaiyuan (725) and the ninth year of Yuanhe (814). However, according to textual research by Dong Kuang and Huang Bosi of the Song Dynasty and Gu Yanwu of the Qing Dynasty, the "Inscription of the Crane" was not written by Gu Kuang. According to Gu Kuang's "Preface to the Sending of Xuanshe Li Yamen and the Eighth Lang Envoy to the Eastern Capital", Gu Kuang was still alive about 50 years after he ascended the throne in 757, that is, roughly around 806.