Author: Wu Guanwen (Associate Research Fellow, China Ancient Literature Research Center, Fudan University)
Tao Hongjing, known as the "Prime Minister in the Mountain", said after a beautiful landscape description in "Thank you for your letter": "Since recreation, there has been no one who can be as amazing as it." This book was written in the middle and late period of the Liang Dynasty. If we trace back from then on, there have been many works of Mo Shan Fan Shui in the history of literature, including the poetic creations of Shi Chong, Sun Chuo, Wang Xizhi, Hui Yuan, Tao Yuanming, Bao Zhao and Jiang Yan before and after Xie Lingyun, the wonderful works that Tao Hongjing could read at that time were far from what he can hope for now. So, why did he admire Xie Lingyun so much? The answer is either "can be amazing". In fact, these five words contain two noteworthy information: first, the word "strange", that is, the original strangeness of mountains and rivers; The second is the word "can and", which means praise, and "can and" means the ability to give praise in words. Therefore, "those who can be amazing" should not only be able to discover the wonders of mountains and rivers, but also have enough writing skills to praise the wonders of mountains and rivers.
(1)
Xie Lingyun once criticized the landscape aesthetics before the Western Jin Dynasty in "Mountain Residence Fu", and thought that the fertile land and beautiful houses that Zhong Changtong and Ying Kun hoped for and the mountains and rivers and gardens occupied by the kings and grandsons of Di Zi in the past dynasties were all very rich places in the region, and these landscapes were actually just places for you to visit and have a feast. The landscape writing that began in the Eastern Jin Dynasty added the function of understanding the taste or fantasy of the landscape besides the banquet tour. For example, Wang Xizhi’s Preface to Poems in Lanting described that many famous people were drinking and writing poems in the harmonious nature where mountains and rivers set each other off, which was quite different from the spectacular gathering in Jingu, Shi Chong. Lanting gathering showed the elegance of scholars. Wang Xizhi not only denied the pleasure of playing the bamboo and string in Shi Chong’s landscape writing before, but also did not mention the so-called pleasure of fishing by Zhang Heng and Zhong Changtong in Han Dynasty. Sun Chuo’s Fu of Visiting Tiantai Mountain and Gu Kaizhi’s Painting Yuntai Mountain have expounded the landscape beyond the domain, and the Preface of Poems of Visiting Shimen, which was written by the various interpretations of Lushan Mountain, attributed the purpose of the visit to Shimen to the realization of the Tao in the beautiful land. In a word, the author’s original intention has not yet fallen on the true beauty of mountains and rivers, whether it is regarded as a place for traveling and feasting, or a fairyland or a realm of fantasy enlightenment.
From the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Liu Song Dynasty, with the natural beauty of strange mountains and strange waters gradually revealed, the functions of the previously developed landscape as a place for feasting, a fairyland and a place for metaphysical enlightenment have been embodied in Xie Lingyun’s works, but great changes have taken place. Taking the complex of fairyland as an example, although there are still images of fairy fairyland in Xie Lingyun’s works, some famous fairy fairyland in the previous generation literature are often regarded as the objects of seeking, doubting and disillusioning when the landscape lingers. For example, on his way back to his hometown of Shining from Yongjia, he wrote "Homecoming Fu", which once described the process of staying in Jinyun to search for the remains of the Yellow Emperor. However, he is no longer obsessed with the Yellow Emperor’s ascension to immortality, and he wrote, "A hundred miles of clear pool, a thousand miles of solitary stones. It is not easy to survive through the ages, but it is not easy to rise and fall. It is to emphasize that only this solitary stone with a height of thousands of meters stands in the Jinyun Mountain regardless of the changes of time and the ups and downs of the world. Questioning and disillusionment of fairy fairyland is the most typical in his poem "Zigang in China is the third valley of Mayuan". From the beginning of the poem to the sentence "If the clouds rise", compared with Sun Chuo’s Poem on Visiting Mount Tiantai, Gu Kaizhi’s Painting Mount Yuntai, and the Preface to Poems on Visiting Shimen, the poem is a train of thought, which only describes the unusual and dangerous scene of the place where he visited, so that the author seems to rise above the clouds after climbing to the top without fear of difficulties. However, with the combination of "the feather man is absolutely like an empty mound", Xie Shi began to part ways with the similar artistic conception of the previous generation.For example, Qu Yuan’s "Journey to the Far" highlights the feathered people and the immortal hometown ("still feathered people in Danqiu, staying in the immortal old hometown"), and Sun Chuo’s "Travel to Tiantai Mountain" seeks the trace of feathered people and the immortal blessed land ("still feathered people in Danqiu, looking for an immortal happy family"). In Xie Lingyun’s landscape world (except dreams), the feather man and Danqiu can no longer be found, and there are no traces of the map and tablet.
His landscape writing began to focus on the process of seeking strange mountains and strange waters. This kind of "difference" is no longer a mysterious fairy capital or a beautiful place, but a magical place of landscape nature itself. For example, "A clear pool that overflows a hundred miles can see a solitary stone with a thousand miles" ("Returning to the Road"), "Tongling reflects a blue stream, and the stone rises and pours red springs" ("Entering China Zigang is the third valley of Mayuan"), "In the morning, we will seek a precipice and rest in the mountains. Shufeng Kanggao Pavilion, facing the ridge and facing the back stream "("Climbing the Highest Top of Shimen "), and so on. He no longer describes people’s feasting and fishing in the mountains and rivers like Zhang Heng and Shi Chong, nor emphasizes the mountains and rivers as a place to realize the Tao like Wang Xizhi and Lushan Zhuzi. His world of mountains and rivers is contrary to the hustle and bustle of the world of desire, and the main part is a real and clear world where the sky, the water or the moon set each other off. The tour of mountains and rivers includes appreciating the shapes and sounds of animals and plants, including all kinds of "fine fun and intimate play" that no one has paid attention to before.
When revealing the novel scenery in nature that is qualitative and interesting, Xie Lingyun not only rejoices in meeting the beauty of mountains and rivers, but also enjoys discovering the scenery of nymphs that used to be narcissistic. This phenomenon of discovering the true beauty of mountains and rivers and pretending to be a confidant of mountains and rivers embodies a trend of the development of landscape literature in Jin and Song Dynasties. Before or at the same time, Yuan Song, Tao Yuanming, Shi Hui Yuan and others left similar words. For example, Yuan Song’s "Yidu Mountains and Rivers" narrates the Xiling Gorge Cloud: "It is often said that there are water diseases in the Gorge, and the secretaries and oral reports have learned that they are afraid of each other, and they have never been called the beauty of mountains and rivers." In Yuan Song’s view, these secretaries and oral people failed to appreciate the beauty and differences of Xiling Gorge. Not only was he glad that he was able to reveal the extraordinary wonders of Xiling Gorge, but he also mentioned that "if the mountains and rivers have spirits, you should also be surprised by the eternal!" Interpretation of Hui Yuan and others’ account of the Shimen Mountain in Lushan Mountain ("Master’s Travel to the Mountain") and Tao Yuanming’s account of Zeng Cheng ("Preface to Poems in Youxiechuan") all contain similar meanings.
The trend of appreciating the natural beauty of mountains and rivers and claiming to be bosom friends of mountains and rivers, which began to develop in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, is a great sight in Xie Lingyun’s poems. His poem "Climbing to a Lonely Island in the River" "Huaixin Road turns around and looks for a different scenery without delay. Turbulence is becoming more and more inevitable, and the lonely island is charming in Zhongchuan. Clouds and days reflect each other, and the air and water are clear and fresh. There is no reward for expressing spiritual things, and whoever is true is the biography. "The poem" Shishi Mountain "is" Qing Dan Suo You Yi, and the boat is over the suburbs. I am in a hurry in Lanzhu, and I have a high moss ridge. The stone chamber is crowned with forest, and the flying spring sends mountain pepper. It’s a thousand years, but it’s not once. The countryside is unheard of, and the firewood is limited to the wind … … The spiritual realm has been hidden for a long time, such as paying tribute to the heart. There are descriptions of the process from finding differences to discovering beauty. These wonders are always hidden in places where the footprints of shepherds and fishermen are hard to reach. They have been towering through the ages, and now they are suddenly appreciated. The joy of "Acacia" between the realm of wonder and the author can be imagined.
(2)
Liu Xiao’s annotation in Shi Shuo Xin Yu quoted the Master’s Journey to the Mountain to explain the Hui Yuan language: "It is rumored that there is a square lake in Shijing, and there are red scales in it. Savages can’t tell it, but they just sigh at its strangeness." This kind of expression actually touches on an important feature of landscape literature and art in the Six Dynasties, that is, the aesthetic subjects of landscape at that time were almost all cultural elites. Although simple rural people thought that the phenomenon of red scales bursting out of the square lake in Shijing was magical, they could not describe it. Xie Lingyun, on the other hand, is the last famous person in Wei and Jin Dynasties (Chen Yinque’s language) recorded in Shi Shuo Xin Yu. Although he was aware of the true beauty of mountains and rivers, he still tried to describe all kinds of fine interests and secrets of the landscape world in a vast territory with words. Take a section of his "Mountain Residence Fu" describing the scenery around Shining’s residence as an example: Repair the room at the top of the North Mountain, and you can see the peak of the South Mountain when you open the door. The overlapping cliffs are all in sight, and the clear lake is in front of the window. The lintel of the museum is particularly red under the reflection of Danxia, and the beams and rafters are particularly bright because of the blue clouds. The location of the pavilion on the top of the mountain shows that meteors are hurtling from top to bottom, which is beyond the reach of big birds such as harriers and hongs, let alone birds such as finches flying lightly! The spring water gushing from one side flows slowly on the east eaves, and the confronting cliffs stand at the west eaves. Bamboo leaves are flourishing and shrubs are dense and deep. The vines are spreading and climbing everywhere, and the flowers are fragrant and beautiful. The light of the sun and the moon is projected from the branches and branches, and the wind and dew are scattered in the mountain bay.
Compared with the description of landscape in previous literature, Xie Lingyun’s landscape world is obviously more concrete and agile, including not only "the beauty of water stones, forests and bamboos, the beauty of caves and winding songs", but also the rare phenomenon of the sun and the moon that makes the landscape more magical and colorful, such as Yun Ni. Although sometimes the narration is so complicated that it makes people feel lengthy (in Qian Zhongshu), Xie Lingyun has repeatedly expressed regret that he failed to remember the "fine fun and secret play" in the landscape. Compared with Tao Yuanming’s freehand brushwork expression, which ended with "there is real meaning in it, and I want to distinguish it, but I have forgotten to say it", Xie Lingyun always tries to describe the beautiful images that various sensory organs can perceive in words when describing landscapes. Although his works were praised and criticized differently in later generations, Xie Lingyun’s revelation and description of the true beauty of mountains and rivers have always inspired the subsequent creation of landscape literature. Even the novel "Mountain Residence Fu", which is full of criticism today, has described the details of the mountains and rivers in Shining, and has also benefited the writing of landscape poems in the Southern Dynasties and later, which has been the source of continuous use for later generations in terms of structure management, image composition and wording.
Therefore, Tao Hongjing’s high praise of Xie Lingyun means a lot to the "wonder" of landscape, and it is recommended that he not only has an eye for discovering the true beauty of landscape, but also can fully express the true beauty of landscape with appropriate words. It is these two points that laid the outstanding position of Xie Lingyun in the history of landscape literature.