In the 2nd year of Tiansheng (1024), the entire Song Dynasty was busy with two major events: 1 imperial examination and 2 weddings under His Majesty.

On March 18, the top three in this subject were Song Zhen, Ye Qingchen, Zheng Jian, and the next ranking was Zeng Gongliang, Yu Jing, Yin Zhu... All of them are famous in the history of the Song Dynasty. But the real literary name is the 10th Song Qi in the first class.

He is the younger brother of the champion Song Zhen, and his talent alone is far higher than that of his brother. But maybe Empress Dowager Liu is starting from the great defense of humanity or family harmony? said "How can my younger brother's ranking be higher than my brother's", so Da Song stood in the lead, and Xiao Song retreated to 10th, and it was done.

The champion is gone, but Xiao Song doesn't care at all. Born in a cold family, he jumped into Luo Qicong, and his wealth is limitless. How can you lose your soul? From him, let's see how the top literati of the Great Song Dynasty lived.

Song Qi pays attention to pleasure and is a typical genius of the Great Song Dynasty. The reign of Zhenzong and Renzong was the richest, most tranquil, and most enlightened era in Chinese history. The happiness he enjoyed in the world was beyond the reach of Sima Xiangru of Han, Li Bai of Tang or Tang Bohu of Ming. Reflected in the poem, it is "the joy of spring, joy does not know the sky", he is more luxurious than Kou Zhun. Kou Zhun drank all night of wine, at most candles poured all over the ground, and a few people followed. And he made all the guests dizzy after drinking, and they passed out when they went out. Because he wrapped the wine game with a heavy curtain, lit a huge candle inside, sang and danced, played and sang, completely regardless of time, the curtain was pulled out, and the sun was shining outside...

And the real master in this area is the former prodigy Yan Shu. He has long stopped pursuing the superficial enjoyment of drunkenness, he pursues the highest state of wealth, that is, being rich and not like being rich. Yan Shu once despised Li Qingsun, a lyricist at that time. In Li's "Rich Song", it is written that "the scroll music score is written in gold, and the tree records the name of the flower and the jade seal", which means that it is written with gold powder and the name is recorded with a jade plate. Rich is very rich, but nouveau riche. Yan Shu is "the poplar flowers on the side of the building, the swallows fly in the middle of the curtain", "the pear blossom courtyard dissolves the moon, and the willow pond has a faint breeze", but the superior idle life is vivid. This is the realm. But neither Yan Shu nor Song Qi can dominate the literary world.

First. They are good at Xiaoling, which is a colloquial phrase that has been popular since the fifth generation. The verbal skills are extremely demanding, and they are all extremely good. But after all, it is only inheritance, at most it is carried forward on the basis of the original, but it does not break through the innovation and open up a new world. The classic "slow words" of Song Ci will have to wait for a while before it is created by the genius who has been ruined all his life and replaced his fame with drinking and singing.

Second, their style of writing is too elegant. In the final analysis, it is the legacy of the Southern Tang Dynasty and Houshu, pursuing the ultimate gorgeousness. Pure courtly pleasure style. is like Li Yu before the collapse of the country and the death of the family. So in terms of subtlety and agility, how can they compare to Empress Li? And Li Yu's words can't be compared with Tang poems. Poetry uses the past to metaphorize the present, all-encompassing, nostalgic, political, or sad. In contrast, the words at this time were just folk songs. The glory of Song Ci will have to wait for more than half a century to be cast by the most famous genius in the history of Chinese literature.

Therefore, the art of Yan Shu and others is just to show off their elegance in a rich life. Grab a handful of money. Playing with his life shows how much he doesn't care, and how much he yearns for a free life. Both rich and noble, and scattered people. Seeing through this, we will also know their so-called achievements and personal character.

But there is one person who is different, he is the real only one in this era. He is a true hermit: Lin Kui Lin and Jing. He will die in 4 years. At this time, he was living in seclusion on the lonely mountain of West Lake in Hangzhou. The West Lake has been crowded with tourists since ancient times. Hangzhou is a metropolis in the southeast. The so-called big hidden in the court, hidden in the city, Lin Kui did not deliberately force himself to hide in the mountains. Speaking of his life, the world praised him as a "plum wife and crane" who was so chic that he couldn't describe it. Because of the consensus of mankind: it is rare to abandon the joy of husband and wife in the world. So he became a hidden saint who has been praised through the ages. What is even more rare is that Lin Kui is self-reliant and has planted more than 300 plum blossoms in Gushan. He worked hard and made a living selling plum blossoms and plums. What a life of poverty! It is in such living conditions. He wrote the eternal sentence of "sparse shadows and horizontal slopes, clear and shallow, dark fragrance floating at night and dusk", and how to be happy with poverty and willing to be poor!

The last sentence he left after his death was "Maoling he asked for a posthumous manuscript, and he was happy to have no sealed Zen book" affirmed the behavior of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in his later years, but did not pat the emperor's sycophants, praising how sacred the emperor was to worship God. In the future, some people built the "Three Sages Hall" on the Su Causeway of the West Lake in Hangzhou, two of which were Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty and Su Shi of the Song Dynasty, the builder of the Su Causeway. The other is Lin Hejing, who has been dressed in white for life.

After the Song dynasty crossed to the south, Hangzhou became the imperial capital. Ordered the construction of a royal temple on the lonely mountain. All the original buildings on the mountain were moved out, leaving only Lin Kui's grave. And this also brought the most terrible disaster to Lin Kui. After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, some tomb robbers thought that Lin Kui was a famous man, and there must be a lot of treasures in the tomb. So I went to dig.

As a result, there was only one side of the inkstone and a hosta dug up for the burial. The inkstone is Lin Kui's own thing. What about the hosta? What kind of past did Lin Kui, who never married, have that made him discouraged in the world when he was young and returned to Lin Quan for the rest of his life? Perhaps Lin Kui's other small poem written in a woman's voice is his heart: Wu Shanqing, Yue Shanqing. The green mountains on both sides of the strait greet each other, who knows the parting feelings? The king is in tears, and the concubine is in tears. Luo belt concentric knot has not been completed, and the tide by the river has been flat.

Sigh for Lin Kui, it is better to bless him. May he be blessed with all the best in heaven, and may he see the people he will miss all his life...

Of course, the fate of the country and the future of the nation cannot rely on hermits like Lin Hejing. It is inseparable from the support of those who have the world in mind. Their people and words are the true essence of the literati of the Song Dynasty.

Let's get to know such a person. His greatness made the later great sage Zhu Xi praise: Song died, and this person did not die, and he was the first person in the three hundred years of the dynasty.

But this man's life originated from poverty and even humiliation. At this time, he had only had his own surname for 9 years. Before that, his surname was Zhu, and his name said. It is the 'son' of a wealthy family surnamed Zhu in Changshan County, Zizhou, Shandong, and has been different since he was a child. The family has money, but what he likes is to read. In order to seek tranquility, he took the initiative to go up the mountain to stay in Liquan Temple, and lived the same lonely life with the mountain monks, reading the scriptures in the morning bell and dusk drum. By chance, after he learned about his life experience, everything changed...

He is not a member of the Zhu family, but the son of the Fan family in Suzhou. His father's name was Fan Yong. Fan Yong married Chen first. Later, he married Xie. He was born to the Xie family, that is, a concubine. In the second year of his life, his father died. Xie's mother and son were kicked out of the house and had to remarry to the Zhu family in Shandong.

Zhu said that he knew all this. It turned out that he had another person's blood in his veins. In the Zhu family, he was a burden to drag oil bottles, and in the Fan family, he was a concubine who was kicked out of the house. In every sense of the word, he was a piece of shit, and there was no honor at all. He immediately packed his bags, said goodbye to his mother, and walked to study in other places. I made a vow to come to fruition, and then I came back to meet my mother. To thank my stepfather for his many years of nurturing. In addition, considering that his mother still needs to be taken care of by the Zhu family, he kept the name of Zhu Shuo.

The legend of the first worries of the world, and the joy of the world after the world began... The starting point of Zhu is low, and there is no way to go down.

In 1011, Zhu Shuo came to Yingtianfu Academy to study. This was his best choice at that time, and it can also be said to be a gift from the Song Dynasty to him. Yingtianfu Academy is one of the four famous academies of the Song Dynasty. Zhu Shuo's hard study career began. Regarding his hardship, the history books record that his daily meal is only a pot of thick porridge, which is divided into 4 pieces after it is cold, and eats 2 pieces in the morning and evening, plus a few pickles. Half a vinaigrette, that's all. Then finally a classmate couldn't see it anymore and sent him some food. But after a few days, things remained intact. It's all long and rotten. The classmate was angry and asked him what he was doing. Zhu said that he thanked him for a long time, and said that I am used to enduring hardships. Once you enjoy these, you are afraid that you will not be able to hold on to them any longer. The classmates were relieved. But the deep words can't be said to people. If I can swallow the food of almsgiving, then why did I leave the Zhu family in the first place?

Zhu said he was more diligent. Spend all your time reading books. Even the emperor went to Bozhou to worship the Taiqing Palace, passing by the academy, and everyone rushed out of the palace to see. He still reads. Classmates came to pull him. He replied, "It's not too late to see you in the future."

Sure enough, in the second year, he was admitted to the Jinshi, participated in the palace examination in the Chongzheng Palace, and met Emperor Zhenzong of Song for the first time in his life. At this time, it was 1014, and Zhu said that he could finally return to Shandong to pick up his mother and restore his surname. Since then, his surname is Fan, his name is Zhongyan, and his word is Xiwen.

Fan Zhongyan started as a small army member, and in 1021, he was transferred to Taizhou as a salt warehouse supervisor. He left his first achievement in history. Taizhou is near the sea, and boiling the sea to make salt is a big business. But the sea floods every year. Before the Tang Dynasty, there was a weir to defend the sea. But it has long been abandoned and disrepaired for five generations. Entering the Song Dynasty, the tide rose and fell every year, and the city was flooded several times. Fan Zhongyan proposed to rebuild a long causeway to defend the sea on the ultra-long coastline of more than 500 miles in Tongzhou, Taizhou, Chuzhou and Haizhou to protect the livelihood of the people on the shore of the Yellow Sea.

It's a good thing, but it's super hard to do. Competing with the sea is no less difficult than digging a canal in the interior. Fan Zhongyan first asked Jianghuai Caoyun for instructions, and Caoyun reported to the imperial court. The imperial court ordered him to be the county magistrate of Xinghua and was directly responsible for the operation of this super project.

In the autumn of 1024, Fan Zhongyan led tens of thousands of people from four states to the seaside to build a levee and build a weir. It was completed that year, and hundreds of miles of embankment were really built. But who can imagine the hardships and dangers in between? At the beginning, there was a sleet storm, followed by a high tide, which not only destroyed the newly built embankment, but also drowned more than 100 people. For a time, many officials decided that this was providence, and God would not allow the construction of this embankment, and proposed to cancel the project. It was Fan Zhongyan's strong invitation, coupled with the great help of his friend Teng Zongliang, that completed this great project for the benefit of the coastal people. At the same time, this is also one of the few achievements of the Empress Dowager Liu in the 10 years of her reign...

After that, Fan Zhongyan was transferred back to the capital and became the Dali Temple, but he was close to the government... Fan Zhongyangong is in the community, and his life with the world in mind begins. But it must be mentioned that he is not the first person in the literary history of the Northern Song Dynasty to break new ground and divide the era.

That person is still dressed in white, only 18 years old, and he has not yet become the great man who broke through the side door of the five generations and returned to the Tang Dynasty. It is recognized by the world that his classic moment was 33 years later in 1057, which was also the year when Su Shi, a great writer from the Great Song Dynasty, entered Beijing to take the exam. As the chief examiner, this person has brought back the slippery and graceful style that has lasted for nearly a hundred years, and he doesn't know the so-called literary style. Let the literature of the Song Dynasty rise to a peak comparable to the Han and Tang dynasties!

But perhaps, this classic moment is not in 1057, but as early as around 1013, when this person was only five or six years old.

This person, like Fan Zhongyan, lost his father at the age of 3. But luckily he had a good uncle who took care of them all the time. Although he is poor, he has no worries about food and clothing, and he has been studying since he was a child. There is a rich and courteous neighbor in his hometown. The eldest son, Li Yanfu, was his lifelong friend. The Li family has a large collection of books, and he can borrow them at will. One day when he was five or six years old, he happened to find a broken basket in the attic of the Li family, which was covered with dust, and a corner of the scroll was faintly exposed. Wipe the dust, and the title of the book is revealed. The child was stunned: "The Collected Works of Mr. Han Changli" turned out to be Han Yu of the decline of the eight generations!

It's a great opportunity. When he was a child, before he was completely frozen in his spiritual sense by the imperial examination, he knew that there were still such majestic and heavy articles in the world, so that he would never forget it all his life, and finally promoted the ancient literature movement of the Song Dynasty!

This person's surname is Ouyang, his name is Xiu, and his name is Uncle Yong. It is the great master of the Tang Dynasty Han Liu, the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, and the eight masters of the Tang and Song dynasties.

The happiest person in the world is the emperor, and the emperor favors his crown prince the most. This should be a universal truth. But that's fake, there is also a sentence called "Heavenly father and son have no family affection" for Zhao Zhen's first marriage, which has his dream memories and emotional pain from the folk. The reason lies in his 'mother' Liu E.

Empress Dowager Liu was very strict with her "son". Although she was adopted, she didn't bother to mess with children all day long, she had so many national affairs to worry about. In the depths of Zhao Zhen's heart, the 'mother' who made him feel warm was Concubine Yang. In history, Liu E said to Zhao Zhen "not to fake the color", that is, this 'son' has never even seen her smiling face. Zhao Zhen is sick and wants to eat seafood. Liu E knew that she was going to do it, but she didn't give it. In the end, Yang couldn't see it, so he quietly made some for the little emperor to eat, and lamented "Why did the queen mother abuse my son like this"

Now Zhao Zhen is the emperor, but he can't even keep the person he loves, and he sees her being taken away...

Zhao Zhen's first love was a folk woman, the daughter of the great squire Wang Mengzheng. It is said that this girl surnamed Wang is beautiful, delicate and gentle. Zhao Zhen, who has been constrained by rigid etiquette since she was a child, fell in love with her deeply and took her for granted. Because of her, the little emperor suppressed his fear for many years and confessed his heart to his mother: I want to marry her. But Liu E sternly refused. The reason is that this girl is "too charming, I am afraid that it is not conducive to the young master" and immediately drove Wang Mengzheng's daughter out of the palace. Zhao Zhen was sad, but helpless... But what happened next made him sad and angry, and he couldn't bear it.

Liu E actually married his sweetheart out of Lu immediately, and the husband she chose was actually Liu Congde, the eldest son of her ex-husband Liu Mei! I can't bear it, but I have to endure it. (To be continued......)