If it weren't for the fact that he wrote "The Wanderer's Song" for his mother at the age of 50 and constantly chanted it on modern festivals such as Thanksgiving Day and Mother's Day, the name Meng Jiao might not be well known.
Even though "The Wanderer's Yin" is known to everyone and almost everyone can memorize it, there is not much urge to understand the poet behind it. If he lives in the contemporary era, there is a high probability that he will become a sad singer who is not popular with this kind of singer.
Unfortunately, this situation is the norm for this Tang Dynasty poet during his lifetime and after his death.
Meng Jiao's birth was not illustrious, and his childhood and adolescence were shrouded in the shadow of the Anshi Rebellion. When he was 10 years old, his father died suddenly, leaving his mother alone to raise three children.
Despite the difficulties of life, his mother was resilient and raised them. In this environment, Meng Jiao has had a deep affection for his mother since he was a child, which is why he has "listened to his mother" all his life.
As the eldest son in the family, Meng Jiao was unwilling to let his mother bear the weight of life alone, so he chose to go out to roam in search of fame. However, his journey was not smooth, and his mind changed in the process.
His anxiety about his home and country, as well as his confusion about his personal future, are reflected in his poetry. Although Meng Jiao was confident in his political and literary talents, reality kept hitting him hard.
His life was full of hardship and bitterness, and his poetry was full of tragedy. However, he remains optimistic because he believes that with determination and courage, he can overcome any odds.
Meng Jiao's life and works reflect the social reality and personal destiny of that era. His poetry is not only an expression of his personal experiences and emotions, but also a historical record and reflection of that era.
His life and works have brought us profound inspiration and reflection.
Meng Jiao, a 40-year-old person who went to Beijing to gain fame, his filial piety made him reluctant to leave his mother when he was very old, but this also made him still seek fame and become an official when he was old.
When he was in the capital, he behaved out of shape, didn't know how to socialize, and obviously hadn't seen the world. His poems are full of inferiority and pride, on the one hand, he refuses to lower his noble head, and on the other hand, he weeps and is sad because he has hit walls everywhere.
He had no way out in Chang'an, and his friend was admitted, so he wrote a poem "Congratulations", but he wrote his own complaints, and it is estimated that his friend was speechless when he read it. After falling for the second time, Meng Jiao gave up completely and returned to his hometown.
However, at the age of 46, he went to Beijing three times, this time his mother asked him to go. In the whole world, the only person who can make Meng Jiao change his mind is his mother.
But after winning the Jinshi, Meng Jiao was not nostalgic, but only left traces of a poem to express his ecstasy. Although poetry critics have criticized his poem, Meng Jiao's original intention may have gone beyond the triumphant ecstasy understood by later generations, but has an empty sense of sadness.
His life is too difficult, and the more he lives, the harder it becomes.
It has been four years since Meng Jiao reappeared in front of the world. According to his cousin Meng Jian, 50-year-old Meng Jiao came out to be an official because of his mother's order.
The official position granted to Meng Jiao by the imperial court was the lieutenant of Liyang County, which was the same position as the position his father had done during his lifetime. The main ** of a county in the Tang Dynasty was the county order, the county officer, the main book, the county lieutenant, etc., the county lieutenant was equivalent to the four in command, responsible for the implementation of specific government affairs, and the affairs were cumbersome.
After Meng Jiao took office in Liyang, the first thing he did was to take his mother Pei from his hometown to live with him. This is the well-known "The Wanderer's Yin": the line in the mother's hand, and the wanderer's shirt.
Before leaving, I am afraid that I will return late. Whoever says an inch is careless, and he will be rewarded with three springs. Meng Jiao's mother is a kind and virtuous, resolute and resolute woman, she not only raised Meng Jiao and gave all her maternal love, but also became her son's spiritual pillar and motivation**.
Meng Jiao is more than half a hundred years old, and he finally has the ability to take his mother to the place of work to live together, but how can he repay the heart of the grass for the glory of Sanchun? This poem is good because Meng Jiao uses the most simple language to write the shocking power of maternal love.
Song Changbai, a Qing man, said that Meng Jiao's "Wanderer's Yin" is full of words and meanings, which is enough to pass on to the world with Li Shen's poem "Hoe He Day Noon". However, Meng Jiao was not happy to be an official in Liyang.
Although he trembled, "he was afraid of being drunk when he was full, and he was as solemn as a fast", after all, he was still not qualified for this job of dealing with tedious affairs every day. It is said that the county magistrate was angry with him because of this, and halved his monthly salary, and Meng Jiao had a harder time.
After about four years, Meng Jiao resigned. Meng Jian said: "Dongye (Meng Jiao) is a captain with his mother's life, and it is appropriate to return with his mother's life." It shows that Meng Jiao traveled and finally became an official on the orders of his mother, and his resignation was also the result of his mother's decision.
The mother may not bear to see her son be so depressed as a county lieutenant, so she persuaded him not to do it. After resigning, 54-year-old Meng Jiao took his family and mother to Luoyang, the eastern capital, where he spent the last and worst decade of his life.
At the age of 56, recommended by Han Yu, Li Ao and other friends, Meng Jiao was engaged in water and land transportation and tried to cooperate with the lawyer. As soon as I heard it, it was very suitable for Meng Jiao's idleness, so Meng Jiao also had a relatively peaceful life.
But just a year later, the ensuing grief of losing a son and a mother almost destroyed Meng Jiao's mind and body in five years. According to Han Yu, Meng Jiao, who was sixty years old, lost three sons in a row, resulting in no queen and a bleak evening.
Some historians have verified that all four sons in Meng Jiao's life died young, and the eldest only lived to be a teenager. It can be imagined how painful Meng Jiao was. Seeing that the buds of the apricot trees were knocked off one by one after a severe frost in early spring, he wrote "Nine Songs of Apricot Death" to mourn his son's early death, which was really bloody.
I recorded two of them: the month of the child's birth is unknown, and the moon of the child's death is the beginning of the light. The child and the moon take each other, and the child's life is not long. How this Yingying is also hanging the firmament. Willing to fall into the dust, not for the end of the world.
Here I have seen a disaster, and the flowers are not harmonious. The poor old man reaps broken hearts, and the eternal night embraces his arms. Not to mention the sound of death, there is no need to die. The sick man has no children and grandchildren, and he is as independent as a bundle of firewood. The former song said that his son was restrained by the moonlight, so his life was not long.
An old poet who has been beaten hard may only use the mandate of heaven to paralyze himself. The latter poem says that his son is dead, and he, a sick, skinny old man, will have no queen.
In ancient times, the queen was definitely the most conical sting of a person.
Gift to Mengjiao" A thousand years ago, the poetry of the saint Mengjiao, a thousand years after his death, was praised and criticized, and was despised and ridiculed by the world. Since the late Tang Dynasty, Sikong Tu has accused Meng Jiao's poems of being boring, and most of the poetry critics of the past dynasties are not optimistic about his poems and have harsh comments, such as Yan Yu said that his poems are "insects and grasses", Weng Fanggang said that his poems are "flies chirping in the earthworms", Su Shi likes open-minded people, and thinks that Meng Jiao's poems are "cold insects", and Yuan Haowen named him a "poetry prisoner".
People always have a good impression of poets with the title of "poetry", such as "poet immortal", "poet saint", etc., but they do not know that "poetry prisoner" is a kind of derogation. In fact, Meng Jiao's poems are about his personal sorrow, isn't it the common sorrow of mankind?
In the era when Meng Jiao grew up, Tang poetry alternated between the old and the new, during the calendar year, the great poet of the Tang Dynasty had passed away, and the leader of the Tang Dynasty had not yet been born.
He influenced Han Yu, and the poetry of the Tang Dynasty formed a new style. He has never been limited to personal misery and suffering, his poetry is wide-ranging, caring for the people at the bottom, and profoundly exposing the social atmosphere.
Like Du Fu, he suffered, but he had the power to criticize reality, which is worthy of tribute from future generations. Really, Meng Jiao is a seriously underrated poet. We should not misunderstand and ignore him, but remember his name, his suffering, his perseverance, his sharpness, and everything about him.