Xin Qiji (1140-1207) was born in Licheng (now Jinan, Shandong). He was fifteen years younger than Lu You, and when he was born, the north had fallen into the hands of jurchen. Although his grandfather Xin Zan worked in the State of Jin, he always hoped to have the opportunity to "throw the shelf to relieve your father's anger" and often took Xin Qiji to "climb high and look far, point out the mountains and rivers" ("Ten Theories on Mei Qin"). At the same time, Xin Qiji also witnessed the humiliation and pain suffered by the Han people under the rule of Jurchen, which made him make great achievements in restoring the Central Plains in his youth. On the other hand, because Xin Qiji grew up in the north under the rule of Jin people, there was less traditional culture and education that people blindly followed the rules, and he had a chivalrous spirit.
In the thirty-first year of Shaoxing (1 16 1), Yan Liang, the gold owner, invaded the south on a large scale, and the Han people behind him rose up because they could not bear the harsh oppression of the Jin people. Twenty-two-year-old Xin Qiji also gathered 2,000 people to join the huge rebel army led by Geng Jing and served as secretary. When the internal contradictions among the Jin people broke out, Wan Yanliang was killed by his subordinates at the front line, and the Jin army retreated northward. In the thirty-second year of Shaoxing (1 162), Xin Qiji was ordered to contact the court of the Southern Song Dynasty. On his way back from his mission, he heard that Geng Jing was killed by the traitor Zhang Anguo, and the rebel army was dissolved. He led more than 50 people to attack the enemy camp, took the traitor back to Jiankang and handed it over to the Southern Song Dynasty court for execution. Xin Qiji's amazing courage and decisiveness made him famous for a while. "Cowards rise for it, and the Emperor of Heaven sighs for it" (Hong Mai's Jia). Song Gaozong appointed him to sign a judgment in Jiangyin, and started his career in the Southern Song Dynasty. At this time, he was only 23 years old.
When Xin Qiji first came to the south, he didn't understand the cowardice and cowardice of the imperial court. In addition, Song Gaozong and Zhao Gou both praised his heroic behavior, and Song Xiaozong, who soon acceded to the throne, also showed the spirit of regaining lost ground and avenging. Therefore, in the first period of his tenure in the Southern Song Dynasty, he enthusiastically wrote many suggestions to resist the Northern Expedition of the Jin Dynasty, such as the famous Ten Treatises of Meiqin and Nine Treatises. Although these suggestions were praised and widely circulated at that time, the imperial court, which was unwilling to fight again, was indifferent. It was only interested in Xin Qiji's practical ability in the proposal, so it sent him to Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan and other places to hold important local offices to control famine and rectify public order. This is obviously quite different from Xin Qiji's ideal. Although he did a good job, he felt more and more depressed and miserable because he deeply felt that time was flying, life was short and his ambition was hard to pay.
However, the reality is harsh for Xin Qiji. Although he has excellent talents, his heroic and stubborn personality and persistent enthusiasm for the Northern Expedition make it difficult for him to stand on the officialdom of being timid, smooth and jealous of talents. He also realized that he was "just clumsy and confident, and he was not accepted by everyone for many years" ("On the Thief Zazi"), so he was ready to retire and built a garden pavilion by the lake in Shangrao, Jiangxi Province, so that he could settle down after leaving his job. Sure enough, in the winter of the eighth year of Xichun (1 18 1), when Xin Qiji was 42 years old, he was dismissed from office because of impeachment and returned to Shangrao. For the next 20 years, he spent most of his time in the countryside, except for being a prison and a peace messenger in Fujian every two years.
Xin Qiji has always praised the hermit who is arrogant in the mountains, and living in the countryside is not coincidental with his outlook on life; Moreover, because of his past position, he can live a very luxurious life. But as a hot-blooded man and a man of the hour, he was forced to leave politics when he was in his prime, which made him unbearable. Therefore, he often enjoys the pastoral scenery and its quiet interest, while constantly surging inside, sometimes excited by his own life ideal, sometimes angry and depressed by the ruthlessness of reality, and sometimes forced himself to comfort himself and make broad-minded thoughts, and spent the rest of his life in this emotional ups and downs.
"It's a pity that it happened in vain to get rid of worldly affairs and win fame for Wang after his death" (Broken Array) and "I exchanged ten thousand words for my master to plant trees" (Partridge Sky), which buried his deep affection. In the third year of Jiatai (1203), Han Biaozhou, who advocated the Northern Expedition, began to use leading figures. At the age of 64, Xin Qiji was appointed as the magistrate of Shaoxing and the messenger of peace in eastern Zhejiang, which inspired the spirit of the older generation of poets. In the second year, he met Song Ningzong, enthusiastically and generously said that Xu Jinguo "will be chaotic and will die" ("Inflammation Miscellaneous Notes since the establishment of the ruling and opposition party B"), and personally went to work in Zhenjiang front.
However, he suffered a heavy blow again, and was forced to leave his job under the blows of some admonishers, and returned to his hometown in the first year of the jubilee (1205). Although he has been called to work in the last two years, he is old and sick and weak. Finally, he died suddenly in the autumn of Kathy's third year.
Although, since the fall of the Central Plains, expressing grief and indignation over national humiliation and expressing enthusiasm for serving the country has become the central theme of literature, Xin Qiji's ci still has unique brilliance in it. This is not only because Xin Qiji grew up in the north ravaged by other nationalities, and his desire to restore his homeland is stronger than that of ordinary literati, but also because he actively seeks the glory of his personal life while undertaking the national mission, and shows an irresistible heroism in his words.
When Xin Qiji's ci expresses his ambition to serve the country, he often shows the soldiers' heroic and confident mood, such as "to pull the waves of the Milky Way and wash the sand in the northwest" ("Tune the Song of Water"), "When Marco Polo is buried, you should swear that moths will not sink" ("Man Jiang Hong") and "When people die, their hearts are as iron. See how to try to mend the sky "("He Xinlang ").
Wait, they are full of pride, and they are angry about bullfighting. For those who have the same courage to serve their country, he sincerely praises and encourages each other with one voice. For example, the impassioned "Shui Long Yin Chen Jiashou Han Nan Jian Shang Shu" is completely different from ordinary vulgar birthday speeches:
How many people really know how to cross the river and come from the south? Chang 'an elders, the scenery of the new pavilion, are as poor as ever. How many times did you look back when you were on land? Do you know that Wan Li's fame and fortune are true Confucianism? There is an article about hitting mountains, all of which are sunny days with children's voices. When I fell to the ground, now I try, and the situation is running.
The wind and smoke in the green fields, the vegetation in Pingquan and the wine singing in Dongshan. I will rectify Kun's work and celebrate her husband's birthday next year.
Xin Qiji has an instinctive aversion to vulgar and smooth bureaucrats who do nothing in the face of national peril. In Millennium Tune, he outlined the ugliness of such characters: "Give people a drink, then pour it first. The most important thing is to make cocoa, and everything is fine. "
However, it is such people who are full of officialdom, hold power and embark on a road of stealing peace. He wrote angrily: "General Lee won herma forever. Cai Li is the next person, but he is a seal. " ("Operator")
When Xin Qiji led a few troops across the battlefield and came to the south, he was full of blood and eager to show his grand plan. Unexpectedly, he fell into a mediocre situation, which made him feel unbearable depression and indignation. In the 12th year of Nangui, when he revisited Nangui's first stop, Jiankang, he wrote the famous "Shui Long Yin Deng Jiankang Happy Pavilion":
In autumn, the south is empty and desolate, the river flows with the sky, and autumn is even more boundless. Seeing the mountains in the distance will only cause me sadness and resentment at the end of the country. These mountains are like a hairpin and a spiral coil on a woman's head. The sun in the west leans against this floor, and geese are barking in the distant sky. I am wandering in the south of the Yangtze River, homesick for a wanderer. I saw Wu Gou and made a column, but no one would attend. Don't say that the bass is ugly. Zephyr and Jiying haven't come back yet? People like Xu Si who only buy land for themselves should be ashamed to see Liu Bei who is brilliant and complete in these two aspects. Unfortunately, time passes like running water. I'm really worried about the country's ups and downs. As Huan Wen said, the trees have grown so much! Who is money, calling for red scarf and green sleeves, calling for heroes.
This is the sorrow of broken mountains and rivers, and the sorrow of empty ambition; Time goes by mercilessly, and it is even more shocking because of this sadness. However, even if the poet writes about his loneliness and sadness, his pain and tears, we can still see his unsinkable heroism. Until he became the magistrate of Zhenjiang in his later years, his book "Yong Yu Le Jing Kou Gu Bei Ting Nostalgia" was still full of sighs, recalling his fighting career when he was young, and expressing his heroic feelings that he was unwilling to get old and still had much to do:
I have been back to the south for forty-three years, and I still remember the war scenes in Yangzhou. Looking back, there was a crow club drum under the beaver temple. Who can ask: Lian Po is too old to eat?
This heroic nature, which can never spend a lifetime in mediocrity, has been shining in Xin Qiji's words along with his life. It played the strongest sound of Song Ci.
On the other hand, the helpless situation and the same helpless mentality make Xin Qiji, like Lu You, have to seek ways to relieve his depression in rural life. He was deeply influenced by Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts. He once said, "If you write a number of books on a case, you will be Laozi" ("Calling the Emperor Grace"). The philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi made him temporarily forget the troubles of the world, get close to nature and daily life, and felt and expressed the philosophy and beauty contained in "one valley and one mountain" in his poems. However, due to the differences in personality and aesthetic taste, his ci works are not as simple and elegant as Lu You's poems, but fresh and beautiful, lively and agile. For example, Qingpingle describes the mood of farm life:
The thatched roof of the hut is low and small, and the stream is covered with green grass. Drunk Wu local drunk, gentle voice, white-haired old man who is it? The eldest son is hoeing bean creek in the east, and the second son is knitting a chicken coop. He likes children scoundrels best, lying at the head of the stream peeling lotus flowers.
"Xijiang Yue Jixing" is about his own life;
It takes time to worry. Recently, I began to feel that I don't believe anything in ancient books. Matsumoto was drunk last night and asked Matsumoto, "How drunk am I?" . I only suspected that I was here to help her, so I pushed her with my hand and said "Go".
However, this word does not mean that Xin Qiji's grief and indignation changes with his age and leisure life. This is only a temporary forgetfulness, but also another manifestation of grief and indignation. Just read the famous "ugly slave, the middle wall of the mountain road" and you will know:
Teenagers don't know the taste of sorrow and fall in love with the floor. Fall in love with the floor and worry about adding new words. Now that I know what it's like to worry, I want to talk about it. I want to say I'd better have a rest, but I said it's cold and autumn.
It is precisely because he has experienced many vicissitudes of life, accumulated too much depression, and knows the helplessness of life, so he "wants to talk about it." He can only seek shelter for his feelings and soothe his wounded heart in the quiet countryside, which is what a hero has to do in a mediocre society. Only by understanding this point can we understand Xin Qiji's true mentality in writing such words.