Huang Tingjian · From Copying to Creation

Author: Sun Jiagu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Huang Tingjian (1045–1105), a Northern Song Dynasty poet and calligrapher. His courtesy name was Luzhi, and his sobriquets were Shanshan and Foweng. He was from Fengzhou Fennin (now Xiushui, Jiangxi). His father, Huang Shu, was a poet who specialized in learning from Du Fu, and his uncle, Li Chang, was a book collector. Huang Tingjian was eager to learn from a young age and. In the fourth year of the Jingzong reign (1067), he passed the imperial examination and became a jinshi. During the Xining period of Emperor Shenzong, Huang Tingjian successively served as the county magistrate of Ye County in Ruyang (now part of Henan) and the professor of the Guozijian in Beijing (now Daming, Hebei). In the third year of the Yuanfeng era (1080), he became the magistrate of Tahe County in Jizhou (now part of Jiangxi), where he implemented clear and simple policies. In the seventh year, he was transferred to supervise Deping Town in Dezhou. During the Yuan period, he entered the capital to compile the "Shenzong Shilu" (Veritable Records of Emperor Shenzong). During this time, Su Shi served as the chief examiner and appointed Huang Tingjian as an assistant. After the "Shilu" was completed, Huang Tingjian was promoted to the position of Jushi. During the Shaosheng era, the New Party members, such as Zhang Chu and Cai Bian, came to power and persecuted the old officials of the Yuan period. Huang Tingjian was accused of falsely compiling the "Shilu" and was demoted to the position of Biejiao in Fuzhou (now Fuling, Sichuan) and placed under house arrest in Qianzhou (now Pengshui, Sichuan). Later, he was moved to Rongzhou (now Yibin, Sichuan). When Emperor Huizong ascended the throne, he was ordered to move to a more central location, but due to the suppression by Zhao Tingzhi, he was stripped of his official position and exiled to Yizhou (now Yishan, Guangxi), where he died. Huang Tingjian was the leader of the "Four Scholars of Su's School." His political stance was similar to that of Su Shi. He was not highly supportive of Wang Anshi's reforms but cared about national affairs and showed sympathy for the people. He was ambitious, insightful, and had high moral standards. His poems "A Man of Great Ambition Should Have an Open Mind" and "This Year I Am Poor to the Bone, Yet My Spirit Remains Unyielding" (from "Responding to Yang Mingshu's Farewell") can be seen as self-portraits of him. He faced adversity with equanimity, content with poverty and humility, and remained calm in the face of gains and losses ("He did not let success or failure disturb his peace," as recorded in "Biography of Master Yu"). Throughout his life, he was deeply influenced by Confucian thought and was also deeply immersed in Zen Buddhism. In his letter to Hong Jufu, he wrote: "It is difficult to speak in one's own words; Du Fu's poems and Han Yu's essays have no word without origin." He also said, "Although we borrow from the old, we can transform them like a single grain of spiritual elixir turning iron into gold." The "Collected Conversations of Lengzhai" also records Huang Tingjian's "Method of Replacing the Fetus and Transforming the Skeleton," which was revered by the Jiangxi Poetry School as the "principle of creation" and had a negative impact on later writers. In reality, the "theory of replacing the fetus and transforming the skeleton" does not appear in Huang Tingjian's works and may not have been a significant aspect of his poetic theory. In a letter discussing the "transformation of iron into gold," he also said, "Every piece of writing must have a theme and interest," meaning it must have its own purpose; he also said, "The ancient writers who excelled in literature could truly refine all things." Because the author has a clear purpose, even when borrowing from the old, it is only used as material for refinement. Therefore, his literary theory does not neglect the social role of literature and believed that writing should "aim for greatness and act with purpose" (from "Preface to Wang Dingguo's Collected Works"). For this reason, he admired Du Fu's poems for "presenting current affairs" (as quoted in "Pan Zishen's Poetic Discourse"). Regarding the relationship between principle and expression, he affirmed that "principle should be the main focus, and when the principle is right, the expression will follow" (from "Letter to Wang Guanfu"). He also believed that "poetry reflects a person's nature and emotions" (from "Afterword to Wang Zhizai's Poems on Qushan") and "writing is the reflection of the heart; it has no trace through the ages" (from "Letter to Chao Yuanzhong"). Huang Tingjian also said, "Favoring extraordinary language is a flaw in writing," and "without the marks of a chisel, it is truly excellent" (from "Letter to Wang Guanfu"). He advocated "writing poetry to express the heart, using plain language without ornamentation" (from "Responding to Dingguo's News of Su Shi's Illness in Jixi") and "unadorned and always natural" (from "Afterword to Su Li's Painting of a Withered Pine and a Taoist Priest"). These views naturally influenced his creative practice. Huang Tingjian had the famous saying, "Writing must not follow others" (from "Gift to Xie Cheng and Wang Boyu") and "Only by forming one's own style can one truly excel" (from "Afterword to the 'Leyi Lü'"). He was determined to create a unique poetic style and ultimately stood out with his distinctive poetry, being praised alongside Su Shi as "Su Huang." He was later revered as the founder of the Jiangxi Poetry School. He wrote over 1,500 poems, rich in content. Huang Tingjian was concerned with reality and deeply sympathetic to the suffering of the people. In his early years, he wrote the famous "Lament for the Displaced," and while serving as the magistrate of Tahe, he deeply explored the mountains to visit the local farmers, writing poems like "On the Great Mengling" and "Entering the Laboring Pit to the Front City" that truly depicted the suffering of the people. He lamented, "When the people suffer, I suffer too," and proposed the wishes, "When the year is bountiful, the villages need no tax collectors" (from "Responding to Yin'an") and "May the widowed and orphaned have no sorrow" (from "Presenting Zhang Shuhe"). He highly praised his friend's virtue of "not using the people as stepping stones and being without shame" (from "Letter to Li Ciyong"). Huang Tingjian also wrote patriotic poems that focused on national defense, such as "Responding to the News of the Battle at Taohé" and "Responding to the Triple Victories Reported by You." "Sending Fan Degu to Serve as the Magistrate of Qingzhou" and "Responding to Ji Linji's Administrative Affairs" encouraged friends to contribute their talents to defending the borders with fervent passion. Huang Tingjian's poems often revealed his extraordinary insights and broad-mindedness. In the late Northern Song Dynasty, factional struggles were intense and chaotic, and Huang Tingjian was also involved, suffering greatly. Yet, he transcended factionalism and viewed issues more objectively. In poems like "Responding to Ziyong's Recovery in Jixi," "Responding Again to Xu Tianyin," and "After Recovering from Illness at Jingjiang Pavilion," he addressed the biases of factional struggles, proposing valuable insights such as "Talent includes both the new and the old, and the king's measure should be both lenient and severe," "Openly accept all sides, and the imperial order will be maintained," and "It is not necessary to be under my tutelage; using talent is the ultimate fairness." Although his political rise and fall were tied to the Yuan period officials, in poems like "Responding to Wang Jinggong's Inscription on the West Taiyi Temple" and "Reflecting on the Elder of Ban Mountain," he gave fair evaluations of Wang Anshi's character and the New Learning. His lyrical poems, such as "Zhuge Tian" and "Fisherman," selected from the Ming Dynasty Wanli era edition of "Poetry and Painting in Harmony," reflect his artistic ingenuity and unique personality. His classical poems, such as "Inscription on Bamboo and Stone Pasture" and "Responding to Ziyuan's Poems on Qushan," are renowned for their originality and extraordinary power. His seven-character regulated verse poems, such as "Ascending Kuai Pavilion" (expressing a carefree spirit), "To Huang Jifu" (depicting friendship), "After Recovering from Illness at Jingjiang Pavilion" (commenting on current affairs), "Ascending Yueyang Tower in the Rain and Viewing Junshan" (depicting the beauty of Jiangnan), "Passing Pingyu and Missing Li Zixian" (expressing a longing for home), and "Qingming" (reflecting on the vicissitudes of life), are all profound in thought and rich in emotion, offering aesthetic enjoyment and have been highly praised throughout history. Due to his open-mindedness, profound knowledge, strong skills, and rigorous creative attitude, Huang Tingjian indeed stood out in poetry with a distinct personality. His poems have deep themes, rich in thought, and are worth pondering; their structure is meticulous, with hidden threads, and their beginnings and endings are unexpected; they emphasize refined phrasing, transforming common words into gold, using striking language that surprises, as described by the saying, "Using one matter is like an order in the army, and placing one word is like locking a door" (from "Postscript to Gao Zimen's Poems"). He does not lightly use a single word or phrase; in terms of language, "he stripped away the superficial and revealed the essence, washing away all the trivialities of wind, clouds, moon, and dew, as well as the close-knit and fragrant language" (as recorded in Chen Feng's "Clarifying Doubts"). Huang Tingjian excelled at transforming words and crafting sentences, such as "A cup of wine with peach and plum in spring breeze, ten years of light under the rain in the Jianghuai night" (from "To Huang Jifu"), "The heart is not yet dead in the cup, the spring cannot turn the face in the mirror" (from "Responding to Liu Tongshuo's Letter to Wang Wentong"), "Fish swim through the world, birds speak of Zen" (from "Responding Again to's Recovery and Relief from Boredom"), and "A graceful young gentleman, ruling with green windows" (from "Ode to Bamboo"). These are all strikingly crafted lines. Huang Tingjian developed and extensively used the style of oblique and irregular verse and regulated verse, which Du Fu and Han Yu occasionally employed, using unusual tones and transformed methods to make the poetic style rugged and upright. For example, "Returning is the life of wine and fishing nets, the flowers fall deeper in the stream" (from "Passing Pingyu and Missing Li Zixian"), and "I love the stone very much, do not let the ox sharpen its horns, the ox sharpening its horns is acceptable, but the ox fighting will damage my bamboo" (from "Inscription on Bamboo and Stone Pasture"). This is truly "an extraordinary vigor that permeates the meaning" (as recorded in Liu Ke's "Collected Conversations on Seclusion"). These poetic techniques of avoiding the familiar and seeking the novel, innovating and being extraordinary, corrected the smooth and exquisite style of the late Tang and Western Xia, forming a unique poetic style with a focus on lean, hard, and sharp features, while also incorporating the old, simple, and profound. Fang Dongshu praised it as "extraordinary brushwork and vigor, outstanding lines and high realms, forming one's own style" (from "Zhao Mei's Discourses on Poetry" Volume 10). Huang Tingjian's "Zhu Shangzuo Tie" (Calligraphy of the Venerable of the Assembly) Huang Tingjian's Ci [Zhuge Tian] "Fisherman" illustration selected from the Ming Dynasty Wanli era edition of "Poetry and Painting in Harmony" However, Huang Tingjian's life experiences were limited, and he focused too much on techniques, emphasizing that words should have origins and striving to make the old new. "It is better to have a disharmonious rhythm than a weak sentence, and better to have unrefined words than vulgar language" (from "Afterword to Yi Ke's Poems"). This inevitably led to obscure and rigid writing, and some followers who imitated him "did not first gain his strengths but first gained his weaknesses" (from "Poetic Discourses of the Cold Winter Hall"). This caused dissatisfaction and criticism of the Jiangxi poetic style. Wang Ruoyu said, "Huang Tingjian's poems have the extraordinary but not the marvelous, the abrupt but not the unrestrained, the display of learning as richness, and the transformation of the stale as novelty, but there is insufficient that is naturally born and flows from the heart. This is why he strove to follow Su Shi but fell short!" (from "Poetic Discourses of Huna"). This critique of the shortcomings of Huang Tingjian's poetry is quite fair. Huang Tingjian's Ci, unlike his poems, were not as rigorous or deliberate. There are about 180 Ci preserved, with uneven artistic refinement. Some works resemble those of Liu Yong, focusing on flower, moon, and romance, some bordering on obscenity, which was quite different from his rarely written love poems. Someone once warned him that writing such Ci could lead to "a tongue-lashing trial" (as recorded in the preface to "Xiao Shan's Collected Works"), reflecting his early Ci style. Another part of his Ci, characterized by looseness and freedom, often had a heroic tone. For example, "Nian Nu Jiao" "Rain after Thunder," "Shui Diao Ge" "How Green the Grass," and "Ding Feng Bo" "A Thousand Leaks in the Middle of Qianzhou" all show a bold and unrestrained personality. "Smoke in the mist, a line of road comes from the past" (from "Qing Yu An" "Smoke in the Mist") all depict the emotions of parting between brothers. Others like "The Sunset on the Frontier Wall, the Wind Rips the Fur Coat" (from "Shui Diao Ge") and "Pacing on the Slope, the Empty Bow Drops a Goose, Thinking of the Frontier Camp" (from "Long Feng Ying") either depict frontier scenery or express the ambition to defend the borders. The language and style are clear, strong, and straightforward, showing the influence of Su Shi. Huang Tingjian was skilled in calligraphy, excelling in running and cursive scripts. Initially, he studied under Zhou Yue, later taking inspiration from Yan Zhenqing and Huai Su, and was particularly influenced by Yang Ningshi, especially the "Burial of the Crane Stele." He achieved success through oblique and daring techniques, creating a unique style. His writings commonly include "Collected Works of Master Yu" (30 volumes, published in "Four Treasures of the Four Libraries"), which includes both poetry and prose, and "Complete Works of Shanshan" (39 volumes, published in "Four Treasures for All Needs"), which only includes poems and essays, annotated by Song Renyuan, Shi Rong, and others. There are also the Qing Tongzhi era reprints of "Complete Works of Shanshan" and the Qianlong Gengzi edition of "Remnants of Master Yu." His poems include "Collected Ci of Master Yu" annotated by Long Yusheng, and research materials include "Huang Tingjian and the Jiangxi Poetry School" compiled by Fu Xuancong.