王昌龄的一生行迹（698-756）
王昌龄（698-756），字少伯，京兆万年（今陕西西安）人，盛唐著名边塞诗人。开元十五年进士及第，历任汜水尉、江宁丞，后贬龙标尉，世称"王龙标"。其七绝成就极高，后人誉为"七绝圣手"，安史乱中为濠州刺史闾丘晓所杀。
京兆（698） · 少年耕读
武则天圣历元年（698年），王昌龄出生于京兆万年（今陕西西安）一户农家。他少年时在家乡一边耕读一边习文，清苦的家境磨炼了他的意志，关中雄浑的风土孕育了他日后边塞诗的豪放气象。
嵩山（718） · 少年耕读
唐玄宗开元六年（718年）前后，年方二十的王昌龄离开家乡，赴嵩山一带隐居学道。他栖身岩穴，采药读书，在山中清修数年，这段经历为他日后的诗歌注入了飘逸出尘的仙气。
凉州（722） · 塞外壮游
唐玄宗开元十年（722年）前后，王昌龄西出长安，漫游河陇，抵达凉州（今甘肃武威）。河西走廊的雄奇风光与军中生活激发了他的创作豪情，一批气象雄浑的边塞诗在此间问世。
玉门关（723） · 塞外壮游
唐玄宗开元十一年（723年）前后，王昌龄继续西行，足迹远至玉门关外。大漠孤城、关山明月令他心潮澎湃，《出塞》等千古绝唱即酝酿于这趟西行壮游之中。
长安（727） · 科场仕宦
唐玄宗开元十五年（727年），王昌龄结束塞外漫游，赴长安应进士试，一举登第，授秘书省校书郎。同年登第的还有常建等人，王昌龄的诗名自此传遍京师。
汜水（731） · 科场仕宦
唐玄宗开元十九年（731年），王昌龄应博学宏词科登第，迁汜水县尉。汜水地处黄河南岸、虎牢关侧，自古为兵家必争之地。他在此任职数年，诗酒之余常凭吊楚汉古战场。
江宁（736） · 江南贬谪
唐玄宗开元二十四年（736年）前后，王昌龄因"不护细行"获罪，由汜水尉左迁江宁县丞，自此世称"王江宁"。江南的烟雨青山虽美，却难解他遭贬的郁结，送别诗成为他此期创作的主流。
龙标（749） · 龙标谪居
唐玄宗天宝八载（749年），王昌龄再因"不护细行"之罪，由江宁丞远贬龙标县尉，世称"王龙标"。龙标地处湘西五溪蛮地，荒远瘴疠，诗人跋涉数千里赴任，心境悲凉至极。
濠州（756） · 龙标谪居
唐肃宗至德元载（756年），安史之乱烽火遍地，年近花甲的王昌龄离龙标北归，途经濠州（今安徽凤阳），为濠州刺史闾丘晓所忌，竟遭杀害。一代诗宗殒命乱世，天下痛惜。
The Life Journey of Wang Changling, Master of the Quatrain
Wang Changling (c. 698-756), of the capital region, was the 'Sage of the Seven-Character Quatrain,' the 'Master-Teacher of Poets.' He took the frontier into the quatrain and made it permanent — 'the Qin moon, the Han passes' — then spent his official life falling: from palace library to a river county, from Jiangning to exile at Longbiao in the far west. When the An Lushan chaos broke he started home and was murdered by a jealous prefect: the master of the border poem dying by an official's hand.
Timeline of the Journey
- 698 · Jingzhao — Farm-house boy of the capital region: plough and books together, the Guanzhong plain's hard weather already in his blood and later his verse.
- 718 · Mount Song — Early manhood as a Daoist recluse among the peaks: herbs, meditation, the unworldly air his frontier poems never quite lost.
- 722 · Liangzhou — West along the Hexi corridor to the garrison country: the first great border quatrains, cavalry dust and moonlight, written from the armies themselves.
- 723 · Yumen Pass — Out past the Jade Gate: 'the Qin moon and the Han passes, the long march of ten thousand miles' — Out of the Pass distilled from the very waste it describes.
- 727 · Chang'an — The jinshi examination passed at last, collator in the Palace Library; the name already on every tongue in the capital.
- 731 · Sishui — Through the erudite-words examination to a lieutenancy on the Yellow River by Hulao Pass — wine and meditations on the Chu-Han battlefields.
- 736 · Jiangning — Demoted for 'loose conduct': assistant magistrate at Jiangning, and the permanent byname 'Wang Jiangning.' The southern rains turned his hand to farewell.
- 749 · Longbiao — The second fall, a thousand li deeper — county defender at Longbiao in the Five-Streams country. Li Bai's poem flew after him: 'I hear you banished to Longbiao; the cuckoo cries through the flowers.'
- 756 · Haozhou — The empire breaking, the old poet leaving Longbiao for home — killed at Haozhou by the prefect Luqiu Xiao. All the world of letters wept.
'A heart of ice in a cup of jade.' The frontier's supreme technician and the farewell's truest voice — Wang Changling wrote the shortest poems of his age, and the age never finished them.
