杨万里的一生行迹（1127-1206）
杨万里（1127-1206），字廷秀，号诚斋，吉州吉水（今江西吉水）人，南宋诗人。绍兴二十四年进士，官至宝谟阁直学士。其诗自创"诚斋体"，以浅语写深意、以活法破定法，风格活泼诙谐，与陆游、范成大、尤袤并称南宋四大家。
吉水（1127） · 吉水少年
宋高宗建炎元年（1127年），杨万里出生于吉州吉水（今江西吉水）一个教书先生之家。父亲杨芾以教书为业，家贫而好学。万里自幼受父教诲，习诗赋、读经史，在吉水乡间度过少年时代。建炎年间金兵南侵，江西亦遭兵燹，少年杨万里目睹国难，立下恢复之志。
临安（1154） · 临安入仕
宋高宗绍兴二十四年（1154年），杨万里登进士第，授赣州司户参军。后入临安任国子监博士、太子侍读等清要之职。在临安，他与陆游、范成大、尤袤等人交游唱和，南宋四大家齐聚京师，诗坛一时极盛。
赣州（1155） · 临安入仕
宋高宗绍兴二十五年（1155年），杨万里赴赣州任司户参军，掌管户籍赋税。赣州地接岭南，民风淳朴而事繁。他在赣州勤于政务，深入民间了解百姓疾苦，同时以赣州山水入诗，写下不少清新的山水之作。
常州（1174） · 常州外任
宋孝宗淳熙元年（1174年），杨万里出知常州（今江苏常州）。在常州任上，他关心农事，减赋恤民，政声颇佳。公务之余，他游历太湖、茅山，写下大量田园山水诗，诚斋体在常州时期渐趋成熟，"活法"诗学理论也在此时系统化。
建康（1184） · 常州外任
宋孝宗淳熙十一年（1184年），杨万里任江东转运副使，驻建康（今江苏南京）。建康为六朝古都，长江天堑，他在建康登临石头城、览钟山形胜，感慨六朝兴亡。他在江东任上推行惠政，修筑圩田，深受百姓称颂。
潮州（1190） · 广东提刑
宋光宗绍熙元年（1190年），杨万里以直秘阁出知筠州，后迁广东提点刑狱。在广东任上，他深入岭南各地巡察刑狱，途经潮州、惠州等地，目睹瘴疠之地的民生疾苦，以诗记之。韩愈曾贬潮州，万里至此，览韩公遗迹，感慨系之。
临安（1194） · 临安入仕
宋光宗绍熙五年（1194年），杨万里召入临安为秘书监。他屡次上书论恢复，反对韩侂胄贸然北伐的"开禧北伐"计划，认为准备不足、仓促出兵必败。然而韩侂胄一意孤行，万里愤而辞官归乡，从此绝意仕进。
吉水（1206） · 吉水归老
宋宁宗开禧二年（1206年），杨万里在家乡吉水病逝，享年八十岁。归老吉水十余年间，他杜门谢客，手不释卷，日日赋诗，焚改不休。临终前闻韩侂胄北伐兵败，忧愤成疾，执笔书"吾死亦足"而卒。
The Life Journey of Yang Wanli, the Master of Living Method
Yang Wanli (1127-1206), of Jishui, born in the year the Song lost the north, was the sunniest of the 'Four Masters of the Southern Song' — inventor of the 'Chengzhai manner': quick eyes, living language, the small scene caught mid-motion. 'The little lotus bud shows its sharp corner; the dragonfly has already taken its stand.' He burned ten thousand of his own early 'Jiangxi-school' poems to learn to see — and after opposing the Kaixi war in vain, died writing 'My death too is enough.'
Timeline of the Journey
- 1127 · Jishui — Born to a village schoolmaster in the year of the northern catastrophe: books in a poor house, the Jurchen invasions in childhood memory — the two poles of his whole life.
- 1154 · Lin'an — Jinshi at twenty-seven: household officer at Ganzhou, then the capital's clean and easy posts — and the circle of Lu You, Fan Chengda and You Mao: the Four Masters together in one city.
- 1155 · Ganzhou — Registers and taxes at Ganzhou on the Lingnan edge: the peasants' troubles learned from the inside, the first light landscapes begun.
- 1174 · Changzhou — Governor of Changzhou: taxes eased, the people pleased — and the Taihu lake, Maoshan, the farm poems: the Chengzhai manner maturing here, the 'living method' at work on everything green.
- 1184 · Jiankang — Vice-commissioner of transport for Jiangdong at Jiankang: the Stone City climbed, the six dynasties weighed — and polder-dikes built for the farmers of the river country.
- 1190 · Chaozhou — Judicial commissioner of Guangdong: the circuits of Lingnan through miasma country, the jails inspected, the poverty recorded — and at Chaozhou the traces of Han Yu himself, a thousand years earlier, to measure himself against.
- 1194 · Lin'an — Called to the palace library: memorials against Han Tuozhou's rushed northern war — ignored. He resigned for good, no more office, twenty years of writing left.
- 1206 · Jishui — The war failed as he had said it would: the old man took the news, fell ill, wrote 'My death too is enough,' and died at eighty — the dynasty's cheerfulest poet, its sternest Cassandra.
'The ten-thousand mountains will not let one stream run — but the stream, having won its way through, at last sounds triumphant in the plain.' Yang Wanli's own image: small, bright, unstoppable.
