吕本中的一生行迹（1084-1145）
吕本中，字居仁，号紫微，开封人，南宋诗人、诗论家，江西诗派重要理论家。作《江西诗社宗派图》，首次提出"江西诗派"之名。诗学黄庭坚，主张"活法"，反对死守成规。著有《东莱先生诗集》《紫微诗话》等。
开封（1084） · 开封少时
宋神宗元丰七年，吕本中出生于开封，其家为世代簪缨的名门望族，曾祖吕公著官至宰相。吕本中自幼生长于书香门第，受家庭文化熏陶，少年时即以诗文知名。他十六岁时便与黄庭坚、陈师道等江西诗派前辈交往。
开封（1106） · 诗派立论
宋徽宗崇宁五年，吕本中作《江西诗社宗派图》，首次将黄庭坚及其追随者定名为"江西诗派"，并列举了陈师道、潘大临等二十五人为该派成员。此图成为江西诗派最重要的理论文献，影响深远。
开封（1118） · 诗派立论
宋徽宗政和八年前后，吕本中在开封与诗友频繁唱和，诗名日盛。他此时已从黄庭坚、陈师道等前辈处领悟了江西诗法的精髓，开始形成自己"活法"的诗学主张，并在文人圈中产生了广泛影响。
开封（1126） · 靖康南渡
宋钦宗靖康元年，金兵围攻开封，吕本中身陷围城之中，亲历了国破家亡的惨剧。他在围城期间写下了大量纪实诗作，记录了金兵的暴行和百姓的苦难。汴京沦陷后，他辗转南渡，开始了流亡生涯。
临安（1131） · 临安议政
宋高宗绍兴元年，吕本中抵达临安，被任命为中书舍人。他在朝中力主抗金，主张收复中原，与主和派多次交锋。他还向高宗提出了许多改革建议，包括整顿吏治、减轻赋税等，但大多未被采纳。
临安（1137） · 晚年著述
宋高宗绍兴七年，吕本中因触怒秦桧被罢官，从此彻底退出政坛。他在临安过起了隐居生活，专心著述。他将毕生的诗学理论加以总结，写成了《紫微诗话》，系统阐述了"活法"理论和江西诗派的主张。
临安（1140） · 晚年著述
宋高宗绍兴十年，吕本中在临安继续著述，整理旧作。他的诗风在南渡后由江西诗派的精工锤炼转向更为自然的风格，融合了白居易的平易和苏轼的豪放。他常与来访的年轻诗人讨论诗艺，将自己的诗学理论传授给后辈。
临安（1145） · 晚年著述
宋高宗绍兴十五年，吕本中病逝于临安，享年六十二岁。他一生致力于诗歌理论和创作，提出的"江西诗派"概念和"活法"理论对后世影响深远。他是江西诗派从北宋到南宋承前启后的关键人物，其诗学思想经由曾几等人传至陆游、杨万里。
The Life Journey of Lü Benzhong, Who Named the Jiangxi School
Lü Benzhong (1084-1145), great-grandson of a chancellor, was the man who gave the Jiangxi school its name: at twenty-two he drew up the 'Chart of the Ancestral Line of the Jiangxi Poetry Society' — Huang Tingjian at the head, Chen Shidao and twenty-three others ranked beneath — the founding document of the Song's dominant poetic school. He survived the siege of Kaifeng, crossed south, fought the appeasers at court, and coined the school's escape-clause: the 'living method' (huofa) — rules mastered, then made to move.
Timeline of the Journey
- 1084 · Kaifeng — Born in the capital into the greatest official house of the age — Lü Gongzhuo the great-grandfather, a family of chancellors and scholars: books before breakfast, poems before rank.
- 1106 · Kaifeng — At twenty-two, the 'Chart of the Jiangxi Poetry Society's Lineage': Huang Tingjian named master, twenty-five poets ranked as members — a school invented by a diagram, and Chinese poetry's clearest manifesto.
- 1118 · Kaifeng — The years of exchange with the capital's poets: the elder masters' methods absorbed, and already modified — his own doctrine forming, 'the living method': learn the rules until you can forget them.
- 1126 · Kaifeng — The Jin siege: trapped inside the walls, he wrote the war down as it happened — the atrocities, the starvation — the documentary poems of a dynasty's fall, in real time.
- 1131 · Lin'an — South at last, and into office as drafter of edicts: the war party's voice against the peace faction, reform memorials on officials and taxes — mostly unheard.
- 1137 · Lin'an — He offended Qin Hui and was out of politics for good: retirement in the temporary capital, and the prose of a lifetime gathered — the Ziwei Remarks on Poetry, the 'living method' given its final written form.
- 1140 · Lin'an — The last years teaching the young poets who came to his door: Huang's rigor joined to Bai Juyi's plainness and Su Shi's breadth — the school handed on, loosened, alive.
- 1145 · Lin'an — Dead at sixty-two: the bridge figure of the Jiangxi school, North to South — the name-maker, the rule-breaker, the teacher of the next century's poets.
'Learn the method, then forget the method' — the 'living method' was Lü Benzhong's gift to poets trapped in their masters' styles: he named the school and then taught everyone how to leave it.
