司空图的一生行迹（837-908）
司空图（837-908），字表圣，自号知非子、耐辱居士，河中虞乡（今山西永济）人，晚唐著名诗人、诗歌理论家。咸通十年（869年）进士，官至中书舍人。黄巢起义后长期隐居中条山王官谷，屡征不起。所著《二十四诗品》为中国诗学经典。唐亡后闻哀帝被弑，绝食而卒，以身殉唐。
虞乡（837） · 河东少年
唐文宗开成二年（837年），司空图出生于河中府虞乡县（今山西永济）一个官宦书香之家，字表圣。虞乡地处中条山下、涑水之滨，他自幼在此耕读成长，打下了深厚的经学根基。
长安（869） · 长安宦游
唐懿宗咸通十年（869年），三十三岁的司空图赴长安应试，进士及第，主考官王凝对他赏识有加。及第后他名声鹊起，却又淡泊名利，不事干谒，时人皆称其道义之交。
宣州（874） · 长安宦游
唐僖宗乾符元年（874年），恩主王凝出任宣歙观察使，司空图追随其南下宣州（今安徽宣城）入幕为从事。在江南幕府中，他得以游历宣城山水，文名渐重于时。
长安（回朝）（877） · 长安宦游
唐僖宗乾符四年（877年），司空图被征入朝，任礼部员外郎，不久迁礼部郎中。此时黄巢起义烽火已起，朝政日非，他虽身在台阁，却时时忧虑国事，诗风也趋于深沉。
华州（881） · 乱世归隐
唐僖宗中和元年（881年），黄巢大军攻入长安，僖宗仓皇奔蜀。司空图奔赴行在不及，辗转避难于华州（今陕西渭南华州区），乱中寓居华山之下，与朝廷音讯隔绝。
河中（归乡）（885） · 乱世归隐
唐僖宗光启元年（885年），僖宗自蜀中还京，司空图一度赴凤翔行朝任知制诰，但他目睹朝廷倾轧、藩镇跋扈，不久即辞归河中虞乡故里，在中条山王官谷结庐隐居。
王官谷（890） · 王官高卧
唐昭宗大顺元年（890年），昭宗慕司空图名节，征拜兵部侍郎，他坚辞不起，继续高卧王官谷。谷中泉石林亭之胜甲于河东，他在此著书立说，品鉴诗艺，俨然一代文坛宗师。
洛阳（904） · 王官高卧
唐昭宗天祐元年（904年），朱温挟持昭宗迁都洛阳，旋即弑之，又强召前朝旧臣以收人望。司空图被征至洛阳，他故作衰野之态，朝见时坠笏失仪，被认为老朽无用，放还山中。
王官谷（长逝）（908） · 殉唐绝粒
后梁太祖开平二年（908年），司空图闻唐哀帝为朱温所弑，唐室社稷彻底覆亡，悲愤欲绝，数日不食而卒，享年七十二岁。他以身殉唐，葬于王官谷，一代诗论宗师与故国同尽。
The Life Journey of Sikong Tu, Who Wrote the Twenty-Four Poetic Moods
Sikong Tu (837-908), of Yuxiang on the Zhongtiao range, was the Tang's great critic-poet: his Twenty-Four Poetic Moods — twenty-four quatrains, each naming and embodying a mode of poetry ('the Heroic and Moulded,' 'the Placid and Dilute,' 'not one word written, everything won') — remains the most quoted work of Chinese poetics. Offered high office under the dying dynasty, he played senile at court to be sent home; when Zhu Wen murdered the last Tang emperor, Sikong Tu stopped eating and died with the dynasty: the critic as martyr.
Timeline of the Journey
- 837 · Yuxiang — Born by the Zhu River under the Zhongtiao mountains to a scholar-official family: the classics planted in river-valley soil.
- 869 · Chang'an — Jinshi at thirty-three, his examiner Wang Ning his patron for life — and the new graduate already indifferent to patronage games: 'a friendship of principle,' his contemporaries called it.
- 874 · Xuanzhou — Following Wang Ning south into the Xuan-She commission as an aide: the Jiangnan landscapes, the reputation quietly widening.
- 877 · Chang'an — Recalled to the Ministry of Rites while Huang Chao's rebellion burned closer: the poems darkening with the news.
- 881 · Huazhou — Huang Chao into Chang'an, the emperor fled: Sikong Tu missed the court's train and sheltered under Mount Hua — the scholardom's long interruption begun.
- 885 · Hezhong — Briefly drafter of edicts at the Fengxiang court-in-flight — then home for good: a hut built at Wanggu Valley, the retreat that made the critic.
- 890 · Wanggu Valley — The court's summons to vice-minister refused: the valley kept — its springs and pavilions, the poetry-moods composed and refined, the whole Tang's art laid out in twenty-four mirrors.
- 904 · Luoyang — Zhu Wen moves the emperor to Luoyang and kills him; the old loyalist dragged up to court for legitimacy: he fumbled his tablet, drooled, played the fool — judged worthless and released to the mountains.
- 908 · Wanggu Valley — News of the last Tang boy-emperor's murder: he refused food and died at seventy-one — the Moods' author giving the dynasty his last review.
'Not one word written — the whole flavor won.' The line that defines Chinese taste for silence was written by a man who starved for the Tang: Sikong Tu is the only critic in history to become his own theory's proof.
