王建的一生行迹（766-831）
王建（约766-约831），字仲初，许州颍川（今河南许昌）人，中唐著名诗人。出身寒微，早年从军北塞，后历官渭南县尉、昭应县丞、太府寺丞、秘书丞、侍御史，晚年为陕州司马，世称"王司马"。其与张籍齐名，世称"张王乐府"；所作《宫词》百首，开一代风气。
颍川（766） · 颍川寒门
唐代宗大历元年（766年）前后，王建出生于许州颍川（今河南许昌）一个贫寒之家。颍川是汉末名士辈出之地，荀彧、陈群皆出于此，然而中唐的王氏家族早已衰落，"衰门海内几多人"的寒微出身使他一生仕途坎坷。
幽州（786） · 北塞从军
唐德宗贞元二年（786年）前后，二十岁的王建离开故乡北游，投身幽蓟边塞军中效力，"从军走马十三年"，辗转于河朔一带藩镇军旅之间。漫长的军旅生涯使他饱尝世态炎凉，也积累了丰富的边地见闻与乐府素材。
渭南（797） · 县尉沉滞
唐德宗贞元十三年（797年）前后，年逾三十的王建释褐入仕，授京兆府渭南县尉，掌管一县治安捕盗。县尉官微职苦，在关中旱蝗连年、民不聊生的现实中，他写下《田家行》《田家留客》等大量悯农乐府。
长安（太府寺）（806） · 京华宦游
唐宪宗元和元年（806年）前后，王建调任昭应县丞，继而入朝为太府寺丞，从地方佐吏跻身京官行列。在长安他与张籍重逢唱和，"张王乐府"之名渐起，两人同以古乐府写时事，为元稹、白居易的新乐府运动导夫先路。
长安（秘书丞）（815） · 京华宦游
唐宪宗元和十年（815年）前后，王建迁秘书丞，掌管宫廷图书典籍。他因缘际会得交宦官王守澄，饮宴之间听到大量禁中秘闻，据此创作《宫词》百首，一时传抄风行，轰动朝野，几乎因此获罪。
陕州（825） · 陕州晚岁
唐敬宗宝历元年（825年）前后，年近六旬的王建自侍御史出为陕州司马（今河南三门峡），协助刺史处理州务。陕州地处长安、洛阳两京之间的黄河要冲，他在此为官数年，世称"王司马"，诗风渐趋平淡冲和。
咸阳原（828） · 陕州晚岁
唐文宗大和二年（828年），年过花甲的王建卸任陕州司马，归居咸阳原上的旧宅。他一生四授官资不过七品，晚年家徒四壁、孑然一身，靠友人接济度日，在贫困中整理一生诗作，自伤身世。
长安（长逝）（831） · 陕州晚岁
唐文宗大和五年（831年）前后，王建病逝，享年约六十六岁。这位与张籍并称"张王"的乐府大家，生前官微家贫，身后诗名却与日俱增，《宫词》百首更成为后世研究唐代宫廷生活的第一手史料。
The Life Journey of Wang Jian, Voice of the Palace and the Farm
Wang Jian (c. 766-c. 831), of Yingchuan, spent thirteen years soldiering up north before his first county post — and turned that rough apprenticeship into the plainest, hardest social poetry of the middle Tang: the 'Farmhouse Songs,' the 'Boatman's Song,' the corvée and the drought set out for anyone to read. With Zhang Jiaying (the 'Zhang-Wang ballads') he fed the movement that Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi made famous. And from a eunuch acquaintance's table-talk he took the Hundred Palace Poems — the only real record of the inner court's daily life, scandalous, beloved, endlessly copied.
Timeline of the Journey
- 766 · Yingchuan — Born poor in the old land of Han geniuses — a family now so fallen that 'of our declining house, how many are left in all the realm?' The chip on the shoulder, and the ear for other people's.
- 786 · Youzhou — Twenty, and north into the armies of the Hebei frontier: 'thirteen years riding with the troops' — the winters, the officers, the whole vocabulary of ordinary hardship acquired first-hand.
- 797 · Weinan — Release at last into the police lieutenancy of Weinan near the capital: drought and locusts year after year in Guanzhong, and the 'Farmhouse Songs' written inside the disaster — tax, debt, empty jars.
- 806 · Chang'an — Up into the capital's offices of revenue, and the reunion with Zhang Jiaying: the 'Zhang-Wang' old-style ballads on current events — the new-yuefu movement's shock troops before its generals were famous.
- 815 · Chang'an — Secretary in the Palace Library — and the drinking acquaintance with the eunuch Wang Shoucheng: what the palace actually ate, wore, feared and schemed became the Hundred Palace Poems, the court's one unguarded mirror, nearly a prosecution.
- 825 · Shanzhou — Near sixty, out of the capital as supervisor of justice at Shanzhou on the Yellow River between the two capitals: the quiet years, 'Wang the Supervisor,' the style settling into plainness.
- 828 · The Xianyang Plain — Retired to the old house on the plain: four appointments in a lifetime, none above the seventh rank — the poems now his only estate.
- 831 · Chang'an — Dead at about sixty-six, poor to the end — and growing more famous every year after: the palace-hundred still the first source every historian of the Tang's inner life opens.
'Three days in the tower, the whole palace knows — she washes her hands and burns the incense before the emperor's rice.' Nobody else got this close: Wang Jian is the Tang court's only inside witness, and the farm's only honest accountant.
