蒋捷的一生行迹（1245-1305）
蒋捷（约1245—约1305），字胜欲，号竹山，阳羡（今江苏宜兴）人，咸淳十年进士，宋亡不仕，隐居太湖竹山。《虞美人·听雨》《一剪梅·舟过吴江》为千古名篇。
阳羡（1245） · 生平
蒋捷（约1245—约1305），字胜欲，号竹山，阳羡（今江苏宜兴）人，咸淳十年进士，宋亡不仕，隐居太湖竹山。《虞美人·听雨》《一剪梅·舟过吴江》为千古名篇。
生平纪略
- 约1245 · 阳羡（宜兴） — 蒋捷生于阳羡蒋氏，家族为南宋常州望族，少年时代江南尚属承平，锦衣玉食，读书应举。
- 1274 · 临安 — 咸淳十年（1274）蒋捷登进士第，时约三十岁。同年襄阳陷落，蒙元大军顺江东下，南宋国势倾覆在即。
- 1276 · 国变 — 德祐二年（1276）元军入临安，宋恭帝出降。新科进士蒋捷从此不仕，弃功名如敝屣，开始遗民漂泊生涯。
- 约1280s · 吴江太湖 — 流寓吴江、太湖一带，舟行过吴江作《一剪梅》："流光容易把人抛，红了樱桃，绿了芭蕉。"写尽亡国者对光阴流逝的锥心之痛。
- 约1290s · 竹山隐居 — 隐居太湖之滨竹山，自号"竹山"。元朝屡次征召宋末遗才，蒋捷坚辞不出，以教书授徒、填词自遣度过余生。
- 约1305 · 阳羡 — 约卒于元大德年间，年约六十。与周密、王沂孙、张炎并称"宋末四大家"。《虞美人·听雨》"少年听雨歌楼上……而今听雨僧庐下，鬓已星星也"，以三个听雨场景概括一生，成为宋词最后的绝唱。
The Life Journey of Jiang Jie, Who Listened to the Rain Through a Lifetime
Jiang Jie (c. 1245-c. 1305), of Yangxian (Yixing), passed the last Song examination in 1274 — and two years later the dynasty was gone, and he never served anyone again. The last of the great Song lyricists and one of its 'Final Four,' he compressed a whole ruined life into one lyric's three rain-showers: 'In youth, listening to rain in the singing tower... in middle age, on a passenger boat... and now, in a monk's hut, hair gone white — let the rain fall, drop on drop, on the steps till dawn.'
Timeline of the Journey
- c. 1245 · Yangxian — Born into the great Jiang clan of Yangxian near Lake Tai: silk, books, and a boyhood among the last orchards of the Song.
- 1274 · Lin'an — Jinshi at the Xianchun examination — the dynasty's second-to-last degree list. Within the year Xiangyang falls; within two, the capital.
- 1276 · The Fall — Lin'an surrenders; the boy-emperor is taken north. The new graduate burns his career: no office under the Yuan, ever — fifty years of refusal begun at thirty.
- c. 1279 · Wujiang — Drifting the lakes and canals of the south: 'A bamboo boat past Wujiang' — 'Spring has not waited: the cherries have reddened, the plantains greened' — time itself the conqueror's ally.
- c. 1290s · Zhushan — Hidden in the Bamboo Mountain by Lake Tai, the name 'Zhushan' taken; the Yuan summons refused again — the hermit lyricist of the lost dynasty, wine and memory for subject.
- c. 1305 · Yangxian — Dead near sixty, the life complete in one poem: the three rains of youth, middle age and the white-haired monk's hut — the Song's whole century in a single night's weather.
'Grief — how to make one word of it? Let it rain on the monk's hut steps till dawn.' The dynasty ended; Jiang Jie listened to it end, and made the rain itself the elegy — the last and loneliest of the Song lyricists.
