林逋的一生行迹（967-1028）
林逋（967—1028），字君复，钱塘（今浙江杭州）人，隐居西湖孤山二十年，不仕不娶，植梅养鹤，世称"梅妻鹤子"，谥"和靖先生"。《山园小梅》为咏梅绝唱。
杭州西湖孤山（967） · 生平
林逋（967—1028），字君复，钱塘（今浙江杭州）人，隐居西湖孤山二十年，不仕不娶，植梅养鹤，世称"梅妻鹤子"，谥"和靖先生"。《山园小梅》为咏梅绝唱。
生平纪略
- 967 · 钱塘 — 林逋生于杭州，幼年丧父失母，家境清贫而刻志好学，经史百家皆通，性恬淡好古，弗趋荣利。
- 约980s · 江淮漫游 — 青年时代放游江淮间，历时数年，足迹遍及大江南北。阅尽世情后返归杭州，从此绝意仕途。
- 约1007 · 结庐孤山 — 隐居西湖孤山，结庐而居，二十年足不及城市。日常泛小舟往来西湖诸寺，与高僧诗友往还；有客至，童子放鹤纵之，林逋见鹤必棹舟而归。
- 约1010s · 梅妻鹤子 — 在孤山植梅三百余株，养鹤二只，售梅子以自给。"梅妻鹤子"之典由此而来，成为中国隐逸文化的最高象征。
- 约1020s · 赐粟帛 — 宋真宗闻其名，闻其名而贤之，赐粟帛，并诏长吏岁时劳问。杭州守臣薛映、李谔等常造访，与范仲淹、梅尧臣等有诗唱和。其诗随写随弃，好书记之，故传世不多而篇篇珠玉。
- 1028 · 孤山葬 — 天圣六年（1028）卒，年六十一，仁宗赐谥"和靖先生"。今孤山放鹤亭、林和靖墓尚存，"疏影横斜水清浅，暗香浮动月黄昏"（《山园小梅》）为千古咏梅第一联。
The Life Journey of Lin Bu, the Plum-Wife Crane-Son Hermit
Lin Bu (967-1028), of Qiantang, is Chinese reclusion's purest emblem: twenty years on Solitary Hill in West Lake, unmarried, childless — plum trees for a wife, cranes for sons. Emperors sent him rice and silk; governors rowed out to visit; he answered in poems and let them go. His couplet on the small plum of the garden hill — 'sparse shadows slant across the shallow water; dim fragrance drifts under the yellow dusk' — is the single most quoted line ever written about a flower, and it has made Solitary Hill a place of pilgrimage for a thousand years.
Timeline of the Journey
- 967 · Qiantang — Born at Hangzhou, orphaned early, poor and book-proud — the boy who needed no one's help to learn.
- c. 980s · The Rivers — Years of drifting through the Jiang-Huai country: the ordinary first half of a recluse's life — seeing the world precisely in order to leave it.
- c. 1007 · Solitary Hill — The return home and the famous decision: a thatched house on Solitary Hill in West Lake, and twenty years without once entering the city.
- c. 1010s · The Plum and the Crane — The life assembled: three hundred plum trees planted, two cranes raised — a boat on the lake for guests, poems written and thrown away (rescued by admirers), the 'plum wife and crane sons' name conferred by the age.
- c. 1020s · The Emperor's Gift — Zhenzong hears of him: grain and silk bestowed, the household enriched and the manner unchanged — governors calling at the jetty, Fan Zhongyan and Mei Yaochen among the correspondents.
- 1028 · Solitary Hill — Dead at sixty-one, buried on the hill; Renzong grants the posthumous title 'Master Hejing.' The tomb, the pavilion and the plum-blossoms still stand — China's annual appointment with one couplet.
'Sparse shadows slant across the shallow water; dim fragrance drifts under the yellow dusk.' Fourteen characters have kept a man famous for a millennium: Lin Bu proved that one perfect line about a plum outweighs a career.
