梅尧臣的一生行迹（1002-1060）
梅尧臣（1002—1060），字圣俞，宣州宣城（今安徽宣城）人，世称"宛陵先生"，北宋诗文革新运动先驱，与苏舜钦并称"苏梅"，欧阳修推其为"诗老"。
宣州宣城（1002） · 生平
梅尧臣（1002—1060），字圣俞，宣州宣城（今安徽宣城）人，世称"宛陵先生"，北宋诗文革新运动先驱，与苏舜钦并称"苏梅"，欧阳修推其为"诗老"。
生平纪略
- 1002 · 宣州宣城 — 梅尧臣字圣俞，生于宣州宣城（今安徽宣城），家贫好学。早年应进士不第，以叔父梅询之荫补太庙斋郎，从此步入仕途。
- 1025 · 河阳主簿 — 初任河阳县主簿，又历河南、河阳等县属官。基层任上亲历农桑民生，诗风趋于平淡写实，奠定其"状难写之景如在目前，含不尽之意见于言外"的诗学主张。
- 1031 · 洛阳定交 — 钱惟演留守西京，梅尧臣为河南主簿，与推官欧阳修订交。二人日日游嵩山伊水间，倡"平淡"诗风，共倡诗文革新，宋诗气象自此发端。梅尧臣被称为宋诗"开山祖师"。
- 1040s · 历任州县 — 知襄城县，监湖州税，签书忠武军判官等，历官州县二十余年不得调。代表作《鲁山山行》"霜落熊升树，林空鹿饮溪"、《东溪》"野凫眠岸有闲意，老树着花无丑枝"皆成于这期间。
- 1057 · 嘉祐贡举 — 欧阳修知贡举，梅尧臣为参详官（编排官），参与甄拔苏轼、苏辙、曾巩等一代人才，是为科举史上最著名的"嘉祐二年"龙虎榜。皇祐三年（1051）赐同进士出身，累迁尚书都官员外郎。与苏舜钦并称"苏梅"，欧阳修尊之为"诗老"。
- 1060 · 汴京病逝 — 嘉祐五年（1060）汴京发生疫病，梅尧臣染疾而卒，年五十九。欧阳修为撰墓志并作祭文，称其诗"覃思精微，以深远闲淡为意"。有《宛陵先生集》六十卷传世。
The Life Journey of Mei Yaochen, Founding Father of the Song Poem
Mei Yaochen (1002-1060), of Xuancheng (Wanling), failed the examinations and entered the civil service through his uncle's shadow — then spent forty years in minor posts writing the poems that made Song poetry itself. In Luoyang he and Ouyang Xiu struck up the friendship that became the classical revival: 'write the plain thing, and be done' against the empty sheen of the Xi-Kun style. 'His verses are neither gorgeous nor coarse — they are like the women of an old farmyard, plain and decent,' said Ouyang Xiu of the man he called 'the Elder of Poets.' With Su Shunqin, half of 'Su-Mei'; with posterity, the recognized founder of the Song manner.
Timeline of the Journey
- 1002 · Xuancheng — Born to a poor scholar family in Wanling — no great house, no shortcuts: the uncle's clerical privilege his only door in.
- 1025 · Heyang — Assistant at Heyang: the apprenticeship in ordinary country life that his poems would live on — later the Luoyang years under Qian Weiyan's patronage, and the meeting that mattered.
- 1031 · Luoyang — Ouyang Xiu arrives as a young aide: the two walk the hills, talk poetry, and sketch the revolution — 'if it isn't new, it isn't worth writing; if it isn't true, it isn't worth saying' — the Song manner invented on these walks.
- 1040s · Xiangcheng — County posts, tax supervisorships, the long middle career of small offices — and the style's middle years: the 'Mountain Trip to Lushan' plainness ('frost falls; the bear climbs the tree; the forest empty, deer come to drink'), the farm-yard poems of the East Brook.
- 1057 · Kaifeng — Called into the examination administration of the famous class of 1057 — the year Ouyang Xiu discovered Su Shi and Su Zhe. The plain-style victory sealed at the nation's examination tables, with Mei Yaochen as its quiet co-author.
- 1060 · Kaifeng — Dead at fifty-nine in office, the minor rank never raised; Ouyang Xiu's elegy and the 'Elder of Poets' title carrying the name forward — the founder the system never promoted and the literature could not do without.
'The wild duck sleeps on the bank with an idle mind; the old tree in blossom has no ugly branch.' Mei Yaochen's couplet is his own theory at work — plainness, exactly seen, becoming beauty: the Song poem's first and best advertisement.
