Tang Yin Zi Bohu (唐寅字伯虎), a small character Zi Wei (小字子畏), was a native of Wu County, Suzhou Prefecture (present-day Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province), whose ancestral home was Jinchang County, Liangzhou, and was a famous painter, calligrapher and poet of the Ming Dynasty.
Li Tang and Liu Songnian, the patriarchal methods of landscape painting, integrate the northern and southern schools of painting, with fine brush and ink, sparse layout, and beautiful style. The figure painter inherits the tradition of the Tang Dynasty, with bright and elegant colors, beautiful posture and accurate shapes; he also works freehand characters, with simple and meaningful pen, which is interesting. His paintings of flowers and birds are longer than ink freehand, free and elegant. The calligraphy is strange and handsome, taking the fa Zhao Mengfu.
In painting, together with Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming and Qiu Ying, they are called "Wumen Four Families", also known as "Ming Four Families". In the poem, together with Zhu Yunming, Wen Zhengming, and Xu Zhenqing, he is called "the four talents of Wu Zhong".
In the twenty-first year of Chenghua (1485), he won the first place in the Suzhou Prefectural Examination and entered the Prefectural School. In the eleventh year of Hongzhi, he was the first in the Tianfu Township Examination (Xie Yuan) and entered Beijing to participate in the examination.
It was such a "great talent" who was involved in the Xu Jingke field fraud case in the twelfth year of Hongzhi, sat in prison, and was demoted to a small official of Zhejiang Province. Since then, he has lost his enterprising spirit in the field, wandered the rivers and lakes, and was buried between poetry and painting, and eventually became a generation of famous painters [1]. In his later years, Tang Yin lived in poverty and relied on friends for help. Jiajing died of illness on December 2, 2002 at the age of 54.
From the admired literary and painting talents to the poor and poor, what really happened between this?
Why is there such a big contrast? With this doubt in mind, we might as well begin with his childhood.
Tang Yin's father, Tang Guangde, was a small merchant in Suzhou, and his mother was of the Qiu clan. Since childhood, he was gifted and intelligent, recited by eye, familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, read the "History", "Selected Writings of Zhaoming" and other classics, and also learned to paint landscapes, flowers and birds in his spare time, and once worshiped Shen Zhou, the founder of the Wumen School, with Wen Zhengming as a teacher.
At the age of sixteen, Tang Bohu won the first place in the Xiucai examination, which caused a sensation throughout Suzhou. Because of his outstanding talent, he was called "the four talents of Wuzhong" together with Zhu Zhishan, Wen Zhengming, and Xu Zhenqing.
At the age of nineteen, Tang Bohu married a local woman, Xu Shi, and the two had a good relationship.
At the age of twenty-five, Tang Bohu's family suffered a major change, and his father, mother, wife, son, and sister died one after another. This made him feel deeply blessed, life and death impermanent, and his will was once depressed. Later, with the encouragement of his friends Zhu Zhishan, Wen Zhengming and others, he regained the ancient Chinese and studied hard.
At the age of twenty-nine, he participated in the Ying Tianxiang Examination and ranked first in the list, and for a while, the name of "Tang Bohu, Duke of Xieyuan" spread throughout the city of Nanjing, and it was also here that Tang Bohu's thinking changed.
Since he was a child, he has been outstanding among his peers, and even more so, at the time of prosperity, he has achieved the excellent results that thousands of people want to win, how can this not make a "young man" move?
It is reported that on the occasion of the examination, Tang Yin and other students are living in the hotel together, waiting for the examination, and after the examination, they get together to put on the list, and Tang Yin is a dashing and comfortable appearance all day, for a talent like him, the imperial examination is just a complete personal show.
At the beginning of the exam, he told everyone that he would definitely win the crown.
Afterwards, it was naturally confirmed that Tang Yin was even more uncontrollable.
"Wood shows in the forest, and the wind will destroy it; The saying that deeds are higher than men is not true."
It is reported that someone secretly accused Tang Yin of cheating behind his back, and for this reason, he also alarmed the Hongzhi Emperor, and finally ended up in prison, and the chief examiner and others were also implicated, and Tang Yin was spurned by the world from then on.
After that, he collapsed, and then there was no fighting spirit, and fate began to play with him, and his relatives disappeared in front of him one by one... From the history books, we can understand that he was helpless and depressed in the second half of his life.
In the twelfth year of Hongzhi (1499), Tang Yin and Xu Jing of Jiangyin entered Beijing to participate in the examination, but were imprisoned for implicating Xu Jingkechang, and were later deposed as officials.
In the thirteenth year of Hongzhi (1500), Tang Yin was deposed as a minor official of the Zhejiang Domain, and he was deeply ashamed and resolutely refused to take office. After Tang Yin returned home, the husband and wife lost harmony and divorced their wives.
In the fourteenth year of Hongzhi (1501), Tang Yin was frustrated and traveled to Fujian, Zhejiang, Gan, Xiang and other places.
In the fifteenth year of Hongzhi (1502), Tang Yin fell ill after returning home from a trip, and it took a long time for medical treatment to get better.
In the sixteenth year of Hongzhi (1503), Tang Yin and his younger brother Tang Shen separated.
In the seventeenth year of Hongzhi (1504), Tang Yin made a living by selling literary paintings and indulged in wine to entertain himself.
In the eighteenth year of Hongzhi (1505), Tang Yin sought to build a peach blossom nunnery and composed the "Records of the Ancestral Hall of wang's Zefu".
In the second year of Zhengde (1507), Tang Yin built the Peach Blossom An BeiYe and the Mengmo Pavilion.
In the third year of Zhengde (1508), in June, Tang Yin's nephew Tang Changmin died prematurely, at the age of twelve. In August, he bid farewell to Dai Zhao, composing poems and pictures of the rainbow.
In the tenth year of Zhengde (1515), in March, Tang Yin pretended to be crazy and was released by King Ning. In the same year, Tang Yin painted "Plum Branch Diagram".
In the eleventh year of Zhengde (1516), Tang Yin wrote "Poems of Visiting Gaoming Mansion in Changzhou" for Li Jing of Zhixian County, Wu County, sent Xu Chaozhi back to his hometown to compose "Jinhua Preface", and wrote an epitaph for Wu Derun and his wife.
In the twelfth year of Zhengde (1517), Tang Yin composed poems for Li Jing of Zhixian County, Wu County. On the day of November, Tang Yin stayed overnight at Guangfu Temple (also known as Guangfu Temple) and left a poem.
In the thirteenth year of Zhengde (1518), Tang Yin dreamed at night and woke up to write "Dream Poems". Tang Yin and Sun Sihe painted "Danyang Scenery Map". Tang Yin made an epitaph for his mother-in-law Wu Ruren.
In the first year of Jiajing (1522), Tang Yin sent Liu Fu, who had left his post, Tozhi County, Wu County, to compose "Don't Liu Boqi". He also wrote "New Year's Day Poems".
In the second year of Jiajing (1523), Tang Yin wrote the Book of Poetry. On December 2, Tang Yin died of illness.
The talents who resounded all over Jiangnan ended up only selling paintings and writing to people for a living, indulging in wine all day, falling into the wind, and confused in this life.
His "Peach Blossom Temple" is perhaps the most reflective of everything about him
Peach Blossom Wood in Peach Blossom An, Peach Blossom Fairy in Peach Blossom An
Peach blossom immortals plant peach trees, and then pick peach blossoms in exchange for wine money
Drunk only come to sit before the flower, drunk also come to spend sleep
Half awake and half drunk day after day, flowers falling and blossoming year after year
I hope that the old dead flower wine room is not willing to bow down in front of the carriage and horse
The car dust horse is full of nobles, and the wine cups are poor and cheap
If the rich are compared to the poor, one is on the flat earth and the other is in the sky
If he compares the flowers and wine to the carriages and horses, he will drive me to idleness
People laugh at me for being crazy, and I laugh at others who can't see through it
There is no tomb of Wuling Haojie, no flowers and no wine hoes to make fields
A good one "wish the old dead flower wine room, do not want to bow in front of the carriage and horse"! It is indeed Tang Bohu, a talented man who cannot be seen through by the world!