during the Tang dynasty, there was such a short and brilliant love story, which can be regarded as the "best annotation" of this sentence in the Book of Songs. The hero of this story, one is a famous scholar, and the other is a world-famous beauty of the world. Although their love affair only lasted for three months, it was enough for later generations to sigh.
Their names are Yuan Zhen and Xue Tao respectively.
In 89 AD, Yuan Zhen, a travel-stained and ambitious man, went to eastern Sichuan in the south of the sword.
jiannan is roughly equivalent to Sichuan now. This place, East Sichuan, is located in the Sichuan Basin, probably in the east of the middle of the present Sichuan Basin. Yuan Zhen was 3 years old this year.
at the age of p>3, after three years of mourning for his mother, he "came out of the mountain" for the first time to work in a local office, so he is going to do a big job. On the border of eastern Sichuan, he impeached corrupt officials and rehabilitated wrongs, which won the love and support of Sichuan people.
Bai Juyi, his good friend, couldn't help but give him a thumbs-up and praised him in his poem: his heart is like a lung stone, and he will reach the poor people when he moves, and there are 8 families in Dongchuan, and he will express his grievances and grievances.
As the big noise made by this young man in Sichuan spread more and more widely, a poetess in Chengdu noticed her. This poetess is Xue Tao.
Xue Tao is from Chang 'an. His father was an official in the capital Chang 'an, so he received a good education since he was a child. However, because his father offended the dignitaries in the imperial court, he was banished to remote Chengdu, and his family followed him to settle in Chengdu.
Later, my father caught miasma on his way to Nanzhao and died unfortunately. From then on, Xue Tao's family came down, joined the "Happy Family", and became a prostitute who entertained and didn't sell herself.
When Yuan Zhen became famous in Sichuan, Xue Tao was 41 years old, 11 years older than Yuan Zhen. However, the age gap did not stop the fate of two people.
At that time, Xue Tao was working as a female "proofreader" in Wei Gao's residence, managing some cases, and usually wrote poems for the "governor" and accompanied him to entertain guests.
Xue Tao's reputation is unmatched in the whole city. Therefore, Wei Gao once wanted to make an exception and promote her to be a school bookkeeper. However, in the Tang Dynasty, only scholars and men could serve as school bookkeepers. How could she break this rule as a woman?
Although she didn't officially take this position, people respected her and called her "school book". History books say that Xue Tao is "sexually dissolute", mainly because Xue Tao is so talented that she doesn't take ordinary people seriously.
However, when the arrogant Xue Tao heard the news that Yuan Zhen, a world-famous genius, had come to Jiannan, he felt a little excited.
But what she doesn't know is that Yuan Zhen is far more anxious than her. He has long admired this "school book" with both talent and appearance. So, in March of this year, Yuan Zhen, a newcomer, met Xue Tao in Zizhou. Xue Tao didn't think much, and readily agreed.
people say that love begins with looks, ends with talent and ends with character. For the fate of these two people, this "famous saying" about love is at least two-thirds right.
There are not too many records in the history books about their date. But Yuan Zhen was a famous gifted scholar and handsome guy in the Tang Dynasty, and he was in his prime of life at that time. Xue Tao is 41 years old this year. Although he has reached the age of semi-old Xu Niang, his charm still exists in every move and smile. Therefore, after confirming their eyes, both of them have a great interest in each other.
Xue Tao spent half his life wandering among dignitaries and met all kinds of people.
For those laymen who admire her talent and looks, and for those frivolous and dissolute officials, she is not interested at all, and has always stuck to her bottom line.
However, for Yuan Zhen, this first meeting ignited a spark in her heart.
a single spark can start a prairie fire. Xue Tao knew that the man she met for the first time was the one she dreamed of and longed for, so she was desperate and threw herself into the flame of this love like a moth.
So on the second day after meeting, Xue Tao wrote a poem to Yuan Zhen on pink stationery made by himself:
On the green pool, I fly back at dusk.
I am busier than before, between the concentric lotus leaves.
In this poem, Xue Tao implicitly expresses his feelings for Yuan Zhen.
In fact, it's only Xue Tao who thinks it's implicit: in her poem, she said that there are such a pair of waterfowl, both of which live in the pool, and they fly out together during the day and come back together at night. When the baby bird was born, both of them were very busy, but you see, between the lotus leaves, their family just formed a loving shape!
As can be seen from this poem, Xue Tao, who is budding in her heart, seems to have fallen into the whirlpool of love like a little girl.
after reading this poem, Yuan Zhen immediately understood Xue Tao's mind. Therefore, after this, Yuan Zhen and Xue Tao forgot their age, time and even themselves, and talked about their vigorous love.
Every time Xue Tao writes to Yuan Zhen, she uses stationery made by herself.
At that time, when people wrote poems, they usually chose wider paper. However, Xue Tao likes to write short five-character poems. Too big paper is not beautiful.
So, she specially designed a kind of paper suitable for writing small poems, and dyed it pink with the skin of hibiscus and the juice of hibiscus flowers.
This pink stationery was later called "Xue Tao's stationery".
Xue Tao wrote to Yuan Zhen, without exception, using her elaborate "Xue Tao Notes". Influenced by Xue Tao, young people in Sichuan at that time, especially girls, began to use this pink stationery to write poems or letters to their lovers.
Over time, writing letters with "Xue Taojian" was even adopted by the official notes of the imperial court, and it has been passed down to this day. Until now, the older generation of people who like to write letters with a brush still use Xue Tao's stationery.
Therefore, although Xue Tao's stationery is only a thin piece of writing paper, the emotion contained in it is irreplaceable.
During her passionate love, she wrote many love poems to Yuan Zhen on stationery.
When she saw the flowers bloom and fall, she thought of the pain of lovesickness, so she wrote:
Flowers bloom differently and flowers fall differently.
if you want to ask about the lovesickness, when the flowers bloom and fall.
When she was bored, she picked a grass and knitted it into the shape of love in her hand, ready to give it to Yuan Zhen. So she wrote again: if you are United, you will know your voice.
When the lovesickness was so excessive that she was a little angry, she said,
If you don't have one mind, you will have one mind.
it's full of flowers, which translates into two lovesickness.
unfortunately, fate has its end. This passionate love affair, like fireworks on a summer night, will soon go out.
Yuan Zhen's "rectification movement" in Dongchuan affected the interests of the old and middle bureaucratic classes in the imperial court and local buffer regions. Therefore, Yuan Zhen worked in eastern Sichuan for only three months, and was transferred from Jiannan by a paper order issued by the imperial court.
Xue Tao, immersed in girlish love, never thought that the fate between her and Yuan Zhen would come to an end here.
At parting, Yuan Zhen and Xue Tao said goodbye to each other. Xue Tao sobbed, and Yuan Zhen kept breaking the branches of cherry flowers from the tree and putting them on Xue Tao's head.
when the cherry blossoms are sent to the monarch, one inch of the heart is broken.
There are thousands of acacia trees hanging around the forest in the most places after parting.
This is Yuan Zhen's state of mind at the moment of parting.
He also felt very painful when he saw Xue Tao, who used to like poetry and painting, standing there silently. Looking back on these short three months, the past is vivid.
So, before leaving, Yuan Zhen wrote a song "A Gift to Xue Tao" to Xue Tao.
In this poem, he compares Xue Tao to Zhuo Wenjun, who was also born in Chengdu, and praises her for her eloquence. Her poems and articles are the best in the world, which makes literati feel ashamed and admired.
This is a very fair and objective evaluation, and it is also an unemotional evaluation. Yuan Zhen seems to want to end it here. However, at the end of this poem, he was still so sad that he couldn't help but write down two sentences: after parting, acacia is separated from smoke and water, and the flowers of Acorus calamus are as tall as five clouds. It probably means that after leaving, although I will miss you, I am afraid I will be far away from the mountains and rivers.
Hearing this, Xue Tao finally answered. She still wrote a poem like a girl, unconvinced. In the poem, she wrote: Who says that a thousand miles from today is as long as a dream?
who said that thousands of miles apart started tonight? Who said that even the dream of meeting after parting was gone, as far away as the traffic jam?
What Xue Tao didn't know at this time was that Yuan Zhen was too romantic, although he was sentimental and talented. Moreover, he is too young to have a bright future in his official career, and emotionally, there will be more possibilities.
For Yuan Zhen, there are not only the common people in the world, but also the emperor in court, and many vigorous emotions in his heart.
Xue Tao will always remember Yuan Zhen and grow old little by little.
However, Yuan Zhen, who is only 3 years old, has to struggle and explore. He has not enough capital to fight against the system and people's hearts.
this "brother-sister love" is just an episode in his life.
In his later years, when Xue Tao remembered Yuan Zhen, he wrote:
In February, the flowers are light and the spring breeze makes people dress.
his family is heartless, flying south and north.
The spring breeze in February blows people's clothes and poplars on the trees at the same time. Alas, Yang Hua is a heartless thing, which is blown to the south and the north by the wind.
Although this relationship is not perfect, it ends with Yuan Zhen's last departure. However, Xue Tao's feelings for Yuan Zhen are all concentrated in the pink stationery and the short and graceful love poems.
We regret this emotion, but at the same time we can't help praising its sincerity.