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When mentioning the words Tang Dynasty and arrogance, many people will think of Li Bai, but what everyone doesn’t know is.

During the early Tang Dynasty, there was a poet who was even more arrogant than Li Bai. He was the grandfather of the great poet Du Fu.

Although Du Fu's grandfather was not as famous as Du Fu, he also had a considerable influence in the Tang Dynasty.

One of the founders of Chinese 5-character regulated verse, his 5-character regulated verse has almost perfect rhythm.

The Du family was considered a prominent family in Xiangyang City at that time. Their ancestor Du Yu was a famous general in the Western Jin Dynasty.

Therefore, Du Shenyan was proud of it since he was a child, and secretly vowed that he would also achieve something to bring honor to his family.

To this end, Du Shenyan has worked very hard since he was young.

He was good at writing pentasyllabic regulated verse, especially in terms of rhythm, which he was very strict with, and made important contributions to the standardization of Tang Dynasty regulated verse.

"The Tang Dynasty was strong, with a highly developed economy and culture."

"A large number of outstanding literary talents emerged, and two talented poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, who amazed later generations, appeared."

"However, in the Tang Dynasty, there was another person."

"The Immortal Poet Li Bai was not as crazy as him, and the Sage Poet Du Fu admired him even more."

"This person is Du Shenyan, a Tang Dynasty poet and grandfather of Du Fu, from Gongyi, Zhengzhou, Henan."

"Du Shenyan's ancestral home was in Xiangyang, and his grandfather moved to Gong County."

"Du Shenyan is a descendant of Du Yu, the great general who conquered the south during the Wei and Jin dynasties. Du Yu was not only a famous general, but also proficient in literature. He wrote "Collected Commentaries on Zuo's Classics and Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals" and "Explanations of the Spring and Autumn Annals".

"Under the influence of his family environment, Du Shenyan was familiar with the classics since he was young and his literary talent was brilliant."

"At the age of 25, he passed the imperial examination and became a magistrate of Xicheng County in Fenzhou the following year. His future was limitless."

"As we all know, once a person becomes famous, it's easy for him to become arrogant."

"Du Shenyan has a good family background and talent, and he passed the imperial examination at a young age."

"He is not only a little bit arrogant, but also arrogant because of his talent. His words and actions are arrogant."

"Su Weidao was a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, an ancestor of Su Shi, who was good at writing regulated verse. At that time, he, Li Jiao, Cui Rong, and Du Shenyan were collectively known as the Four Friends of Literature."

"But Du Shenyan was very disdainful of this title. He thought that only the scholar Cui Rong could barely be compared with him, and the other two were far inferior to him."

"When Su Weidao was the Minister of the Imperial Court, Du Shenyan once participated in a preliminary examination for officials. He was required to write comments on the official's year-end summary and submit it to Su Weidao for review."

"In addition to bluntly disparaging Su Weidao, Du Shenyan also said something even more explosive."

"Even Li Bai wouldn't dare to say such an arrogant statement. No wonder the history books describe Du Shenyan as arrogant and absurd."

"Du Shenyan's arrogant and conceited speech doomed him to a life of hardship and hardship."

"After Du Shenyan entered the officialdom, he should have had smooth sailing and high promotion because of his talent."

"However, because he was not careful with his words, he soon offended the senior officials and was demoted."

Su Shi: Du Shenyan, the most crazy man in the Tang Dynasty, indeed had the capital to be crazy.

Du Shenyan was born in the 19th year of Zhenguan and passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi in the first year of Xianheng during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi.

After Du Shenyan passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi, he became the county lieutenant of Xicheng.

While serving as the Wei of Xicheng, Du Shenyan wrote the poem "Passing through Lanzhou".

Du Shenyan stayed in Xicheng for six or seven years, then left Xicheng to travel to Luoyang.

Du Shenyan was demoted to Jiangyin to serve as an official, and he was only a low-ranking county magistrate.

During that period of frustration, Du Shenyan wrote a lot of poetry.

Du Shenyan was promoted to the position of Luoyang magistrate, and composed the seven-character poem "Da Po" to express his joy.

Du Shenyan was demoted to Jizhou. While in Jizhou, his flamboyant personality made him at odds with his colleagues, and he also offended Sihu Guo Ruone and Sima Zhou Jizhong.

The two conspired to frame him, put him in prison and wanted to sentence him to death.

After Du Shenyan's sixteen-year-old son Du Bing learned about this, he sneaked into Zhou's mansion.

He took advantage of Zhou Jizhong's excessive drinking to assassinate him.

After assassinating Zhou Jizhong, Du Bing was also killed by his guards.

When this incident came out, the court and the public were shocked. People at that time all regarded Du Bing as a filial son. The prime minister of the dynasty, Duke of Xu, Su Kang, personally wrote the epitaph for Du Bing.

After experiencing the pain of losing his son and being demoted, Du Shenyan turned a disaster into a blessing because of his son's filial piety.

Therefore, Empress Wu summoned Shen Yan and promoted him to Assistant Director of the Ministry of Literature, and soon transferred him to Deputy Director of the Ministry of Food.

During this period, Du Shenyan traveled back and forth between the eastern capital Luoyang and the western capital Chang'an, and wrote poetry.

Du Shenyan was exiled to Fengzhou because of major political changes in the court.

The ministers who had been demoted as a result of the successful coup d'état launched by Zhang Jianzhi and others were pardoned one after another.

On his way back to Beijing, Du Shenyan passed through Xiangyang, Hunan, and wrote the poem "Climbing Xiangyang City".

The whole poem is full of a sense of vicissitudes, and Du Shenyan has a more personal understanding of the impermanence of life.

Du Shenyan was later appointed as the chief clerk of the Imperial College and a direct scholar of the Xiuwen Academy.

When Du Shenyan was serving as a direct scholar in Xiuwenguan, he wrote a large number of poems in response to imperial orders, but the poems did not have much ideological content.

"In 699 AD, Du Shenyan was demoted from Luoyang to Jizhou as a military officer."

"At that time, Jiangxi was considered a very remote place. From the sacred capital Luoyang to a remote town, the gap was huge."

"But even though he fell once due to his arrogance, Du Shenyan still went on as he pleased."

"Soon, he learned an even bigger lesson in Jizhou."

"Soon after Du Shenyan arrived in Jizhou, he offended the local officials."

"Among them, the ones who disliked Du Shenyan the most were Jizhou Sima Zhou Jitong and Sihu Guo Ruone."

"Unfortunately, these two people don't have the broad mind of Su Weidao. Instead, they are very cruel and ruthless."

"The two of them worked together to frame Du Shenyan and put him in prison, intending to kill him."

"Before this, Du Shenyan probably didn't expect that one day his arrogant personality would kill him."

"I never expected that the person who saved me was my 13-year-old son."

"After Zhou Jitong put Du Shenyan in prison, he held a grand banquet at his home and many guests gathered."

"Du Shenyan's 13-year-old son, Du Bing, sneaked into Sima's residence and took advantage of Zhou Jitong's unpreparedness."

"He drew out his dagger and rushed forward, stabbing Zhou Jitong, but was hacked to death by the guards."

"Zhou Jitong also died. Before he died, he said that Du Shenyan had such a filial son. I didn't know that Guo Ruone misled me and harmed me."

"Because of Du Bing's sensational move, Du Shenyan was transferred back to Luoyang and was summoned by Wu Zetian to take up his post."

"But after that, Du Shenyan's career in the government was never smooth. He was promoted and demoted several times, and finally served as a direct scholar of Xiuwenguan."

"And his former boss, Su Weidao, has been appointed prime minister twice."

"Du Shenyan is very arrogant. In fact, he has the capital to be arrogant."

"Du Fu, the grandson of Du Shenyan, particularly admired and praised his grandfather. He once praised his grandfather as the best poet of all time."

"Apart from the filter of Du Fu's relatives, Du Shenyan's poems had a huge influence at that time and in later generations."

"In the historical process of poetry from the early Tang Dynasty to the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Chen Zi'ang and Du Shenyan can be regarded as important figures who carried on the past and opened up the future. They played an important role in connecting and transitioning the development of Tang Dynasty poetry."

Xin Qiji: Du Fu's grandfather, Du Shenyan, was an outstanding writer, arrogant because of his talent, and was demoted many times.

Du Shenyan was a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. He was the grandfather of the great poet Du Fu.

He was good at writing poetry and was arrogant because of his talent, which made him envied by many people. He was demoted for offending the powerful.

His grandfather was Du Yu, a famous general and scholar during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and his family had been officials for generations.

Du Shenyan's father Du Yiyi was the magistrate of Gong County and his family moved to Gongyi.

Du Shenyan was well-read in poetry and books since childhood. He was famous for his literary talent when he was a teenager. He was known as one of the Four Friends of Literature along with Li Jiao, Cui Rong and Su Weidao.

At the age of 25, Du Shenyan passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi, and served as the Wei of Xicheng in Fenzhou.

Du Shenyan was demoted to be the magistrate of Shuchuan County. Wang Bo wrote a poem to send him off: "Farewell to Du Shaofu on his Assignment to Shuzhou".

Before leaving Chang'an, Du Shenyan began to associate with Song Zhiwen.

Du Shenyan was promoted to the position of Luoyang magistrate, and composed the seven-character poem "Da Po" to express his joy.

Du Shenyan was talented and good at poetry and calligraphy.

But he was arrogant and looked down on everyone, and was hated by everyone.

Du Shenyan was demoted to Jiangyin to serve as an official, and he was only a low-ranking county magistrate.

During that period of frustration, Du Shenyan wrote a lot of poems. When he left Luoyang, 45 scholars including Chen Ziang wrote poems for him to bid farewell, and even Song Zhiwen, who was bedridden, sent him a farewell poem.

Jizhou is located in a remote area with high mountains and far away emperor. The local officials are in collusion with each other, taking bribes and perverting the law, and bullying the people. Du Shenyan could not help but make a few sarcastic remarks and offended everyone in Jizhou.

Jizhou Sima Zhou Jitong and Sihu Guo Ruone hated Du Shenyan so much that they framed him and put him in prison.

The two men fabricated a host of charges and had Du Shenyan executed.

Du Bing, the 8-year-old son of Du Shenyan, lost his mother at the age of and has depended on his father Du Shenyan since childhood.

Seeing his father being murdered by villains and imprisoned, Du Bing was so anxious that he could not sit still. He decided to avenge his father.

On this day, Zhou Jitong held a grand banquet in his mansion, with many guests gathered and the atmosphere was bustling and lively.

Du Bing sneaked into Sima's mansion, and while Zhou Jitong was toasting, he drew his dagger and rushed forward, stabbing Zhou Jitong several times.

In the end, he was hacked to death by the guards of Sima Mansion, still holding the dagger tightly, and fell in a pool of blood.

The incident shocked the government and the public, and everyone praised Du Bing as a filial son.

Su Yan, the Duke of Xu who was a great writer in Yanxu, even wrote the epitaph for Du Bing himself.

When Wu Zetian heard about this, she ordered Du Shenyan to be brought to the capital and personally inquired about the case.

After Wu Zetian found out the whole story, she ordered that Du Shenyan be released without charge.

During this time, Du Shenyan traveled back and forth between the eastern capital Luoyang and the western capital Chang'an.

He was a Jinheng Jinshi during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Zhongzong of the Tang Dynasty, he was exiled to Fengzhou because of his association with the Zhang Yizhi brothers.

On the way, he exchanged poems with Li Jiao, Song Zhiwen and others who were exiled with him.

During his exile, Du Shenyan came to the Xiangjiang River in Hunan. It was spring, and flowers and birds were welcoming people. It should have been a good time to enjoy the spring.

However, for him who was exiled, the more beautiful the spring scenery was, the heavier his inner sorrow became.

This contrast prompted Du Shenyan to write the poem "Crossing the Xiangjiang River" when crossing the Xiangjiang River.

He expressed his nostalgia for his past travels, his sadness about his current situation, and his worries about the uncertainty of the future.

A few years later, he was recruited back to Beijing, first as the chief clerk of the Imperial College, and later as a direct scholar of the Xiuwen Academy.

Du Shenyan fell ill while serving as a scholar in Xiuwenguan. He died at the age of 63 and was posthumously awarded the title of Zuozulang.

Du Shenyan's literary achievements mainly lie in pentasyllabic regulated verse. Most of his works are simple, natural, and have strict rules of rhythm.

"Visiting Zheng Qi's Mountain Studio in Summer" is also a famous work of Du Shenyan. The poem describes the cool and moist feeling that a friend's mountain studio gives people in the scorching heat.

The description of the weather after a summer thunderstorm, when the sun comes out but the clouds remain, and there is thunder and rain, is particularly vivid.

Du Shenyan once wrote "Fenghe Qixi Shiyan Liangyidian Yingzhi" on the Qixi Festival. This poem describes the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.

In Du Shenyan's writing, the meeting on the Magpie Bridge is no longer about thousands of magpies coming to help build the bridge.

Du Shenyan was a man of great talent and left behind many poems.

However, he was arrogant and unruly because of his talent, which made him envied by his colleagues. He was demoted many times, but his nature was hard to change.

"Du Shenyan is good at pentasyllabic regulated verse, and is very strict in terms of rhythm."

"He made important contributions to the formation of Tang Dynasty regulated verse and was regarded by later generations as the founder of Chinese five-character regulated verse."

"It promoted the formation of regulated verse and completed the standardization of pentasyllabic verse."

"Only about 40 poems of Du Shenyan have been handed down, the most famous of which is "Early Spring View with Lu Cheng of Jinling"."

"Only the traveling official is surprised by the new phenomena."

"Clouds and mists emerge from the sea at dawn, plum and willow trees cross the river in spring."

"The gentle breeze urges the yellow birds to fly, and the bright sunlight turns the water lilies green."

"When I heard the ancient tune, I was filled with longing for home."

"This poem has neat parallelism, harmonious tones, and clear rhymes."

"It is the foundational work for the standardization of modern poetry in the early Tang Dynasty. Hu Yinglin, a literary critic in the Ming Dynasty, praised this poem as the best five-character regulated verse in the early Tang Dynasty."

"Du Shenyan's historical contribution to the development of Tang poetry is not only reflected in his demonstration, summary, improvement, enrichment and development of poetry theory."

“It is not only reflected in the single form of poetry innovation and development, but also in the expansion and enrichment of poetry content and themes.”

"His innovations, achievements and contributions in combining the content and form of poetry have restored the fine tradition of emphasizing and attaching importance to the unity of literary quality and substance since the Han and Wei dynasties."

"It is also a reaction and innovation against the weak, delicate and sluggish palace poetry style since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, making poetry develop in a healthy direction."

"Du Shenyan's madness was ingrained in his bones. Despite all the hardships he experienced, he never changed his character until his death."

"It is said that when he was seriously ill in bed, his good friends Song Zhiwen and Wu Pingyi came to visit him and asked him if he had anything to say."

"Du Shenyan said that God has made me suffer so much, what else can I say?"

"But as long as I live, I will keep you under my thumb."

"Now I am dying, you should be happy."

"It's just a pity that there's no one with real talent to take my place!"

"If such a madman knew that his grandson Du Fu had achieved such great success in poetry, he would probably stroke his beard proudly and say, 'You are worthy of being my grandson.'"

Wen Tianxiang: The first poet in the early Tang Dynasty, he was eccentric throughout his life but never changed his original aspirations.

Du Shenyan is a descendant of Du Yu, the terminator of the Three Kingdoms, and the grandfather of the great poet Du Fu.

Du Fu once wrote in a poem that poetry is my family business.

It means that poetry is a career passed down from his ancestors, and he also praised him by saying that my ancestor's poetry is the best in ancient times.

Du Shenyan was the earliest and most important person in the development of Tang Dynasty regulated verse, and the most accomplished person in the poetry world of the early Tang Dynasty.

The Du family is a prominent family with generations of nobles, and being cautious in what they say and do is what their elders hope.

But in fact, Du Shenyan was very arrogant throughout his life.

During the Qianfeng period of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Du Shenyan was serving in Luoyang and went to Chang'an to take part in the selection and trial examination.

Du Shenyan's personality is so wild that he doesn't even care about his superiors, so it is inevitable that he will offend others.

Sure enough, when he was demoted to Jizhou, Sihu Guo Ruone and Sima Zhou Jizhong teamed up to find a crime for him, arrested him, imprisoned him, and even sentenced him to death.

His second son, Du Bing, who was only 16 years old, inherited his father's character to some extent. He assassinated Zhou Jizhong in person on impulse.

Zhou Jizhong died on the spot, and Du Bing was also killed by Zhou's men.

It was also because Du Bing's death alarmed the imperial court that the truth of the matter was re-investigated, Du Shenyan was released from prison, returned to Luoyang, and was rehabilitated.

Unlike his unrestrained character, Du Shenyan's poems are neat, precise, serious and clear. They are magnificent and majestic in the poetry world of the early Tang Dynasty and are praised by his contemporaries.

When he was banished from the capital, 45 friends from the court and the poetry world, including Chen Zi'ang, came to see him off, which shows his influence.

Du Shenyan once worked in Jiangyin, Jiangsu, and he and Lu Cheng were colleagues from the same county.

Perhaps because of their mutual understanding of poetry and literature, Lu Cheng wrote a poem while taking an early spring outing and looking into the distance, and sent it to Du Shenyan.

Du Shenyan and Lu Cheng were both traveling officials, so they naturally felt more deeply in the spring when everything was renewed.

The two men served as officials in Changzhou, Jiangsu, which is very close to the sea and the Yangtze River.

Therefore, the poet calls the dawn light "Haishu" and the quietly coming spring "Jiangchun".

The New Year in the south of the Yangtze River rises from the eastern sea together with the sun, illuminating the sky full of clouds like the dawn.

The warm spring air urges the orioles to sing, and under the clear sunlight, the duckweed turns a deeper green, lush and vibrant.

These four sentences all describe the scenes seen during an early spring tour, from the clouds on the seashore to the yellow orioles and duckweed in front of the eyes. The sight moves from far to near, describing the unique spring scenery that is completely different from the north.

But as far as Du Shenyan's evaluation is concerned, the original poem is simple and elegant, and its emotions are so deep that it can make readers cry and wet their handkerchiefs.

On the surface, Lu Cheng’s poem touched the poet’s homesickness. In fact, the poet was already homesick, so he was easily touched.

Structurally speaking, the last sentence not only expresses the thought of returning home, but also points out the meaning of the poem, making the whole poem complete, coherent and brilliant.

This poem is completely in line with the tone of regulated verse, with clear rhymes, harmonious levels and tones, and coordinated rhymes.

It is regarded as the founding work that completed the standardization of the form of regulated verse in the early Tang Dynasty, and has the significance of opening up new trends.

The eight lines of poetry are well-crafted and vivid, with both delicate descriptions and vivid personification.

What is even more outstanding is the poet's exquisite parallelism, especially the third and fourth couplets.

There are many such neat and exquisite couplets in his works.

Du Fu's regulated verse is also very good at parallelism, perhaps because he was influenced by his grandfather's works when he was learning poetry at a young age.

It is said that before Du Shenyan died, his friends including Song Zhiwen and Wu Pingyi went to visit him.

We don’t know how his friends would react, but if he were still alive, he would not have such feelings when he saw his grandson Du Fu’s achievements in poetry. (End of this chapter)