Mao Kun, a literati of the Ming Dynasty, compiled a book “The Eight Great Masters’ Notes” in his later years. Since then, the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties have formed a cultural business card, which has been used to this day and has become an example for us to learn from. Each of them is a peak, and for future generations, it can only be a high mountain. These eight prose writers are well-known and have an extremely important position in the history of literature. However, many people may be familiar with the seven prose Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, Wang Anshi, Su Zhe, and Su Xun. , but for the last Zeng Gong, many people will not remember, he seems to have no sense of existence.
Zeng Gong, courtesy name Zigu, known as “Mr. Nanfeng” in the world, is a native of Nanfeng County, Jiangxi today , a famous writer, thinker, and calligrapher in the Northern Song Dynasty; he was also the most important cultural celebrity in that period, and Mao Kun chose him among the many writers in the Northern Song Dynasty, and did not choose the more famous Huang Tingjian, in fact, there is a reason , Zeng Gong’s poetry is not as good as Huang Tingjian’s, but the article has reached the point of perfection. Mao Kun used the article as the standard, not poetry, so Huang Tingjian was not selected and finally chose Zeng Gong.
Zeng Gong has no sense of existence in the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. I personally think there are two most important The reasons; 1. That is, there is not enough publicity for him. Now our textbooks rarely include Zeng Gong’s poems, but Huang Tingjian includes more, which makes his reputation seem to be small. There is no presence. 2. Zeng Gong is a relatively low-key person. Although he is Ouyang Xiu’s most proud disciple, he does not have the legend of Huang Tingjian. There are many stories about Huang Tingjian among the people, but there is very little about Zeng Gong.
Huang Tingjian’s main achievement is still in poetry, but the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties take prose as the standard, as long as Only well-written articles are eligible to be selected, so it is normal for Huang Tingjian to lose the election. Then Zeng Gong’s articles are also true biography of Ouyang Xiu, such as “The Book of Mochi”, “The Record of Yuezhou Zhaogong’s Disaster Relief”, “Preface to Li An’s Second Life”, etc., which are all famous and famous throughout the ages. Huang Tingjian In the absence of such an article, it is impossible to compare the article with Zeng Gong.
Zeng Gong is the pride of our Jiangxi people (of course Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi, and Huang Tingjian too), now It is because of his existence that Nanfeng County in Nanfeng is famous all over the world, and my hometown is only an hour or two away by car, so I feel very cordial. When I was a child, my father often told me his stories, telling me how Zeng Gong finally achieved a lifetime of fame through his own efforts. The other seven great writers had a higher starting point than Zeng Gong. Their grandfathers and fathers both held official positions. In today’s terms, they belong to the second generation of officials. Only Zeng Gong took one step at a time from the bottom, and finally occupied a place in the literary world of the Northern Song Dynasty through his own efforts.
There were many talents in the Northern Song Dynasty. Human knowledge has become a generation of literary masters, so he is very inspirational and an example that each of us should learn from. Whether it is his composition or life, Zeng Gong has done a good job. In order to take care of his elderly mother in his later years, he left officialdom and returned to his hometown, and devoted himself to filial piety by his mother’s side. How many people can do it now, and can give up the outside world of flowers?
Zeng Gong’s life was extremely tragic, but the kind of The spirit is also the most touching. His articles have been famous for centuries, and every time I read his articles, I am complimented. Therefore, he is well deserved to be selected as the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. It seems that he has no sense of existence, mainly because people I know little about him, just read his poems and I believe there will be new views on his literary achievements. Therefore, Mao Kun’s choice of Zeng Gong is undoubtedly the right choice. At least in the article, Zeng Gong’s achievements are higher than that of Huang Tingjian, and his articles are also more powerful and have a feeling of compassion.