诗工命穷——论南宋江湖诗人的悲剧人生

The Tragic Life of Wandering Poets in the Southern Song Dynasty

南宋江湖诗人以自己的创作在中国诗歌史上形成了一个颇具影响的诗歌流派,改变了一代诗风。作为中下层知识分子,他们形成了一个较为特殊的群体:政治地位不高,几乎与普通百姓无异;大多数人并未因为享有诗名而过上优裕的生活,而是生计艰难,命运多舛。他们有的被迫干谒,受尽凌辱;有的兜售诗文,屡遭冷遇;有的饥寒交迫,穷困潦倒,甚至客死他乡,无力安葬。这些诗人沦落到如此地步,一方面与诗人自身的原因有关,如没有显赫的家庭背景,缺乏恒产,不愿走科举仕宦的道路,或嗜吟成癖和拙于生计等;另一方面更是由于封建王朝的腐朽黑暗和统治者的压制与摧残。

The wandering poets of the Southern Song Dynasty are a noteworthy school in China＇s history of poetry. Quite a few of them enjoyed high reputation as poets, which resulted in changing the patterns of tripartite confrontation in the poetic circles with their fruitful creative works. They made a great impact on the poetic creation by gradually altering the popular poetic trends of Jiangxi, represented by four “Lings” （Ling Xiu, Ling Yuan, Ling Hui and Ling Shu） and Neo-Confucianism. However, as many other intellectuals in ancient China, most of them got nowhere in politics, had low social status and lived a poor life.-Although they were well-cultured in literature, well-versed in chanting and writing poetry, and versatile in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, they didn＇t live in abundance and comfort. On the contrary, they often had to deal with all kinds of difficulties and embarrassments in order to maintain their livelihood and support their families. For example, they had to pay a call on prominent officials and dedicated their poems to them with the hope to win their favour and earn their rewards. But more often than not, they got a cold shoulder and suffered insults. They wanted to have their poems published in order to make a living by selling them, but they were neither unable to find buyers or they had to sell them at low prices. Their lack of regular sources of income resulted in a life of abject poverty. Some of them died in a strange land without a piece of burial ground. There are various reasons for their plight. On the one hand, they had good family background and no inherited properties. They were unwilling to become officials by taking imperial examinations, so they had no steady sources of income. Furthermore, they were unable to finance their lives, devoting all their energies to poetic creation only. On the other hand, feudal rulers at that time took repressive attitude towards poets and thought nothing of those uncooperative poets. In fact, this dark political domination was the fundamental reason for the tragedy of a large number of the wandering poets.