韩愈穷困考论

On Han Yu’s Financial Poverty and Troubled Ambition

韩愈是唐代杰出的文学家、思想家和政治家,其诗文气象广大,有“文起八代之衰”的美誉。在这磅礴气象之下,也零星地记载着韩愈对自我个体的描述,“饥”“寒”“贫”“穷”等字眼出现于诗文之中,更有《送穷文》具体列出五穷:智穷、学穷、文穷、命穷、交穷。结合其生平可知,其“穷”主要体现在前半生的经济窘困上,即“身穷”;其“困”主要表现在为官之后的伟大志向不被满足,即“志困”。这种身穷志困的现实经历对其身体健康、诗文创作和道统思想均产生了一定的影响。

Han Yu was an outstanding litterateur,thinker and statesman in the Tang Dynasty.His extensive writings were reputed to have revitalized the weakened literary style of the previous eight dynasties.Under this majestic atmosphere,Han Yu’s descriptions of himself were also sporadically recorded,with words such as“hungry”,“cold”,“poor”,and“destitute”appearing in his writings,among which five demons of poverty were listed in his essay“Farewell to Poverty”(Song qiong wen).It can be seen from his life that his“poverty”was mainly reflected in the financial predicament in the first half of his life,and his“trouble”was mostly manifested in the fact that his great ambition after becoming an official was not satisfied.This reality of financial poverty and troubled ambition had a certain impact on his physical health,creation of writings and Confucian orthodoxy.