Biography

First of the major High Tang poets, Meng Haoran was born in Xiangyang, south of the Han River, in the modern province of Hubei. He remained strongly attached to this area and its scenery throughout his life. He had a rather abbreviated civil service career, passing the Jinshi civil service test, beginning at the late age of 39 and ending not much later. As recorded by the New Book of Tang, he was recommended by his good friend Wang Wei, and Emperor Xuanzong granted him an audience during which he recited his poetry. However, one line therein angered the emperor: "The untalented the wise lord discards", which Xuanzong interpreted as a sarcastic complaint for not employing him sooner in the imperial government. Thus, he was sent away from the palace. He received his only position three years before his death but resigned after less than a year. He lived in the Xiangyang area almost all his life (although he traveled to the major metropolis of Chang'an, where he was hosted by Wang Wei in 728). The landscape, history and legends of his home area are the subjects of many poems. Particularly prominent are Nanshan (or South Mountain, his family seat) and Lumen Shan, a temple site, where he briefly lived in retreat.

Works

Meng Haoran is often bracketed with Wang Wei, due to the friendship they shared and their prominence as landscape poets. In fact, Haoran composed several poems about Wei and their separation. While Wei focused on the natural world, in particular the solitude and reprieve it granted from human life along with the scale of the natural world, Meng Haoran focuses more on foreground details and human life, such as returning villagers waiting at the ferry crossing, fishermen, or (often unseen) mountain hermits dwelling in religious seclusion. His works are generally considered less consistently successful than Wang's; however, the themes and styles of Meng Haoran's poetry helped to set a convention followed by younger poets, such as Wang Wei.

In contemporary mainland China, Meng's poem Spring Morning is probably one of the best known poems from the Tang dynasty, as it has appeared in the widely used first grade level Chinese language textbook published by the People's Education Press since the 1980s and serves as the first exposure to Literary Chinese for hundreds of millions of students.

生平

唐玄宗在位時，開元十五年（727年）冬，孟浩然赴京尋求仕官之途，次年應考進士未成。王維曾經向玄宗推薦孟浩然，孟浩然的一句詩「不才明主棄」，讓玄宗不滿，失去了在朝廷任官的機會。

開元十七年（729年）孟浩然漫遊吳越。開元二十年（732年）回到襄陽。

開元二十二年（734年）再度入長安。韓朝宗十分欣賞孟浩然，於是邀請他參加飲宴，並且向朝廷推薦他，孟浩然因為與朋友喝酒而錯過了與韓朝宗的約定。

開元二十三年（735年）浩然游蜀。

開元二十五年（737年），張九齡為荊州長史，招致幕府。不久，仍返故居。開元二十八年（740年），王昌齡遊襄陽，訪孟浩然，相見甚歡。適浩然病疹發背，本來將要痊癒，因為縱情飲酒，食鮮疾發逝世。

著作

孟浩然的詩歌絕大部分為五言律詩，題材大多關於山水田園和隱逸、旅行等內容。他與王維、李白、張九齡交好，繼陶淵明、謝靈運、謝朓之後，開盛唐山水詩之先聲。知名詩作有《秋登萬山寄張五》、《過故人莊》、《春曉》等篇。

孟浩然的詩與王維齊名，並稱「王孟」。現通行的《孟浩然集》收詩263首，但其中有他人作品。

評價

李白對孟浩然極為崇拜，曾作數詩贈年長自己十二歲的孟浩然，最著名的一首是《贈孟浩然》：「吾愛孟夫子，風流天下聞。紅顏棄軒冕，白首臥松雲。醉月頻中聖，迷花不事君。高山安可仰，徒此揖清芬。」

杜甫《解悶十二首(其六)》：「複憶襄陽孟浩然，清詩句句盡堪傳。即今耆舊無新語，漫釣槎頭縮頸扁。」

聞一多：正如當時許多有隱士傾向的讀書人，孟浩然原來是為隱居而隱居，為了一個浪漫的理想，為著對古人的一個神聖的默契而隱居。

墓葬

孟浩然墓在湖北襄陽城東風林南麓。

注釋

朋友

外部鏈接

• 《孟浩然年譜 》

• 《古詩庫：孟浩然全集 》

• 下定雅弘：〈孟浩然對陶淵明的敬慕：從前期到後期的變化 〉。