Tang Bohu, a talented person in the south of the Yangtze River, is not a legendary "male god", and his life is very difficult.
There are many folklores about Tang Bohu, saying that he had nine beautiful wives, and that he made Chou-heung in San Xiao and finally won back the beautiful women.
As a matter of fact, the real Tang Bohu is plain and has a rough life, and everyone he meets is uncomfortable. Although his poems and paintings are three wonders, his ending is also tragic.
Born in Suzhou, whose real name is Yin, the word Bohu, and later the word Liu Ruju, the owner of the Peach Blossom Temple, was a famous painter and writer in the Ming Dynasty. He was born in Chenghua for six years. His father, Tang Guangde, was an ordinary man who opened a pub in Gao Qiao, Suzhou, and his mother, Qiu Shi, was a little jade girl. Because he was born in the year of Geng Yin, he was named Tang Yin, and because he was the eldest son of his family, he was also called Tang Bohu.
Tang Bohu was gifted since childhood. He is familiar with the four books and five classics and reads widely. He began to learn painting under the guidance of his teacher. Although he is not deeply involved in the world, his techniques are flexible and vigorous, and his paintings of landscapes, flowers and birds are quite similar and have a master style. He is called a "child prodigy".
At that time, my father often went to Tang's hotel to drink. He was very surprised when he saw that Tang Bohu's paintings were very learned. He thought he would get ahead in the future, so he decided to let Tang Yin join him and learn from Shen Zhou, the founder of Wu Pai. At first, Tang Guangde just hoped that his son would take part in the imperial examination in the future so that he could honor his ancestors. He didn't want his son to learn painting, but he gave in to Lin Wen's persuasion and reluctantly agreed.
/kloc-at the age of 0/6, Tang Bohu took the provincial examination and won the first place, which caused a sensation in Suzhou. Because of his outstanding talents, he is also called "Four Outstanding Persons in Wuzhong" and "Four Outstanding Persons in Jiangnan" with Tang Bohu, Zhu Zhishan, Wen Zhiming and Xu Zhenqing. So, he was added to the school of Suzhou government and studied in the government house.
/kloc-at the age of 0/9, he was unable to take the provincial examination due to illness, and he married a local woman, and they were very close. At the age of 22, Tang Bohu failed to take the provincial examination because he had to serve his sick parents. When Tang Bohu was 25 years old, his father, mother, wife and sister died one after another within one year. The family suffered such misfortune that no one could bear such a blow.
After experiencing family changes, he once sank and began to indulge himself, often spending the night in Huajie Liuxiang and drinking all day. In the tenth year of Hongzhi in Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1497), Tang Bohu and his good friend Zhang Ling were drinking in Liuxiang, Huajie, and fell into depravity when they got drunk. He was caught by local chronicles who wanted to study for the imperial history. Local chronicles hated Tang Bohu's insulting behavior and removed Tang Bohu from the exam. Later, Cao Feng, the magistrate of Suzhou, cherished talents, and Suzhou celebrities such as Lin Wen, Shen Zhou and others pleaded for Tang Bohu. Fang Zhicai agreed to "supplement" and let him take the provincial examination the next year.
In the 11th year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1498), Tang Bohu, 29, took the provincial examination in Yingtianfu (now Nanjing) and won the second place in his life again, which made him famous for a while.
A friend acted as a matchmaker and married him a wife. This wife's family is a businessman in Suzhou and is very interested in his fame.
In the second year after the exam, Tang Bohu went to Beijing to take the exam, and Lu Yu and Xu Jing, the son of a very rich family in Jiangyin, took the exam together. The two talked just right, so they formed a best friend.
According to historical records, this Xu Jing is the great-grandfather of the famous traveler Xu Xiake.
Although Xu Jing is rich, his literary talent is not good. He spent a lot of money to buy off the furniture of the examiner Cheng who was about to take the exam and got the test questions. Xu Jing came to Tang Bohu to seek help with the examination questions, and offered to ask Tang Bohu to help him write the article, willing to pay 5,200 sycees. Tang Bohu knew that once the business of buying and selling examination questions was exposed, the consequences would be unimaginable, so he refused.
Sure enough, someone exposed Xu Jing's cheating. In a rage, the emperor ordered an investigation into a group of people. Tang Bohu nature can't escape, was involved.
Tang Bohu suffered a lot in the big prison. In his letter to his friend Wen Zhiming, he described in detail the tragic situation at that time: "As for the Emperor Hezhen, he gave an order and ordered the arrest of the prison army, just like a tiger, holding its head high and holding the ground, with tears gathering."
After more than a year of trial, the case is unknown. Although Tang Bohu was not identified as the principal offender in the examination room fraud case, he could not get rid of his involvement. Although Tang Bohu was released from prison, his career in imperial examinations was hopeless. The court abolished his fame and sent him to a remote place in Zhejiang to be a small official.
Tang Bohu was disheartened by the sudden blow. Because of his intelligence and high heart, he was ashamed to be a small official and return to Suzhou, so he traveled abroad to relieve boredom and traveled all over Zhejiang, Anhui, Hunan, Hubei, Fujian, Jiangxi and other provinces. During his years of travel, many of his paintings were left behind by people. Today, in the antique market, one or two original works of Tang Bohu will still pop up.
Tang Bohu wandered for more than a year and returned to Suzhou City. When he entered this shabby house, he realized that his second wife had left and married someone else. Tang Bohu was angry and tired, and had a serious illness. After his recovery, his temperament changed greatly, and he became more degenerate. He keeps drinking all day. Because of the contact with more women, it also increased the source of life for Tang Bohu to draw beautiful women.
According to folklore, Tang Bohu and Zhu Zhishan dressed as beggars and sang lotus flowers begging along the street. When the money came, they went to the restaurant to drink.
With Tang Bohu's character, there is nothing he can't do.
In the 18th year of Hongzhi in Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1505), Tang Bohu, 36, met a woman in nine niang. They share joys and sorrows and live together. Soon, the two men built a house in Taohuawu outside Suzhou Jinchang Gate, named Taohuaan (now located in Taohuawu Street).
Tang Bohu is brilliant and good at poetry, calligraphy and painting. In order to make a living, he had to sell literature for a living. At that time, one of his paintings could be exchanged for two ounces of silver. As long as Tang Bohu has money, he won't sell paintings. He and Shen nine niang manage the Taolin beside the house and live in seclusion. Occasionally, friends come to visit, and after reciting poems, they get drunk and lie under the peach tree. This is a pleasure.
One day, Tang Bohu was drunk and wrote a peach blossom poem at the beginning of the article on a whim. In this peach blossom poem, "People laugh at me for being crazy, but I laugh at people who can't see through it", which is a true portrayal of Tang Bohu.
It's a pity that this good day didn't take long, and Shen nine niang died of illness, leaving only one person.
Tang Bohu didn't find another partner, lived alone, and converted to Buddhism because of spiritual emptiness, so he called himself "Liu Ru". In the second year of Ming Jiajing (1523), Tang Bohu died at the age of 54.
After his death, he was buried in Hengtang clan cemetery. Because he had no money, he was buried with the help of his good friend Zhu Zhishan.
The origin of Tang Bohu's name "the first romantic talent in the south of the Yangtze River" is probably related to his lingering in Huajie Liuxiang after he lost power. And Tang Bohu, out of arrogance and conceit about his talent, really carved the seal of "the first romantic talent in Jiangnan".
Tang Bohu has nine beautiful wives, which is a story misinformed by people from her pictures of ladies and various deductive versions of Shen nine niang.
And his classic famous sentence "San Xiao Dianchouxiang" is a story invented by later scholars, and his name is written on it. However, some historians believe that the nickname of his second wife is "Chou-heung".
No matter how well the experts explain it, I don't believe it anyway.