A famous scholar in the Eastern Jin Dynasty was not only a litterateur and an exegetist, but also a master of Taoism and mathematics, and the founder of youxian poetry.
Guo Pu had annotated Zhouyi, Shan Hai Jing, Mu Zhuan, Dialect and Chu Ci, and now Guo Pu's annotation can be found everywhere in Ci Hai or Ci Yuan.
Guo Pu spent 18 years researching and annotating Er Ya, explaining the names of ancient animals and plants with the popular dialect names at that time, and making annotations and drawings for them, making Er Ya an important reference book for studying materia medica in past dynasties.
The pictorial classification of animals and plants initiated by Guo Pu has also been used by all large-scale herbal works since the Tang Dynasty.
From the academic origin, Guo Pu not only inherited the Yi-ology from his family, but also inherited the art and mathematics theory of Taoism. He was the most famous alchemist in the Jin Dynasty. It is said that he was good at many strange alchemies.
Guo Pu's poetry and prose works in his life amounted to more than 100 volumes and hundreds of thousands of words. The Biography of Guo Pu in the Book of Jin is called "the crown of rejuvenation in Ci and Fu".
Among them, there are only 14 poems about immortals as the main representative, which is the originator of immortals' poems in China.
Poems about immortals originated very early. Dr. Qin has poems about immortals, and Han Yuefu also has such works. More and more people continued to write during Jian 'an and Zhengshi periods.
There are obviously two tendencies in immortal poetry. One is the so-called regular fairy poem, which is "I am filthy, I am profligate, I am enjoying the scenery, I am attracting jade, I am in the mystery city" (Shan Li's note on Selected Works); One is to express dissatisfaction and resistance to reality through wandering immortals, such as some works by Cao Zhi and Ruan Ji.
Guo Pu obviously inherited the latter tradition.
His poems about immortals are based on immortals and have certain realistic contents.
For example, the first song said: "Beijing Ranger Cave is secluded in the mountains.
He Zurong, Zhu Men, distrustful of Penglai ",expressed his contempt and denial of Zhu Men.
The fifth song says: "If you clear the source, you can swallow the boat safely.
Although Zhang Gui is very special, it is difficult to cast the bright moon in the dark, which shows that talents are born at an untimely time.
The fourth song shows the faint of seeking immortality and the feeling of sighing when injured.
Another feature of Guo Pu's poems about immortals is its rich images, which are often too abstract from ordinary poems about immortals.
For example, the third song said: "Emerald plays orchids, and the color is more brilliant. The green radish is high in the forest and covered with a mountain.
..... Red pine in the upper reaches, purple smoke flooding the flood, hanging floating sleeves on the left and patting Hongya on the shoulder on the right ",which describes the imaginary immortal's living and life style, vivid and vivid.
Shi Pin said that his poems were "brilliant and playable", which just pointed out this feature.
But after all, the theme of immortals' poems is singing and dancing, so its negativity is still great.
Erya is the earliest exegetical work of China in ancient times.
It is about a scholar between Qin and Han Dynasties, who compiled and edited old books and articles in the Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period and Qin and Han Dynasties, and gradually gained something.
There are 19 articles in the book, among which the last seven articles are: releasing grass, trees, insects, fish, birds, animals and livestock.
These seven articles not only recorded more than 590 kinds of animals and plants and their names, but also included them into a certain classification system according to their morphological characteristics.
Erya preserved rich biological knowledge in early ancient China, which is an important work for later generations to study and study animals and plants.
According to historical records, in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Dou Yi was given a hundred silks by Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty for "being able to distinguish a leopard from a mouse according to his two-ya" and asked his children to learn from Dou Yi.
Guo Pu regarded Er Ya as an introductory book to study animals and plants and understand nature.
He said, "If you can know the names of birds, animals and plants, you can't get close to Er Ya." However, Er Ya was written earlier, and the characters were simpler. Coupled with the spread of time for a long time, it is inevitable that the characters will fall off incorrectly. As early as the Han Dynasty, there were many incomprehensible contents.
Therefore, before Guo Pu, avant-garde literature, Liu Xin, Fan Guang, Li Xun, Sun Yan and others had made comments on Er Ya.
Guo Pu was interested in Er Ya since he was a child.
He thought that the old notes were "not prepared in detail, full of fallacies and omissions", so he made a new note on Erya with reference to the old notes of Fan Guang and others.