Investigation Into Xiezhen's Traveling & Associations

Xie Zhen (1496—1575), a member of the Late Seven Poets styled by Maoqin ,born in Linqing ,Shandong Province. He named himself Si Min Shan Ren, however others called TouXi old man (an old man with bare feet).He has achieved considerable achievements in poetry. "His poet is worth reading " is the comment in the one hundred and seventy-second volume in "The General Contents of Si Ku Quan Shu". "Shi Jia Zhi Shuo", his criticism on poetry also possesses its own characteristics. However, he was inclined to correct the ancients' poetry to show his brilliance. His comments on poetry which shows his own preference meet with much criticism ,but they are wiser than the extreme views of the other members. The present academic circle is rather concerned with his criticism on poetry rather than his life & poetry. This article attempts to give a brief account of his life whereabouts and his circumstances of making friends through the reading and textual research , and on the basis to probe the influence on his criticism and creation by his life whereabouts and his making friends .Xie Zhen ,a commoner all his life ,was not good at making a living ,but liked writing poetry in a poor life .And this forced him to visit King Shen, King Zhao and King Zhen etc. and depended on them for a living .His discussing methods of how to writing poetry with the kings and writing poems to each other reply had a great influence on shaping his poetics .Xie Zhen was ready to help others .Lu Lan was wronged and put into prison. Xie went to the capital with Lu's poetry .He paid visits to officials of high ranks and told them Lu's innocence and Lu was set free .This won him great fame and at the same time make him known by the other members of the post seven poets . Soon later ,he was excluded from membership of the post seven poets .And this became a well-known case in literary history .This article holds that it is because that there are many conflicts of fame and interests between them .XieZhen covered ShanDong ,HeNan ,ShanXi,Beijing,Tianjing etc all his life .He had been to the frontier twice ,witnessing the reality in which the common people and soldiers suffered greatly from the war .And this has been deeply reflected in his poems .