"A Visitor Enjoying Flowers" And "A Farmer Selling Vegetables"

Zhao Yu,whose courtesy name was Wenrao,was born in 1635 and died in 1713 and was also known as Mengquan.His family lived in Shigang village,Shouxin township,Jiading county.Since the Ming Dynasties,Zhao family persisted in Part-Time Learning and mainly relied on cultural management and role played in community affairs to integrate into society,but never held an eminent position.Between the Ming and Qing Dynasties,Zhao Yu's family seemingly didn't participate in the Anti-Qing Rebellion in Jiading county,but subsequently suffered a disaster in Case of Repayment of Money and Grain Debts.With the depressed atmosphere of scholar's tendency and style of study,Zhao Yu's imperial examination career was so difficult that he didn't become Jinshi until fifties.As one of two Jinshi in Jiading,he was obligated to exert himself in public affairs.Then the disaster caused by grain transported to the fold of change followed,hence Zhao Yu fell into the bottom of life.Facing the ups and downs of the Bureaucrat career,Zhao Yu's mood was greatly changed.Finally,his conviction was overturned.Then,he served as a county magistrate in the Dingtao of Shandong Province.During his term of office,Zhao Yu preferred the county to his homeland,and administered it very well by soft ways,which helped him realize traditional scholar's political ideals.After retiring on the grounds of illness to his homeland,Zhao Yu built a livelihood space named Yuritang that was refined and elegant.In addition,he organized a poetry club called Dancheng and was deeply engrossed in leisure and cultural activities,during which Zhao Yu reconstructed himself,furthermore,he fulfilled reinterpretation of life value and final arrangement of end-result thereby.Obviously,as a unique and animated individual,a local man such as Zhao Yu is special due to his own living environment,personal contacts and experience.Still,his traces of life and emotional expression had a certain universal significance that could grossly reflect a local scholar of Jiading in the early Qing Dynasty lived in poverty,slogged through the imperial examination and participated in literary activities leisurely and carefree under the influence of series of disasters blamed on change of dynasties and imperial systematical design.Zhao Yu's poems and articles written with creativity and sensitivity could be seen as his self-reflection on life stories,which presented a scholar's life-world who had gone through rough times.