Wei Zi rides like a donkey.

Ancient literati had better be elegant, which is spiritual satisfaction beyond material things. There are also many elegant things, such as riding donkeys and cows. Laozi rode an ox upside down, while famous poets such as Meng Haoran, Li Bai, Du Fu, Jia Dao, Li He and Zheng Gui rode donkeys to write poems.

"Yunfu Qunyu" contains: "Meng Haoran tasted stagnant water, braved the snow to ride a donkey to find plum blossoms, and said,' My poem is on the back of a donkey in the snow'." "

The ancient and modern poetry also records the late Tang poet Zheng Gui's "Guo Xiang is a good poem" ... or: "Guo Xiang is a new poem?" There is a poem on the back of Baqiao Snow Donkey. How did you get this? "

Li He, who is known as "Shi Gui" in Biography of Li He, said: "Heng Zi is a small slave, riding a huge donkey and carrying an ancient kit. When he gets something, he throws the book into the bag."

There is a famous story in Jia Dao's poems: "Birds inhabit the trees by the pool, and X-moon monks come to the door." Is X "knock" or "push"? After some painstaking thinking, I finally decided to use "push" instead of "knock", so the quatrain of "birds stay in the trees by the pool, monks push the moon down the door" was handed down to future generations.

Jia Dao's thinking and choice of these two words was made on the back of a donkey. Finally, because I was so selfless, I bumped into Jing and Han Yu. However, Han Yu is also a talent. Not only never punish him, but also discuss poetry with him and become bosom friends.

The famous poet Du Fu also "rode a donkey for thirty years". Li Chunfu has poems to write:

Don't you see that the old man Huan Hua is drunk and returns to the picture, and the bear catches the horse and helps him. I didn't see Mr. Yuchuan's quatrains. He knocked over all the berries.

The donkey camel is a poet, and the short whip seems to be predestined. Politics is in Amb Lee, Fuling and Meng Haoran is in charge of Xiangyang.

Officials can't let evil go, but donkeys beat Yangzhou cranes. I don't like the soft world outside Donghua Gate, but my hat and boots are old but human.

Why does riding a donkey become an elegant thing? Riding Lu, traveling around the world, carefree. I'm in the mood. Sing a poem or two. I don't know when it started, but it seems to be a specific way for poets to write poems on donkeys.

Donkeys were a common kind of riding in ancient times, and people who could ride donkeys were not rich. Although being rich doesn't mean that you can't be honest, most rich people can't be associated with lofty. Just like Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai, the flowers of dust in the fairy world and the flowers of wealth on earth, if you want to be lofty, you will definitely think of Lin Daiyu.

From a certain point of view, riding a donkey to write poems has always been regarded as the image of lofty literati, which is a classic poetic image. The donkey became a symbol of the poet's lofty thoughts.

As Lu You said in "Rain at Jianmen Road": "Dust and wine stains on clothes are fascinating everywhere. Is this body a poet? Riding a donkey into the sword gate in the drizzle. "

As for why riding donkeys and cows is elegant, but riding horses is not. Quite simply, horses were very important strategic materials in ancient times and were used in the military. Especially after the prevalence of cavalry, horses are indispensable materials for the country.

A country's army itself needs a large number of horses, and most of the excellent horses are sent to the army. Therefore, horses are more expensive among the people, and people who can ride horses, take carriages or even use horse camel goods have better economic conditions. Before poets became famous as officials, most of them were poor and there was no need to buy horses.

Moreover, the pace and speed of horses are much faster than those of donkeys and cows. Riding a horse is a bit less leisurely than riding a donkey or an ox.

In the long process of evolution, riding donkeys and driving cattle became the elegance of ancient literati, while horses were excluded.