Judging from the meaning of the whole poem, this sentence is Cao Cao's self-confession that he longs for talents and hopes that the talents in the world will be owned by him. It means: "talent, you wander between the monarch and the minister, and you don't know who to rely on." I will receive you with the same heart as the mountain and the sea, and you will come to my account. So the "three turns" of "three turns around the tree" here should be interpreted as "multiple turns", which means "wandering" is more reasonable. If we use "three circles" to understand, it is difficult to conform to the original intention of the poem.
This involves the meaning and usage of the word "three" in ancient Chinese. "San" is a word with rich meanings in ancient Chinese. There is a special hint in the Dictionary of Common Words in Ancient Chinese (Commercial Press, Fourth Edition): Note that "San" and "Jiu" in ancient Chinese often refer to the majority instead of specific numbers. According to this important hint, combined with the sentences containing "three" in ancient poems, such as "Three thousands of feet goes straight down, it is suspected that the Milky Way has set for nine days", "After three months of bonfire, a family letter is worth a ton of gold", "The east wind dyes three thousand, and the egrets have nowhere to stop" and so on. In these poems, "three" all appear in the divisor, referring to the majority and many. As an approximate number, "three" can be traced back to Laozi's "Tao gives birth to one, life gives birth to two, life gives birth to three, and life gives birth to everything". In Zhouyi, the hexagram "three" stands for dry, that is, heaven, and the hexagram "three-three" stands for Kun, that is, earth. When two images overlap, everything in the world is created, so "three" usually appears in the sense of "majority". The interpretation of "three" in Shuo Wen Jie Zi is "the way of heaven and earth". It also means the majority, not the exact one. The article "The Hongmen Banquet" in the textbook of People's Education Edition: "What jade does (Fan Zeng) deserve? Xiusan. " The "three" in the book is also called "many times". There are also words like "think twice before you act" in The Analects of Confucius, which are all interpreted as "many times".
"San" also has a definite reference, but when it is defined, there are often clear objects and objects and clear language environment. Like Zuo Zhuan? Zhao Gong Seven Years: "This scholar said: We should not be cautious in politics, but should only do three things. Choose one person, two people, three times. " (Dictionary of Common Words in Ancient Chinese) Another example is Ouyang Xiu's History of the Five Dynasties? Preface to Biography of Lingguan: "(King Jin) and Er San Yan, Er Qi never forgets to be the father's ambition." ("China's view of ancient literature") "Mencius? Dedication: "The treasure of princes: land, people and politics. "(Notes to the Thirteen Classics? The "three" in these sentences is an exact number, with specific objects and referred objects, or it needs to be interpreted as the exact number "three" according to the language environment.
"Three" is also interpreted as "third" in the case of ordinal number, followed by nouns, which can be arranged in order or according to the needs of language environment. For example, Shang Jun Shu? Xiuquan: "When you talk about Buddhism, you talk about faith, and you talk about strength. "Li Bai's Poems on Feng Hao": "Luoyang flies to the lake and sand in March" and so on.
On the other hand, according to Zhu Dongrun's Selected Literary Works of China in Past Dynasties (Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House), the "Zhuan" in the "Three Zhuan" is "around". In this way, "three" should be a general number, only a general reference. Look at the last two sentences of the poem, "The Duke of Zhou vomited, and the world returned to his heart." Quote the allusions in the Biography of Han Poetry: According to legend, the Duke of Zhou "vomits three meals at a time, and he is still afraid of the world's scholars", which means that the Duke of Zhou is too busy receiving the world's sages to eat. Of course, "three" is also an approximate number. Cao Cao left few works in his life. Most of the poems that use "three" in the Complete Works of Cao Cao appear as approximate figures. For example, "Short Songs" (Part II): "Zhou Xibo is long, pregnant with this virtue. There are three points in the world, but two points. " The allusion of "three points in the world, two minutes in the week" is not exact. Jiang Ziya assisted Ji in moral management, which led to the occupation of most areas of Shang Dynasty by Zhou. In "Duijiu": "Duijiu Song, too normal, officials don't call the door. The king is wise, and the prime minister is honest and kind. Salt and ceremony, the people do not dispute. Three years of ploughing has nine years of storage, and the grain is abundant. " The use of "three" and "nine" is not exact, but refers to a phenomenon that "the people are safe and the grain is abundant".
In a word, from the specific application of "three" in ancient Chinese, combined with the specific language environment of Cao Cao's Short Songs. The "three circles" here should be interpreted as "multiple circles", which not only conforms to the usage habits of classical Chinese, but also conforms to the language environment of poetry.
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Editor/Li Li