1 Introduction to the author
Xu Wei (1521-1593 AD), also known as Wen Chang, also known as Qingtengshanren. A native of Shanyin (now Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province). A famous artist in the Ming Dynasty. In his early years, he took part in the provincial examination and failed repeatedly. In his middle age, he served as a secret agent for Hu Zongxian, the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, and made military plans to fight against Japanese pirates. However, because Xu Wei hated evil and despised the powerful, he was impoverished throughout his life and even went crazy for a time. In his later years, he could only survive by selling paintings and calligraphy. He has great achievements in calligraphy, painting, poetry, opera and many other aspects. His paintings are unique, and he is especially good at flowers and birds. According to historical records, the freehand splash-ink painting method popular in modern flower and bird paintings began to develop from him. His poems and essays were unconventional, and his opera treatises and dramas also had many aspects that surpassed previous opinions and broke conventions.
2 Background information
According to legend, the earliest kites in China were made by Mo Zhai, a philosopher from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago. He came up with the idea of ??making a kite because he saw an eagle circling in the sky in Lushan (now Weixian County, Shandong Province). However, the process of making a kite did not go smoothly. After three years of research and trial production, he finally made a wooden bird out of wood, but it broke down after only flying for one day. Later, Mo Zhai passed the kite-making business to his student Gongshu Ban (also known as Lu Ban). Lu Ban made kites out of bamboo based on Mo Zhai's ideals and designs. Lu Ban split the bamboo and smoothed it, then baked it and bent it into the shape of a magpie. It was called a "wooden magpie" and it flew in the air for three days. Kites were later used in military applications to detect enemy positions. After the Tang Dynasty, its use began to shift to entertainment. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, folk customs gradually formed. On the Qingming Festival, people flew kites high and far away, then cut the strings of the kites and let the kites float away with the wind, which meant to completely let go of the "depression" accumulated over the past year. Go out and pray for the elimination of disease during the year.
Xu Wei was poor in his later years and mainly made a living by selling paintings. "Wind kites" was one of his frequent painting themes in his later years. He painted a large number of "wind kites" and wrote poems about them. There are more than thirty such "Poems on Wind Kites" in existence, and the one selected here is one of the more representative ones. Through the description of children flying kites, he poured his hope and sustenance for the future into children, and also expressed his own emotions.
Three Notes
1. Wind Kite: also known as "paper kite". Kite: ○ Cantonese [Yuan], [jyn1]; ○ Han [yuān]; Eagle. Eagles are often painted on paper kites, hence the name. Strictly speaking, there is a difference between a kite and a paper kite. The so-called "kite" means that it can produce sounds like strings in the air; as for the "paper kite", it is a dumb bird that only flies but does not sing. A kite is made by tying a bowstring to the back of a paper kite or pressing a bagpipe on the head of the kite. When the paper is lifted into the air, strong winds pass through the flute or cause the bowstring to vibrate, producing a whining sound. Ordinary paper kites make no sound. However, people no longer distinguish between the two.
2. Rub: ○Cantonese [学], ○Han [cuō]. Rub the two palms together repeatedly, or place the palms on something else and rub them back and forth.
3. Catkins: Catkins. The seeds of willow trees are covered with white downy hair and are called "catkins", also known as "willow cotton".
4. Xun: The ancient unit of length, with eight feet as one fathom, Qianxun is extremely long.
5. Xiaode: consume, consume.
6. Lead: lead.
IV. Key points of appreciation
The poet organically combines poetry and painting with rich imagination. Poetry and painting complement each other and are full of life and interest. This poem describes the preparations before flying the kite and the feelings when the kite flies into the sky. It does not directly describe the activity of flying the kite, which should be left to the picture to explain. The poet tells the reader that a group of children rubbed and rubbed hard. When the string for the kite was long enough, everyone came to the suburbs with great interest. Then the reader can see from the picture that this is a good day to fly the kites. The wind is blowing, the sun is shining, and the children are running around constantly, sending the kites into the sky.
From this picture, the poet had a thought: How much effort does it take for the spring breeze to send the kites to the sky one by one, so they can fly freely; and how much effort does the elders need to spend to train the children to become talents one by one and send them to Qingyun Road?
The first half of the poem focuses on the description of the children's preparatory activities before flying the kite. The poet did not describe all the preparation activities in full, but only started with one detail and wrote about how they worked hard to weave the threads of the paper kite. Three consecutive words for "rubbing" clearly reveal the seriousness and eagerness of the children. The impatient children do not find such monotonous and laborious work boring, which shows how much they look forward to releasing the kite. The word "enough" that follows indicates that as soon as the lead they rolled reaches a sufficient length, they immediately stop working. The uncontrollable joy and eagerness to try are vividly displayed on the paper, as if they are about to jump up and down immediately. Put your own paper kite in the sky. The poet grasps children's eagerness very accurately and depicts it in detail. The last two sentences highlight the poet's soaring thoughts. The carefree child in the picture seems to be his figure when he was young. He is holding the paper kite, immersed in happiness with a beautiful longing for future life. At some point, the harsh reality shattered his dreams one after another. He is now in his twilight years and has experienced many vicissitudes of life, but he still has hope for the future. He gave his deepest blessings and hoped that the child would fly into the blue clouds with the help of the spring breeze. For the paper kite, the "spring breeze" refers to the gentle breeze that carries it into the sky; for a child, it refers to the cultivation of parents and teachers, who can "take" the child to the top of the blue clouds. The whole poem is a mixture of virtuality and reality. It has a strong flavor of real life and the magnificence of the imaginary world.
Good poems on paintings can help to understand the connotation of paintings; readers can give full play to their imagination when reading poems and reading paintings. This poem is a typical example of the interplay of poetry and painting.