"Eighteen-year-old bride and eighty-year-old man, with pale hair and red makeup" comes from: "A Play Presented to Zhang Xian", which is a seven-character quatrain written by the Northern Song Dynasty writer Su Shi.
Original text
The eighteenth-year-old bride has pale hair and red makeup.
The mandarin ducks sleep in pairs at night, and a pear tree presses the begonia.
Translation
The bride is eighteen years old, and the groom is eighty years old. His pale hair faces the bride's gorgeous red makeup.
The mandarin ducks are in pairs under the quilt, like a pear tree overwhelming the begonia.
Notes
Zhang Xian: Zhang Xian (990-1078), whose courtesy name was Ziye, was from Wucheng (now Huzhou, Zhejiang). Poet of the Northern Song Dynasty. A representative figure of the graceful school. In the eighth year of Tiansheng (AD 1030), he became a Jinshi. He successively served as the governor of Suzhou, the county magistrate of Wujiang, and the judge of Jiahe (now Jiaxing, Zhejiang). In the second year of Huangyou (1050), Yan Shuzhi Yongxing Army (today's Xi'an, Shaanxi Province) was established as a general judge. Later, he became known to Yuzhou and Guozhou as a garrison member. He knew Anlu through taste, so he was called "Zhang Anlu". In the first year of Zhiping (1064), he became an official as a minister and a doctor. In the first year of Yuanfeng, he died of illness at the age of eighty-eight.
Appreciation of Works
Su Shi's limerick "Play to Zhang Xian" is very impressive and has no rival for five thousand years. And behind this poem, there is such a little story. Zhang Xian was a good friend of Su Shi. The 80-year-old Zhang Xian married the 18-year-old Huanghua girl as a concubine. As a good friend, Su Shi invited several other friends to come with him to congratulate him.
Zhang Xian married a girl who was old enough to be his grandson as a concubine. Naturally, he got carried away and showed off in front of his friends, so he wrote a poem: "I am eighty years old and you are eighteen, and you are my beauty." White hair. The same Geng as Qing, only a sixtieth in between." Seeing how proud Mr. Zhang was, our talented Mr. Su Shi blurted out the same poem as the previous one: "Eighteen-year-old bride with pale hair and red makeup. . The mandarin ducks are twined under the quilt at night, and the pear blossoms are pressed against the begonia tree."
The pear blossoms are white, which is a metaphor for Zhang Xian, a white-headed old man; the red begonias are used to describe a beautiful young woman. This limerick vividly describes the situation of an old man and a young wife. Su Shi's poem "A Play to Zhang Xian" satirizes Zhang Xian, a poet from the Song Dynasty. "A pear tree crushes the begonias" has become a euphemism for an old husband and a young wife, that is, "an old cow eats young grass".
In the poem, "a pear blossom crushes a begonia" seems to describe a scene, but in fact, the pear blossoms are white, which refers to the gray-haired husband, and the begonia is red, which refers to a beautiful young woman. The poem not only uses metaphors to express the spirit, but also The word "pressure" is extremely ambiguous. The scenery is beautiful and self-explanatory. Although this is a erotic poem, it is subtle and euphemistic. Reading it makes people think about it. There is not a word about beauty, not a word about explicitness, not a word about beauty. The pleasure of being a bed brother is all gone!
About the author
Su Shi (1037-1101), also known as Zizhan and Hezhong, also known as Dongpo Jushi, was an important writer in the Song Dynasty and one of the eight great writers of the Tang and Song Dynasties. , the representative of the highest achievement of literature in the Song Dynasty. Han nationality, a native of Meishan, Meizhou (now part of Meishan City, Sichuan Province) in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was a "Jinshi" during the reign of Jiayou (reign of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty, 1056-1063).
He is knowledgeable and likes to reward underachievers. Together with his father Xun and his younger brother Zhe, they are collectively known as "Sansu". His writing is unbridled, heroic and unrestrained, and together with Han Yu, he is called "Han Chao Su Hai". His poems have broad themes, are fresh and vigorous, are good at using exaggerated metaphors, and have a unique style. Together with Huang Tingjian, they are called "Su Huang". He is a representative of the bold and unrestrained style of poetry, and is also known as "Su Xin" along with Xin Qiji. He also works in calligraphy and painting. There are "Dongpo Seven Collections", "Dongpo Yi Zhuan", "Dongpo Shu Zhuan", "Dongpo Yuefu" and so on.