Loushiming
Author: Liu Yuxi
The mountain is not high, and the fairy is famous. The water is not deep, and the dragon is the spirit. I am a humble room, but I am virtuous. The moss on the stage is green, and the curtain grass is green. There is no Ding Bai who laughs and has a university. You can tune the pipa and read Jin Dian. There is no confusion, and there is no complicated form. Zhuge Lu in Nanyang and Ting Yun Pavilion in West Shu. Kong Ziyun: What's wrong?
Vernacular translation
The mountain is not high, but the fairy is famous. The water is not deep, and with the dragon, it seems to have aura. This is a humble house, but I (the people who live in it) have a good moral character (so I don't feel humble). The moss marks on the steps are green; The grass is green and reflected in the curtains. All the people who come here to talk and laugh are knowledgeable scholars. Those without shallow knowledge can play the unpretentious guqin and read Buddhist scriptures. No music, no official documents. There is Zhuge Liang Caotang in Nanyang and Yangzi Yunting in West Shu. Confucius said, "What is so simple?"
Distinguish and appreciate
This inscription, which is less than 100 words, implicitly shows the author's elegant taste and independent personality. It reveals a truth to people: although the living room is simple and short of material, as long as the owner of the living room is virtuous and full of life, the room will be full of fragrance, elegant and domineering everywhere, and he has a magical spiritual power beyond material.
Some people think that when Liu Yuxi wrote this article, he was in the late stage of relegation, his mood was relatively stable, and he pursued a peaceful and quiet life. At the same time, there are Buddhist scriptures in the text, so the inscription reveals a negative component of avoiding the world and relaxing. This should be analyzed from two aspects: when the society is in a dark period, the literati have two ways out. One is to go along with the decadent forces and indulge themselves. One is to take a step back, as Mencius said, "If you are poor, you will be immune to it" and maintain your integrity and independent personality. In contrast, the latter is more worthy of recognition, and Liu Yuxi chose this road. At the same time, people's life is complicated, with tension and relaxation. We can't sell ourselves short, but sometimes we have to rest and entertain. Therefore, we cannot simply criticize leisure. On the other hand, the inscription also reflects the author's grand ambition. His quotation of Zhugelu and Zi Ting Yun has its special meaning. Zhuge Liang is a politician and Yang Xiong is a writer. These are also the two great ideals of the author's life. In his early years, he was bold and innovative and ambitious. After relegation, he set foot in the literary world and finally became famous as a writer. So there is also a positive and enterprising spirit in the article.
In writing, this article is characterized by clever use of metaphor to express the theme implicitly. The first four sentences are both vivid and auspicious. It is said that mountains and rivers lead to humble rooms, immortals lead to virtue and fragrance, and famous spirits imply that humble rooms are not humble. Taking Zhuge Lu in Nanyang and Ting Yun Pavilion in Xishu as examples, this paper expresses the author's political and literary ideals, and finally quotes Confucius as the conclusion, implying the profound meaning of "a gentleman lives in his place". Secondly, parallelism and antithesis are widely used. Parallelism can create a majestic literary trend, such as the parallelism of the first few sentences, which makes the whole article smooth and establishes the pattern of parallelism style. The antithetical sentences are prone to ups and downs in content, such as the six antithetical sentences in the middle, which are both descriptive and narrative, concise and meaningful, and have a strong sense of rhythm. The article also uses rhetorical devices such as substitution and introduction.
In a word, this is a masterpiece with high ideological and artistic quality, so it can be read forever and be widely read.