"Song of Peach Blossom Temple"
Ming Dynasty: Tang Yin
There is a Peach Blossom Temple in Taohuawu, and there is a peach blossom fairy in Peach Blossom Temple.
The Peach Blossom Fairy planted peach trees and folded flower branches to pay for wine.
When you are sober, you just sit in front of flowers; when you are drunk, you have to sleep under flowers.
Day after day after flowering, drunkenly and awake year after year.
I don’t want to bow in front of the chariot and horse, but I want to die of old age and spend time drinking.
The chariot, dust and horses are enough for the rich, and the wine-gold twigs are for the poor.
If you compare wealth to poverty, one is on the ground and the other is in the sky.
If the poor and the lowly were compared to a chariot and a horse, he would have to drive and I would have nothing to do.
The world laughs at me for being too cool, but the world doesn’t see through me.
I remember the Tomb of the Heroes of Wuling, working in the fields without wine or flowers.
In the third month of Yichou in Hongzhi, Tang Yin, the owner of Taohua Temple.
Translation:
There is a Peach Blossom Temple in Taohuawu, and there is a Peach Blossom Fairy under the Peach Blossom Temple. The Peach Blossom Fairy planted peach trees and broke off peach blossom branches to pay for the wine. When you are sober, you just sit in front of the peach blossoms; when you are drunk, you sleep under the peach blossoms. Day after day by the peach blossoms, year after year I get drunk and sober.
I don’t want to bow down before the luxurious carriages and horses, I just want to spend my days admiring flowers and drinking wine to die. Running around with carriages and horses is the pleasure of the rich, while those without wealth pursue wine cups and flower branches.
If you compare wealth and poverty, there is a world of difference. If we compare the life of poverty with the life of hard work and fatigue, what they get is the pain of running around, while what I get is the joy of leisure.
People in the world laugh at me for being too crazy, and I laugh at them for being too superficial. I still remember that there were no flowers or wine in front of the tombs of the heroes of Wuling. Now they have been plowed into fields. In March of the Yichou year of Hongzhi, Tang Yinzuo, the owner of Peach Blossom Temple.
Extended information:
Writing background:
This poem was written in 1505 AD (the eighteenth year of Hongzhi), which was the year before the Tang Yin imperial examination The false accusation lasted only six years. Tang Yin once won the title of Jieyuan, but was later implicated in a fraud case in the examination room and was dismissed from his position. After a long period of life training, he saw through the illusion of fame and wealth. The poet wrote this poem to express his attitude towards life that he is willing to live in seclusion and is indifferent to fame.
The whole poem has a bright and elegant picture, a graceful and graceful style, the melody is windy and snowy, and the meaning is mellow and profound. Although the eyes are full of fragrant words such as flowers, peaches, wine, drunkenness, etc., there is no vulgarity at all. Instead, the writing power goes straight through the back of the paper, making people wake up suddenly. This is where Tang Yin's poems and paintings are most effective, and this poem is also Tang Yin's representative work.
The first four sentences of the poem are a narrative, saying that he is a peach blossom fairy who lives in seclusion in Taohua Temple in Taohuawu area of ??Suzhou. Planting peach trees, selling peach blossoms and drinking wine are a portrayal of his life. These four sentences are passed through the top of the poem. The technique deliberately highlights the image of "peach blossom" and uses the peach blossom as a metaphor for the hermit. It clearly depicts the image of a hermit who roams in the forest, is free and easy, loves life, and is as happy as a god.
The two most prominent and impressive images in this poem are "flowers" and "wine". Peach blossoms first appeared in literary works, in the "Peach Blossoms" chapter of "The Book of Songs·Zhou Nan", and were originally intended to express a free and unrestrained emotion. As soon as Tao Yuanming's "Peach Blossom Spring" came out in the Jin Dynasty, peach blossoms were used more to express reclusive feelings.
In ancient times, peach also had the meaning of exorcising ghosts and warding off evil spirits. "Peach" and "escape" are homophonic, because it means to escape from the world. In Tang Yin's poems, the image of "peach blossom" appears frequently.