Yu Shinan
Yu Shinan (558-638), courtesy name Bo Shi, was a politician, calligrapher and poet in the early Tang Dynasty, especially famous for his articles. A native of Yuyao, Yuezhou (now part of Zhejiang). In his early years, he studied under King Gu Ye and studied diligently for ten years, assisting Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty. In the early Tang Dynasty, he entered Hongwen Hall and later served as secretary supervisor. He was highly regarded by Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty and was granted the title of Prince of Yongxing County. After his death, he was presented to the Minister of Rites, and his portrait was painted in Lingyan Pavilion. He was listed as one of the twenty-four meritorious officials. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty said of him: "A man from Shinan has extraordinary talents, so he has five unique talents. The first is loyalty and admiration, the second is friendliness, the third is blogging, the fourth is poetry, and the fifth is calligraphy."
Cicada
Original text
Hanging down ① Drinking clear dew, the sound of flowing water flows out of the sparse tung trees. The reason for speaking loudly and staying far away is not to borrow the autumn wind.
Notes
① Hanging 緌: The hanging part of the hatband tied under the chin by the ancients, because the straw at the mouth of the cicada is shaped like a hanging crown tassel. Get this metaphor.
Translation
What the cicada drinks is the sweet clear dew, and its chirping sound spreads from the sparse sycamore forest to the distance. The sound spreads far because the cicada is standing at a high place, not because of the help of the autumn wind.
Appreciation
This poem expresses the poet's noble sentiments through the use of cicadas. It is a famous little poem that expresses his ambitions.
The first sentence starts with a symbolic technique and is exquisitely constructed. In ancient times, people used cicadas to drink dew because they lived high up, and it was always regarded as a symbol of noble quality. This sentence is clearly about cicada, but it is also a metaphor. The poet broke through the tradition and unified the official status and "qing" implied by "hanging down" in the description of "hanging down to drink clear dew", which paved the way for the discussion in the following chapters with unique ingenuity. The second sentence "the sound of flowing out of the sparse trees" describes the far-reaching sound of cicadas. The sycamore tree is already tall, and the use of "sparse" further highlights its tallness and erectness, and echoes the "autumn wind" in the last sentence. The sound of cicadas is described as "flowing sound", and its far-reaching situation is made more vivid by the use of the word "out".
The last two sentences are the focus of the whole article. The poet expresses his thoughts directly, pointing out that the cicada's sound spreads far and wide only because he is "high", rather than relying on the power of the autumn wind, revealing the main purpose of the full text: if a person has a noble character, he will naturally be famous all over the world even without the help of external things. .
The Tang Dynasty had three unique features: "Ying Cicada". Shi Buhua of the Qing Dynasty commented like this in "Xian Mao Shuo Shi": "Three hundred poems are more than Xing, and the people of the Tang Dynasty still have this meaning. The same chanting cicada , Yu Shinan's "Living loudly and far away is not to borrow the autumn wind" is a Tsinghua people's saying; Luo Binwang's "It is difficult to fly in when the dew is heavy, and it is easy to sink when the wind is loud" is a saying of a person in need; Li Shangyin's original reason is that it is difficult to be full, and he hates to work in vain. "Sound" is the language of complainers, which is different from Xing.
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