Hui Chong's "Evening Scene on the Spring River"
Su Shi of the Song Dynasty
Three or two branches of peach blossoms outside the bamboo,
A duck prophet of the warmth of the spring river.
The ground is full of wormwood and reed buds are short,
It is the time when the puffer fish is about to come.
[Appreciation] This is a poem about painting. It was written in the eighth year of Yuanfeng (1085). Poetry is art, and painting is also art. Poetry on painting is a combination of poetry and painting. It is not easy to write well. The poem on the painting must not only conform to the meaning of the painting, but also be original and original in order to be a superior work. Su Shi's poem on the painting reproduces the mid-spring scenery of Jiangnan in the original painting, and integrates the poet's reasonable imagination to complement the original painting. "Three or two branches of peach blossoms outside the bamboo, ducks are prophets of the warm water in the spring river." The first two sentences tightly capture the scenery in the picture and highlight the key points. The bamboo forest and peach blossoms are the sceneries on the river bank; the ducks are the sceneries in the river, which are the focus of the painting. According to the poetic meaning, Huichong's painting is a "duck play picture", and the "spring river water warmth" is expressed as a "duck prophet", which is amazing. Here, the poet reproduces the warm spring mood based on his feelings and imagination, empathizes with the objects, and vividly expresses the content that cannot be expressed in the picture. "The ground is full of wormwood and the reed buds are short, and it's the time when the pufferfish is about to come." The former of these two sentences is still a scene in the picture, while the latter comes from the poet's imagination. Artemisia and reeds are everywhere, indicating that it is February in the south of the Yangtze River. When the poet saw the mugwort and reeds in the picture, he thought of the pufferfish used for cooking and seasoning, which makes sense. Pufferfish live in offshore waters. Every spring when the river water rises, they swim up the river, lay eggs in fresh water, and then swim back to the offshore waters. After being caught by the riverside people, they took them to the market to sell them. Although this sentence is out of the picture, it still describes the spring river, and the painting is not limited to the painting. This poem has both reality and imaginary, and the fictitious and the real complement each other. It not only truly reproduces the "Spring River Evening Scene", but also makes up for the content that cannot be expressed through imagination. It is vivid and full of life.