The poem says: How clear is the canal? Come for the source of living water.
Original poem:
Thoughts on reading-Zhu
Half an acre of square pond opened, and the sky was overcast.
Ask the canal to be so clear, because there is running water at the source.
Random thoughts on reading is a group of poems by Zhu, a scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty. These two poems describe his feelings of "reading" and reveal profound philosophy with vivid images.
This is a philosophical poem. The phenomenon of injecting fresh water into ponds shows that we must constantly accept new things in order to keep our thoughts active and progressive. After reading it, people often feel suddenly enlightened. In poetry, this inner feeling is described by symbolic means, so that readers can understand the mystery themselves. The so-called "flowing water from the source" means constantly absorbing new knowledge from books.