This poem, written by Cao Zhi in his later period, shows his frustration of incompetence with metaphor. Cao Zhi not only has a high literary talent, but also has political ambitions, hoping to make contributions and go down in history. Cao Cao once wanted to make Cao a prince, but it didn't come true. After the death of Cao Cao, he was deeply suspected and suppressed by his brother Cao Pi () and his nephew Cao _ (). He moved to fiefs many times, and even his life was very unstable, far from realizing his political ambitions. This poem compares itself to a beautiful woman: a beautiful woman's appearance is as gorgeous as peach blossom and plum blossom, which means outstanding talent; The sentence "Fashion and Custom" says that the beauty and singing skills of a beautiful woman were not appreciated by people at that time, indicating that she had no talent; The word "pitch" is about how time flies, and the beauty of a beautiful woman can't be relied on for a long time, expressing her deep regret that she can't display her ambitions in her prime.
In China's classical literary works, from the beginning of Qu Yuan's ci-fu, the tradition of using beautiful herbs to compare talents has been formed. In this poem, Cao Zhi obviously studied Qu Fu in conception and writing. Er Shen and his wife in Qu Yuan's Nine Songs traveled to Yuan, Hunan and the Yangtze River. In the chapter of "Mrs. Xiang", there is a phrase "smell a beautiful woman and call her", which means that a beautiful woman is Mrs. Xiang. The first four sentences of Cao Zhi's poem are based on "Xiang Jun" and "Lady Xiang". "Li Sao" said: "If I am not as good as me, I am afraid that my times will not be with me." "Only the grass and trees are scattered, and I am afraid that the beauty will be late." Cao Shi's last two sentences were born out of them. This relationship between inheritance and development helps to show that the theme of this poem is to express the pain of talents. In Yuan Dynasty, Liu Lu's Supplement to Selected Poems (Volume II) explained the main idea of this article, saying: "This is also self-proclaimed, and it is beautiful and useful. Today, however, I am wandering in a leisurely place, ignoring the importance of this world, and I am afraid that the times will change and my achievements will not be built, so I am lost in obscurity. So it is also a metaphor for self-injury. " Zhang Yugu's Appreciation of Ancient Poems in Qing Dynasty (Volume 9) also said: "People who hurt themselves in this poem hold wizards, servants move princes, and no one cares about you, but they will grow old." Compared with beautiful women. The first two are complacent, the middle four feel sorry for themselves, and the last two are generous and rhyme. "Liu and Zhang's explanations are to the point. Cao Zhi strongly expressed his desire to make achievements in politics in the article "Seeking the Self-taught Examination Form". There is a cloud in the second half of the article: "I feel that my late emperor died early, and Wang Wei is dead, so I can live alone!"! I am often afraid that I will fill in the gully first, and the name will be destroyed before the grave soil is dry. " The meaning of this passage is also closely related to the content of the second sentence of this article. "It is difficult to rely on glory for a long time. "
There is a saying that the theme of this poem is not the author's self-injury, but the injustice suffered by Cao Biao. "Beauty" refers to Biao, who was the king of Wu at that time. , Huang San chronology moved to Wu, changed to Shouchun County in five years, and moved to Baima in seven years. Travel in the morning and stay at night, that is, there is no fixed migration. "(see Huang Jie's Biography of Cao Zijian's Poems, Volume 1) Cao Biao is Cao Zhi's half-brother. Both Cao Zhi and Cao Pi were suppressed by the suspicion of the imperial court and felt that they were in the same boat. Huang Jie's point of view can be prepared, but the evidence is insufficient after all. Comrade Xu Gongzhi said: "Although Cao Biao was knighted by the King of Wu, his city is not in Wu. At that time, everything in Jiangnan was under the control of Sun Shi, and Cao Biao went to Jiangnan for no reason. His prince was sealed near Shouchun, and Cao Zhi wouldn't know. Therefore, the poems about "Southland", "Beauty" and "Traveling on the North Bank of the Yangtze River and Sleeping in Xiaoxiang _" can not refer to Cao Pi, but borrow the artistic conception and idioms of Chu Ci to express their feelings about "vulgar but thin beauty", with the main purpose of satisfying talents. "This is more reasonable.
The theme of this poem is similar to another masterpiece of Cao Zhi, Beauty, but there are differences between fullness and simplicity in artistic description, which can be compared. Beauty is a long poem, the excerpts are as follows:
The beautiful and quiet girl is busy at the fork of the country road. Ran Ran is full of soft stripes and leaves are falling. The rolled-up sleeves are clearly visible in her hands, and a gold bracelet is worn on her white wrist. Excuse me, where is the women's residence? It's at the southern end of the city, the brothel faces the road, and the high gate is closed again. The girl's face is like the morning sun. Who doesn't love her moving face? Where is the media camping, and everything is burning? A girl must love a noble person, but a virtuous man is hard to find. Everyone was stunned and knew what they were thinking. In my prime, I sigh alone in the middle of the night.
In the past, many critics pointed out that the theme of "beauty" was that Cao Zhi compared himself with beauty, which meant embracing his talents but not displaying them. For example, in the Qing Dynasty, Qu's Interpretation of Ancient Poems (Volume III) said: "Zi Jian seeks to try without using it. Beauty doesn't sell, she feels better. " Beauty and Miscellaneous Poems and Southland have the same theme, and both use metaphors. The beauty of the south of the city and the beauty of the south of the Yangtze River are all compared by Cao Zhi. The following four sentences in "Beauty" say that the beauty in the south of the city is not understood by everyone, which is similar to the two sentences in "The Storm of the South" and points out the theme of "talent has not met". The sentence "in the prime of life", like the sentence "pitching" in "Southland", ends with a deep sigh. The quotation in "Beauty" above omits ten sentences under the sentence "Busy Sleeve". These ten sentences, together with the sentence "Busy Sleeves", all describe the posture and costume of women in the south of the city, and describe her beauty from all aspects, while the article "Southland" only uses the sentence "Hua Rong and Li Ruo", which is very concise. In other respects, the description of "beauty" is richer than that of "South China", but the paragraphs about the beauty's posture and costume are particularly prominent. Both these two poems use metaphors to write the same theme, but they use different details. "Southland" is concise, while "Beauty" is rich and vivid. Every poem is good at art, and there is no sense of similarity in every word, which shows Cao Zhi's superb writing ability.
Zhong Rong commented on Cao Zhi's poem "Poetry": "The character is extremely high, the words are adopted by Hua Mao, and the feelings are elegant and resentful, and the body is literary." This is a profound comment on Cao Zhi's poems. "Love with elegance and resentment" is the ideological content. It is pointed out that the characteristic of Cao Zhi's poems is "elegant resentment without disorder". Many of Cao Zhi's later poems are similar to Xiaoya's complaining words, such as miscellaneous poems, southern poems and beautiful poems. The backbone is the backbone, the backbone. Extraordinary character, it is praised that Cao Zhi's poems have extraordinary character, that is, the style is bright and vigorous. Hua Mao was chosen to praise the rich language of Cao Zhi's poems. Zhong Rong advocates that poetry should be "air-dried (that is, vigorous) and Cai Danrun" ("Preface to Poetry"), that is, with bright and vigorous strength as the backbone and polished with gorgeous rhetoric, the combination of the two can achieve a beautiful artistic realm. Cao Zhi's poem "High-spirited and lyrical" conforms to his artistic standards, so it is highly respected. In the Ming Dynasty, when Hu Yinglin commented on Cao Zhi's poems "Five Tour" and "Ascension to Heaven", he once said: "Rich words are pale bones." (Book of Poetry Volume I) also inherited Zhong Rong's criticism standard.
Generally speaking, Cao Zhi's poems have both styles and words, but after careful analysis, different poems often focus on one aspect, some are more vigorous, and some are richer in words. Some of his poems, such as Yong Yin, Beauty, White Horse and Du Ming, etc. Generally speaking, it is a little longer, with more dialogues and fine words, so the characteristics of its words using Huamao are more prominent, but it still has style. In addition, some poems, such as A Yellow Bird in Noda, Fu Liang on Mount Tai, and Six Miscellaneous Poems, are generally short in length, concise in description, few in antithetical sentences and elegant in wording. These poems more clearly show the characteristics of high backbone, but they are still literary. Wang Shizhen said of Cao Zhi: "Zijian is a talented and handsome man. Although he has an eternal reputation, he is not as good as his father and brother. Why? The material is too high and the words are too flashy. " Wang Shizhen thinks that Cao Zhi's achievements are lower than Cao Cao's and Cao Pi's, and his opinion may not be fair. However, Cao Zhi's poems did greatly surpass his father and brother in choosing Hua Mao's words, especially his poems such as Fenghua and Beauty. Wang Shizhen added: "Two Miscellaneous Poems by Huan Zi and Six Miscellaneous Poems by Zijian can be included in Nineteen Songs, but they cannot be distinguished." (ditto) I also gave a high evaluation of Cao Zhi's Six Miscellaneous Poems from the simple and vigorous style, thinking that it can keep pace with the unknown Nineteen Ancient Poems in the Han Dynasty. Wang Shizhen doesn't like gorgeous writing style, so he made such an evaluation of Cao Zhi, but we can also see that Cao Zhi's different poems really focus on one aspect of style and words.
The phrase "When customs are thin, Zhu Yan is thin" in the poem "Miscellaneous Poems, Southland" is also brilliant in literary talent; But on the whole, its main artistic features are simplicity, directness, conciseness, rich connotation and profound artistic conception. Although it is not as detailed and gorgeous as Beauty, it also has its own bright and natural beauty, which can withstand reciting and chewing.