Du fu in Tang dynasty
In the Qi family, I often see your performances; Before urging the wine hall, I praised your art many times.
Never thought, in this Jiangnan scenic area; It is the season of falling flowers, and I can meet you, an old acquaintance.
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I often watch your performances in the Qi Palace, and I have listened to your singing in front of Cui many times, appreciating your literary talent.
It's late spring in Jiangnan, but I didn't expect to meet your old acquaintance at this moment.
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Poetry is sentimental and indifferent. Li Guinian was a famous singer in the early years of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, who often sang in the aristocratic giants. Du Fu's talent was outstanding when he was a teenager, and he often went in and out of the gates of Li Longfan, the king of Qi, and Cui Di, the supervisor of Chinese calligraphy, and he was able to appreciate the art of singing. The first two sentences of the poem are to recall the past and communicate with him, and express the poet's concern for the prosperous times in the early years of Kaiyuan. The last two sentences are feelings about the decline of state affairs and the erratic artists. Only four sentences sum up the vicissitudes and life changes of the whole Kaiyuan period (note: the Kaiyuan period is 7 13-74 1 year). The language is extremely plain, but the connotation is infinitely rich.
Li Guinian was a famous singer in Kaiyuan period. Du Fu's first encounter with Li Guinian coincided with his youth and the so-called "Kaiyuan Prosperity". At that time, princes and nobles generally loved literature and art, and Du Fu, because of his early talent, was extended by Li Longfan, the king of Qi, and Cui Di, the secretary of the Central Committee, so that he could enjoy Li Guinian's singing in their mansion. An outstanding artist is not only a product of a specific era, but also a symbol of a specific era. In Du Fu's mind, Li Guinian is closely connected with the prosperous Kaiyuan era and his own romantic youth life. Decades later, they met again in Jiangnan. At this time, after eight years of turmoil, the Tang Dynasty has fallen from the peak of prosperity and fallen into many contradictions. Du Fu drifted to Tanzhou, "loose cloth and tangled bones, running around bitter and tepid", and his later situation was extremely bleak; Li Guinian also lives south of the Yangtze River. "Every time there is a beautiful scene, he sings a few songs and hears them in his seat, so he has to hide his face and cry and stop drinking" (Miscellanies of Ming Taizu). This encounter will naturally lead to the infinite vicissitudes that Du Fu has been smoldering in his chest.
"It's a common thing in Qi Wang's family, and Cui has heard it several times before." Although the poet is recalling his past contacts with Li Guinian, what he reveals is his deep nostalgia for the "Kaiyuan Shengshi". These two sentences seem very light, but the feelings they contain are deep and dignified. "Wang Qi Zhai Li" and "Cui Tang Jiu Qian" seem to blurt out, but in the eyes of the parties, the place where these two literary celebrities often gather gracefully is the place where the colorful spiritual culture of Kaiyuan Shengshi is concentrated, and their names are enough to evoke the poet's good memories of "Shengshi". At that time, it was "unusual" for a poet to get in touch with an art star like Li Guinian, but "several times" was not difficult. In retrospect, it was an impossible dream. The feeling of separation between heaven and earth contained here, readers must combine the following two sentences to taste. In the overlapping singing and chanting, the two poems reveal the poet's infinite attachment to the prosperity of Kaiyuan, as if to prolong the aftertaste.
Dream-like memories can't change the present reality after all. "It's the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, and it's the season of falling flowers." Jiangnan, with its beautiful scenery, was originally a paradise for poets in Chengping era. In the meantime, the poet really faced the "lost season" with withered eyes and the wandering artists with white hair. The season of falling flowers is like an impromptu book and a special care, between intentional and unintentional. These four words are metaphors of the declining world, social unrest, the decline of poets and diseases, but the poet does not deliberately use metaphors at all, which is particularly confusing. In addition, the two function words "exactly" and "you" in the two sentences are full of ups and downs, and there are infinite feelings between the lines. The beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River is in a strong contrast with the chaotic life experience of being divorced from the times and sinking. An old singer and an old poet reunited in wandering, and the flowing scenery dotted with two haggard old people became a typical portrayal of the vicissitudes of the times. It mercilessly confirmed that the "Kaiyuan Shengshi" has become a historical relic, and an earth-shaking change has reduced Du Fu and Li Guinian, who experienced the prosperity, to an unfortunate level. Feelings are deep, but the poet wrote that "falling flowers meet the monarch again", but he accepted it in a dim way, and there was a deep sigh and painful sadness in silence. So "the beginning is the end", I don't even want to say a word, which is very meaningful. Shen Deqian commented on this poem in the Qing Dynasty: "The meaning is not applied, and the case is not broken." The poet's meaning of "inapplicability" is not difficult to understand for a party with similar experience like Li Guinian. For readers who are good at understanding people and discussing the world in later generations, it is not difficult to grasp. Just as Li Guinian sang "endless dreams of rise and fall, endless sadness, endless sadness of mountains and rivers" in "The Palace of Eternal Life, Tanci". Although it is sung repeatedly, it means no more than Du Fu's poems, but it is very similar to what the playwright deduced from Du Fu's poems.
Four poems, from Village of Emperor Qi's "Smell" song to Cui's face, and then to the emphasis on "Hui", "Wen" and "Hui" in the south of the Yangtze River, connect the vicissitudes of the times and great changes in life in the past 40 years. Although no poem directly relates to the life experience of the times, through the poet's recollection and regret, it shows the shadow of the great turmoil that brought havoc to the material wealth and cultural prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, as well as the great disaster and trauma it caused to people. It can be said that "the chaos of the world, the rise and fall of the New Year, and the desolation of each other are all among them" (Sun Zhu's comment). Just as there is no set on the stage of an old play, the audience can imagine a very broad spatial background and event process through the singing performance of the actors; Also like a novel, it often reflects an era through a person's fate. The successful creation of this poem shows that a short genre like quatrains can have a great capacity for a great poet with high artistic generalization and rich life experience, and when expressing such rich content, it can reach an effortless and seamless artistic realm.
author
Du Fu (7 12-770), with beautiful words, is called "Du Gongbu" and "Du Shaoling" in the world. Born in Fugong County, Henan Province (now gongyi city, Henan Province), he was a great realistic poet in the Tang Dynasty. Du Fu is regarded as a "poet saint" by the world, and his poems are called "the history of poetry". Du Fu and Li Bai are called "Du Li" together. In order to distinguish them from the other two poets Li Shangyin and Du Mu, that is, "Little Du Li", Du Fu and Li Bai are also called "Big Du Li". He is concerned about the country and the people and has a noble personality. About 65,438+0,400 of his poems have been preserved, and his poetic skills are exquisite, which is highly respected in Chinese classical poetry and has far-reaching influence. He lived in Chengdu from 759 to 766 and was commemorated by Du Fu's Caotang.