1. The previous sentence of "A tree of pear blossoms presses on the begonia": Mandarin ducks sleep in pairs at night.
2. A tree of pear blossoms presses on the begonias. The pear blossoms refer to the white-haired husband. Haitang refers to the beautiful young woman, and one word "suppresses" countless unsaid words! Interestingly, Zhang Xian lived for eighty-eight years, and only lived eight years after marrying his 18-year-old concubine, but what is surprising is that Yes, his concubine gave birth to two boys and two girls in eight years. Mr. Zhang had ten sons and two daughters. The age difference between the oldest son and the youngest daughter was sixty years when Mr. Zhang died. The concubine cried to death, and died in depression a few years later.
3. Allusion:
Liu Tingji of the Qing Dynasty wrote in "Ziyuan Magazine" that one spring he visited Huaibei. The subordinates "passed Suqian folk houses" and saw "thatched cottages with earthen steps, scattered flowers and trees, and quite secluded paths". In particular, they found that "the pear blossoms in the small garden were the most prosperous, as diverse as snow, and there was a begonia under it, which was stunningly red." This was so sentimental. The scene reminded him of a quatrain about an old man taking a concubine: "A pear tree weighs begonias" is a reference to Su Dongpo from the Song Dynasty who laughed at his friend Zhang Xian (990-1078) It is said that Zhang Xian married an 18-year-old concubine when he was 80 years old, and he wrote a poem in excitement:
"I am eighty years old and eighteen years old. You are a beauty and I have white hair.
I am the same Geng as Qing, only separated by a flower armor. "
When Su Dongpo learned about this, he joked:
"Eighteen-eighth bride and eighty-year-old man, pale hair and red makeup.
The mandarin ducks sleep in pairs at night, and a pear tree presses the begonia. "
The previous sentence of "Pear Blossoms Pressing Begonias" means that the mandarin ducks sleep in pairs at night. "A Tree of Pear Blossoms Pressing Begonias" is a line from a folk story, adapted from Yuan Zhen's poem "Two Poems on White Clothes". "A pear blossom weighs on the bed" is used to tease an old husband about marrying a young wife.
"A pear blossom weighs on a begonia" is a folk joke that has been widely used in notebook novels since the Ming Dynasty. The earliest version discovered so far was written by Jiang Yikui in the Ming Dynasty. "Yao Shan Tang Wai Ji". Later books such as "Beihua Monthly", "Jilu Tea House", "Shi Hui Pian" and other books all contained similar paragraphs. The protagonists and poems in the stories were different, but the author was not mentioned. It is Su Shi, and it is only said that it was written by "a certain man" among the people, "Xu from Dinghai, Zhejiang" or "Chen, a poet from Shanghai".