"Looking back on the path I have taken in my life, it is Chinese classical poetry that has accompanied me throughout my life." This is a sentence written at the beginning of the documentary "The Moon in the Hand". A woman spends her whole life walking silently in the world of poetry, lonely and stubborn. At the end of the desolate and mottled years, she confided her lonely love.
She was the last great poet in the Republic of China. "Jialing Tan Poems" and "Jialing Tan Ci" are essential books for young literary and artistic people. The realm and desolation of classical poetry are perfectly presented by her. Her name is Ye Jiaying, a lonely poet and a lonely talented woman.
"Heaven can create a man with one word with a hundred misfortunes"
Mr. Wang Guowei once wrote this sentence in "Human Words", "Heaven can create a man with one word with a hundred misfortunes." I don't know. Whether it is due to jealousy of talents or other reasons, great poets always have to go through hardships that are unbearable for ordinary people in this world.
I have always felt that the phrase "a hundred misfortunes can make a person successful" is a portrayal of Mr. Ye Jiaying's life in 1995. During these ninety-five years, she experienced war, displacement, death of relatives, and family decline. Despite all the misfortunes in this world, he has been working tirelessly to promote the spread and recitation of poetry.
In 1924, Ye Jiaying was born in a scholarly family in Beijing. When she was 3 or 4 years old, her mother began to teach her to recite Tang poetry. When she was 6 years old, she began to study "The Analects of Confucius" with a tutor. Her enlightenment in classical literature was much earlier than that of her peers. A good family education gave her an incomprehensible connection with classical literature.
Mr. Ye Jiaying was born in the most turbulent era in China, where wars were frequent and separation and death were common. She was admitted to Fu Jen Catholic University in 1941. At that time, China was at its most chaotic. The Anti-Japanese War broke out and Peiping was occupied by the Japanese army. Ye Jiaying's father moved westward with the Nationalist Government and lost contact with his family.
Not long after, her mother died of cancer. A 17-year-old girl experienced life and death in just one year. Her warm and beautiful family was completely shattered by the war.
In the grief of losing her mother and parting, Ye Jiaying wrote a large number of poems. The broken mountains and rivers, the separation of relatives, the death of death, despair and sorrow inspired the poet's creative inspiration. The tears melt into the ink and spread on the paper.
When Ye Jiaying was young
Although life was difficult, fortunately, her uncle and aunt helped to manage it, and she was able to successfully raise two young brothers.
In 1948, 24-year-old Ye Jiaying met the man she loved deeply. That man almost became a disaster that she could not avoid in her life. Zhao Dongsun, a man who was not very outstanding, let a talented man... The woman was almost reduced to an ordinary woman who only knew how to wash, cook and take care of the children.
As her husband came to Taiwan, he was framed and the couple was imprisoned. Fortunately, Ye Jiaying had a simple life and was soon released, but her husband was imprisoned for three years. , three years have worn away the gentleness and tenderness of that man's life, leaving only meanness and irritability.
She said: "After getting married, I will bear everything." She took care of her husband tenderly and never thought about divorce. She resolved all the hardships life gave her one by one with gentleness. She silently endured everything, shouldered family responsibilities, devoted herself to the study of classical poetry, and her erudition and persistence made her the most famous poetry teacher in Taiwan.
Later, due to work requirements, she went to teach at universities in North America. Throughout his life, he passed on the beauty of Eastern classical poetry to the world. Harvard University and Columbia University have left behind Mr. Ye Jiaying’s explanation of the most beautiful poetry.
Wandering in a foreign land, my husband was always thinking about his motherland. It was not until 2015, when she was 91 years old, that she completely settled in her beloved motherland. After more than half a century, she finally came back. . He has been engaged in education for more than 70 years and has trained a large number of disciples and scholars who love traditional culture and classical poetry.
Her life was full of wanderings, from Beijing to Taiwan, from Taiwan to North America, and then from North America to the mainland. She traveled through lonely and lonely troubled times, but she never gave up her love for classical literature. The story of Mr. Ye Jiaying has attracted the attention of thousands of people who love Chinese classical poetry, including Chen Chuanxing, a director who deeply loves classical poetry.
Chinese version of One Hundred Years of Solitude
In 2019, a 120-minute documentary film "The Moon in the Hand" was released. The film tells the story of Mr. Ye Jiaying's silent dedication to Chinese classical poetry. life.
The movie "The Moon in the Hand" has been dealing with an issue, that is "poetry and existence". The meaning of Du Fu's "Eight Poems for Autumn" is found in the clever musical score of the Japanese composer Sato. Zhonghua is a note flowing in every corner of the film, echoing Mr. Ye Jiaying's gentle and long narration. A life of ups and downs slowly unfolds in front of people, turning into the lightness and leisure in the film.
Nine out of ten stories about the Republic of China are sad. People who live in troubled times always have sadness in their hearts. This is the sadness that the times have given them in their bones. This kind of sadness is also lingering in this film.
In the interview, Mr. Ye Jiaying's recitation and chanting of poems were added. The exquisite composition has China's unique freehand brushwork and blank space. It is said to be a movie, but more like a three-dimensional version. In the memoir, an old man sits in front of the window and slowly recalls his life with poetry.
In the film "The Moon in the Hand", the writer Bai Xianyong, the poet Xi Murong, the sinologist Yu Wensuo'an, the calligrapher Xie Yan and many other literati's evaluations of Mr. Ye Jiaying appeared. In the memories and narrations of these people, a talented woman's century-long lonely history slowly unfolds, tracing a gentle heart and touching the love on paper.
"The Moon in the Hand" is a film that requires people to feel it quietly. Its rhythm is too slow. In such a slow flow, people can quietly touch the poetry. The charm of Mr. Ye’s life.
This era is so lacking in slow-paced things. The documentary directed by Chen Chuanxing seems to have been conveying the concept of slowness. The poem is very slow, so slow that it unfolds slowly like a thousand-year scroll, telling the rise and fall of thousands of years of honor and disgrace. The prosperity and decadence slowly flow through the chanting of the poem, flowing into the river of time.
Loneliness is the soul of poetry, and love makes poetry take root in Mr. Ye Jiaying’s soul.
"Actually, when I was making this movie, the thought sometimes crossed my mind. Isn't Mr. Ye a Chinese version, a poet's version of "One Hundred Years of Solitude"."
This is what the director of this film, Chen Chuanxing, said in an interview with reporters. After the filming of "The Moon in the Hand" was completed, director Chen Chuanxing completed his "Poet Trilogy". He said that the film conveys not only poetry, but also the beauty of Mr. Ye Jiaying's weak virtue, a free and easy spirit that faces life with gentleness.
Director Chen Chuanxing
The beauty of weak virtue, the stubbornness of a weak woman
"Holding the moon in the hands, filling the sleeves with the fragrance of flowers" comes from Yu Shiliang's " "Spring Mountain Night Moon", the water is silent, the moon is shrouded, the flowers are full of fragrance, everything is beautiful and pure. This is the world of poetry in the eyes of Mr. Ye Jiaying, and every place is beautiful. She resisted the hardships and sufferings brought to her by the world with a kind of weakness that is unique to women. Some people say that this is the "beauty of weak virtue" that is unique to her husband.
Mr. has gone through ups and downs, but has lived out the purity of life and the nobility of soul. Her life has shown the world the beauty of tenacity, gentleness, elegance, and erudition with the unique weakness of women, and she strives to be the best. of myself.
My husband always explained the four words "the beauty of weak virtue" throughout his life. Mr. Ye Jiaying said, "Weak virtue is not weak. The weak are just afraid of being beaten. Weak virtue means that you endure it, persist, and you still have it." You must have your own ethics. "This is a very beautiful character that allows people to endure and persist in the sufferings this world brings to people, and then transform these sufferings into beauty.
Mr. Ye Jiaying
If this were not the case, in that era filled with gunpowder smoke, when he was tossing and turning, when faced with the hardships and despair of life, Mr. Ye might not be able to immerse himself quietly. In the world of poetry, then the beauty of poetry in this world will definitely be missing.
Mr. Ye Jiaying is the last great poet in the Republic of China, but everyone believes that his wish will come true. Poetry will not become a cold subject and be put on the shelf. Poetry has a soul. , charming.
There will still be countless people who love poetry, just like Hanfu, it will always be picked up and loved by the younger generation. "The Moon in the Hand" is a century-old history of Mr. Ye Jiaying's loneliness, but it will not become a lonely history of poetry.