Original text of Weichuan Tianjia:
The setting sun shines on the countryside, and the cattle and sheep return in the back alleys. (Setting Sun: Light) The old man in the wild misses the shepherd boy and leans on his stick to wait for the thorns. The pheasants are flying and the wheat seedlings are showing, and the silkworms are sleeping and the mulberry leaves are sparse. The husband of the field came to work with his hoe, and they met each other and talked to each other. That is to say, this envy of leisure and relaxation fades away with sadness. Translation and annotation by Weichuan Tianjia
Translation The village is covered with the afterglow of the sunset, and the cattle and sheep return one after another along the deep alleys. The old man misses his grandson who is grazing, and his stick is waiting for him at the firewood gate of his house. The pheasants crow, the wheat is about to ear, the silkworms are sleeping, the mulberry leaves are already thin. The farmers returned to the village with their hoes behind their hands, laughing and loving each other. Why don't I envy you for being so comfortable? I couldn't help but chant "The Decline" sadly.
Notes 1Weichuan: One is "Weishui". The Wei River originates from Niaoshu Mountain in Gansu, passes through Shaanxi, and flows into the Yellow River. Tianjia: farmhouse. 2 Village: village. The setting sun: one means "slanting light". 3. Poor alley: deep alley. 4 Ye Lao: The old man from the village. Shepherd boy: one is "boy servant". 5 lean on the stick: lean on the crutch. Jing Fei: Chai Men. 6 Pheasant (zhigou): Pheasant crows. "The Book of Songs·Xiaoya·Xiaobian" says: "The pheasants come to court and ask for their females." 7 Silkworm sleep: When silkworms shed their skin, they do not eat or move, just like sleeping. 8He (he): means to shoulder. To: One word is "standing". 9 This is it: refers to the situation mentioned above. Shi Shi Wei: The title of the "Book of Songs" contains the sentence "Shi Wei, Shi Wei, Hu Bu Gui", which means returning to seclusion. Appreciation of the Tian Family in Weichuan
The poet depicts a picture of the Tian family returning home in the evening, enjoying themselves. Although they are ordinary things, they show the poet's superb scene description skills. The whole poem uses a simple line drawing technique to describe the scene of people and things returning home, reflecting the poet's mood, expressing the poet's desire to return home, envying the peaceful and leisurely pastoral life, and revealing the poet's official career. Lonely and depressed.
As the sun sets and night approaches, the afterglow of the setting sun shines on the village (rural), and the returning cattle and sheep pour into the village lanes. The old man was thinking about his grandson who had gone to graze, and he was leaning on crutches outside the firewood gate to watch his return. Amidst the crowing of pheasants, the ears of wheat are already showing, and the silkworms that have eaten enough mulberry leaves are beginning to go dormant. With a good harvest in sight, farmers returning from their hoeing days met each other and chatted affectionately about their home affairs. This beautiful scene reminded the poet of the disgusting fighting in the officialdom, and how quiet and comfortable it would be to live in seclusion in such a rural area. While melancholy, he couldn't help but recite the words in the "Book of Songs" "In decline, decline, Hu will not return?" (meaning: It's getting dark, it's getting dark, why haven't you gone home yet?), which expresses his desire to retreat to the countryside. Wang Wei was proficient in music, painting, calligraphy, and had profound artistic accomplishment; Su Dongpo commented that there were paintings in his poems and poems in his paintings. The poem above can be said to be a pastoral painting.
The core of the poem is the word "return". At the beginning of the poem, the poet first describes the scene of the setting sun shining slantingly on the village, exaggerating the strong atmosphere of twilight, which serves as the general background and unifies the entire article. Then, the poet landed on the word "return", describing the scene of cattle and sheep slowly returning to the village, which naturally reminded people of a few poems in the "Book of Songs": "Chickens roost in the pond, and the sun sets. , the sheep and cattle come down. What should a gentleman do when he is at work?" The poet watched the cattle and sheep return to the village infatuatedly until they disappeared into the alley. At this moment, the poet saw a more touching scene: outside Chaimen, a kind old man on crutches was waiting for the children returning from grazing. This simple affection exuding the fragrance of earth infected the poet and seemed to share the joy of the shepherd boy returning home. For a moment, he felt that all the life in the field seemed to be thinking about returning home at dusk. The pheasants in the wheat field crow so emotionally. They are calling for their spouses; there are not many mulberry leaves left in the mulberry forest, and the silkworms begin to spin silk and make cocoons, creating their own comfort zone and finding their own destination. . In the fields, farmers were seen in twos and threes, returning from the fields with hoes on their shoulders. They met by chance on the field paths and chatted cordially. It was almost a bit of fun and they forgot to return home. The poet witnessed all this and thought of his own situation and life experience, and was very emotional. Since Prime Minister Zhang Jiuling was squeezed out of the imperial court in 737 AD (the twenty-fifth year of Kaiyuan), Wang Wei deeply felt that he had lost political support and was in a dilemma. In this mood, he came to the wilderness and saw that everyone had returned to their destination, but he was still wandering in the middle. He couldn't help but feel envious and melancholy. Therefore, the poet sighed with emotion and said: "I am so envious of leisure and leisure, but I lament that it is declining." In fact, farmers are not leisurely. But the poet felt that compared with the official life that he was worried about, the farmers were much safer and more comfortable, so they had a sense of leisure.
"Shi Wei" is an article in "The Book of Songs: Bei Feng". The poem repeatedly chants: "Shi Wei, Shi Wei, Hu will not return?" The poet uses this to express his eagerness to return to the countryside. Not only is it similar in artistic conception to the first sentence "The setting sun "Photography of the Village" reflects each other, and the content also falls on the word "Gui", which makes the description of the scene and the lyricism fit together seamlessly, and reveals the theme in a finishing touch. After reading this last sentence, I suddenly realized: There are so many words "return" written before, which are actually all contrasts. It means that everyone has a return, which contrasts that I have nothing to return to; it means that everyone returns in a timely, kind and comfortable way. It contrasts the loneliness and depression of his late retirement and his involvement in the officialdom. This last line is the heart and soul of the whole poem. If you think that the poet's original intention is to complete the picture of Tian's late return, this is superficial. The whole poem does not involve engraving or painting, but is purely drawn in white. It is natural, fresh and full of poetry. The creative background of Tianjia in Weichuan
This poem was written in the late Kaiyuan period (the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, 713-741). It depicts rural life on both sides of the Wei River. Poetry works: Weichuan Tianjia Poetry author: Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty Poetry classification: Three Hundred Tang Poems, Pastoral, Retreat