When did the moon begin to appear? …………
These poetic questions of the poet will bring our thoughts to the starting point. According to the poet's thinking, we can't help thinking about a possibly stupid question. When did time start? This may be a false question, because this question assumes that time has a beginning, so will time have a moment of beginning? With our existing intellectual thinking mode, there is a beginning moment, and there is an end moment. Then the problem comes again. What was it like before time began? What will it be like after the end of time? This is a problem beyond the reach of human intelligence, and we can only think.
But in any case, time began, the moon appeared, and people appeared. With people, there is life. Life goes on day by day in time, people appear one after another, and then disappear one after another. Those lost time, those who have disappeared, and those who have lived are mostly lost in the vastness of history and gone forever. But there are also some days when some people stay in the form of words. After thousands of years, people can clearly see their lives through these words, truly feel their tears and smiles, and truly appreciate their poetic years. ...
(1) Lanting Festival
In the vast history, the Lanting gathering is a very clear day, which makes us daydream infinitely.
It is about 1600 years from the third day of the third lunar month in 353 AD. At that time, it was late spring. On this day, the sky is blue, the breeze blows gently, leaving the fresh breath of spring, infiltrating into the heart and spleen, taking a deep breath and smoothing the whole body. At the foot of Zhu Lan Mountain, about 13 km outside Shaoxing today, there is a place called Lanting, where a group of people gather. Specifically, there are 42 people in * * *, and the initiator is the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi. At that time, it was Huiji, which is the civil history of Shaoxing today. Literature and history are probably equivalent to today's mayor. All the participants were sages and celebrities at that time, the most famous being Wang Xizhi and Xie An. The "Xie Wang" in Liu Yuxi's famous sentence "Old Xie Wang Tang Qianyan" refers to these two schools. Although the word "Wang" in this poem does not refer to Wang Xizhi, it is not far from Wang Xizhi, but refers to Wang Xizhi's uncle Wang Dao, who is also the first teacher of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy. Six of Wang Xizhi's seven sons attended the party, namely, the eldest son Wang Xuan, the second son Wang Ningzhi, the third son Wang Huanzhi, the fourth son Wang, the fifth son and the seventh son. Only Wang Cao, the sixth son, didn't come, and Wang Xianzhi, the youngest son, was only 10 years old this year. Wang Xizhi summed up the people at the party in eight words: a group of wise men came and a group of young people grew up.
What is this grand party for? It's also a matter of repair. In layman's terms, it is a spring outing. In fact, the third day of the third lunar month is an ancient festival in China: Shangsi Festival, also called Daughter's Day. On this day, people go out of their homes, gather at the water's edge, and hold a ceremony to clear the ominous. It is said that this ancient festival originated from the Duke of Zhou. When the Duke of Zhou led craftsmen to build Luoyi, he climbed Mangshan Mountain in the north of the city on a warm spring day, and was delighted to see that the streets and lanes in the city were orderly and Luoshui meandered through. So he led the officials to the shore of Luoshui to drive away the disease with clear water and pray for health. The ideal of Zeng, a disciple of Confucius in The Analects of Confucius, is "bathing in interpretation, dancing in the wind and singing back", which is the custom of thinking. This festival spread to Japan and has been maintained until now, but in China, it was almost forgotten.
Wang Xizhi chose this ancient festival to invite friends and relatives to meet the Lanting Elegant Collection. Lanting was chosen because there are "mountains and bamboos" and there are gurgling streams between the mountains. All the people who come here are scholars, so the form of elegant collection can't be vulgar. Just between the mountains and rivers, everyone sits in a row, and there is a "winding water flow", so we can talk about our intimate feelings in poetry. It is really exciting to think of this great event in Wei and Jin Dynasties. According to records, among the 42 people who participated in the Qushui Flow at that time, eleven people, including Wang Xizhi, Xie An, Xie Wan, Sun Chuo, Wang Binzhi, Wang, Xu and Yuan, each wrote a four-character poem and a five-character poem. Wang, Wang, Wang, Wang Huanzhi, Tan, Hua Mao, Yu Youren,, Xie Yi, Sun Si, Cao Maozhi, Cao Hua, Huan Wei, etc. 15 each composed a song in four or five words. In addition, sixteen people including Wang Xianzhi, Xie Gui, Bian Di, Zhuo Cheng, Yang Mo, Kong Chi, Liu Mi, Gu Yu, Lao Yi, Hou Mian, Hua Mao, Xie Teng, Ren Ning, Lu, Ruben and Cao Li were fined three cups each for failing to write poems. * * * got 37 poems. Wang Xizhi compiled these poems into a book, and at the request of everyone, he made a preface to this collection of poems, which is today's world-famous preface to Lanting Collection. This 324-word essay is famous all over the world, not only because of Wang Xizhi's unrepeatable calligraphy, but also because it is a fascinating and interesting article.
After explaining the time, place and people of this grand event in concise and high-spirited language, Wang Xizhi deliberately wrote down the weather conditions at the grand event in eight vivid words: the sky is clear and the air is clear, and the weather is sunny. It is on such a beautiful spring day that we can "look up at the vastness of the universe and overlook the prosperity of various categories", enjoy the scenery and express our feelings.
Next, Wang Xizhi wrote his own joy and compassion for life in highly summarized and vivid language. Wang Xizhi reveled in today's grand event and was satisfied. He feels that these relatives and friends sitting here are as beautiful and peaceful as today's weather. He cherishes such a party, and he also knows that such a party is rare. Today, after everyone has broken up, it may never be so easy to talk about a love. Time is so fast, life is so short, and people are so fickle. In the face of these, people are so powerless, unable to be punctual, unable to live forever, unable to make people single-minded. All this is not heartbreaking.
Life is as fast as asphalt. Some people have a heart, and talk about the joys and sorrows of life in one room; Some people are wild and lonely, living their own lives in their own joys and sorrows. These thousands of different life forms, like all kinds of flowers, bloom wantonly, but they don't know that spring is near. Looking back on life, those things, those joys and sorrows, all turned into breeze and disappeared without a trace in impermanence. I can't explain the world, but I don't want to return to nothingness. The greatness of life and death shows the smallness of people. I often wonder, what is pain?
Finally, Wang Xizhi explained the original intention of the meeting today. In those countless years, there are countless excited sighs. At the peak of his life, Wang Xizhi saw the same essence of these feelings: joy and compassion for life and death, if United for thousands of years. Although intellectually open and transparent, but these feelings are close, who can hold back the tears in those eyes? Happy death, long life and sad death are examples of ancient and modern times. When the latecomers look at our party today and look back on the past today, should there be the same intersection of sadness and joy? Is life so hasty and monotonous? There are too many disappointments in life, and we want to leave something to prove that we have laughed and cried. Therefore, I compiled this gathering and these poems with thoughts on life into a book. Although "the world is different", my feelings about life are the same. Those latecomers in the long river of years will see our poetic life today in these words.
I have recited this preface to Lanting Collection for thousands of times, and I really feel that every word is well-written and every sentence is in my heart. No wonder Wang Xizhi said so confidently at the end of the article, "Those who visit later also feel gentle." This self-confidence should come from deep thinking and understanding of life.
Every time I read these words, I will see a poetic spring day 1600 years ago: at the beginning of late spring when the sky is high and the clouds are light, the wind is sunny, and the group of people who are "second in line" beside the "Qingxi" between "mountains, forests and bamboos" are raising their glasses and drinking along Qingxi.