There are two opinions on the pronunciation of "stinky", one is "chòu" and the other is "xiù". Different pronunciations have different meanings. "The wine and meat in Zhumen stinks, and there are frozen bones on the road." This poem comes from Du Fu's five-character poem "From Beijing to Fengxian County in Five Hundred Words".
1. Pronounced as "The wine and meat in Zhumen smells bad (chòu), and there are frozen bones on the road." The "Dictionary of Ancient Chinese Literature" notes: The nobles could not finish the delicacies, so they had to let them rot and stink; the common people were hungry and cold, and died miserably on the roadside.
2. It is read as "The wine and meat in Zhumen smells bad (xiù), and there are frozen bones on the road." This reading is firstly evidenced by the "Modern Chinese Dictionary"; secondly, in the footnotes of "Translation of Selected Poems of Du Fu", you can also find a text that is sufficient as a basis: "Smell, when read xiù, smell. 'The smell of wine and meat' is The smell of wine and meat.” According to the pronunciation and meaning of the word “stinky”, the annotation of this poem should be: the red paint door of the noble family exudes the smell of wine and meat, and there are frozen bones on the roadside.
Background Interpretation
In the fifth year of Tianbao (746), Du Fu came to Chang'an with the lofty ideal of "bringing the emperors Yao and Shun to the throne, and then making the customs pure", eager to "establish the important road Jin" ". But things went against expectations, and he suffered repeated setbacks, and it was difficult to maintain his life. "In the morning, I knock on the door of the rich, and in the evening, I follow the dust of the fat horse, with broken cups and cold food, and there is sorrow everywhere." I have personally experienced and been extensively exposed to the suffering of the lower class people. Having gained insight into the social contradiction of "the Zhu clan is deprived of their affairs and the Red clan suffers repeated disasters", there has been an unprecedented leap in poetry creation.
In November of the 14th year of Tianbao's reign (755), he went to Fengxian County to visit his wife who was living there, and wrote this epoch-making masterpiece.