What's it like to love someone deeply? Li Shangyin said, "Although my body doesn't have bright phoenix wings, I can feel the harmonious heartbeat of the sacred unicorn", while Liu Yong said it more directly. "The clothes are getting wider and wider, and I don't regret it, because Iraq makes people haggard."
What's it like to love someone deeply but not be together? Li Qingzhao said:
"After dusk, Dongli wine is dark and fragrant." Don't get carried away, the curtain rolls west wind, and people are thinner than yellow flowers. "
What's it like to love and have, but lose? After the death of his beloved wife, Wang Fu, Su Shi wrote "The Twenty Dreams of the First Month of the River", and the phrase "A lonely grave is thousands of miles away, and there is nowhere to talk about it" tells Su Shi's loneliness.
Su Shi is not the only one who has experienced this kind of heartbreak, and Yuan Zhen, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, is one of them.
In just 28 words, Yuan Zhen's pain of losing his beloved was exhausted. For the sake of his career, Yuan Zhen abandoned his first lover Cui Yingying and married 20-year-old Wei Cong. Of course, he does not rule out that Wei Cong is true love.
At that time, Yuan Zhen was a poor scholar, so to speak, he had nothing, and Wei Cong's father was a prince. It is precisely because of this relationship that Yuan Zhen soon won the first place in the imperial examination and his career was smooth.
And Yuan Zhen and Wei Cong are also very loving, but the good times don't last long. After only seven years, Wei Cong was too ill to give up. At that time, Yuan Zhen was very depressed and wrote many mourning poems, the most classic of which was Five Poems from Thinking (Part IV), which was called A Thousand Farewells. Some people may not be familiar with the title of the poem, but after reading it, I think everyone knows it. Let's read together.
Five thought poems (4)
Once I tasted the vast sea, I felt that the water in other places was pale; Once you have experienced the clouds in Wushan, you feel that the clouds elsewhere are eclipsed.
Hurried through the flowers, lazy to look back; This reason is partly because of the ascetic monk, and partly because of who you used to be.
What's it like to lose someone you love? Yuan Zhen's answer is: heartbreak first explains the first two sentences of the poem. I have seen the vast sea, and then I look at other seas, so I don't feel anything. I have seen the clouds in Wushan once, and I think it is just like that when I look at other clouds.
In fact, the meaning to be expressed on the surface is very clear and simple, that is, after seeing the clouds in the sea and Wushan, you will feel that you are not as good as the water and clouds in other places. What he wants to express is that he feels that he no longer looks down on any woman except his wife.
Imagine if you loved such a person. Although according to historical data, Yuan Zhen is not a single-minded person, from the perspective of this poem, it is still very beautiful and can be respected. Moreover, these two sentences are allusions. The cloud is the incarnation of the goddess, and its beauty can be imagined. No wonder Yuan Zhen used this to describe his wife.
The following two sentences serve as a connecting link. I'm standing among flowers, and I don't want to look back at all. One is about self-cultivation, and the other is because I have a wife in my heart. Combining the above two sentences, we can understand that what Yuan Zhen wants to express here is that he has no interest in other women except his wife. This is his preference for his wife alone, and it also expresses his great nostalgia and sorrow for his dead wife, reflecting the love and affection of the two people.
From the point of expression, Yuan Zhen chose water, clouds and flowers to compare with people. In fact, he euphemistically expressed his feelings for his wife, and also directly and clearly let readers know how deep his feelings for his wife are. Have you ever felt such love when you see this?
Conclusion Many people may say that Yuan Zhen is a "scum" man who fell in love with Wei Cong again and again with Xue Tao and two of a kind. When he met Liu Caichun, a talented woman, he mercilessly abandoned Xue Tao, pursued Liu Caichun, and even framed her husband for Liu Caichun. No matter how affectionate such people write, they are all false.
But I want to say that times are different, and we can't look at Yuan Zhen in that era with modern eyes, whether he is a "scum" or not, but judging from his poems, Yuan Zhen's pain after Wei Cong left is not fake. His poems directly hit people's hearts, which shows that Yuan Zhen is really heartbroken.