The seventh day after Xiao Shenyang was imprisoned was the Lantern Festival. Facing the bright moon, I wrote "The Last Night Yuan Prison Facing the Moon".
one
The night is too bright for me to stretch. A hundred years is a dream, but 20 years are wasted. It is difficult to know in a dark room, but spring is not seen in a high wall. Leng Yue is surrounded by stars, and I weep alone. It's a mistake to miss the scene before drawing a lesson. There is little material for the rest of my life, and I am empty.
Second:
When is the evening? Lantern Festival is another spring. Poor jathyapple, clearly looking at the sad people. Thinking is more eternal, and grace is new with the festival. There are hidden candles and lonely ministers in the holy light.
The moon is a common image in poetry, which is usually used to express sadness and yearning for parting. For example, "I am worried about the bright moon and accompany you to the long night" and "sleeping in the wind on a frosty night" and so on. There is also sadness in Xiao Shenyang's poems.
Little Shenyang knew that his time was up, and the bright moon of the Lantern Festival brought him more cold. In prison, he recalled that his life had been "wasted for twenty years", and his efforts for more than twenty years went up in smoke. A hundred years of life is like a dream. He accumulated wealth, and in the end, everything was empty. He felt that he had failed in his life, failing in his own talent and failing in the wisdom of Qianlong.
This is his reflection. He knew that he died of his own greed. Therefore, in his poems, there are no complaints and grievances, but more "reflections on the past" and some "sadness and loneliness". Jiaqing committed suicide for him. Before hanging himself, he wrote another poem:
This is a 50-year dream, and now it's time to give it up. He thinks cigarettes are the back of his body.
The first two sentences of this poem are straightforward, and the last two sentences express his regret for this life. He said, if you encounter a "dragon driven by water" in the future, that is, the opportunity for the emperor to travel with a coachman, then he will "take cigarettes as his back", that is to say, he should pay attention to his own practice and not act rashly. He knows that his sins are hard to forgive.
Little Shenyang is brilliant and resourceful. When I was a teenager, I studied in Xian 'an Palace, which is located in the Forbidden City and cultivated the elite of the Eight Banners. He studied hard, not only learned a good knowledge, but also mastered Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui and Tibetan characters, and also wrote a good hand, which belongs to the type of both civil and military.
He read many books, and A Dream of Red Mansions was recommended to Gan Long by him. Xiao Shenyang is responsible for compiling Siku Quanshu. According to the instructions of the imperial court, he took this opportunity to ban and destroy precious books of past dynasties. However, he was lenient with A Dream of Red Mansions. To be sure, the incomparable charm of A Dream of Red Mansions touched him and made this masterpiece shine so far.
He likes reading Spring and Autumn Annals and is very proficient in the Four Books and Five Classics. There are two classics in the stories circulated. One is that Qianlong took the sentences in the Book of Songs as the purpose, and no one present at that time understood the meaning, only Xiao Shenyang could explain it. Another time, when it was dark, Qianlong read Mencius and couldn't understand the notes in the book. At that time, Xiao Shenyang recited all the notes in the book.
Although Xiao Shenyang is extremely greedy for money, he is also very good at writing poems. In his spare time, he often writes poems with Gan Long, and his poetic attainments are also profound. His collection of poems is the aforementioned Collection of Poems of Jialetang, and three poems he wrote in prison are also included. Jiaqing heard about the poem he wrote before he died, saying that "a little talent is not familiar with the way of a gentleman", which is also an affirmation of his talent.