It means that I treat you with good intentions, but you are indifferent and don't appreciate it. My sincere efforts have not received the rewards and respect they deserve.
Source: "Pipa Ji" written by Gao Ming in the Yuan Dynasty.
Original text:
"This girl is rude, but she talks against me with her words. My words are not right, my child, I listen to my father's words and I regret it. I am obsessed with knowledge. I originally put my heart in the bright moon, but the bright moon shines in the ditch."
Translation: This girl is so rude that she uses her words to offend me. Although there are things I say that are not pleasing to the ears, my son and husband’s words are not pleasing to the ear, but my father’s words are not. I regret that you are short-sighted, son. I treat you with good intentions, but you are indifferent and don't appreciate it.
Extended information
Creative background
The phenomenon of scholars abandoning their wives after becoming prosperous is closely related to the imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty. The imperial examination system stipulates that regardless of family background, as long as the exam is Chinese, you can become an official. This provides a shortcut for Hanshi to make a fortune. "Being a farmer in the morning and ascending to the emperor's hall in the evening" is a portrayal of this situation.
When scholars first enter the official career, they need to find a backer, and wealthy people also need to win over newcomers to expand their power. Marriage became a means of combining their interests. And when the scholar climbs a high tree and abandons his poor wife, he inevitably conflicts with his original family and the concept of repaying gratitude to the citizens, leading to scenes of family and moral tragedy.
The public was disgusted with the unlucky behavior of scholars, and they did not hesitate to criticize them verbally and writtenly. This is why the folk arts of the Song Dynasty produced a large number of works condemning marriage changes. Stories about marriages in the Song Dynasty generally focus on scholars because they not only had a privileged social status at that time, but also shouldered social responsibilities as moral inheritors of knowledge and etiquette. The contrast between status and behavior naturally makes them the main targets of condemnation by the people, especially the citizen class.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the social situation underwent tremendous changes, and the situation of scholars fell from heaven to earth. The imperial examinations in the Yuan Dynasty were suspended for more than seventy years. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the examination system had come and gone.
This caused many scholars to lose their status and their social status dropped sharply, leading to the saying of "nine scholars and ten beggars". In connection with this, the tragic works that condemned scholars for their unfaithful marriages gradually lost their realistic relevance. The low-status scholar became the object of sympathy.
Therefore, the images of scholars in Yuan Dynasty operas were either mediocre and cowardly, or prudent and reserved. Although most of them lacked luster, they were rarely the targets of whipping. By the late Yuan Dynasty, people felt more and more pity for scholars whose status could not be improved, and works that positively praised the scholar Zhicheng gradually became the mainstream of opera. Gao Ming's "Pipa Chronicles" depicts the image of Cai Bojie with an attitude of sympathy and forgiveness, which reflects the social mood at that time.