Appreciation
King Luo Bin (approximately 626-684): A native of Yiwu, Wuzhou (now part of Zhejiang), he once served as Linhai Prime Minister. Later, he followed Xu Jingye to raise an army against Wu Zetian, and wrote "Qiu Wu". "Xi Xi", his whereabouts are unknown after the defeat. There is "Collected Works of King Luo Bin".
"Singing the Cicada in Prison" is a work written by King Luo Bin who was imprisoned. In the third year of Yifeng, Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (678). After serving as a subordinate for eighteen years, King Luo Bin, who had just been promoted to the imperial censor, was arrested and imprisoned. The cause of the crime is that one said that Shang Shu's discussion had offended Wu Zetian, and the other was that "taking stolen goods". Of these two claims, the latter has little basis. The former also feels biased. Judging from the last couplet of the poem "No one believes in nobleness, who can express his sincerity", it is obvious that he was framed by others. Mr. Wen Yiduo said that King Luo Bin was "naturally chivalrous, and he liked to meddle in other people's affairs, fight injustices, revenge murders, make revolutions, and help infatuated women defeat heartbroken men" ("The Self-Redemption of Palace Poems"). These few sentences reveal the fundamental reason why King Luo Bin was imprisoned. He dared to stand up to his superiors and use swords and pens, so those who criticized him would certainly accuse him of "corruption" and "disobedience to the Empress." It is precisely because of this that King Luo Bin wrote this poem in prison.
The title of the poem is "Song of Cicada". Similar to predecessors' poems about chanting cicadas, such as Lu Yun's "Han Cicada Fu", Cao Zhi's "Cicada Fu", Cao Jia's "Cicada Fu", and Yu Shinan's "Cicada Song" poems, this five-rhyme poem by Luo Binwang aims to use cicadas Eating in the wind and drinking dew shows one's own nobility and seeks sympathy from the world.
"The cicadas sing in the West, and the guests in the South are thinking deeply." The first couplet carries the title and is exactly what it is about. "Western Land", autumn. "Book of Sui Dynasty Astronomical Records" explains: "The sun travels eastward along the ecliptic, traveling once a day and night. On the three hundred and sixty-fifth day, there is a strange and circular sky. Traveling to the eastern continent is called spring, traveling to the southern continent is called summer. Traveling to the western continent is called summer. Autumn is called winter when it travels to the north. It forms the festival of yin and yang, cold and heat. "Nanguan" is also called Haizhiguan. It originally refers to the crown of Chu, but here it is used as a prisoner, using the allusion of being imprisoned with the bells and instruments of the state of Chu. "Zuo Zhuan: The Ninth Year of Chenggong" records that Jin Jinggong of Jin went to the military mansion to inspect and saw a man who looked like an official being imprisoned. Duke Cheng then asked: "Who is that tied man wearing a Chu crown?" Yousi replied: "It is Zhong Yi, a prisoner of Chu sent by Zheng Guo. Later generations called Ji prisoners "Nanguan". Here Nanguan is the author's own reference. The word "ke" after "Nanguan" does not mean "guest" or "living in a foreign place", but refers to "prison". The word "ke" after "nanguan" shows the depth of injustice. The two lines of cross use neat antithesis to paint such a picture: In the late autumn, the chilling cicadas made bursts of sad calls. This sound touched the heartstrings of King Luo Bin, who was imprisoned, and caused him to think deeply about this. In the couplet, special attention should be paid to the word "si Shen", which is the author's painstaking effort and the "source" of the whole poem. Famous lines such as "Xuanyan", "Baitou", "Luxury", "Feng". "Many" and various associations are all derived from this.
Because in the first couplet, the author uses Nanguan to cut his own pain, and also uses the word "thinking deeply" to pave the way for the expression of the poem's purpose. , so the mandibular couplet was immediately introduced: "The shadow of the black temples comes to the white head chant". "Xuan temple hair" refers to the wings of the cicada. The sad mood of love and abandonment in the Han Dynasty expresses her pursuit of exclusive love. It is said that this poem was written by Zhuo Wenjun of the Western Han Dynasty. Zhuo Wenjun admired Sima Xiangru's talent and eloped with Sima Xiangru. Xiangru was not devoted to love, and after entering the capital, he wanted to take a girl from Maoling as a concubine. When Wenjun heard about it, he wrote "Baitou Yin" to hurt himself. There are two levels of meaning. The superficial meaning is that the cicada flaps its black wings and moans sadly to the white-haired author, making him unbearable. The inner meaning is more profound. Through the traditional literary method of Vanilla Beauty, the author expresses his resentment of losing the favor of the imperial court and being demoted and trapped. It is because he also had a cardamom period with black hair. As early as 669 AD, he entered the official career in order to repay his service: "I wrote to cherish my class, and I wanted to serve as a soldier." Mingjun ("Suwen City Watching the Military Camp") In order to pursue his ambition, he served as a civil servant, Fenglilang, Dongtai Xiangzheng bachelor, military officer in Sichuan, and secretary of Yanbei. However, after thirty years of travel, he always fell into decline. The subordinate was arrested and imprisoned as soon as he was promoted to serve as a censor. His desire to serve the country finally came to nothing.
It is unbearable to say that the first couplets are moved by the sight of the scene, and they are inspired to hold things in mind. People are raised together, and the discussion is generated in the narrative, so the focus of the neck couplet turns to the expression of emotion and discussion. "It is difficult to fly forward due to heavy dew, and it is easy to sink when the wind is loud." It means that it is difficult for cicadas to fly forward due to heavy dew, and it is difficult to fly forward due to strong wind. The sound cannot be transmitted far away. This is not only a description of the difficult situation of the cicada in late autumn, but also a lament for his own experience. He does not feel sad but complains about himself, and declines before he falls." This means that the "Hui Mo" (meaning rope) of the times has tied him up, preventing him from pursuing his ambitions. The preface also says that he "sees the shadow of a mantis hugging him, and is afraid of the crisis. Not safe." When he saw the mantis hugging the mantis ax tightly, trying to catch the eaten insects, he immediately thought that he was still in a deep crisis. The heavy frost from the evil forces inside and outside the court not only froze his wings, but also locked them. These words in the preface illustrate that although the poem is about cicadas, it is not about cicadas. The two lines of poems are so lyrical and forgetful. Cicada has reached the point of transcendence.
A good poem requires not only a poetic eye to emit "spiritual light", but also sometimes a "dragon chant" to emit an "immortal voice".
Try reading Lu Zhaolin's "Ancient Military March" and Du Fu's poems in "The Prime Minister of Shu". If these two poems do not include "It is better to be a centurion than to be a scholar", "You will die before you leave the army, and you will make the hero burst into tears." The "dragon chant" line behind the palace expresses one's heart directly and expresses one's "poetry heart". Then the whole article will be dull. The same is true for this poem. The poet in the last couplet is so angry that he bursts into "dragon chant" and spurts out his long-held true feelings: "No one believes in nobleness, who can show his heart?" Then he took off the "cicada" that covered the poem in the first three couplets. "Body" allows people to see the author's pure and flawless sincerity to serve the country. This sincerity is exactly what the "Preface" says, "having eyes wide open, not blindly seeing the way, having wings and being thin, not being vulgar." Thick and easy, it is true. Singing the breeze of the trees, the charm is heavenly; drinking the falling dew in high autumn, the clarity is fearful of others. "Don't let the secular world make it easier for you to maintain your "charm". It was this question that split the silk thread that made "Singing the Cicada in Prison" an outstanding and famous piece of Tang poetry, surpassing all the official erotic poems of the early Tang Dynasty.