The 840-word Song of Eternal Sorrow shows us Bai Juyi's brushwork and the charm of Tang poetry. There are many golden sentences in his poems. Let's take a look at the following famous sentences through the ages, none of which can be compared with ordinary literati:
However, due to the gift of heaven and no concealment, it was finally elected royal one day.
If she just turned her head and smiled, there were a hundred spells, and the powder and paint of six palaces disappeared without a trace.
We hope to fly in heaven, two birds become one and grow on the earth, two branches of a tree. ..
The earth endures, and the sky endures; One day both will end, and this endless sadness will last forever.
According to our ordinary people, such a great poem should be worshipped by literati. But in fact, since 1200 years ago, the question about this poem has almost never stopped. What are these scholars questioning in later generations? Does all this make sense? In this issue, let's talk about it.
One: Zhang, a scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, criticized the Song of Eternal Sorrow very shallowly.
Zhang Jie is a scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty. His own poems are average, and there are not many famous works, but his old cold hall poems are very good. This book is not only the most influential one in the Southern Song Dynasty, but also very important in the history of poetry. Later, it was included in Yongle Dadian and Sikuquanshu. In this book, Zhang Jie commented on Song of Eternal Sorrow:
It is Lotte's pride, but it is also shallow to say that "she brought happiness to every father and every mother through the empire when she gave birth to a girl instead of a boy".
The sentence "Having a girl is happier than having a boy" mentioned by Zhang Jie is a famous sentence in Song of Eternal Sorrow, and "Lotte" refers to Bai Juyi. We don't know whether Bai Juyi is proud of it, but it really doesn't make sense to say that it is straightforward and shallow. Friends who know Bai Juyi's poetic style should know that the greatest feature of the works of poetry demons is that they are straightforward enough.
Chen Li, a member of Xuanzong in Tang Dynasty, wrote a mourning poem for Bai Juyi personally. The poem said: "Teenagers can solve the song of eternal regret, and Hu er can sing the pipa." The words 14 show that Bai Juyi's poems were very popular at that time, because they were easy to understand, and boys could understand the Song of Eternal Sorrow. It is said that in order to achieve this effect, Bai Juyi often reads poems to uneducated old ladies after writing them. If the other person doesn't understand, he will revise it until she can understand. People deliberately pursue simplicity and understandability, but in Jason's eyes, it becomes shallow and meaningless.
Second, Zhou Zizhi, a scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, criticized the Song of Eternal Sorrow as vulgar.
Zhou Zizhi,No. Zhupojushi, was a famous writer in Southern Song Dynasty. His poems on bamboo slope are very famous. In this article, he said "everlasting regret":
Bai Letian wrote in "Song of Eternal Sorrow": "Tears fall down her sad white face, just like the spring rain falls on pear flowers." Everyone likes his works, but they don't know the vulgarity of his charm.
Zhou Zizhi pointed out that these two poems are famous sentences describing Yang Yuhuan's appearance in Song of Eternal Sorrow, which he considered tacky. In fact, we look at these two poems carefully and compare them to the tears of a beautiful woman. Such a beautiful poem has nothing to do with vulgarity Zhou Zizhi said this, obviously influenced by the style of Song poetry that values reason over talent. The creation of poems and songs in Song Dynasty is completely different from that in Tang Dynasty. They always pay attention to writing reason and interest, and there are few poetic writing methods like Bai Juyi. Zhou Zizhi's evaluation of Tang poetry by the standard of Song poetry is not brilliant.
Three: Yuan Mei, a great poet in Qing Dynasty, thinks that there is something wrong with Song of Eternal Sorrow, and three words should be changed.
Yuan Mei, a famous poet in Qing Dynasty, is also known as "Southern Yuan and Northern Hebei", and his classic poem What You See has also been selected as a Chinese textbook. Yuan Mei had a famous monograph on poetry theory in his life, Poetry in the Garden, in which Yuan Mei pointed out that there was a wrong sentence in Song of Eternal Sorrow.
There is a saying in Song of Eternal Sorrow: Under Mount Emei. The last few came, and the flags and banners lost their colors in the fading sun. But in fact, Tang Xuanzong didn't have to pass through Emei Mountain on his way to Shu, so this sentence is really inaccurate. So Yuan Mei thinks that the word "Emei" here should be changed to "Jianmen", and he thinks it is reasonable to pass through Jianmen Mountain instead of Emei Mountain.
Yuan Mei pointed out that this question does have some truth, but the previous poems obviously didn't mean to change. Moreover, we can take "Emei Mountain" as a reference, generally referring to Shu Mountain, which is indicated in most textbooks at present.
After Yuan Mei questioned the mistakes of Mount Emei, many scholars in later generations pointed out that there were many inconsistencies with history in Song of Eternal Sorrow. For example, the poem said that Yang Yuhuan was "born in the inner room and unknown", but in fact, before she fell in love with Tang Xuanzong, she married Li Mao, the king of longevity, as a princess. Even if we deliberately ignore this shameful thing, Yang Yuhuan was famous before he became a monk, and there is no such thing as "nobody".
For example, someone pointed out that the poem "He stretched the wick to the end, but he still couldn't sleep." It's not well written either. How can there be no entourage around Tang Xuanzong, and how can he need to pick the wick himself? If Yuan Mei's "Emei Mountain" is reasonable, then people don't know what to say about the problem of "burning lamps".
This kind of questioning is actually nothing more than thinking that the Song of Eternal Sorrow is inconsistent with history. But these scholars seem to forget that this is a Tang poem, a kind of literature and art, not a history book. As we modern people say, art comes from life, but it is higher than life. Trying to find the historical truth in a poem is obviously finding fault in an egg.
Summary: The above three points are just a few of the many questions that Song of Eternal Sorrow has received since it was published more than 200 years ago. Personally, I think the first two points are totally unreasonable. In the end, Yuan Mei's opinion is quite critical. Of course, poetry is 1000 people, and they have 1000 hamlets in their hearts. In this issue, the author just lists these problems for everyone to judge. Tasting poetry is like tasting a glass of wine. If you don't agree, we have to allow others to express their views. I don't agree with the views of the above three literati, but I admire them for daring to express their views. What do you think of these problems? Welcome to discuss.