The poet skillfully used the reader's vague feeling, paving the way for the final sharp turn and surprise out of nothing.
"Hu Wei didn't know it. In this garden full of flowers, it is perfect to climb up and down to play and avoid being hurt. " These four sentences are the progression and expansion of the previous part. The poet first criticized the jujube tree in a tone of reprimand and ridicule. "Without self-knowledge, how can you blossom in this apricot garden?" According to the custom of the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty, all the Jinshi in New China had to go to the apricot garden for a banquet. There are many beautiful trees and beautiful scenery in the garden. So the poet sneered that it should not come here to compete for beauty and make people laugh. The poet expressed his anger here. Those arrogant dignitaries are arrogant, elegant in appearance, but empty and dirty in heart. Poets wander among them, inevitably feel lonely, and at the same time have deep contempt for these people. The irony here is obvious irony. Then, the poet changed a pen and comforted the jujube tree: "Where is suitable for people to climb up and enjoy, but fortunately it is not damaged." The poet expressed his sympathy for the lonely and frustrated fate of jujube trees, and comforted himself with the negative thought of "nothing can be achieved, nothing can be achieved" in Taoism.
The poet expressed a similar idea in "Lonely Tung in Yunju Temple": "Straight from the bud, high from the beginning, no branches on all sides, reasonable in the middle. If you say you are standing, you should be alone. " This thought is related to the poet's avoidance of disasters in his later period.
"February Qujiang head, miscellaneous English red charming; Jujube is also in the meantime, such as the west. " Qujiang, or Qujiang Pool, is located in the southeast of Chang 'an, a famous scenic spot in the Tang Dynasty, not far from Xingyuan. The poet leads readers out of the apricot garden, broadens their horizons, makes comparisons in a wider range and deepens the theme. "In early spring and February, by the Qujiang pool, there are hundreds of beautiful trees and jujube trees hanging alone, just like facing the stone." The ancients often regarded Heshi as a symbol of ugliness and beauty. The poet placed the jujube tree among the graceful February spring trees, which further highlighted its ugly, despicable and embarrassing situation. This is a further rendering after the derogatory meaning at the beginning, and a strong artistic effect is formed through sharp contrast. At the same time, it also causes readers to participate in association. On the sunny, spring-like Qujiang Lake, a ragged and wretched taxi is walking among a group of talented women with gorgeous clothes, high spirits and laughter. This is a very strange scene. The above is the first part of this poem, which highlights the ordinary, humble and ugly jujube tree through discussion, questioning and comparison.
"The east wind does not choose wood, and the wind is long. Seeing that you want to hug, you have to be physiological. " If the poet's sympathy for the jujube tree is still faintly flashing in the condescension of the jujube tree, then from the beginning, the poet directly expressed his love for it: "No one hates the east wind, it keeps blowing, making it endless, and soon it becomes a folded giant tree, and it completes itself according to its own nature." Although the poet's tone is very dull and his emotional color is very light, it contains an air of pride and self-love. Regardless of people's contempt and ridicule, the jujube tree will not wither and will not change its natural nature. It grows tenaciously, grows in silence and loneliness, and struggles with the opposite world with vigorous vitality.
"Send a spring outing message, please turn back. You love to be soft and pity Liu Qi from your side; You are pleasing to the eye and dare not compete for peaches and plums; If you are a big car, the axle material must be this. " What is described here is gentle and graceful coquetry. In Bai Juyi's poems, finger twisting is often used to belittle and satirize those villains who follow the crowd. For example, there is a sentence in the poem "Li Dewey Gu Jian": "The most precious things have their own nature, and they can be broken inch by inch, but they cannot be soft." The poet said: "Spring outing, please look back: if you like soft coquetry, please go and watch the willow and wolfberry trees." If you pursue beauty and beauty, there is nothing better than peach trees and plum trees. If you want to build a big car, it must be the trunk of a jujube tree. " Here, the poet used a parallelism sentence, and the tone urged him to change the slow rhythm of the last article. The poet first drew people's attention away from him, and then suddenly turned, like a waterfall, which was thrilling and pointed out the theme of the whole poem.
It is both unexpected and reasonable. Readers are amazed, but also reflect on the last article, and suddenly realize that the supple willows and delicate peaches and plums are really superficial articles. In fact, they are of little use, but they are ordinary in appearance and strong in texture. Jujube is an excellent material that can really take on heavy responsibilities.
Like many of Bai Juyi's poems about objects, this poem also contains profound implications, such as lamenting one's own life experience, sympathizing with fellow travelers, satirizing dignitaries, looking back at emperors, interpreting the poet's observation of life, or both. As far as the content of poetry itself is concerned, it mainly expresses a kind of dissatisfaction and indignation that people can't be talented and compete for fame, exhorts rulers to see the virtuous and foolish clearly, so that people with lofty ideals can get useful materials and shoulder the heavy responsibility of governing the country. This is a philosophical poem. Jujube trees are humble, prickly and ugly. It was born in a flowery apricot garden, which made the spring outing guests disdain it. However, poets have different values. He thinks that jujube trees are not as soft as willows and fingers, nor as pleasing to the eye as peaches and plums, but "if you are a big car, you need this axle material." Criticize the practice of judging people by their appearances.
This poem is very successful in artistic expression. From the overall structure, poetry adopts the writing method of restraining first and then promoting, and wants to take the first place, that is, the so-called "pawn Zhang Xianzhi". This structure is often used in satirical poems. The second is to use contrast. The whole poem not only has the contrast of the same thing, such as Li and jujube, and stone, but also has the contrast of things and scenery, such as the beauty of jujube apricot orchard and Qujiang pond, as well as its own contrast, such as the ugliness of jujube's appearance and the beauty of its heart. In contrast, the image of jujube has become more prominent and vivid, which has produced good artistic effects. From the linguistic point of view, this poem has the characteristics of simplicity, accuracy of useful words and meticulous description.