Moonlight over the Lotus Pond
Author: Zhu Ziqing
My heart has been quite uneasy these days. Tonight, I was sitting in the yard enjoying the cool air, and suddenly I thought of the lotus pond I walked past every day. It must look different in the light of the full moon. The moon was gradually rising, and the laughter of the children on the road outside the wall could no longer be heard; my wife was patting Runer in the house and humming a lullaby in a daze. I quietly put on my coat, closed the door and went out.
Along the lotus pond, there is a winding small cinder road. This is a secluded road; few people walk it during the day, and it is even more lonely at night. There are many trees growing on all sides of the lotus pond, which are lush and lush. On one side of the road are some willows and some trees whose names I don’t know. On a moonless night, the road was eerie and a bit scary. Tonight is very good, although the moonlight is still faint.
I was alone on the road, walking with my hands behind my back. This world seemed to belong to me; I also seemed to have transcended my ordinary self and entered another world. I love being lively and calm; I love being in groups and being alone. Like tonight, a person can think about anything and think about nothing alone under this vast moonlight, and he feels like a free person. Whatever you must do or say during the day can be ignored now. This is the beauty of being alone. Let me just enjoy the boundless lotus fragrance and moonlight.
On the surface of the winding and twisting lotus pond, one could see fields of leaves. The leaves are high out of the water, like the skirts of a graceful dancer. Among the layers of leaves, white flowers are dotted here and there, some are blooming gracefully, and some are holding their petals shyly; just like individual bright pearls, like stars in the blue sky, and like flowers just emerging from the bath. beauty. The breeze passed by, bringing wisps of fragrance, like the faint singing from a tall building in the distance. At that time, the leaves and flowers also trembled slightly, like lightning, which immediately spread across the lotus pond. The leaves were densely packed side by side, and there seemed to be a ripple of solid blue. Under the leaves are veins of running water, which are covered and some colors cannot be seen; but the leaves are even more beautiful.
The moonlight is like flowing water, quietly flowing on this leaf and flower. Thin green mist floats in the lotus pond. The leaves and flowers seem to have been washed in milk; they are also like a dream wrapped in a veil. Although it was a full moon, there was a thin layer of clouds in the sky, so it couldn't shine brightly; but I thought this was just the right thing - a sound sleep is essential, but a nap also has its own flavor. The moonlight shines through the trees, and the dense bushes high up cast jagged and mottled black shadows, as steep as ghosts; the sparse shadows of the curved willows seem to be painted on lotus leaves. The moonlight in the pond is not uniform; but the light and shadow have a harmonious melody, like the famous music played on the Buddhist bell.
On all sides of the lotus pond, far and near, there are trees high and low, among which willows are the most numerous. These trees surrounded a lotus pond; only a few gaps were left on the side of the path, as if they were specially left for the moonlight. The color of the trees is gloomy, and at first glance they look like a cloud of smoke; but the beauty of the willows can also be distinguished in the smoke. Faintly looming above the treetops are distant mountains, just a general outline. There are one or two street lights leaking through the cracks in the trees, looking listless like sleepy eyes. The liveliest sounds at this time were the cicadas chirruping on the trees and the frogs croaking in the water; but the excitement was theirs and I enjoyed nothing.
Suddenly I remembered the lotus picking thing. Picking lotus is an old custom in the south of the Yangtze River. It seems to have existed very early, and it was most popular during the Six Dynasties. We can roughly know it from poetry. Those who picked lotuses were young women. They went in boats and sang erotic songs. Needless to say, there are many people picking lotus, and there are also people watching lotus picking. It was a lively season and also a romantic season. Emperor Yuan of the Liang Dynasty said it well in "Poem of Picking the Lotus":
Then the demon girl made a promise to go boating; the bird's head slowly returned, and the feather cup was passed on; the boat was about to move and the algae was hanging, and the boat was about to move but was flat. open. Her waist is slender and her clothes are tied tightly, and her steps are delayed. At the beginning of summer and after spring, when the leaves are tender and the flowers are blooming, she smiles for fear that her clothes will be stained, and she pulls back her clothes for fear of capsizing the boat.
It can be seen that there was a lot of fun at that time. This is really interesting stuff, but unfortunately we are no longer blessed with it.
Then I remembered the sentence in "Xizhou Song":
When I pick lotus in Nantang in autumn, the lotus flowers are more than the heads of people; I lower my head to pick up the lotus seeds, which are as clear as water.
If there are lotus pickers tonight, the lotus flowers here will be considered "outstanding"; just some shadows of running water will not do. This makes me miss Jiangnan after all. ——Thinking like this, I suddenly raised my head and found that I was already in front of my own door. I pushed the door gently and went in. There was no sound. My wife had been asleep for a long time.
July 1927, Tsinghua University Garden, Beijing.
The language of "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" is simple and elegant, accurate and vivid, full of poetic flavor, and overflowing with Zhu Ziqing's prose language, which always has a simple beauty. It does not use heavy ink and heavy colors, but uses light ink colors.
Mr. Zhu Ziqing's descriptions of scenes and intercessions seem loose and incomprehensible, but if you look carefully, you can feel the distress expressed between the lines, and readers will also be attracted by his words. He was infected and brought into his depressed and unexplainable mood at that time. This is one of the essential qualities of good prose.
Extended information:
A long poem "Destruction" established Zhu Ziqing's status as a new poet in the literary world, and "Qinhuai River in the Shadow of Oars and Lanterns" is recognized as a masterpiece of vernacular beauty. model. Zhu Ziqing declared war on the retro-artists with his beautiful prose in vernacular, and effectively countered the retro-artists' saying that "beautiful prose cannot be written in vernacular". He was one of the pioneers of the "May Fourth" New Literature Movement.
Zhu Ziqing’s beautiful articles have influenced generations of people. Writer Jia Pingwa said: When I came to Yangzhou, the first person I thought of was Zhu Ziqing. He was the most remarkable figure among intellectuals.
In fact, Zhu Ziqing’s writing journey was very tortuous. Most of his early works were poems, but his poems are very different from those of ancient Chinese poets. His poems are written in Written in vernacular, this is actually his usual writing style.
Later, Zhu Ziqing began to write some articles about society, because society was relatively chaotic at that time, and most of the works at this time criticized the dark side of society. Most of the literary styles were tough and husband-and-wife. In the later period, most of them were articles about landscapes. The writing style of such articles was mostly clear and elegant.
Although Zhu Ziqing's writing style has changed in different periods with his life experience and social formation, the main tone of his articles has not changed. The style of all articles has a very significant feature, that is, simplicity and plainness. He is not a poet similar to the ancient Huajian Ci School. Whether it is his poems or his articles, he never uses too gorgeous rhetoric. What he advocates is dull.
The British friend Dalek tried to translate some of Zhu Ziqing's prose into English, but the translation seemed weak at first reading and was far less fluent than the original text. He was not convinced and re-translated into a slightly archaic English, which was much better: "That is to say, Mr. Zhu is round on the outside and square on the inside. Although his writing is simple, his thoughts are very deep, so the translation has to go deeper." Many of Zhu Ziqing's articles, For example, "Back View" and "Sacrifice to the Dead Wife" have something that can only be understood but cannot be expressed in words.
Blandness is Zhu Ziqing’s writing style. He is not a bold writer. He loves a fresh style when writing, which gives people a refreshing feeling. His articles contain his yearning for life, which shows that his writing style and his attitude towards dealing with people are somewhat similar. His articles are very beautiful, but they don't make people feel narrow-minded, and they give people a sense of open-mindedness and profoundness. This is Zhu Ziqing's writing style, and it is also Zhu Ziqing's quality as a person.
Mr. Zhu Ziqing, the famous essayist who wrote famous articles such as "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" and "Back View", not only maintained a righteous character throughout his life, but also cultivated his descendants with invisible family traditions. Good family traditions and rules have far-reaching meanings and encourage people to do good. They are a life creed that condenses emotions, cultivates virtues, and hone talents. "Zhu Ziqing in the north, Zhu Wuhua in the south, one civilized and one military, one south and one north, twin stars shine", this is the praise given to the two Zhu brothers by the Chinese intellectual and educational circles.
Zhu Ziqing has a gentle personality and is kind-hearted. He is approachable to young people and is a peaceful person. He chose the word "Pei Xian", which means to tighten oneself like a bow string. It gives the impression that he has high demands on himself and is occasionally dull. Zhu Ziqing is responsible in teaching and has strict requirements on students. Students who take his courses benefit a lot.
In June 1948, Zhu Ziqing, who had suffered from stomach problems for many years, meticulously signed his name on the "Declaration of Protesting the U.S. Support for Japan Policy and Refuse to Receive U.S. Aid Flour". Later, Zhu Ziqing returned the flour purchase certificate and flour coupons. On August 12, 1948, Zhu Ziqing passed away due to stomach problems. When a new era is coming, Zhu Ziqing hurriedly leaves people. He left countless classic poems and texts for people, as well as an unyielding spirit.
Zhu Ziqing did not have grand words. He only used firm actions and simple words to show the world the firm revolutionary nature of Chinese intellectuals in times of crisis for the motherland, embodying the backbone of the Chinese people and showing incomparable nobility. The national integrity presents the most valuable aspect of life and composes the most gorgeous movement in life.
In the name of "self-purification", he encouraged himself not to lose heart in difficult situations; he was seriously ill and refused to receive US aid flour until his death, and his integrity was admired by the world; his "Back" and "Lotus Pond" "Moonlight" and "Hurry" are very popular; his writing pursues "truth", without any pretense, but contains the power to move people's hearts.
Zhu Ziqing not only had high attainments in literary creation, but was also a revolutionary democratic fighter. In the struggle against hunger and civil war, he always maintained the integrity and integrity of an upright patriotic intellectual. sentiment. Mao Zedong praised Zhu Ziqing's spirit of preferring to starve to death rather than receive "relief fans" from the United States, praising him for "exhibiting the heroic spirit of our nation."
Reference materials:
Baidu Encyclopedia - Moonlight over the Lotus Pond (prose by Zhu Ziqing)
People's Daily Online - Zhu Ziqing's Softness and Straightness