Original text:
Summer quatrains
Song Dynasty: Li Qingzhao
Live and be a man among men; Die and become the soul in the soul.
Today, people still miss Xiang Yu because he refused to live and returned to the East.
Translation:
You should be born a hero and die a ghost.
Today, people still miss Xiang Yu, just because he didn't drag out an ignoble existence and returned to Jiangdong.
Extended data
1, appreciate:
This poem clearly puts forward the value orientation of life: people should be heroes in life and make contributions to the country; Even if you die, you have to die for your country and become a hero in ghosts. Patriotic passion, beyond words, was really inspiring.
The rulers of the southern song dynasty, regardless of the lives of the people, only care about their own escape; Abandon the rivers and mountains of the Central Plains, but beg to drag out an ignoble existence. Then, the poet remembered Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu broke through to Wujiang River, and the director of Wujiang Pavilion advised him to cross the river quickly, return to Jiangdong and beat the drums again.
Xiang Yu felt ashamed to see his elders in Jiangdong, so he turned around and killed hundreds of enemy troops, and then committed suicide. The poet lashed out at the shameless behavior of the rulers in the Southern Song Dynasty, and used the ancient times to satirize the present, which was awe-inspiring.
There are only twenty words in the whole poem, and three allusions are used in succession, but it's no harm to pile them up, because they are all the poet's voices. The poems that hit the floor are so generous and vigorous, all written by women, which really makes people overwhelmed.
One or two sentences in "Makes sense" explain the value and significance of life from two aspects: being born to be outstanding and dying to be a ghost hero. They are ambitious and full of the spirit of heroic husbands. The allusion of "ghost hero" comes from the article "Nine Songs of National Mourning", which means that the souls of soldiers who died for their country are different. They are also outstanding heroes in ghosts, stable with "outstanding figures", and their significance has turned to a new level.
These two poems not only capture the wording of the sentence "My soul is a ghost hero", but also contain the profound meaning of Qu Yuan's praise for the sacrifice spirit of patriotic soldiers, thus increasing the irony of this poem.
In three or four sentences, the story of Xiang Yu in the "Chu-Han dispute" is integrated into a poem, which has feelings and overtones, and attaches great importance to confrontation. Among them, "Thinking of Xiang Yu" and "Today" are full of praise for Xiang Yu, a typical hero known to our people.
The word "crossing Jiangdong" should have been an extremely sensitive word at that time, but the author boldly wrote it in this quatrain, which played a very clever role in making the finishing point. This is really a genius move.
At the end of Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang fought for the position of emperor, and both lost to Wujiang River. He felt that none of the eight thousand Wuzhong children who had been on the battlefield with him for ten years had survived. "I don't know what I will see if I pity my elders in Jiangdong", so he would rather draw his sword and kill himself than cross the river to be king.
In sharp contrast to Xiang Yu, Song Gaozong, who prided himself on "putting the country first", fled from Shangqiu to Hangzhou after the "Jingkang disaster" and became even more depressed. Every year, he searched for a large amount of money to pay tribute to the Jin people, leaving behind his father and brothers and millions of people in the Central Plains who groaned under the invaders.
In Li Qingzhao's view, compared with Zhao Gou, one Xiang Yu is unwilling to go to Jiangdong, while the other is unwilling to go. The watershed between shame and value is really between "going" and "not going".
2. Writing background:
In the second year of Jingkang (1 127), Jin Bing invaded the Central Plains, destroyed the Qionglou Yuyuan Garden in the Song Dynasty, and took away the Hui and Qin emperors. Zhao Song was forced to flee south. Later, Li Qingzhao's husband Zhao Mingcheng became a health magistrate.
One night, a rebellion broke out in the city. Instead of counterinsurgency, Zhao Mingcheng chickened out. Li Qingzhao is ashamed of being a husband. When she passed the Wujiang River, she felt the tragic feelings of Xiang Yu and wrote this poem. At the same time, she also alluded to the Southern Song Dynasty and her husband.
3. Precautions:
(1) hero: a hero among people. Emperor Gaozu once praised the founding heroes Sean, Xiao He and Han Xin as "outstanding figures".
(2) Ghost hero: the hero in the ghost. Qu Yuan's "Mourning the Nation": "When you die, your soul is a ghost."
(3) Xiang Yu: At the end of Qin Dynasty, he became the overlord of Chu and competed with Liu Bang for the world. In the Battle of Gaixia, he was defeated and committed suicide.
(4) Jiangdong: the place where Xiang Yu fought with his uncle Xiang Liang.