Appreciation of Chrysanthemum Poems in "Chrysanthemum Odes to the Chrysanthemum before the Courtyard"
Wen Zhiming
Cold English shears make it light yellow, and a hundred flowers wither to see this fragrance.
providence should also pity the late festival, and Qiu Guang will not bear the double ninth festival.
The countryside is bleak, the wind blows, the hedge falls and there is frost at night.
if you lose to Tao Weng, you can appreciate that Nanshan is full of wine.
Wen Zhiming's poem "Ode to the Chrysanthemum before the Courtyard" was written in the seventh year of Zhengde in Ming Dynasty (1512). At this time, he was 43 years old, and he had already failed in five attempts. When he was 28 years old, he was called "four gifted scholars in Wuzhong" together with Zhu Yunming, Tang Yin and Xu Zhenqing. However, he often felt frustrated in the examination room. Although he, like most intellectuals in ancient China, believed in the philosophy of life that "the rich can help the world, and the poor can be immune to it", it is always difficult to completely relieve the inner pain. This may be where he thinks he lost to Tao Weng. About ten years after writing this poem, in another poem "Partridge Days and Autumn Chrysanthemum", he even lamented "losing with Tao Yuanliang every year". At that time, he had tried nine times and failed. The artistic conception of that word is very similar to that of this poem, and there are many phenomena of words coming back. Now it is recorded here for your reference: "Curl Cui Rong Jin has a different makeup, and the cold English cuts it to make it light yellow. The countryside is bleak, the wind blows, the hedge falls and there is frost at night. The frost is brilliant, the rain is fragrant, and it is already near the Double Ninth Festival. I lost to Tao Yuanliang every year and slapped Nanshan alone. " If we read it carefully, we will find that the coherence of word meaning just makes up for the poetic leap, and the change of word order creates the difference of image group's structure.
The meaning of the first couplet in the poem "Ode to the Chrysanthemum before the Courtyard" is concise and the images are dense. "Cold English shears make it light yellow, and Baihui withers to see this fragrance." Only fourteen words have a wide range of meanings, including not only the beauty of chrysanthemum, but also its position in time and space: the cold season in late autumn and the background of hundred flowers dying. The word "Nong" of "making light of yellow" clearly endows Chrysanthemum with a conscious awareness of not being afraid of cold and autumn, and the word "seeing this fragrance" clearly shows the author's joy.
The sentence "God's will should also pity the late festival, and Qiu Guang will not bear the double ninth festival" in the couplet is an inference that conforms to the happy mood. "Evening Festival" refers to the late season of the year and the late autumn. Han Qi has a poem "Don't be ashamed of the old nursery, but look at the cold flowers and the fragrance of the evening festival". "Double Ninth Festival" is the Double Ninth Festival. Because chrysanthemums should bloom on the Double Ninth Festival, ancient poems and poems often associate "chrysanthemum" with "Double Ninth Festival". Wen Zhiming's poetry is that, even if it is God's will, you should love the season when hundreds of flowers are dying. Perhaps it is because of God's love that Qiu Guang got the beautiful decoration of chrysanthemums and really didn't live up to the annual Double Ninth Festival.
"The countryside is bleak, the wind blows, the hedge falls and there is frost at night." The two sentences of the neck couplet are the echo of the first couplet and the expansion and extension of the scene of "a hundred flowers wither" "The countryside is bleak" and "the hedge is depressed" are the fruits; "The wind blows the sun" and "there is frost at night" are the causes, and the effects and causes overlap with each other, forming a deep landscape of "cold English cutting and lightening yellow". At the same time, we must also see that the two sentences of the neck couplet have a semantic turn for the couplet. Although the embellishment of chrysanthemums is the embodiment of God's love, it can't change the season of deep autumn and cold weather. Although the beautiful color of chrysanthemums makes Qiu Guang live up to the double ninth festival, it is unable to change the overall appearance of "the primary school is bleak, the wind blows, the hedge falls and the night is frosty". Moreover, the chrysanthemum's "cold-English shearing makes it light yellow" will be replaced by "bleak" and "depression" sooner or later and swallowed up. Obviously, this kind of semantic change brings a hint of sadness and a hint of desolation to the poet.
The meaning of sadness for autumn is just born, and the meaning of detachment comes with it, so there is the "Lost and Tao Weng can appreciate, Nanshan is full of wine". Tao Weng, that is, Tao Yuanming, has a poem "Pick chrysanthemums under the east fence and see Nanshan leisurely". Tao Yuanming is the "Sect of hermit poets in ancient and modern times", and his poems show the character of diluting broadmindedness and caring for the poor. Wen Zhiming wrote in the poem Mo Ju: "When you are old, you don't worry about poverty, but when you are drunk, you are satisfied with spring." Wen Zhiming's so-called "losing to Tao Weng" is not as broad-minded and detached as Tao Yuanming, and it is not as quiet and leisurely as Tao Yuanming's "Nanshan is full of wine".
Reading Wen Zhiming's poem is actually reading his tortuous thoughts. This thought is not single, but complicated. It originates from chrysanthemum and lingers in chrysanthemum. It is "not sticky" and guides readers to follow the implied clues to find the distant sustenance. The combination of images in the poem is much denser and more tactful than the words of "Partridge and Autumn Chrysanthemum", and "human feelings" and "objects" are mixed together, leaving enough room for readers to repeatedly appreciate.