Strange Trees in the Courtyard is a poem in funeral march, the ninth of nineteen ancient poems. There are different opinions about the background of Nineteen Ancient Poems. Yuwen Suoan thinks that China's early poems are a kind of copying system, and there is no conclusive evidence to prove that "ancient poetry" was earlier than Jian 'an period.
Mu Zhai put forward nineteen ancient poems, which are an important part of Jian 'an poetry. Most of these poems were written by Cao Zhi. Shan Li's annotation on Zhao Wenming's Selected Miscellaneous Poems once explained clearly: "I don't know the author of ancient poetry." It is also the mainstream view since the twentieth century, and it is believed that it was written in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Modern people comprehensively investigate the emotional tendency, social life and skillful artistic skills reflected in Nineteen Ancient Poems. It is generally believed that the age of these nineteen poems should be decades earlier than that of Dixian Jian 'an in the late Han Dynasty. As for the specific creation time of "there are strange trees in the courtyard", it is difficult to confirm.
The theme of A Strange Tree in the Garden:
The main idea of "There are strange trees in the courtyard" is to express Sifu's deep yearning for her long-distance husband and his loneliness and sadness. From the heroine's point of view, the whole poem skillfully conveys her inner world through the description of strange trees and grasses in the court.
The "strange tree" in the poem can be understood as a symbol that the heroine deeply yearns for. The strangeness of the tree echoes the inner feelings of the heroine, forming a profound image. The poem "Green Leaves in Full Bloom" vividly depicts the lush growth of leaves, which is not only a description of the scenery, but also a metaphor for the heroine's deep yearning.
The heroine's emotional expression in the poem is very profound. She used the action of "climbing the fence to fold her thoughts" to express her thoughts about her distant relatives. Although this kind of action seems insignificant, it fully shows the heroine's sincere feelings. At the same time, the heroine also expresses her loneliness and sadness in the poem, which is fully reflected in the sentence "The fragrance is full of sleeves and the road is far away".