Qiupu is located in the west of Guichi County in present-day Anhui Province. It was one of the famous producing areas of silver and copper in the Tang Dynasty. Around the twelfth year of Tianbao (AD 753), Li Bai wandered here and came here. During his stay in Qiupu, Li Bai wrote a set of poems under the name "Qiupu Song". There are seventeen poems in one chapter, all of which are five-character poems. Here are four poems selected to introduce to you. The fourth and fifteenth poems are about Li Bai himself, while the fourteenth and sixteenth poems are about the smelting workers and farmsteaders in Li Bai's eyes.
When he arrived at Qiupu, Li Bai had left Chang'an for almost ten years. He left during the third year of Tianbao (744 AD). From then on, he traveled all over the world, calling himself home all over the world, traveling to Yan and Zhao in the north, and to Jiang and Huai in the south. There were many happy and joyful moments. It is particularly worth mentioning that Zeng and Du Fu, another realist master in the Chinese poetry circle, had a great time. They traveled hand in hand to the Liang and Song Dynasties and discussed poetry over wine. They were very happy. It was a momentary pleasure and became a good story for eternity. However, his mood when he was in Qiupu was not very good, which was reflected in his "Qiupu Songs". For example, it is written in the sixth poem, "I am worried about being a guest in Qiupu, and I force myself to look at the flowers in Qiupu." Even to watch the autumn colors, I have to be energetic. It is similar to Du Fu's feeling of "feeling tears when the flowers are blooming, and hating the other birds." It can be seen that The mood is relatively low; in the seventh song, he said that he was "singing in vain and the white stone is broken, and the black mink fur is full of tears." From the two allusions of "white stone rotten" and "black mink fur", it is not difficult for readers to understand that being frustrated by the supreme ruler in Chang'an has always been a hidden pain in Li Bai's heart. "The white stone is rotten" is the lyrics Ning Qi sang when he was frustrated, he took the opportunity of Duke Huan of Qi to travel, and the morning cows kowtowed and sang, "The Nanshan is brilliant, the white stone is rotten,... Yao and Shun were not born together. "Zen, when will the long night end!" This attracted the attention of Duke Huan of Qi and was finally reused; "Sable Qiu" refers to Su Qin, the most successful strategist in the Warring States period, who fell into poverty after he failed to lobby King Hui of Qin. In the despondent situation, "When you talk about the King of Qin, you can't do it even if you write ten books, the black mink's fur is ruined, and a hundred catties of gold are gone." ("Warring States Policy: Su Qinshi talks about Qin with Lian Heng") Li Bai felt that his situation was like that frustrated Su Qin, who returned eastward, would never be appreciated by the king like Ning Qi.
Li Bai, who was no longer in his prime, came to Qiupu with such a mood. Although he had just passed the age of "knowing destiny", his hair seemed to have turned white all of a sudden. At the beginning of the fourth song "Song of Qiupu", he said that he "entered Qiupu with two temples, and his swagger has faded away." It sounds like Li Bai had always had black hair on his temples, but after arriving in Qiupu, he no longer had I thought I would wake up one morning and find that my hair on my temples was already gray! "One Chao" said that his hair turned gray so quickly that it was unexpected. The implication is a bit like when Wu Zixu couldn't pass Zhaoguan and his hair turned gray overnight. But Wu Zixu was impatient. Li Bai was not in a hurry to rush anywhere, and he was not in danger of his life like Wu Zixu if he could not pass Zhaoguan, but why did his hair turn gray? Li Bai was surprised and found a reason for himself that seemed reasonable, "The sound of the ape makes the hair turn gray, and the long and short hairs turn into silk." When ancient Chinese literati heard the sound of the ape, they would immediately become filled with sorrow. The only exception is probably Li Bai, but it was also in his later years that he received amnesty in the Three Gorges on his way to Changliu Yelang. When he returned eastward by boat, he once wrote cheerfully, "The apes on both sides of the strait can't stop crying, and the boat has passed." "Ten Thousand Mountains." But at the moment, he is not in such a good mood. When the ape says "urge", all the black hair on his head, whether long or short, turns white. The word "urge" is used in a thrilling way. My hair turned white overnight, but I could still resist the urging of the ape! This poem uses the words "一朝" and "urge" to emphasize that his hair turned white unusually quickly, which reminds people of his famous line in "Jin Jin Jiu", "You can't see the high hall without you" Ming Jing's sad white hair turns into snow in the morning. "
However, everyone knows that saying that a head of black hair is "urged" by the sound of an ape to turn it into "white hair" is just an exaggeration. There must be a real and specific reason. From the fifteenth poem of "Qiupu Song", it is not difficult to understand why the romantic poet suddenly turned white. This poem gives people a romantic and style that is obviously poetic and fairy-like, "The white hair is three thousand feet long, and the fate is as long as the long hair!" If others say that they have one foot long hair, no one will believe it, but Li Bai He said that he had white hair that was three thousand feet long, but it became a famous saying throughout the ages. So why can a phenomenon that is objectively impossible be subjectively recognized and loved by countless readers? The reason is, of course, the second sentence that follows. Because the focus of this couplet is not on the "white hair three thousand feet" that expresses the length, but on the explanation of the whole story "the fate is like a long one". It turns out that the three thousand feet of white hair in Li Bai's writing is just a frame of reference. Why did I have such long white hair? It's because I have "the same sorrow!" Yuan means because, this is the meaning.
These two lines of poetry turned out to be an inversion. Of course, Li Bai was not worried about his food, clothing, housing and transportation like ordinary people. He was also not worried about not having an official position, because he ignored the Hanlin bachelor who was beside the emperor and insisted on running away. Coming to Qiupu among the mountains and fields to "sing a white-haired song", he was worried that he could not realize his ideal of "helping the common people". He was worried that he could no longer realize his long-cherished wish to retire after success. , seeing that he has long been far away from the political center of the country, but the government is getting worse day by day, and he is completely powerless. He is helpless and helpless about the fate of the country and his personal ambitions. You can say that Li Bai is the most open-minded. Because high-ranking officials can be inappropriate, and powerful people can be despised; but Li Bai can't think of it the most. In this case, you can just "happy face" and enjoy your life as you like, but Li Bai can do it anytime, anywhere. He was a dissolute person, but he could not forget about it endlessly. This kind of worry not for his own personal experience, but for his ideals, for the world, and for the common people was the "reason" why Li Bai would eventually have "three thousand feet of gray hair". After uttering this sigh that shocked the world and made us weeping ghosts and gods, Li Bai suddenly changed his writing direction and asked himself without answering an unexpected question, "I wonder where the autumn frost can be seen in the mirror?" Li Bai was looking at himself in the mirror. When I was there, I suddenly found that my head was covered with "autumn frost", but I couldn't figure out when and where this black hair started to turn white? This once again shows that Li Bai did not encounter any major changes in life like Wu Zixu, but was suddenly mentally stimulated. We know that he is an extremely romantic person, but romantic people do not necessarily have no worries. Because romantic people often have more pursuits and stronger desires than ordinary people who are content with what they have, they are bound to have greater disappointments. The repeated failures in the pursuit of ideals put Li Bai in a state of mental repression for a long time, and his natural arrogance was always getting rid of depression and pursuing himself. This kind of mental repression and counter-repression will of course have an invisible negative impact on people's psychology and even physiology. In fact, Li Bai is not just lamenting that he has gray hair and is old, but has a deeper meaning. The sorrow of life is that after a lifetime of pursuit, you get nothing in the end, but only "three thousand white hairs." From now on, as you age, your previous heroic spirit no longer exists. No matter how romantic and understanding you are, this situation is unavoidable. It’s so sad in late life. Although Li Bai was depressed and helpless in his heart, his way of expressing this helpless and depressed mentality was still free and easy. My white hair is three thousand feet long, which is longer than countless ordinary people. My hair is white, but I don't realize it. , although we are talking about sorrow and sadness, but when we read the sigh of "white hair is three thousand feet", and when we listen to the question of "I don't know what is in the mirror", we still feel that this is a heart that refuses to admit defeat. Fate and unyielding struggle against the sky will still be conquered by the author's stubborn personality that refuses to bow to the outside world, and he will be shocked by his ultimately tragic life experience.
The theme of the fourteenth poem of "Qiupu Song" is very special. It describes smelting workers who are engaged in intense labor. This kind of image is not only unique in Li Bai's poems, but also in China. It is also very rare in the entire treasure house of poetry art, so its importance is self-evident.
"The fire shines on the sky and the earth, and the red stars are scattered with purple smoke." The beginning of the poem shows people a bustling labor scene. The first sentence is a panoramic view, and the fire is burning brightly, reflecting the whole world red. , looking at it from a distance in the night, the scenery is very spectacular; the second sentence is a medium and close shot, you can see thick purple smoke blowing out from the furnace, and sometimes red sparks jump out happily from the smoke, the whole The picture shows strong colors and strong movement, giving people a visual impact. Through the description of this unusual scene, we can clearly feel the excitement, joy, and multiple emotional experiences mixed with novelty and admiration caused by the poet after personally visiting this fiery labor scene.
The next two sentences "Nan Lang shines on a moonlit night, and his songs move Hanchuan" are the author's positive description of the smelting workers who are working nervously. The original intention of Nan is to blush because of shame, and Li Bai used it creatively , and a new poetic vocabulary "Nanlang" was generated to express his sincere admiration for the hard-working people in front of him. The workers' faces were baked by the fire and the intensity of labor. Under the shroud of the moonlight and the glow of the fire, all of them looked energetic and glowing. The heavy physical labor did not crush them. On the contrary, they felt a sense of self in this hard and creative work. Because of their inner heroism and excitement, they were able to sing songs with high spirits while working in sweat. The high-pitched labor chants, one after another, resounded through the night sky, weaving into a rugged hymn of labor creating everything, even making the cold The river is rippling with passion! The optimistic, united and mutual-helping spirit of the workers gave the poet, who was already very sensitive, a strong inner shock. If the first three sentences of the poem express the visual impact on the poet's heart mainly through pictures, , then at the end of the poem, the auditory shock that the poet felt at that time is reproduced through sound effects. Even "Hanchuan" can't help himself, let alone the naturally romantic and emotional Li Bai.
At this moment, he had completely forgotten his head full of white hair, and once again felt the preciousness of life and experienced the sublimity of labor, so his heart could no longer be depressed, and his inspiration burst out again, and he With a stroke of the pen, a vivid and spectacular panoramic rendering of smelting on an autumn night was created, concisely and vividly expressing the author's sincere praise and admiration for creative labor and simple workers. For thousands of years, we all seem to be able to understand Li Bai's irresistible creative desire when he wrote this poem.
If we can broaden our horizons a little further and observe and think from Li Bai’s entire creative background and personal situation at that time in Qiupu, we will find that although in his own life path, Li Bai felt as if He has reached a dead end with no way out and no light, so that like ordinary men of letters, he cannot listen to the ape calls in autumn. But once he comes into contact with the fiery life and the burst of passion, even if it is From physical labor that has nothing to do with his ordinary life, he can also absorb the power of life and feel the true meaning of life, thereby being baptized in the soul and reborn in the soul. As a result, he can quickly forget his own misfortunes and setbacks, hold his head high, and enthusiastically praise life and labor. All the beautiful things in the world will have a positive effect on him and inspire him to create again. So he was able to get out of trouble again and again and rediscover the truth, goodness, and beauty that exist everywhere in life. For example, he was soon able to use a very appreciative eye to reproduce the mood of life of the Qiupu family in his poems, "A man living in a field in Qiupu collects fish and sleeps in the water. His wife, Zhang Baiyu, has a wedding dress that reflects the deep bamboo." It is the sixteenth song of "Qiupu Song". The fisherman is fishing day and night, and his wife is not idle. Deep in the bamboo forest, she sets up a net to catch birds. It is a net used to catch birds and beasts. The whole family is busy with life, but their mentality is very peaceful. This poem, which has been praised as having the style of Wang Wei's "Wangchuan Poems", was obviously written in a relaxed and comfortable state of mind. .
It is this healthy psychology of constant self-renewal and constant acceptance of new things that is the important subjective factor that enables Li Bai to write popular and colorful poems no matter where he is!