Overview of "Guanshu Youfei"
"Guanshu Youfei" are two seven-character quatrains written by Zhu Xi, a scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty. The two poems are written to describe his vivid feelings of "viewing books". The first one is particularly popular.
Table of contents [hide]
Work information
Original text of the work
Annotated translation
Appreciation of the work
About the author
[Edit this paragraph] Work information
Name of the book: Insights
Era of the Southern Song Dynasty
Author Zhu Xi
Genre of seven-character quatrains
[Edit this paragraph] Original text of the work
Impressions after reading the book
(Part 1)
Half an acre of square pond is open①,
The skylight and cloud shadows are lingering②.
Ask the canal how clear it is③?
Because there is a source of living water.
(Part 2)
Spring water grew on the river last night,
The giant ship is as light as a dime④.
I have always wasted my efforts in pushing forward,
I can move freely today. [1]
[Edit this paragraph] Annotation Translation
Annotation
①Fangtang: also known as Banmu Pond, located in the Zheng Yizhai Hall in the south of Youxi City, Fujian (later Nanxi Academy). Zhu Xi's father had a good relationship with Zheng, so there is a poem in "Die Lian Hua· Drunken Stay in Zheng's Villa" that goes: "At dawn, the square pond opens up. The catkins are falling like flying, and they are willing to stand in the spring breeze." Mirror: Mirror. The ancients used copper as a frame, wrapped it with a mirror bag, and opened it when in use.
②This sentence means that the light of the sky and the shadow of the clouds are reflected in the pond water, constantly changing, just like people wandering.
③Qu: He refers to Fangtang. Na (nǎ): How could it be? Clear as promised: So clear. Such as: like this.
④Mengchong: Also known as "艨艟", it is a kind of warship in ancient times. A feather is as light as a feather.
Translation
(Part 1)
The square pond of half an acre is opened like a mirror,
The brilliance of the sky and the floating clouds The shadows were all reflected in the pond, shaking constantly.
How come the water in that square pond is so clear?
Because there is water that never dries up and continuously flows out from the source, thus becoming living water!
(Part 2)
Last night there was a spring tide on the riverside.
The huge ship was as light as a feather.
Driving has always required a lot of pushing and pulling effort, but today I can float freely in the middle of the river.
[Edit this paragraph] Appreciation of Works
(Part 1)
This is a famous poem that uses scenery as a metaphor. The whole poem uses Fangtang as a metaphor to vividly express a subtle and indescribable feeling of reading. The pond is not a pool of stagnant water, but constantly filled with living water, so it is like a mirror, crystal clear, reflecting the sky and cloud shadows. This situation is quite similar to the situation when the same person solves the problem in reading, gains new knowledge and gains a lot, and improves his understanding. The flow of spiritual energy, clear thinking, fresh and lively spirit and contentment expressed in this poem are exactly the author's personal reading experience as a great scholar. Although the feeling expressed in the poem is only for reading, it has profound meaning and rich connotation, and can be widely understood. Especially the two sentences "Ask the canal how clear it is, because there is living water from the source." The reason why the water is clear is because there is continuous injection of living water from the source. It implies that if people want to have a clear mind, they must study hard and add new knowledge from time to time. Therefore, people often use it as a metaphor to continuously learn new knowledge in order to reach a new realm. People also use these two poems to praise a person's knowledge or artistic achievements, which has its own profound origin. Readers can also get inspiration from this poem. Only when the mind is always active, with an open and broad mind, accepts all kinds of different ideas and fresh knowledge, and is broadly tolerant can we continue to have new ideas and new ideas. These two lines of poetry have been condensed into the commonly used idiom "source of living water", which is used to metaphor the source and driving force of the development of things.
This is a very artistic and philosophical poem. When people appreciate calligraphy works, they often have a spirited artistic feeling. Poems use symbolic techniques to transform this inner feeling into concrete images that can be felt and depicted, allowing readers to appreciate the mystery on their own. The so-called "living water from the source" should refer to the inexhaustible artistic inspiration in the writer's heart.
The meaning of the poem is very profound. The source of living water is used to metaphorically describe the rich inspiration of calligraphy art, which is the real inexhaustible source of calligraphy art works. It illustrates the author's unique reading experience, which is in line with the characteristics of calligraphy art creation. , also reflects the essence of general artistic creation.
(Part 2)
This is also a poem that uses images to reason. It takes rafting as an example to allow readers to experience the principles related to learning. The poem says that in the past, the boat was large and the water was shallow, and everyone pushed the boat hard in vain. But when the spring water surged, even the giant boat was as light as a feather, floating freely in the current. The poem highlights the importance of spring water, which is intended to emphasize the flourishing of artistic inspiration, which is enough to make artistic creation smooth and free. It can also be understood that creating art requires mastering the basic skills, then practice makes perfect and you can control it freely.
This poem was probably written by the author who was thinking hard about a certain issue and suddenly gained some insights after studying.
From the metaphor of "huge ship", it may be that Zhu Xi was criticizing the creation of big characters in the list. The meaning of this poem is also very profound. If the tide rises, the boat will be able to travel freely. It is a metaphor for calligraphy art creation. Once inspired, writing can suddenly become smooth and free. This is not only an essential process of calligraphy art, but also an art in general. The important nature of creation. Of course, the poem can also be understood from another perspective, that is, Zhu Xi saw the refined, vivid and smooth skills of calligraphy works, and appreciated the artistic principle that practice makes perfect.
Some people think that poetry is the product of image thinking, so it is only suitable for describing scenes and expressing emotions, but not for reasoning. This makes some sense, but it cannot be made absolute. Because reason can be expressed through visual means, it is as attractive as scenery and emotion. At the same time, the speculative nature of reason itself is often very fascinating. (Meicheng's "Seven Fa" proves this point.) Therefore, there is no shortage of successful philosophical poems in ancient and modern poetry. Zhu Xi was a student of Liu Zihui, and his father Zhu Song was also very talented. Perhaps due to the influence of his father and master, his evaluation of literature in Taoism was relatively fair, and he also wrote some good poems full of life. For example, these two poems are of course works of reasoning. The former poem uses the idea that a pond must be constantly filled with living water to be clear, which is a metaphor for thinking that must continue to develop and improve in order to be active and avoid stagnation and rigidity. In the latter poem, people's cultivation often goes from quantitative change to qualitative change. Once the water is ready, it will naturally be clear on the outside and on the inside, without any restraints, and free. These two poems use vivid images to express the truths that he has realized in his studies. They are both inspiring and not lacking in poetic flavor. Therefore, Chen Yan rated them as "combining things and reasoning without being corrupt."
The principles contained in the two poems "Looking at the Book and Feelings" belong to the category of aesthetic principles. The reasoning angle of one is to appreciate beauty, and the reasoning angle of the second poem is to create beauty. This aesthetic principle is with There is a certain degree of universality. For example: if readers put aside the description object of the poem itself, they can completely extend this principle. For example, if "book" is understood as "book", and the content of the book does not generally include medical books, philosophy books, history books, science and technology books, etc., but only literary content such as poetry, music, prose, etc. that embodies literature and art. In terms of beauty, it can also be considered that "source of living water" expresses "inexhaustible literary thoughts", while "a night of spring tide" expresses "blooming literary thoughts" and so on. [2]
[Edit this paragraph] About the author
Zhu Xi looks like Zhu Xi
(1130～1200) a famous thinker, philosopher and educator in the Southern Song Dynasty, Fujian The representative figure of the school is known as Zhu Zi in the world. The characters are obscure. His ancestral home is Wuyuan, he was born in Youxi and grew up in Jianzhou. He studied under Wufu, gave lectures on Wuyi, became a disciple of Lu Yungu, taught Xiaoting, and was buried in Tangshi. He wrote extensively about classics and made contributions to varying degrees to classics, history, literature, music and even natural science, leaving a vast amount of writings to future generations. He inherited and carried forward Chinese traditional culture, integrated Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism to construct a broad and profound ideological system, which had a profound impact on Chinese culture and human civilization. His academic achievements are "extremely broad, subtle, and comprehensive for hundreds of generations" and have been highly praised by literati of all dynasties and praised and titled by emperors of all dynasties. Later generations respected him as "Zhu Wengong" and evaluated him as "authentic Neo-Confucianism". He was the third saint after Confucius and Mencius. He devoted his life to promoting education. He founded many famous academies such as Kaoting, Yuelu, Wuyi, and Ziyang. He trained thousands of students and made an indelible contribution to the creation of ancient Chinese civilization.