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Appreciation of Wei's Xixi Chuzhou
Alone, grass grows by the stream, and orioles sing on the trees.
The spring tide brought the rain late and urgent, and there was no boat on the wild crossing.
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This is a famous landscape poem and one of Wei's representative works. This poem was written in the second year of Jianzhong in Tang Dezong (78 1), and the poet became the secretariat of Chuzhou. The Tang Dynasty ruled Chuzhou, which is now Chuxian County, Anhui Province, and Xijian was in the western suburbs of Chuzhou City. This poem is about a trip to Xijian in spring to enjoy the scenery and a trip in the evening rain. Poets write scenes with feelings. They use scenes to express their feelings, write about their likes and dislikes, and talk about their comfortable and uncomfortable situations, but their inner peace and emotional sadness naturally show up. However, whether there is sustenance in poetry and what is its significance have been debated endlessly. Some people think that it is the thorn of "the gentleman is next, the villain is above"; Some people think that "there is no need to entrust the scenery of Xixi to this couple." In fact, each has its own bias.
In the first two sentences of the poem, in the prosperous spring scenery, the poet loves the solitary grass by the ravine, but has no intention of singing attractive orioles on the deep trees, so it sets off the contrast. When the grass is poor and sober, and the oriole is tall and flattering, its metaphor for the official world is obvious, which clearly shows the poet's calm mentality. The last two sentences, the late tide and spring rain, the water is more urgent. The rural ferry, originally there were not many pedestrians, is even more deserted at the moment. So, even the boatman disappeared, and the empty ferry floated freely and carefree. Because the ferry is in the countryside, nobody cares. If you are in Jin Yao, the tide will rise in the evening rain, which is just the time when the ferry comes in handy. You can't be idle. Therefore, in this leisurely scene of water crossing the boat, there is a kind of helplessness and sadness that is not in place and not used. In the first two sentences and the last two sentences, the poet used contrast techniques and emphasized them with striking words such as "pity", "urgency" and "horizontal", which should be said to be thought-provoking.
From this perspective, this poem is entrusted. However, why do poets have such sustenance?
In the early middle Tang Dynasty, Wei was an incorruptible poet and a good official who cared about people's livelihood. During his career as an official, he was "ill, thinking of his home in the country, embarrassed to get paid, and many people were idle" (To My Friends Li Dan and Yuan Xi), and he was often in the contradiction between being an official and retiring. He was worried about the political failure in the middle Tang Dynasty and felt guilty about the poverty of the people. He is unwilling to reform, but he is powerless to reform. He was in a dilemma and had to let nature take its course. Zhuangzi said: "Those who are smart and know are worried; Incompetent people want nothing but food and travel. If you don't tie the boat, you will do it in vain. " ("Zhuangzi. Lie Yu Kou) Wei has a deep understanding of this. He once made it clear that he is "a boat with a leaf that is not tied to his heart" ("Going from the public to the Yellow River and sending friends to the county"), saying that although he is worried about knowing, he is ashamed of incompetence, so his career is like a wanderer, doing nothing and being at ease. In fact, Xixi Chuzhou is to express such a contradictory and helpless situation and mood. I want to retire, so I pity the grass alone; Do nothing, just follow the current. Therefore, this poem reveals a calm mind and sad feelings.
It is true that it is good to say that it is popular, but it boils down to mocking "the gentleman is next and the villain is above", which is also rigid; To say that accidental scenery has no sustenance is to separate poetry from people and become superficial, which is not in line with the poet's original intention. Therefore, instead of appreciating strangeness, it is better to analyze doubts and learn from others. Appreciation of Meeting Li Guinian Downstream
Li Guinian was a famous singer in Kaiyuan period. Du Fu's first encounter with Li Guinian coincided with his youth and the so-called "Kaiyuan Prosperity". At that time, princes and nobles generally loved literature and art, and Du Fu, because of his early talent, was extended by Li Fan, the king of Qi, and Cui Di, the secretary supervisor, so that he could enjoy Li Guinian's singing in their mansion. An outstanding artist is not only a product of a specific era, but also a symbol of a specific era. In Du Fu's mind, Li Guinian is closely connected with the prosperous Kaiyuan era and his romantic youth life. Decades later, they met again in Jiangnan. At this time, after eight years of turmoil, the Tang Dynasty has fallen from the peak of prosperity and fallen into many contradictions. Du Fu drifted to Tanzhou, "loose cloth and tangled bones, running around bitter and tepid", and his later situation was extremely bleak; Li Guinian also lives south of the Yangtze River. "Every time there is a beautiful scene, he sings a few songs and hears them in his seat, so he has to hide his face and cry and stop drinking" (Miscellanies of Ming Taizu). This encounter will naturally lead to the infinite vicissitudes of Du Fu's life, which has long been smoldering in his chest. "It's a common thing in Qi Wang's family, and Cui has heard it several times before." Although the poet is recalling his past contacts with Li Guinian, what he reveals is his deep nostalgia for the "Kaiyuan Shengshi". These two sentences seem very light, but the feelings they contain are deep and dignified. "Wang Qi Zhai Li" and "Cui Tang Jiu Qian" seem to blurt out, but in the eyes of the parties, the place where these two literary celebrities often gather gracefully is undoubtedly the rich and colorful source of spiritual culture in the prosperous era of Kaiyuan, and their names are enough to evoke good memories of the prosperous era. In those days, it was "unusual" to get in touch with an art star like Li Guinian, but it was not difficult to get in touch with him several times. Looking back now, it is simply an unreachable dream. The feeling of separation between heaven and earth contained here can only be tasted by combining the following two sentences. In the overlapping singing and chanting, the two poems reveal infinite attachment to the prosperity of Kaiyuan, as if to prolong the aftertaste.
Dream-like memories can't change the present reality after all. "It's the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, and it's the season of falling flowers." Jiangnan, with its beautiful scenery, was originally a paradise for poets in Chengping era. Now I am really in it, facing the "lost season" with withered eyes and the wandering artists with white hair. The season of falling flowers seems to be an impromptu work, but it seems to have ulterior motives, intentionally or unintentionally. Readers who are familiar with the times and Du Fu's life experience will associate these four words with the decline of the world, social unrest, the decline of the poet and illness, but they don't think the poet is deliberately metaphorical. This writing style is particularly confusing. In addition, the two function words "exactly" and "you" in the two sentences are full of ups and downs, and there are infinite feelings between the lines. The beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River is in a strong contrast with the chaotic life experience of being divorced from the times and sinking. An old singer and an old poet reunited in the wandering, and the flowing scenery dotted with two haggard old people became a typical portrayal of the vicissitudes of the times. It mercilessly confirmed that the "Kaiyuan Shengshi" has become a historical relic, and an earth-shaking change has reduced Du Fu and Li Guinian, who experienced the prosperity, to an unfortunate level. There is no doubt that the feelings are profound, but the poet wrote that "falling flowers meet the monarch again", but he accepted it with a gloomy mood, pregnant with deep sighs and painful sadness in silence. I don't want to say a word about this "beginning and ending", which is really meaningful. Shen Deqian commented on this poem: "The meaning has not been applied, and the case has not been solved". The meaning of this "inapplicability" is not difficult to understand for Li Guinian, a party with similar experience; For readers who are good at understanding people and discussing the world in later generations, it is not difficult to grasp. For example, Li Guinian sang in "The Palace of Eternal Life Tanci": "At that time, the sky was clear, but now the drums are beating along the street", "I can't sing endless dreams of rise and fall, I can't play endless lamentations, and my eyes are full of sadness" and so on. Although I sing repeatedly, the meaning is not more than Du Fu's poems, but it seems that the playwright has deduced it from Du Fu's poems.
Four poems, from Village of Emperor Qi's "Smell" song to Cui's face, and then to the emphasis on "Hui", "Wen" and "Hui" in the south of the Yangtze River, connect the vicissitudes of the times and great changes in life in the past 40 years. Although there is no poem directly related to the life experience of the times, it is not difficult for readers to feel the shadow of the great turmoil that brought havoc to the material wealth and cultural prosperity of the Tang Dynasty and the great disasters and trauma it caused to people through the poet's memories. It can indeed be said that "the chaos of the World Games, the rise and fall of the New Year, and the desolation of each other are all among them" (Sun Zhu's comment). Just as there is no set on the stage of an old play, the audience can imagine a very broad spatial background and event process through the singing performance of the actors; Also like a novel, it often reflects an era through a person's fate. The successful creation of this poem seems to tell us how much capacity this short genre of quatrains can have among great poets with high artistic generalization and rich life experience, and what artistic realm can be achieved when expressing such rich content.