"The Journey of the Young Master" (Tang Dynasty) Meng Binyu
The red brocade clothes capture the bright rosy clouds, invading the early morning spring outing to the wild courtyard.
Ignorant of the farmers’ hard work, their arrogance tramples the green wheat to pieces.
"The Journey of the Young Master" is a poem title dedicated to the flashy life of dandies in the Tang Dynasty. This song exposes the bad behavior of a noble son who trampled the wheat seedlings with his horse during the spring outing. The first two sentences describe that the noble prince put on brocade clothes that were brighter than the colorful clouds, and went out on horseback to the wild spring outing with great interest early in the morning. The luxury and power of the person are clearly revealed between the lines. The poet uses the artistic technique of contrast to contrast the gorgeousness of the "brocade clothes" with the eclipse of colorful clouds, which shows that his family background is noble and his life is luxurious. "Jin Yi Hong Duo", the word "Duo", shows the bright colors of Jin Yi.
The last two sentences closely identify the young master to expose his arrogant behavior. "Ignoring the hard work of farmers, the arrogant horses trample the green wheat." "Arrogant horses" are arrogant and untamed horses. "Jiao" refers to horse arrogance, but also refers to human arrogance. One is "ignorant" and the other is "arrogant", vividly portraying the ugly image of a stupid and arrogant son of a powerful man.
The poem "Farmhouse" written by Yan Renyu in the late Tang Dynasty wrote: "The children are plowing at dawn in the middle of the night, and the oxen are no longer able to walk. At that time, people did not understand the hardships of farmers, and they would say that the grain in the fields grows by itself." "Don't understand It is those idle aristocratic children who are suffering from "peasant families". They live a parasitic life of fine clothing and fine food, and have no idea of ??the hard work of farmers and the hardships of crops, so they only care about galloping horses in the fields and enjoying the scenery, completely ignoring the crops in the fields, and treating wheat seedlings as child's play. The poem "ignoring the hard work of farmers" may seem ordinary, but in fact, it is a manifestation of the exploiting class's contempt for the working people. The poem is very in line with the identity and characteristics of the noble children, and it is also very thought-provoking.
During the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the rulers were extremely dissolute and decadent, and the phenomenon of pampering their children was extremely serious. It is said that the poet Guan Xiu once satirized the princes and grandsons in front of Wang Jian, the lord of Shu, and his ministers, "It's hard to farm, but I don't know what the five emperors and three emperors are!" ("Youth Journey") Meng Binyu's "Gongzi Journey" , which criticized their behavior of harming farmers from another side.
In terms of art, this poem also has some praiseworthy aspects. Trampling on wheat seedlings seems to be a common thing. But what is reflected here is not the general inadvertent trampling of crops, but the behavior of noble children trampling on civilian fields at will. The poet puts "trampling the wheat green to pieces" in the context of the debauchery and entertainment of powerful children, and its nature of harming the people becomes more obvious, and the exposure becomes more penetrating.
The front of this poem depicts a spring scene with fiery red clouds and bright spring light; the latter depicts a broken scene of horse hooves trampling through a wheat field and the green wheat seedlings being trampled to pieces. A stark contrast between before and after. Against the background of the colorful spring light, the dilapidated scene behind seems even more sad and miserable. The artistic effect produced by this sharp contrast will inadvertently arouse readers' hatred and indignation towards the noble young master.