Recalling the poetic flavor of Jiangnan’s first poem

Jiangnan is good, and the scenery is familiar to me. When the sun rises, the flowers on the river are as red as fire, and when spring comes, the river is as green as blue. Can you not remember Jiangnan?

When I recall the south of the Yangtze River, Hangzhou is the most memorable. Looking for osmanthus seeds in the middle of the moon in the mountain temple, watching the tide on the pillow in the county pavilion. When will we visit again?

I recall Jiangnan, and then I recall Wu Palace. A cup of Wu wine with spring bamboo leaves, Wu Wa dances with drunken hibiscus. Will we meet again sooner or later?

As the old saying goes, words cannot be written but actions cannot go far. It has been more than a thousand years since Bai Juyi's "Reminiscences of Jiangnan" was written and has been handed down to this day, and it will continue to be famous for generations to come. So where are these few words? How can one "travel" so far?

Bai Juyi once served as the governor of Hangzhou and stayed in Hangzhou for two years. Later, he served as the governor of Suzhou and served for more than a year. In his youth, he roamed the south of the Yangtze River and lived in Suzhou and Hangzhou. It should be said that he had a good understanding of the south of the Yangtze River, so the south of the Yangtze River left a deep impression on him. When he resigned from the post of governor of Suzhou due to illness and returned to Luoyang twelve years later, when he was sixty-seven years old, he wrote these three poems recalling the south of the Yangtze River, which shows that the beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River is still vivid in his heart.

It is not easy to summarize the spring scenery of Jiangnan in a dozen words, but Bai Juyi did it skillfully. He did not start with the usual "flowers" and "orioles" in describing Jiangnan, but ingeniously wrote from "river" as the center. He also used "red as fire" and "green as blue" to contrast the different colors, showing the bright and dazzling colors. Spring scenery in the south of the Yangtze River. The descriptive technique of contrasting colors is often seen in the poems of the great poet Du Fu, such as "Two orioles sing in the green willows, and a row of egrets ascend to the blue sky", "The green birds in the river are more than white, and the blue flowers in the mountains are about to burn." Two different colors They set off each other, making the poetry bright and picturesque. Bai Juyi also followed this path, and we can see the clues from his poems, "The sunset is redder than burning, and the clear sky is more blue than blue." , Red Column Three Hundred and Ninety Bridge". Therefore, the spring scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, in Bai Juyi's works, gets its color from the early sun, river flowers, and river water, and forms the picture in our imagination through the techniques of dyeing and contrasting. The colors are gorgeous and dazzling, and the layers are rich. There is almost no need for more. Think of it, the spring scenery of Jiangnan is in front of you.

Since "it is impossible not to remember Jiangnan", then in Hangzhou, the place where Bai Juyi stayed the longest, what gave him the deepest feeling? Ancient books record: "There are many osmanthus trees in Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. The monk said: 'This is the middle of the month.' To this day, when I look at the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the osmanthus often falls, and the monks also try to find it." Since the monks can find it, it seems that Bai Juyi When I was the governor of Hangzhou, I was very interested in picking up a few of them. I also went to Lingyin Temple many times to look for the osmanthus seeds in the middle of the moon, just to enjoy the osmanthus flowers on the moonlit night of Sanqiu. Bai Juyi is a poet, and naturally he has a romantic temperament. On a moonlit night in August when the sweet-scented osmanthus is fragrant, he wanders under the moonlight and lingers among the osmanthus bushes. Sometimes he looks up at the moon, and sometimes he looks down to see if there are any osmanthus seeds flying from the moon and falling into the shadow of the osmanthus flowers. middle. What a beautiful and moving picture this is. A search for words, and the emotion and scene are combined, the meaning and the scene are met, poetic and picturesque, fascinating.

Perhaps, the osmanthus in the moon is just a legend, then the wonder of Qiantang tide does exist. You may not be able to find Guizi if you look for it, but the tide is a truly visible and deeply felt landscape. The Qiantang River flows from the southeast to the northeast of Hangzhou and enters the sea at Haimen. The Qiantang tide pours in from Haimen every day and night, which is extremely spectacular. The Qiantang tide is the strongest on the three days after the Mid-Autumn Festival every year, and the tide can reach several feet high. Because of this, Bai Juyi wrote that he could see the tide with curling clouds and snow while lying in the pavilion of his county government office. abundant. The first sentence is about running to the temple to find the beautiful legend, and the second sentence is about lying on the bed leisurely and watching the surging tide of Qiantang, with every movement and silence. From this, we can get a glimpse of the various psychological activities contained in the author's heart, and maybe we can feel the atmosphere of Hangzhou. memorable.

The third poem is about Suzhou. If you drink a cup of Wu wine with spring bamboo leaves, some people may say that green bamboo leaves are not Wu wine. What's going on? Firstly, the bamboo leaves are meant to match the hibiscus in the next sentence. Secondly, "spring" is an adjective here. The so-called spring bamboo leaves do not necessarily refer to bamboo leaf green wine, but to wine that can bring spring. Bai Juyi said in another poem that "the bamboo leaves on the head of the urn ripen in spring". In the mid-Tang Dynasty when Bai Juyi lived, there were many famous wines named after the word spring, such as "Fu Shuichun" and "Ruoxia Chun". Most literati love wine, and Bai Juyi is probably no exception. Drinking Wu wine and watching the "Double Dance of Wu and Wa" is like the dance of a drunken hibiscus. The "baby" refers to a beautiful woman, Xi Shi was called the "baby", and the house built for her by King Wu Fu Chai was called the "Guanwa Palace". Perhaps Bai Juyi wrote this out of association with Xi Shi, a peerless beauty. More than ten years later, when he was in Luoyang, he recalled drinking and watching dancing, and couldn't help but sigh: "Sooner or later we will meet again?" Sooner or later, it was a colloquial expression at that time, meaning when.

Three poems, starting from the present, recalling the past, and finally returning to today, from Luoyang to Suzhou and Hangzhou, from today to the past more than ten years ago, present, past, south, north, time , the space has a huge span. Bai Juyi was in Luoyang, longing for the south of the Yangtze River, recalling the present and the past, and recalling the most unforgettable past events in the south of the Yangtze River with infinite affection, which gave him a certain amount of spiritual satisfaction. When we read this poem today, we can also get some kind of spiritual satisfaction because of Bai Juyi's excellent description. I wonder if Bai Juyi wrote it for his own memories at that time, or left it for future generations to appreciate. What do you think?

Recalling Jiangnan ①

Tang Bai Juyi

Jiangnan is good,

I am familiar with the scenery.

When the sun rises, the flowers on the river are as red as the fire.

When spring comes, the river is as green as blue. ③

I can’t forget Jiangnan.

Author

772-846, courtesy name Letian, from Taiyuan (now Shanxi). Jinshi of Dezong Dynasty of Tang Dynasty. He worshiped Zuo Shiyi in the third year of Yuanhe (808). He was later demoted to Sima of Jiangzhou (now part of Jiangxi) and moved to Zhongzhou (now part of Sichuan) as governor. He also became the governor of Suzhou (now part of Jiangsu) and Tongzhou (now part of Jiangxi). Shaanxi Dali) governor. He lived in Luoyang later in life and called himself Mr. Zuiyin and Xiangshan layman. His poetry has a clear political tendency, emphasizes allegory, and advocates frankness. He is a master of the mid-Tang Dynasty. He was also a leader among early poets, and his works had a great influence on later generations.

Notes

① According to "Yuefu Miscellaneous Records", this word is also called "Xie Qiuniang" and was written by Li Deyu of the Tang Dynasty for his deceased concubine Xie Qiuniang. Also known as "Wang Jiangnan", "Dream Jiangnan", etc. Divided into monotonous and double-tonal. There are twenty-seven monotonous characters and fifty-four double characters, all with plain rhyme. ② familiar (yin'an): familiar. ③Blue: Indigo grass, whose leaves can be used to make green dye.

Comments

This word describes the spring scenery in the south of the Yangtze River. The first sentence is "Jiangnan is good". With a shallow and round "good" character, it captures all the advantages of the spring scenery in the south of the Yangtze River. , and the author's praise and yearning are also reflected in it. At the same time, only because the "goodness" is too great, can we "remember" it endlessly. Therefore, this sentence has also implicitly teased the concluding sentence "can we not remember Jiangnan" and is related to it. The second sentence, "Landscapes were once familiar to each other," points out the "goodness" of Jiangnan scenery. It is not a rumor, but the author's personal experience and feelings when he went to hangzhou. This not only implements the word "good", but also takes care of the word "memory", which can be regarded as a wonderful pen and ink to connect the meaning of an article. The third and fourth sentences vividly interpret the "goodness" of Jiangnan, highlighting the bright colors of river flowers and red and green water, giving people a strong and dazzling impression. Among them, there are both the mutual contrast between the same colors and the mutual contrast between different colors, which fully demonstrates the author's skill in coloring.

At the end of the chapter, the whole poem is concluded with "Can I not remember Jiangnan", which not only reminds the author who was born in Luoyang to have infinite admiration and nostalgia for the spring scenery of Jiangnan, but also creates a sense of remoteness