Expressing the thoughts and feelings of an old man who is still in trouble and aims for a thousand miles
Original text
Although the turtle has a long life, it has its own time.
The soaring snake rides on the mist, but in the end it becomes ashes.
The old man is still ambitious, but his ambition is thousands of miles;
The martyrs are ambitious in their old age.
The period of profit and contraction is not only in heaven;
The blessing of nourishing happiness can lead to eternal life.
Fortunately! Sing to express your ambition.
Translation
Although the life span of the turtle is very long, there is still a time when it will end.
Although the Soaring Snake can fly in the fog, it will eventually die and turn into ashes.
The old thousand-mile horse lies in the stable, its ambition is still to gallop a thousand miles in a day.
When people with lofty ambitions reach their later years, their ambition to make progress will not stop.
The length of human life is not just determined by God.
As long as you take good care of yourself, you can also prolong your life.
I am so lucky to express my thoughts and feelings through singing.
Appreciation
Zhong Rong of the Southern Dynasty wrote a "Poetry", which evaluated poets, distinguished them by rank, and placed Cao Cao's poems at the lower end. However, Cao Cao's poems have a shocking power that makes countless heroes and patriots of later generations fall in love with them. According to "Shishuo Xinyu", during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, General Wang Dun, who had a large number of troops at his disposal, often chanted about Cao Cao after drinking, "I am an old man who has great ambitions for thousands of miles. In his old age, a martyr is full of ambition." Use Ruyi to hit the saliva pot as a knot, and the spout of the pot is missing. Why is the theorist's vision so different from the reader's appreciation? This is a rather thought-provoking question. The poem that General Wang praised was the fourth chapter of Cao Cao's Yuefu poem "Stepping out of Xiamen" - "The Turtle Lives Longevity". At that time, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao and his son and pacified Wuhuan in the north. He was full of ambition, optimistic and confident, so he wrote this series of poems to express his heroic ambitions and achievements. At this time, Cao Cao was already fifty-three years old. He couldn't help but think of the journey of life, so he chanted with infinite emotion at the beginning of the poem: "Although the tortoise has a long life, it still has its time, the snake rides on the mist, and finally becomes ashes." "Zhuangzi 6.1 Qiu Shui Pian" said: "I heard that there is a magical tortoise in Chu, and it has died at the age of three thousand years." Cao Cao used it contrary to his intention, saying that even if the magical tortoise lived for three thousand years, it would still inevitably die! "Han Feizi 6.1 Difficulties Chapter" records: "The flying dragon rides on the clouds, the soaring snake swims in the fog, the clouds rest on the fog, and the dragon and the snake are the same!" The "flying snake" can ride on the clouds and ride on the mist just like the dragon, and its ability can be described as Big! However, once the clouds dissipate, just like flies and ants, they disappear into ashes! In ancient times, great talents and great strategists, such as Emperor Qin and Emperor Wu of Han, took food to seek immortality, and were not immune to the bewitchment of immortality. However, Cao Cao alone had a clear understanding of the natural laws of life, which was rare in an era when prophecy superstition was rampant. What's more valuable is how to treat this limited life? Cao Cao brushed aside the tragic tune of the late Han Dynasty literati who lamented that life is like a dream and urged people to enjoy themselves in time. He generously sang: "The old man is in trouble, and his ambition is a thousand miles. The martyrs are ambitious in their old age." Cao Cao compared himself to an older thousand-mile horse, although he looked like a thousand-mile horse. He is old and frail, and he is living in poverty, but his heart is still filled with the passion of galloping thousands of miles. He said that for those who are determined to do something, even though they are in old age, their ambition will never be depressed, and their pursuit of grand ideals will never stop! This poem begins with a sigh on the philosophy of life, continues with a passionate and passionate singing, and then returns to philosophical speculation. "The period of growth and contraction is not only in heaven; the blessing of nourishing happiness can lead to eternal life." Cao Cao's views on life There is quite a bit of dialectical thinking. He first talks about respecting the laws of nature and that people will always die. Then it talks about how people should give full play to their subjective initiative in their limited life, be proactive and make achievements. Finally, let’s talk about people not being completely powerless in the face of the laws of nature. Although a person’s life span cannot violate objective laws, it does not completely depend on God’s arrangements. If we take good care of our body and mind and make them healthy and happy, wouldn't we also be able to prolong our lives? What Cao Cao said about "the blessing of nourishing happiness" does not mean to do nothing and sit quietly, but to say that a person's mental state is the most important. He should not be depressed due to old age, but should be "ambitious"-to have eternal life. Stop pursuing ideals and have a positive and enterprising spirit, always be optimistic and energetic, strive for self-improvement, and maintain your ideological youth. Cao Cao used his personal experience to reveal the importance of human spiritual factors to health. From this aspect, isn't it another wonderful treatise on health preservation? The more valuable value of "Guishu Shou" is that it is a real poem. It opened up a new era of poetry. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty deposed hundreds of schools of thought and only respected Confucianism, which imprisoned the thoughts of the Han Dynasty people for three to four hundred years. As a result, the literati of the Han Dynasty could not write poetry, but could only write big poems praising the merits of the emperors and endless annotations of Confucian classics. Literature with real emotions and personality could not be developed. It was not until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty that the world fell apart, the situation was turbulent, and the political, ideological and cultural changes underwent major changes. Cao Cao, who was a great man and loved poetry, took the lead in rebelling against the Tao, bringing an air of freedom and liveliness to the literary world. He "established martial arts externally and literature internally", and gathered around him a large number of literati such as the "Seven Sons of Jian'an". They were all talented people in the world. They lived in an era that had experienced many wars, and their thoughts and feelings were often impassioned. Just as "Wen Xin Diao Long 6.1 Chronology" says: "Looking at the literature of the time, it is elegant and generous, good things are accumulated in the world, and the customs are declining. The ambition is deep and the writing is long, so the stems are generous and full of energy.
"Especially Cao Cao, who composed poems on pommel and horse, and wrote poems on the horizontal pole. His poems are tragic and generous, which shocked the past and present. They are unprecedented and unprecedented. The hearty and vigorous style shown in this kind of passionate poetry is called " Cao Cao is the most prominent representative of "Jian'an style". For thousands of years, Cao Cao's poems have shaken the hearts of heroes all over the world with this "generous and energetic" style and its inherent enterprising spirit. The valuable qualities make Jian'an literature shine brightly in the history of Chinese literature. Zhong Rong placed Cao Cao in the lower echelons mainly because he thought he was "upright" and lacked literary talent. Little did he know that Cao Cao, a heroic hero, was disdainful. Zhong Rong was born in the Six Dynasties. Literary scholars at that time paid great attention to the beauty of literary works. As the saying goes, "Li's poems are worth a hundred words." Zhong Rong's evaluation of Cao Cao was obviously too low. It's a trend. We know that in any literature, including poetry, literary style is secondary to content. Cao Cao's literary status used to be overshadowed by his political achievements and was not taken seriously. In fact, He is a figure who has made outstanding contributions in the history of Chinese literature, especially for his pioneering contribution to Jian'an literature. (Zhang Tieming) "Gui Suishou" was written after Meng De Dongping Wuhuan. At this time, he realized that he was in his twilight years and should seize the time to unify the Central Plains and the world. This poem is the embodiment of his enterprising and enterprising ambition. This poem is divided into three parts. Levels:
1. "Although the tortoise has a long life, it still has its time; the snake rides on the mist, but eventually becomes ashes" is the first level of the poem. The ancients believed that the tortoise is a longevity thing. , has a psychic nature, so it is called "Soaring Snake": a creature similar to the dragon that can stir up clouds and mist in legend. The poet here uses turtles and snakes to illustrate that everything in the world (including human life) is short-lived. These four lines seem extremely depressing and sad, and there are many such examples in his poems. Therefore, Liang Zhongrong commented on them: "Cao Gong is an ancient upright man with very sad words. "I think this is a shortcoming, so it is wrong to arrange Cao's poems in the second volume. Liu Xizai of the Qing Dynasty commented: "The power of Cao Gong's poems is powerful enough to cover everything. There is no one like him among the scholars in Jian'an. "This is a very insightful comment. Looking back on the past, life is fleeting, and in a blink of an eye, I have reached old age. I feel that life is like water, the passing is like this, and it is short-lived to go and never return. In these lines of the poet, there is a kind of seriousness. The courage of life and the sense of worry are by no means so-called negative emotions, but a kind of upright perception of life. Only in this way can the heroic spirit flourish.
2. "Lao Ji Fufang, Aiming for a thousand miles; a martyr's old age is full of ambition." With a majestic tone, it shows the poet's ambition that is getting stronger with age, that is, his sense of responsibility for history and his self-confidence in the future. "Old Ji" means an old and frail horse; "martyr" , a person with great ambitions. The poet expresses his thoughts as an old man. If a person, after realizing the pain of life's perishability, only uses sad eyes and painful tears to exchange for people's sympathy, and uses this kind of expression to express his feelings. If he uses sympathy to soothe his injured wisdom, he will lose his life goals and pursuits and live in a negative plight. Then, his poems and words will become decadent preaching and will not give people spiritual enlightenment. On the contrary, Cao Cao's heroic spirit of creating great achievements in his later years was precisely because he realized that life is short, so he continued to make contributions to make up for the great regret of his short life. Progress has made this sentence a motto that has been passed down through the ages.
3. “The period of prosperity and contraction is not only in heaven; the blessing of nourishing happiness can lead to eternal life.” "The meaning of this sentence is that the length of human life is not entirely controlled by God. If people strengthen their subjective cultivation, they can also prolong their lives. This sentence inherits the "twilight years" from the above text and expresses one's desire to live a long life. Because time is precious to a person in his twilight years. He needs time to display his ideals and ambitions. We can connect this level of reasoning with the previous section to combine this stirring poem. The combination of love and philosophies about life is thought-provoking and intriguing, and it also provides deep inspiration to those in their prime.
“Fortunately! Sing to express your ambition. "This sentence was added for Hele and has nothing to do with the content of the text, so the author arranged it as above when transcribing the whole poem.
In short, this poem is a generous and energetic lyric poem that embodies It embodies the distinctive characteristics of Jian'an style, reads sonorously and powerfully, and has no lingering and sad mood. It reveals the poet's firm will and consistent personality both internally and externally. Not only that, this poem blends poetry and philosophy, with novel conception and clever language. It is clear and strong, expressing the poet's thousand-mile ambition with great force.