A gift of twenty-two rhymes to Wei Zuo Cheng Zhang
Du Fu
If a rich man does not starve to death, he will miss his body if he has many scholarly crowns.
My father-in-law, I would like to listen quietly. I would like to ask you to tell me this:
When I was young, I used to visit state guests early in my life.
Read thousands of volumes and write like a master.
The poems praise the heroic enemies, and the poems look at the children and establish a close relationship.
Li Yong wanted to know his friends, while Wang Han wanted to know his neighbors.
He claims to be quite forward-looking, and he immediately ascends to the important road.
To the kings Yao and Shun, and to make customs pure.
This meaning is actually depressed, and the singing is not hidden.
Thirteen years of riding a donkey, traveling in Beijing and China.
Keep a rich man’s door in the morning, and follow the fat horse dust in the evening.
The broken cup and the cold food lurk sadness everywhere.
The Lord saw the sign in an instant, and suddenly wanted to extend his relief.
Qing Ming, however, has his wings hanging down and kicking without vertical scales.
I feel ashamed that my father-in-law is kind, but I know that my father-in-law is true.
Every time I go to hundreds of officials, I recite new verses obscenely.
It is a pleasure to steal the tribute and pay tribute to the public, but it is difficult to accept the original poverty.
How can you feel unhappy? Just walk around.
Now I want to go east to the sea, and I am about to go west to Qin.
I still pity Zhongnan Mountain and look back at Weibin in the Qing Dynasty.
I often plan to report a meal, but Kuanghuai resigned from the minister.
If the white gull is not powerful, who can tame it thousands of miles away!
Among the poems written by Du Fu when he was trapped in Chang'an for ten years, this one is the best. This kind of social poem has an obvious intention of seeking quick success and profit. When ordinary people write, they either mean to please the other party, or they deliberately demean themselves, which can easily lead to a shabby look of flattery and begging for mercy. In this poem, Du Fu was able to be neither humble nor arrogant, express his feelings directly, and vent his long-simmering grief and indignation against the feudal rulers for suppressing talents. This is what makes him extraordinary.
In the seventh year of Emperor Xuanzong's Tianbao reign in the Tang Dynasty (748), before and after Wei Ji was appointed as Shangshu Zuocheng, Du Fu once presented him with two poems, hoping to be promoted by him. Although Wei Ji appreciated Du Fu's poetic talent, he failed to provide any practical help. Therefore, Du Fu wrote this "Twenty-Two Rhymes" to express his determination to leave Chang'an and retire to Jianghai if he really couldn't find a way out. Du Fu had been writing poetry for thirteen years since he failed in Luoyang's Jinshi examination at the age of twenty-four (735). Especially since he has been seeking fame in Chang'an for three years, he has encountered obstacles everywhere and has found it difficult to achieve his ambition. The pride of his youth had long since turned into resentment and anger, and he had no choice but to vent it out in front of Wei Ji.
How does the poet express his anger and injustice? Looking carefully at the whole poem, the poet mainly uses the expression techniques of contrast and twists and turns to express the depressed emotions in his heart in a real and moving way. This poem should be said to be the earliest one that embodies the "melancholy and frustrated" style of Du's poetry.
There are two situations in comparison in poetry. One is comparing others with oneself; the other is comparing oneself's past and present. Let’s start by comparing yourself with others. At the beginning of the poem, "If you don't starve to death, you will miss your body if you have a scholar's crown", the poet's strong cry of injustice suddenly erupts like a river bursting into flames. It really rises into the sky with an unstoppable force. In the poet's era, those dandy children were ignorant and incompetent, and lived a arrogant and arrogant life. They were spiritually empty, and they were superfluous people in the world, but they would not starve to death. However, upright scholars like Du Fu mostly had empty ambitions and were always struggling on the verge of starving to death, seeing their careers and futures ruined by mistake. These two lines of poetry go straight to the point, clearly revealing the main theme of the whole article, and effectively summarizing the dark reality of the inversion of virtue and ignorance in feudal society.
From the point of view of the description of the whole poem, writing "not starving to death" in "wan hakama" is mainly to contrast and highlight the "many misunderstandings" of "confucian crown", while underwriting others is to emphasize the importance of others. Write yourself. So next, when the poet revealed his heart to Wei Ji, he put aside the "dandy" and firmly grasped the completely different changes in joy and sorrow in his pursuit of "Confucian crown" in the past and present. He once again used contrast to emphasize the ink with strong colors. It expresses the endless emotion of being proud and honored as a young man, but now being humiliated by mistake. The poet used a total of twenty-four sentences for this second comparison, which is really full of ups and downs. The twelve sentences from "I was young in the past" to "Make customs pure again" are written about being proud and honored. The poet uses the technique of narration and recollection to introduce his outstanding talents and lofty ambitions in his early years. The young Du Fu had seen the world in Luoyang very early. He is knowledgeable and thoughtful in his writing. When writing a poem, he admitted that he could rival Yang Xiong, while when writing poems, he fell in love with Cao Zhi. As soon as he showed his prowess, he won the appreciation of contemporary literary leaders Li Yong and poet Wang Han. With such outstanding talent, he naively thought that seeking fame and entering an official career would not be easy. At that time, the coveted political ideal of "bringing the kings to Yao and Shun, and then making the customs pure" can be realized. The poet writes with a high attitude and high spirits, full of ambition and contempt for everything. I write this, of course, to let Wei Ji understand who he is, but more importantly, I want to highlight his current humiliation. From "This intention is actually depressed" to "There are no vertical scales when rubbing against the pedal", another twelve sentences are used to describe the humiliation of the body by mistake, which forms a strong contrast with the previous twelve sentences. The reality is cruel, the "important roads" have long been occupied by "dandys", and the contradiction between subjective desires and objective reality ruthlessly mocks the poet.
Let's take a look at the poet's travel career in the prosperous capital: for many years, the poet often rode a skinny donkey and ran around in the streets and alleys of the busy city. In the morning, I knock on the door of a rich man's house, only to be looked down upon by the playboys; in the evening, I follow the dust raised by the fat horse of the noble man and return home depressed. For many years, he has been living in the disgrace of the powerful. Not long ago, the poet took part in a special examination hosted by the imperial court. Unexpectedly, this examination was actually a big scam planned by the traitor Li Linfu. All failed. This was a heavy blow to the poet, just like the roc that had just flown into the blue sky and dropped its wings, or like the whale salamander swimming in the ocean that suddenly lost its freedom again. The poet's humiliation, pain and misfortune reached its climax.
This long paragraph of contrasting descriptions unfolds meanderingly, just like a person climbing up step by step. At the beginning, his eyes are full of spring and his heart is in full bloom. He once thought that he would lose his footing from the top, like a rock falling from a mountain, plummeting, thus making him fall. The second half of the article is completely shrouded in an atmosphere of sadness, anger and melancholy. The more the poet writes about his youthful pride, the more he can bring out the sadness and misery of a scholar who has lost his body. This is probably the reason why the poet makes great efforts to use contrast!
From "I am ashamed of my father-in-law's kindness" to the end of the poem, the poet writes about the contradictory and complex emotions of the poet's gratitude to Wei Ji, his failed expectations, his determination to leave but his reluctance to leave. Such rich and complex ideological content must require the poet to express it in a tortuous and tortuous way in order to achieve the artistic effect of "it is deeply penetrating". On the rough road of life, the poet can no longer endure the poverty like Yuan Xian, a student of Confucius. He was secretly happy that Wei Ji became Minister Zuocheng, just like Gongyu in the Han Dynasty who celebrated when his friend Wang Ji was promoted. How the poet hopes that Wei Ji can provide him with more practical help! But reality has proven that such hopes are impossible to realize. The poet can only force himself not to be so indignant. He is about to leave but still lingers there. The poet is unwilling to travel far away from the palace and retreat to the rivers and seas. This is a last resort for the poet. He was so reluctant to let go of the Imperial Capital where he had placed his hope, and Wei Ji, who had been "kindly provided by a meal", that he could not forget. But what can be done? In the end, I can only retreat resolutely, drifting away like a white gull among the thousands of miles of waves. In this section, the poet writes about his ambivalence about turning from hope to anger, being unable to bear the urge to leave, and looking back three times at a time. It is really full of twists and turns, and is very precise. Combined with the touching contrast in the previous section, it fully embodies Du's poems that are "deep in thought and deeply sad." "(Fang Dongshu's "Zhao Mei Zhan Yan") artistic characteristics.
"If the white gull is not mighty, who can tame it thousands of miles away!" From the structural point of view, this ending is forced out of hundreds of twists and turns, just like a strange peak protruding, becoming stronger at the end. It expresses the poet's noble sentiments, broad mind, and strong character with eloquent words and vivid words on the page. As Pu Qilong pointed out, "One knot is the best" (see "Reading Du Xinjie"). Dong Yangxing also said: "In the article... the words are upright and proud, looking at the universe proudly. It can be seen that although the prince is in trouble, he is brave and brilliant, and he has suffered many setbacks." (Quoted from Qiu Zhaoao's "Detailed Notes on Du Shi") chanting like this At the end of the song, the heroic spirit of the poet's youth will stir up in our hearts again. Our poet has withstood the temper of the world and did not succumb to the harsh and unreasonable reality of feudal society. He showed the impact of a blue sea spreading his wings, thereby sublimating the ideological nature of the whole poem to a new level.
The whole poem not only successfully uses contrasts and twists and turns of writing, but also has simple language with refinement and profound implications. For example, "the broken cup and the cold sun lurk everywhere," which expresses the harshness of the world and the poet's mental trauma. The word "Qian" expresses the omnipresence of sorrow and pain, which can be said to be sad and refreshing. It is many times more detailed and vivid than using an ordinary word "Yes" or "You". The characteristic of the sentence structure is the combination of parallel and prose, with prose as the mainstay. Therefore, when read in one breath, it has the beauty of neat contrast and the wonderfulness of vertical and horizontal movement. Therefore, all of this fully proves the poet's profound skill, and also indicates that the poet's more mature long-form works will surely shine in the medieval poetry world with the dramatic changes of the times and the enrichment of life.