"The Duke of Zhou is afraid of the day of rumors, and Corporal Wang Mang has not usurped the time." It comes from the third part of Bai Juyi's seven-rhythm poem "Five Statements". The full poem is as follows:
"Five Statements" ( 3)
Bai Juyi of Tang Dynasty
I will give you a method to eliminate doubts, without having to drill turtles and Zhu Ping.
It takes three days to test the jade, and seven years to identify the material.
The Duke of Zhou was afraid of the day of rumors, but Wang Mang was humble and did not usurp the time.
Xiang Shi died at first, and who knows whether it will be true or false in his life.
The preface to "Five Poems of Fangyan" introduces the writing background of this group of seven-rhythm poems: When Yuan Jiu was in Jiangling, he wrote five poems of long lines of Fangyan, with high rhyme and rhythm, ancient meanings and new words. . Every time I chant it, I feel it is very interesting, although my predecessors who are more versed in poetry have not done this. Only Li Qi said: "The Jishui water has become clear since the river has become turbid, and the great sage Zhou Gong has been crazy about it." This sentence is close to the truth. When I left Zuoxunyang, I had not yet completed my appointment. I had a lot of free time in the boat and chanted alone on the river, so I added five chapters to continue my meaning.
According to the preface, this group of poems is a group of poems of the same name written by Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen in the 10th year of Yuanhe (815), the reign of Emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty, when he was demoted to Jiangzhou (Xunyang). In the fifth year of Yuanhe (810), Bai Juyi's good friend Yuan Zhen offended the powerful and was demoted to Jiangling Shicao to join the army. When Yuan Zhen was in Jiangling, he wrote five poems "Fang Yan" to express his feelings: "Death is an idle life, so I can do nothing to you" (Part 1), "Two times the left descends to inform the fate, several times Where is the glory when you ascend to the throne?" (Part 5). Five years later, Bai Juyi was hated by those in power because he urgently requested to hunt down the murderer of Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng. In June of that year, he was demoted to Jiangzhou Sima. At this time, Yuan Zhen had been transferred to Tongzhou Sima. After hearing the news, he wrote an affectionate poem - "Wen Letian awarded Jiangzhou Sima". On the way to be demoted, Bai Juyi was filled with emotions and emotions, so he also wrote the poem "Five Statements" to support peace.
"The Duke of Zhou was afraid of rumors, but Wang Mang was humble and did not usurp the throne." These two lines of poetry need to be understood in conjunction with the two sentences at the end. The meaning is: Duke Zhou was afraid of rumors, and Wang Mang was respectful before usurping the throne. If this person had died, who would know the truth of his life? These sentences illustrate from the negative side that identifying the authenticity of things requires time to test. After a certain period of observation and comparison, the true colors of things will eventually appear. The evaluation of Zhou Gong and Wang Mang are examples. When Duke Zhou was preparing to become King Cheng, some people once suspected that he had the ambition to usurp power, but history has proven that he was completely sincere to King Cheng. His loyalty was true, but it was false to say that he usurped power. Before the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang pretended to be humble and confuse some people. The "Book of Han" originally said that "the more honorable his title, the more humble his integrity"; but history has proven that his "humility" was false, and that he was independent on behalf of the Han Dynasty. "Xiangshi died at the beginning, who knows the authenticity of his life?" is the key sentence of this article. The purpose of "eliminating suspicion" is to distinguish authenticity from falsehood. Once authenticity is distinguished from falsehood, doubts will naturally disappear. If we draw conclusions prematurely without time to test them, we will easily be blinded by temporary superficial phenomena, fail to distinguish truth from falsehood, and wrong good people. The meaning of the poem is extremely clear, but the language is subtle and euphemistic. The "method" of "eliminating suspicion" is described from both the front and the back, but neither is directly pointed out. The former gives two examples of "testing jade" and "identifying materials", while the latter gives two examples of Zhou Gong and Wang Mang to let readers think about it. These examples are both arguments and arguments. They incorporate philosophy into images and use specific things to express universal laws. They are small and large, and are thought-provoking.
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia /link?url=AG63DVsaVhi-AUO7q__ir1CXvEL2UsCWaPpTySFsVNk4yqdpDE5Cgzgm-Cn0JXH_