Open the anthology of Tang poetry, and the rain can be heard everywhere. There is much sorrow in the rain, so there is much poetry in the rain. Rain in China literature has changed from a natural phenomenon without any subjective feelings to a traditional lyrical image, which embodies the author's unique feelings, experiences, emotions and mentality, and has rich life significance and aesthetic value.
The first is pleasant rain.
Wei's poem "Dwelling House": "I wonder if spring grass will last long after a rainy night" is a beautiful sentence that people appreciate. "Light rain" is an accurate description of the drizzle in early spring. Spring grass grows under the nourishment of light rain. There is a vibrant spring atmosphere here, and there is also a poet's love for the faint spring rain at night. The poet's seclusion and happy mood can be seen.
In Wang Wei's pen, rain makes the weather in Datang more spectacular. "There is a phoenix in the imperial city in the cloud, and the branches and leaves in spring cover the wind and rain." This is a three-dimensional picture of Chang 'an Spring Rain. Because the clouds cover the fog, the general buildings become blurred in the field of vision, and only the phoenix pavilion is more prominent and dynamic; Because of the spring rain, the whole city is made up of rain curtains, and the spring trees, people and palaces set each other off, showing the grandeur and prosperity of the imperial city.
Another example is Liu Zongyuan's "Walking Alone in Yuxi North Pool after Rain", "The tree is high near the pool, and the night wind scares the rain." The night rain suddenly cleared up, and the raindrops on the leaves seemed to be frightened by the wind, which was wonderful and vivid, and really brought the raindrops to life, which was full of fun.
There are two sentences in Du Fu's "Two Water Sills" (Part I): "Fish comes out in the drizzle, and swallows incline in the breeze". The poet vividly and delicately describes the dynamics of fish and swallows in the drizzle. The joy of the fish and the lightness of the swallow aroused the poet's happy psychological reaction. Isn't that what makes us feel the poet's love for spring?
Let's look at another song by Han Yu, "Early Spring is a Shiba Inu of the Ministry of Water":
There is a lot of silk in the sky above the avenue, which is as delicate and moist as butter. The grass is vaguely connected in the distance, but it looks sparse in the near future.
This is the most beautiful season of the year, far better than the late spring of the green willow.
The fine light rain falling on the sky street moistens like crisp, and crisp is cream. It is delicate and symmetrical, smooth and moist, and slowly falls on the streets of the imperial city. Looking at the grass color through the rain, it is hazy, as if there is a very light green, which is the grass color in early spring. Looking at it, people suddenly feel happy, fresh, lively and fragrant, and the joy is beyond words.
Du Fu's Delighting in Rain on a Spring Night is the most popular poem about rain;
Good rain knows the season, when spring comes. Sneak into the night with the wind, moisten things silently.
The wild path is dark, and the river is bright. Look at the red and wet place, the flowers in Jinguancheng are heavy.
Good rain knows what people want. When the earth is in urgent need of rain, rain will come, just in time. In the night when people are sleeping, the rain falls silently and carefully, and unconsciously melts into the earth with tenderness, turning it into the luster and bright color of life, which is beneficial to moistening things silently. Rain is not only a spring rain, but also a good rain. It knows people's wishes and touches people's hearts, so it is pleasant. Although the word "hi" in the title does not appear in the poem, the meaning of "hi" is in the air. "
Second, the worrying rain
The past is like smoke, and life is short. "The fortunes are uneven, and life is at stake." When the poet is sad about spring, autumn and parting, he doesn't hate and is lonely and helpless, the rain floats down and becomes a natural image that is most suitable for literati's frustration and sadness, with specific emotional connotation. Such examples are common in Tang poetry.
Li Shangyin wrote in "Spring Rain": "There are two red mansions that meet the cold and are covered by rain. A pearl curtain lamp shakes my lonely heart and goes home." On a rainy morning, the hero in the poem was lying in his clothes, recalling the last time he visited his lover. It's still the familiar red building where the other party lived, but he didn't have the courage to go in, and he didn't even dare to go near it again. He just stared through the rain. I don't know how long it took, but the lights in the surrounding streets and lanes were already on, and the rain floated across the lighted windows like a bead curtain. In the flashing of the bead curtain, he walked back alone along the long and lonely rain lane.
Poetry sets off the loneliness of parting with the help of misty spring rain. Color and feeling contrast. Red was originally a warm color, but it was cold through the rain. In the last sentence, the pearl foil was originally bright, but it came from the illusion of the rain curtain in front of the lamp shadow, which wrote the protagonist's sparse and confused psychological state in a very subtle way.
Another example is Bai Juyi's "Shang Yang White Haired Man": "Worrying about the shadow on the back wall of the lamp, the dark rain is whispering in the window." Wang Changling's Farewell to Xin Jian at Furong Inn: "When you enter Wu on a cold rainy night, Chushan will see the guests off."
Bitter rain is usually associated with feelings such as sadness, resentment and sadness. The seasons are mostly spring and autumn, and the time is mainly dusk and night. Spring rain is continuous, and autumn rain is continuous. When countless red flowers have fallen, spring has gone in a hurry, the hate platform howls, yellow leaves fall, the sun sets, the night is quiet, and the rain seems to understand people's feelings, and it also hits people's hearts one by one. The poet had mixed feelings, and tears and sadness poured out together, which was heartbreaking to read.
Third, fresh and elegant rain.
In the Tang Dynasty, Si Kongtu's interpretation of "elegance" in "Poetry" is: "The jade pot is set in spring, the hut enjoys the rain, the class sits in the middle, and bamboo is cultivated around. White clouds are clear, birds contend, the piano sleeps in the shade, and there are waterfalls on the ground. Falling flowers are speechless, and people are as light as chrysanthemums. " Mr. Guo Shaoyu said, "Enjoy the canopy, live in seclusion, and see its elegance.". China literati have the elegance of loving rain, which is the need of emotional expression and the pursuit of elegant artistic conception of life. Take Wei's Xixi Chuzhou as an example;
Alone, grass grows by the stream, and orioles sing on the trees.
The spring tide brought the rain late and urgent, and there was no boat on the wild crossing.
There are clusters of lovely grass beside the mountain stream, and orioles sing leisurely in the forest. In the evening, the spring rain is falling, the tide rises and falls, no one crosses the field, and the boat is lost. The poet's love and appreciation for the natural existence of wild things embodies a leisurely and elegant attitude towards life and is fascinating.
Chang Jian, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, is not conspicuous, but his quatrain "Looking for Li Jiuzhuang in Three Days" is a poem with great interest in life. There is a green willow growing on the small ferry. After the spring rain, Liulin looks crisp and full of commercial flavor. It provides a fresh and bright atmosphere for poets to go out to find friends. After the rain, the water will inevitably rise, which adds a little fun to the poet's boating and visiting friends.
These poems are simple and elegant, which accords with the aesthetic taste of traditional literati. China's ancient aesthetics is actually a kind of life aesthetics, which is people-centered, and pays great attention to how people surpass themselves, promote spiritual life and enhance life existence in real life. Influenced by this, poets in the Tang Dynasty explored and pursued the free aesthetic extreme of life, yearned for and pursued the artistic existence of life, and people lived poetically and leisurely like floating clouds and wild cranes. We can say that the drizzle in the literary world is the serenity and comfort emerging from the poet's mouth. Under the infiltration of drizzle, the poet's mind reveals elegance and comfort away from the noise.
Fourth, the rain full of Zen
Rain cleanses the space world and the human spiritual world. The poet's strength, heart and interest were washed away in the coolness of the rain, and the poet realized a certain philosophy of life in his meditation on the rain, thus making the rain a bit like a Zen master.
Wang Wei worships Buddha in middle age, and his poems are full of Zen. In Sitting Alone in Autumn Night, "The fruit falls in the rain and the grass sings under the lamp." It is the poet who sits alone in the empty hall and meditates on the rainy night in autumn. Feeling extremely lonely and empty, I need sympathy, encouragement, inspiration and induction. So, he thought of the mature wild fruits in the mountains from the sound of rain, as if seeing them destroyed by autumn rain; Encouraged by candlelight, I noticed that insects singing in the autumn night grass were also hiding in the hall. The poet's meditation, from life to the survival of plants and insects, found that these ignorant plants and insects, like knowledgeable people, groaned in the relentless passage of time and years. The poet was inspired and realized. The sound of rain became the inducement for the poet to understand here.
There is also Li Shangyin's "Autumn cloudy frost, flying late, leaving a dead lotus to listen to the rain" ("Love Luoting to send Cui"); Bai Juyi's "On a cold night in Sanqiu, an old man is at ease." Sleep late after lights out, and sleep in the beautiful rain (Sleeping in Autumn Night);
To sum up, the image of "rain" in Tang poetry is the product of the combination of the poet's subjective feelings and objective images. The life realm and attitude of the literati reflected by this combination are consistent with the traditional tranquil character of the Chinese nation. As we all know, the western nation is active and the Chinese nation is quiet. It is this quiet personality that makes the ancient people in China have the conditions to look at everything and their hearts, so they have a richer and more delicate emotional experience and feelings about natural images. Influenced by traditional cultural psychology, China literati have always attached importance to the poetic pursuit of life, emphasizing the cultivation of their own souls, and paying attention to their inner feelings and experiences in the way of thinking and knowledge structure. It can be said that the image of "rain" was combined and touched by the inner feelings of poets in the Tang Dynasty, which fully externalized the main feelings and gave readers a brand-new aesthetic feeling. The rich life implication contained in the image of "rain" is very enlightening. There is joy in the rain, sadness in the rain, elegance in the rain and meditation in the rain. Rain left a vast lyrical space for the poet's life, and every experience gave people a fresh and huge psychological shock.