Analysis of "Dongshan"
The whole poem has four chapters. The first four lines of the chapter are overlapping chants with the same words, which constitute the main theme of the whole poem. The chant is about the soldiers encountering rainy weather on their way back. The writing style is similar to the last chapter of "Xiaoya Caiwei": "In the past, I left. The willows are still there; now I come to think about it, the rain and snow are falling." Wang Euzhi said, "Use a happy scene to describe sorrow, use a sad scene to write joy, and double the sorrow and joy." This is both "use a sad scene to write joy", but not entirely. Gai Xingjie misses his family and feels desolate when the rain and snow fall, so these sentences are also a blend of scenes, preparing a very infectious background for the narrative of the next few sentences in each chapter.
The last four sentences of each chapter are narrative content; they can be roughly divided into two parts.
The first two chapters describe the protagonist's mixed feelings of joy and sorrow on his way back home, with joy outweighing sorrow. The poet first grasped the detail of the change in clothing and wrote about the joy of the soldiers being demobilized and returning home, reflecting the people's tiredness of war and their desire for a peaceful life. Secondly, I wrote about the hard work of eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew on the way home, and staying in the morning at night. It is quite meaningful to compare the person in the poem to the wild silkworms in the mulberry forest: it makes the readers feel that his hard work is hard, but he also feels the joy of getting rid of the constraints and getting what he wants. (It is said that these few sentences are about recalling life in the army. Although it is understandable, it is better to interpret it as a direct description of what happened on the way home.) In the second chapter, when writing, I imagined that my home was deserted and people's livelihood was in decline, doubling the feeling of nostalgia.
The scenes described in the poem of overgrown weeds, wild beasts and insects, and flickering phosphorus fire are similar to those written in Han Yuefu's "Fifteenth Military Expedition" and Cao Cao's "Hao Li Xing". It can be seen that what happened in the hometown of the soldiers at that time After a large-scale war, it is no wonder that as the hometown gets closer and closer, the mood of the person in the poem becomes more complicated. On the one hand, "I feel more timid when I'm close to my hometown," and on the other hand, I feel "more intense when I'm close to my hometown." Therefore, while the poet wrote about the terrible scene, he also said contradictory words such as "It is not to be feared, but it is to be cherished."
The last two chapters follow the previous chapter and write about the hero's imagination during the journey, but they are dedicated to his thoughts about his wife. There are speculations about the wife's worries at home ("The woman sighed in the room"), memories of the newlyweds, and imagination of reunion after a long absence. The gourd (melon gourd) is specifically mentioned in the poem because of the ancient wedding custom: when the couple gets married, they must cut the gourd into a ladle, each holding a ladle, fill their mouths with wine and rinse their mouths as a ceremony. The words here are about things but the intention is about people. The last chapter further recalls the scene of the wedding held three years ago, describing the singing and dancing of the orioles, the joyful carriages and horses welcoming the bride, the mother-in-law tying a scarf on the bride, and instructing and admonishing the rules of being a daughter-in-law ("Kindly wed, ninety-nine things should be done") ).
These happy scenes not only contrast with the previous "woman sighing in the room", but also imply that the protagonist has had the sad experience of "newly married farewell". Memories can also cause the person in the poem to have a stronger desire for reunion. As the saying goes, "A long separation is better than a new marriage." The end of the poem says: "The new Kongjia is just as it was before!" This is both whimsical and reasonable: because in ancient agricultural society, interpersonal relationships were relatively simple, and the relationship between husband and wife was actually The deepest kind of human relationship. It is only natural that soldiers think more about their wives when they are in the army and on their way home, especially the wives who "marry late and say goodbye in the morning".
One of the greatest artistic features of this poem is its rich associations. It is perhaps the most imaginative poem in the Chinese style. There are representational and retrospective imaginations in the poem (such as memories of a wedding). , there are also fantasies and speculative imaginations (such as the imagination of a dilapidated home), reflecting on "the long journey, the long years, the ravages of wind and rain, the hardship of hunger and thirst, the old clothes and dirty clothes, the old houses." And the desolation, the house and the house have been long and full of regrets" (Zhu Shan), all of which are described with emotion and emotion. The refrain placed at the beginning of the chapter plays the role of an aria. This aria is like a red thread, connecting all the fragments of memories and imagination in the poem, making it a harmonious and perfect artistic whole.
Extended information:
Introduction to the work
"The Book of Songs·Dongshan" is one of the seven poems in the "Book of Songs·Bin Feng". This is a long poem divided into four chapters, and it is also a service poem. At the beginning of each chapter, there are four sentences including "I go to Dongshan". Although this is a common practice of overlapping music chapters, in terms of the significance of each chapter in this article, this writing method is not a simple repetition, but a layer-by-layer advancement. One chapter describes the return, the second chapter describes the return journey, the third chapter describes the return home, and the fourth chapter describes the return, with the first four overlapping sentences as the general outline. This lyric poem reflects the thoughts and feelings in specific environmental experiences through what is seen, heard, felt, and thought, and has broad social significance.
Original text of the work
I traveled to Dongshan, melancholy and never returned. I come from the east, where there is zero rain. I return in the east, but my heart is sad in the west. To make his clothes, don't make them. The locusts are lolling in the mulberry fields. Dunbi stayed alone, also under the car.
I traveled to Dongshan, melancholy and never returned. I come from the east, where there is zero rain. The naked fruit is also applied to the universe. Yiwei is in the room, and Celadon is at home. The town's deer farm is shining brightly at night. It cannot be feared, but it can be embraced.
I traveled to Dongshan, melancholy and never returned. I come from the east, where there is zero rain. The stork cries in the valley, and the woman sighs in the room. Sweeping the sky, I am marching forward. There is bitterness in the melons, but in the chestnuts. I haven’t seen myself in the past three years.
I traveled to Dongshan, melancholy and never returned. I come from the east, where there is zero rain. Cang Geng is flying, his feathers are shining. When his son returned home, the emperor refuted his horse. If you are intimate with each other, you will have ninety-nine rituals. The new Kongjia is like the old one?
Vernacular translation
I went on an expedition to the east of Shandong, but my wish to return home came to nothing. Now that I am returning from Dongshan, the sky is filled with light rain and mist. I just said that I would return from Dongshan, and my heart was so sad that I flew west early.
Make a piece of homely clothes, no more military rank items. Wild silkworms crawl up trees, and the fields and mulberry forests are their homes. Sleeping in the open, huddled up and sleeping under a car somewhere.
I went on an expedition to the east of Shandong, but my wish to return home came to nothing. Now that I am returning from Dongshan, the sky is filled with light rain and mist. There are melons on the vines of the garden, and the vines climb under the eaves. The dampness in the house is infested with ground lice, and spiders spin webs as door hangers. Deer tracks remain on the field, and phosphorus fire sparkles at night. It’s not scary to have a desolate home, but the more so, the more homesick you feel.
I went on an expedition to the east of Shandong, but my wish to return home came to nothing. Now that I am returning from Dongshan, the sky is filled with light rain and mist. The white stork calls softly on the hill, and my wife sighs in the house. Sweep the house and plug the rat holes, hoping that I will come home early. The gourds were cut in half and left on the firewood pile without anyone caring. I don't see the old things lying idle. It has been three years now.
I went on an expedition to the east of Shandong, but my wish to return home came to nothing. Now that I am returning from Dongshan, the sky is filled with light rain and mist. At that time, the oriole was flying, and its feathers were shining. The man came as a bride, and the horse was white and yellow. The mother tied a knot for her daughter, and the wedding ceremony was complicated and full of formalities.
Not to mention how beautiful the wedding is, how beautiful the reunion will be!
Baidu Encyclopedia-"The Book of Songs·Dongshan"
Ancient Poetry Network-"The Book of Songs·Dongshan"