The Charcoal Seller
Bai Juyi was very sympathetic to the sufferings of the people, and here he only uses "The Charcoal Seller" as evidence.
Cutting firewood and burning charcoal in the southern mountains. His face was dusty and smoky.
His temples were gray and his fingers were black.
Where can I live if I get money from selling charcoal? I only have clothes on my back and food in my mouth.
Poor, I am wearing only the right clothes, and I am worried about the cold weather.
At night there is a foot of snow on the city, and at dawn I drive a charcoal cart over the ice tracks.
The cows were trapped and the people were hungry. The sun was getting high and they rested in the mud outside the south gate of the city.
Who is riding Pianpian? The messenger in yellow is in white.
With the document in hand, he said he was pardoned, and then he got back in the car and shouted at the cow to lead it north.
A cart of charcoal weighs more than a thousand kilograms, and the palace envoy will regret it.
Half a piece of red gauze and one foot of silk are tied directly to the cow's head and filled with charcoal.
The poem "The Charcoal Seller" is one of the fifty poems in "New Yuefu" by Bai Juyi, the great realist poet of the Tang Dynasty. It describes the hardship of an old man who makes charcoal to make a living, and exposes the evil of the "palace market" in the Tang Dynasty.
The beginning of this poem takes us to Zhongnan Mountain near Chang'an, the capital at that time, and shows us the very poor life of an old man who burned charcoal.
"The charcoal seller cuts firewood and burns charcoal in the southern mountains." The old man who made charcoal didn't even have an inch of land, and all he relied on for a living was an axe, an ox cart, and ten fingers blackened by fireworks. He had no wife and no children. He was all alone, cutting firewood and burning charcoal on the Nanshan Mountain. His face was covered with dust and smoke, and his temples were gray and his fingers were black. One can imagine the hardship of labor. The old man who made charcoal did not have high requirements for life. "Where can I make money from selling charcoal? I only have clothes on my back and food in my mouth." He just hoped to have food and clothing and maintain a minimum life. Logically speaking, it is not difficult for a person to support himself alone, but even such a wish is difficult for him to realize. Charcoal was originally used to keep people warm. The old man worked hard to chop wood and burn charcoal, bringing warmth to others, but his clothes were pitifully thin.
If you have thin clothes, you should always look forward to warm weather, right? No, on the contrary, the old man who was forced by life was "worrying about the low price of charcoal and wishing for the cold weather." He would rather endure double the cold in order to get more money from selling charcoal. This conflicting mood profoundly reflects the tragic situation of the charcoal seller.
"At night, there is a foot of snow outside the city, and at dawn, the charcoal cart rolls over the ice tracks." The cold weather has indeed arrived. Early in the morning, he hitched his car and walked on the frozen road to sell charcoal in Chang'an City. What did he think about along the way from Zhongnan Mountain to Chang'an City? The poet did not tell us; but we can imagine that he must be full of hope, because this load of charcoal is directly related to his future life. After reading this, we feel closer to this old man. We can't wait to know whether this car of charcoal can be sold and whether it can be sold at a fair price. But the poet did not tell us the result right away. He asked the charcoal seller to rest and take a breath, and also let the readers calm down a little.
Then he wrote: "Who is riding Pianpian? The messenger in yellow is in white." One of the people who came was a eunuch in yellow, and the other was a minion of the eunuch in white. . They pretended that they were out to purchase goods under the emperor's orders, and they caught up with the charcoal cart and headed north regardless of whether the charcoal seller agreed or not. The north of the city was where the emperor lived, and the driver was an eunuch from the palace. What could an old man selling charcoal do to him? "A cart of charcoal weighs more than a thousand kilograms, and the palace envoys and generals will regret it." More than a thousand kilograms of charcoal requires thousands of kilograms of firewood to burn, and it takes who knows how many days to chop these several thousand kilograms of firewood! In order to burn firewood into charcoal, this lonely old man suffered so much in the dust and next to fireworks! But what did you get in exchange for all this? "Half a piece of red gauze and one foot of silk, tie it to the cow's head to charge charcoal." The gauze and silk silk together are only three feet. Is this worth the many days of hard work of the old man? These palace envoys are not buying anything, they are simply robbers. What they took away was not just a load of charcoal, but also took away the hope of the old man's life and deprived him of his right to live. What outrage this should arouse in the reader! After reading this poem, we can't help but ask: Can the gray-haired charcoal seller survive the cold winter with this little worthless reward?
There is a preface under the title of each poem by Bai Juyi in "New Yuefu" to explain the theme of the poem. The preface of "The Charcoal Seller" is "Bitter Palace Market", which is to reflect the pain caused by the palace market to the people. "Palace market" was one of the most rogue ways for the Tang Dynasty court to directly plunder people's property. Originally, the daily necessities needed by the palace were purchased by the government from the private sector. However, in the late Zhenyuan period of Emperor Dezong's reign, eunuchs were used to purchase items directly for the palace envoys. The palace often sent hundreds of people to Chang'an's east and west markets and popular neighborhoods. When they encountered something they liked, they just said it was "gong market" and took it away without anyone daring to ask anything. Sometimes they tear you two or three feet of shabby silk as a reward; sometimes they not only don’t give you any reward, but ask you to give them "house money" and "fee money." So whenever the palace envoys came out, even the small shops selling wine and sesame seed cakes would close their doors and not dare to do business.