The yellow sand withered, and the skull turned out to be peach and plum noodles. I can't bear to see it now, but it was annoying at that time. The industry is blowing with the wind, and its eyes are smart and smiling. Without feet and eyes, it becomes a piece. (Huang Tingjian's Collected Works of Mr. Huang, Volume 15, Calvary Ode)
The authorship of this ode is controversial. The tenth volume of Dongpo's sequel book is also included, entitled "Ode to Golgotha". The last four sentences are slightly different: "The industry is changing, and the color is beautiful." Zen without teachers and eyes will become one. "Here is the last volume of Song's Collection of Events, written by Huang Luzhi. And Zhou Mi's Hao Ran Zhai Ya Tan said in the volume "Dongpo tastes like the cloud of" Female Calvary Zan ". However, whether the author is Huang or Su, it does not affect our understanding of its text content.
These four sentences, "Yellow sand withers the skull", depict the most cruel contrast between life and death, beauty and ugliness. Skull, referring to Bai Sensen's dead skull, is a horrible and ugly image. Peach and plum face refers to the face of a beautiful woman, which is red inside and is a delicate and beautiful image. However, today I can't bear to look at the skull, but it is a beauty who dreams day and night and hates not meeting each other. The same cruel fact is that the beauty of today's "peach blossoms set each other off" will become a skeleton in the future, appearing and disappearing in a desolate yellow sand pile. This contrast is extremely sad to think about, even more desperate than falling flowers.
In Buddhism's view, the transformation between Calvary and Beauty lies in the human good and evil karma, which is the result of "karma blowing against each other". The karma between good and evil can make people turn around, so it is compared to the "wind" Mahayana chapter. Volume 7 says: "karma is like the wind, good karma, and the wind blows the interests of all beings; Bad karma, the wind blows the evil place of all beings. " Calvary is the fruit of bad karma, and beauty is the fruit of good karma. However, if we understand the Buddhist principle of samsara in the industry, then the two black holes on the skull look as charming as "beautiful eyes and agility". Here, I borrow a sentence from the Book of Songs, "Smile wisely and hope for happiness", to describe the beauty of "peach and plum face".
There is a famous woman in the Zen Gate called "Eyes in the Skull" (The Legend of Jingdezhen Lights, Volume 11, Xiang Yan Zhi and the Leisure Zen Master). Of course, it is not that the skull can be "beautiful and smart", but that if we can really understand life from the perspective of the skull, then the skull is no different from beauty. In the eyeless skull, bones and beautiful women are completely integrated, and there is no difference. Of course, "writing a piece" also includes the time of "now" and "then", that is, the past, present and future are all one piece, and there is no difference. This is what Buddhism often says: "Empty is color, and color is empty". Just like the Taoist priest in the twelfth episode of A Dream of Red Mansions gave Jia Rui a "romantic treasure", the front photo is a beautiful woman, Wang Xifeng, but the back photo is a skeleton. Unfortunately, Jia Rui didn't understand the advice of the Taoist priest and lost his life in vain.
The Zen view that the body is regarded as a white bone is called "dead bone view", also known as "white bone view" "Shurangama Sutra" volume five excellent Bonishatuo White Buddha's words: "I also observed that the Buddha was originally a monk, not clean, tired of leaving, and realized all colors, so that he was not clean, and his bones were dust and empty. There is no blank color and no learning. " In short, because of this view, beauty becomes a skull, bones become dust, and everything ends in emptiness.
This Ode to the Calvary vividly interprets the Buddhism of "color is empty" by comparing the two images of "Dead Calvary" and "Peach and Plum Noodles" and by comparing the attitudes of "I can't bear to see" and "I hate not to see". The indifference contains some banter, and the ridicule contains some compassion, which is expressed in literary language.
The beauty of white bones, the slender thrush of white bones, and the clear clothes of skeletons. Holding a million fans, I don't know if it's funny. (Rao Jie's "Mo Zhuang Man Lu" Volume 10)
According to Zhang Bangji's "Mo Zhuang Man Lu", "Painting bones is beautiful, and those who have bones on their heads are spared from talking about clouds." It can be seen that this is a poem. Rao Jie, whose word is "Fuck", is from Linchuan, Jiangxi. Originally a Confucian scholar, he became a monk after middle age. His dharma name is like jade, and his name depends entirely on Taoist Song. He belongs to the Cloud Sect. Ruby was a famous poet at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, and was listed in Jiangxi School by Lv Benzhong. The Collection of Poems of Song Yi was handed down from generation to generation. The poem "Gu Guan Hua" is not included in the Collection of Poems of Song Yi, but it is included in the Chronicle of Song Poetry, with the author's signature as jade.
If Huang Tingjian's Ode to a Skull describes the contrast between a skull today and a beautiful woman in the past, then the poem combines these two scenes into one painting, skillfully painting a flying moth eyebrow, and it is not a beauty but a skeleton who wears Luo Fu. The front and back of the "romantic mirror" are combined into a horrible and ridiculous image-dressed like the bones of a beauty. This is a very powerful picture, which changes the diachronic opposition between the "now" skull and the "then" beauty in Ode to the Skull into a * * combination of "white bones with eyebrows" and "skull with clothes". Slender, describing the slender and soft hands of women, the so-called slim and jade hands; Chuchu, describing the feminine and delicate appearance of women, is called cuteness. However, when "Slim" and "Chuchu" are collocated with "Bone" and "Skeleton", there is a strong irony effect because of their paradoxical juxtaposition-this beautiful woman with beautiful red makeup is actually white!
What makes people laugh even more is that this clever tattered thrush skeleton has no idea what kind of looks he looks like, playing with a fan in his hand and posing, and has no idea that all the onlookers are laughing their heads off. Standing with a fan is a common beauty image in ancient paintings, and when this skeleton also holds a fan, everything looks very funny. The "emptiness" of "emptiness relative" refers not only to the vain waiting of this kind of white-boned beauty, but also to the illusion of this image itself.
Rao Jie's "Gu Guan Tu" should be a kind of Buddhist persuasion and enlightenment map, which vividly shows the truth of Buddhism's "color emptiness" with the image of beauty as the bone. The Buddha told the monks in What I Want to Cause: "If I see a woman again, I will be out of body, but I will see bones. The past is right, the face is good, and it will never reappear. What disease? " This is the Buddhist concept of bone. A beautiful woman with fine eyes, a quilt and a fan can't hide her dense bones, filth and ugliness, but it's a walking corpse, it's simply a walking corpse! Knowing that beauty is a bone, you will naturally break all your desires and lead a totally clean life. So in the final analysis, this picture is nothing more than an ascetic concept of beauty like a knife.
This is a serious Buddhist picture, but Rao Jie's poems on paintings add a bit of teasing tone. The person who is laughed to death is the poet himself. He stood by the sea of life and death like a cold and detached philosopher, laughing at those souls who were addicted to love and greed in the six divisions of the wheel of karma, and it was difficult to get rid of their suffering. Rao Jie's middle-aged haircut has his own Buddhist chance, but I'm afraid it's also one of the chances to see this "Ancient View" and realize that the hue is empty, prosperous and illusory.
Lou Zi heard this song because he was in a restaurant across the street selling flowers, but suddenly he heard this song singing, which aroused his sorrow. Cut the red silk thread with a sharp knife. I don't want it if you don't care. (Stone "Zen Fu and Ancient Couplets and Collections" Volume 40)
This is an ancient poem written by Zen master Ren in the hall. Talking about Zen with an erotic ditty is a consistent style of Ren Zhong. We have already learned the song "When the needle stops talking" before Zhao Zhou's case. Here, the story of a monk praising Lou Zi happens to be the story of a traveling monk who realized Tao with brilliant music, so Zen master Ren Zhong is more handy when singing.
In the late Tang Dynasty, the Zen master of Changqing Road quoted a case-solving case between Louzi and the monk, saying that when he passed by the restaurant, he heard the words "If you don't care, I don't care", which was detached and mysterious, and gave a meaning (see Qian's "Leng Yan Chao" for ten quotations). There is a little detail about the story of Louzi monk in Volume 6 of Five Lights Meeting Yuan: "Louzi monk, I don't know who he is, but he left his name. One day, I happened to walk across the street and adjust my garter under the restaurant. I heard someone singing Qu Yun upstairs:' I'll rest if you don't care.' I suddenly realized that the name' Louzi' was vague. "Since" Cold-eyed Story "quoted the case-solving of Louzi monk, it can be seen that he is also a Zen monk in the late Tang Dynasty, and he will not be later than Tao.
Monk Louzi should be a traveling monk. It is conceivable that in order to get rid of the troubles of life, he walked from village to village, begging along the street, and asked the teacher to visit the road. I don't know how many human joys and sorrows he has seen, nor how many eminent monks and great virtues have given lectures, but he has never found the right way out, so he has been wandering. His liberation was entirely due to an accidental opportunity. When he passed a restaurant, he squatted down and tied a loose garter. No sooner had he come out of the restaurant than he heard Song's singing. He heard the sentence "You have no intention, I'll take a break", so it suddenly dawned on him that the troubles that had been weighing on his mind for many years suddenly dissipated. Upstairs is a sad love song sung by a lovelorn woman, but the traveling monk regards it as a great revelation about Buddhism: "You" refers to all the laws that make up the world, and "I" refers to my self. Since all laws are empty and have no purpose, why should my heart be persistent? It is this "out-of-context" understanding that Lou Zi monks got religious relief from Er Ru's words, which are resentful to men and women.
If Louzi monk suddenly realized it because he took erotic music out of context, then Zen master Zhong Ren tried to restore the context of the wandering monk's epiphany, from a perfunctory "you don't care, I'll rest" to a seven-character quatrain. The first two sentences, "Selling flowers in a restaurant across the street, suddenly smelling words and singing, caused me to leave my sorrow", are the environment and events to restore the monk's enlightenment. The location is downstairs in the flower street where I sell wine. The reason is that I heard the song of parting from sorrow and not hating. The lyrics "You don't care about me, I'll rest" in the original public text are recognized as "singing" about "leaving sorrow" here. Why is there a "sadness of parting"? It is nothing more than the persistence of love between men and women. Legend has it that the marriage of husband and wife depends on pulling red silk thread. According to the "Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy", Guo took a red silk thread and married a beautiful woman. "Continued Mystery Record" records that the old man tied the feet of men and women with red ropes all his life under the moon. The persistence of love comes from the red silk thread, which leads to parting from sorrow and not hating, so this marriage is really a dusty fate that brings troubles to monks.
The last two sentences, "Cut the HongLing Line with a sharp knife, and I'll rest if you don't care", are to restore the monk's mental journey. The elder said, "If you keep cutting, you will still be confused. This is separation." But when the monk heard the decisive lyrics of "You don't want me to have a rest", it was as if he had poured a pot of cold water on his head and suddenly woke up from his dream. This lyric, like a sharp scissors, instantly cut the red silk thread between him and his troubles. "If you don't want to", what can I miss, then "I have a rest", what can I hold back? In the case-solving, "you have no intention" is replaced by "if you have no intention", which should be done by Zen master Ren Zhong on purpose, and it is the response of the imaginary wandering fairy to the sentence of singing on the roof.
The relationship between "you" and "I" symbolizes the relationship between the world and self, the relationship between color, sound, fragrance, taste, touch and law, and the relationship between eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. This relationship is called "dust fate". Cutting off the climbing of six roots to six dusts is the fundamental way to get rid of troubles. At the moment of listening to the song, the monk Louzi realized the nothingness of the worldly law (you), so he put down the love persistence from his heart (me) and completely cut off the "red silk thread" of the dust.
This ode by Zen master Ren Zhong supplements the scene and significance of Lou Zi's case solving, and explains the Buddhist principle that "all Buddhism is an unintentional rest" in vivid language. If the Buddhist background is removed, this ode itself can be regarded as a profound and beautiful love poem.
(Author: China Institute of Popular Culture, Sichuan University)