Thinking about the events of the past fifteen years, I am full of talents and tears, and I have lost both the heart of the flute and the name of the sword.
When spring comes, I don’t have any caring dreams. I confess to myself that I am wandering, but if I don’t believe that I am wandering, please read the bedside Golden Scripture.
In the first half of the poem, the author uses a few strokes to roughly describe his rough experiences in the fifteen years since he was seventeen years old. I used two words "Zongheng" to vividly express my feelings of not being able to appreciate my talents and being defeated by both the flute and sword. The word "Zongheng" means that he has great talents, and the word "Zongheng" in tears means that he has a lot of sorrow. "Xiao Xin" focuses on the various affections and affections in life, while "Sword Name" mainly focuses on the great life pursuits and ambitions. Both of them are "double losses", and the author can only win tears.
The second half of the poem further describes the sadness of personal life: when spring comes, I can’t even dream of caring, not only that no one cares about me, but also that I have no one to devote my care to; Speaking of true concern, I just want to have a caring dream. The sorrow and sadness contained in the words are very painful. The author skillfully uses two "wandering" words to appropriately express his experience of traveling north and south several times for fame and his complex mood of self-comfort. After reading the last sentence of the poem, I realized that the author has been wandering all his life. Although he has some regrets now, he no longer values ??them, because life is like snow and mud, and because he has embraced Buddhism.
According to historical records, Gong Zizhen believed in Buddhism in the third year of Daoguang. After returning to his hometown, he got together with several lay Buddhist disciples such as Jiang Yuan and Bei Yong in Suzhou, and also participated in worshiping Buddha and chanting sutras. Many of the author's poems bear the imprint of his study of Buddhism, and many words from Buddhist scriptures were written into poems by Gong Zizhen. The author actually wanted to learn Buddhism to get rid of his disappointment in the examination room. This was also a common practice of many frustrated literati at that time. However, after reading the last sentence of this poem, there is often a bitterness that makes people sympathize with the author. This is the artistic charm of this poem.
Reference materials: 1. Written by Gong Zizhen; commentary by Hou Rongrong. Gong Zizhen's Collection: Sanjin Publishing House, 2008: Page 167 2. Wu Gonghua. Gong Zizhen: Anhui People's Publishing House, 2007: Page 149