Appreciation of Su Shi's "Huanxi Sand"
1 Huanxi Sand
Visit Qishui Qingquan Temple. The temple is adjacent to the Orchid River, which flows to the west①
Su Shi
At the foot of the mountain, the orchid buds dip into the stream, and the sandy road among the pines is pure and clear of mud. Xiao Xiao Mu Yu Zigui cries ②.
Who said there is no less in life? The flowing water in front of the door can still reach the west. Stop singing yellow chicken with gray hair③.
① Written in March of the fifth year of Yuanfeng (1082) when he was exiled to Huangzhou. Volume 1 of "Dongpo Zhilin" contains: "(Yu) got sick when he went to Xiangtian (Shahu). He heard that Pang Anchang, a native of Maqiao, was a good doctor and was deaf, so he went to seek treatment. ... The disease After that, I went to Qingquan Temple with him. The temple is two miles outside Qishuiguo Gate." Qishui, now Xishui County, Hubei Province, is in the east of Huangzhou. Lanxi, comes out of Ruo
Zhushan, there are many orchids growing on both sides of the stream, hence the name.
② Xiaoxiao, the same as Xiaoxiao, the sound of rain. Zigui, another name for cuckoo.
③ Hugh general, no. White hair refers to old age.
This is a short poem that touches the scene and contains the philosophy of life. It reflects the author's love for life and optimistic and broad-minded attitude towards life.
The first film describes the elegant scenery seen during a visit to Qingquan Temple in late spring. The stream at the foot of the mountain is gurgling, and the orchid grass beside the stream has sprouted and soaked in the stream. The gravel path lined with pines and cypresses has been washed away by the spring rain and is clean and free of mud. It was dusk, and the rhododendrons in the pine forest were singing in the drizzle. What a beautiful and peaceful mountain and forest scenery this is! The first seven characters not only point out the season when visiting Qingquan Temple, but also point out the origin of the name Lanxi. The word "Zip" is the same as the word "Jian" in "Gaolan is walking by the path, Si Lu Jian" ("Chu Ci·Zhaohun"), both have the meaning of "spread". The orchid grass is beginning to sprout "buds" at this time. The buds are still "short", but they are full of vitality and grow quickly. They have spread from the bank to the stream. The sad cry of the cuckoo can easily cause the sorrow of traveling. But the author was walking by the stream and saw nothing but business. He completely forgot about the hustle and bustle of the world and the filth of officialdom, and he felt happy. At the same time, the disease was beginning to recover, and a doctor accompanied him on the tour, so the cuckoo's call could not disturb the author's happiness at this time. In short, the first film only depicts real scenes, and what it evokes in the heart should be the love for nature and the aftertaste of life, which leads to the philosophy of life in the second film.
The next part of the film is full of emotion and discussion about the scene of "stream flowing westward" in front of you. "When hundreds of rivers reach the sea from the east, when will they return to the west?" (Han Dynasty, "Chang Ge Xing"). "Flowers will bloom again, but people will never be young again." The river's flow eastward never returns, just as a person's youth only lasts once. It is an irresistible law of nature, which has made countless people lament it in ancient and modern times. At this moment, facing the west-flowing Lanxi River in front of him, the author had a wonderful reverie: Since the stream can flow westward, why can't people have their youth again? "No matter how little" in life is not the "rejuvenation" that Taoists strive for, but it means that we should maintain a youthful and optimistic mentality. Because people cannot change the world; what people can change is only their attitude and view of the world. Bai Juyi's poem "Drunken Song" has the following line: "Who knows how to make you drunk? Listen to the singing of the yellow rooster and the white sun. The yellow rooster crows to remind the dawn, and the day to remind the new year to disappear. The red ribbon around the waist is not stable, and the mirror is red. Sentences such as "My appearance has been lost" are words of lamentation about old age and decline. The author uses the same meaning in the last sentence, believing that even in his twilight years, he should not have the kind of decadent mentality of "yellow chicken urging the dawn" and losing his beauty, which reflects the author's broad-minded and uplifting mental state during his relegation.
The characteristics of the whole poem are that it is expressive of the scene, and the scene is described purely in white, delicate and elegant; the expression is high-spirited and full of philosophy. Previously, the author wrote a poem in the sixth year of Xining (1073): "I have been living by the river for a long time, and I have been with Cangbo for a long time. Creation also knows that people will age easily, so it taught the river to flow westward" ("August 10th" Five Days to Watch the Trend and Five Wonders" Part 3). It is the emotion that arises when the Qiantang tide comes and the river flows back, which is similar to the meaning of this word. However, at that time, the author invited himself to serve as a foreign official. He went to the beautiful and prosperous Hangzhou to serve as a general judge under the title of Dr. Taichang. He was sent as a local official under the capital official, so he did not feel disappointed in his official career. At this time, he was placed in the remote Huangzhou as an official waiting for crime. The loneliness and pain could not be easily shaken off. Therefore, the call for youthful vitality and the rejection of the view of old age and inaction shown in the second film of this poem are particularly valuable. It can be said that this optimistic and energetic spirit in the face of adversity is one of the important reasons why Su Shi is respected by later generations.
2 Huanxi Sand
Su Shi
Jujube flowers fall from rustling clothes and towels, and the sound of reeling wheels is heard in the south of the village and in the north of the village. Niu Yigu Liu sells cucumbers.
I am sleepy after a long journey due to alcohol. I am thirsty and thinking about tea. I knock on the door and ask about the wild people.
The poem "Huanxisha" was written by Su Shi when he was 43 years old (1078) when he was the prefect of Xuzhou. That spring, a serious drought occurred in Xuzhou. As a local official, Su Shi led his people to a stone pond twenty miles east of the city to pray for rain. After it rained, he went to Shitan with the people to thank him for the rain. This group of words was written on the way to Xie Yu in Shitan, Xumen.
"The sound of jujube flowers falling on clothes and towels" begins with the sound of date flowers falling on clothes and towels, reflecting the joy of a prefect who cares about people's lives for the new scene in the countryside after the rain. The sound of jujube blossoms falling on the clothes and scarves is slight, but it is so real to the author's ears. "South of the village and north of the village" summarizes the sound of "wheeling the car", which shows how seriously, how carefully and how excited the author listened.
"The Cow Clothes the Ancient Willow", the author changes his perspective to write about his joy over the harvest of vegetables. Three sentences, three images, seemingly scattered and completely unrelated. But when strung together with the line "Xie Yu's Road", people feel that this comic strip has a strong three-dimensional sense. This group of pictures is not only beautiful in color, but also beautiful in music. Whether it is the sound of falling flowers, the buzzing sound of cars, or the cries of melon farmers, they are full of rich flavor of life and vividly show the prosperous scene of the countryside.
The first film describes the busy scene of rural production and labor, and the second film turns to the hardships of Xie Yu’s journey. Walking from village to village, it was already hot and sunny, and people were thirsty and sleepy. They couldn't help but think of tea to quench their thirst and refresh themselves. The word "question" is used very carefully. It not only expresses the author's full hope of asking for a cup of tea to quench his thirst, but also worries that during the busy farming season, there will be no one at the farm and it will be inconvenient for him to rush in. The letter is written without polish, but it is lifelike, portraying the image of a humble and approachable magistrate, and describing the relationship between a prefect and ordinary farmers in a cordial and natural way. The whole poem contains scenery and people, tangible and colorful, and has a strong local flavor, which opens up a new world for the theme of Song poetry.
"Knocking on the door and asking the savages", the words stopped abruptly here. What is the result of the poet knocking on the door? Did you get some tea? How did the farmers entertain him? There is not a word of explanation in the poem, leaving it to the reader's imagination, which leaves an endless aftertaste. This is the "inexhaustible meaning, seen beyond the words" that is emphasized in classical poetry.
In the poem "Huanxisha", there is a sentence "The jujube flowers are falling off the clothes and towels", which is actually the reverse text of "The dates are falling off the clothes and towels." The original meaning is: Parrots peck at the remaining fragrant rice grains, and the phoenix perches on the old phoenix branches. While the subject and object are inverted, the objects "fragrant rice grains" and "biwu branches" are also split into the positions of the subject and the guest. Regarding the inversion of verses in classical poetry, Hong Liangji of the Qing Dynasty said: "Poets often use inversion to find it strange and vivid."