First, about the poem Ge Yanxing.
Ge Yanxing is a Yuefu poem, which belongs to Xiang He Ge Ci Ping Diao Qu. The ancients had many explanations for the meaning of this topic.
In Yuefu Guangti, the line is explained in this way, and the lover works for Yan and sings for Yan. Yan is a place name, and lover means husband. In other words, the man went to Yan to join the army, and his wife wrote this song, so he mostly thought of his wife and husband.
In another ancient book, Yuefu Poetry, it is explained in this way. Adding a place name in front of a song line originally refers to local pop songs, such as Yan Song Line and Longxi West refers to pop songs in Yan Di and Longxi. Only after the song ended, the author could only sing the local customs on this topic. Yan was a frontier place in ancient times and fought for many years. Therefore, Yan Gexing is often a word to describe the frontier defense, and Gao Shi's Yan Gexing in Tang Dynasty belongs to this category.
No matter what the explanation, the poems with the theme of xing are all related to war, and most of them are parting from sorrow. Knowing this, we can better understand the emotional tone of Cao Pi's poem.
Second, the significance of Cao Pi's Ge Yanxing
Cao Pi's poem "Yan Ge Xing" is as follows:
The autumn wind is bleak, the weather is cool, the vegetation is exposed like frost, and the geese go south.
I miss you and your guests, and my heart breaks. I miss my hometown, so why should I leave it for a long time to send it to each other?
I am alone in my room, afraid of forgetting my worries, and I don't feel tears on my clothes.
Short songs cannot be long.
The bright moon shines on my bed, and it's still early for the stars to flow west.
Penny and Weaver looked at each other from a distance. Why should I restrict the river beam?
This is a very mature seven-character poem. Yue once introduced it to you in the article "From Pre-Qin to Tang Dynasty, From Four-character Poetry to Rhyme, Evolution of Ancient Poetry Style". China's earliest poetic style is mainly based on four words. By the end of the Warring States Period, Qu Yuan and others had created Chu Ci and Sao Ci, but the May 7th Ci which had the greatest influence on later generations and spread most widely did not appear until the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Five-character poems were born before seven-character poems, and the earliest and most mature masterpiece is Nineteen Ancient Poems. So which is the earliest seven-character poem? That's Cao Pi's Ge Yanxing.
Some people say that as early as the Book of Songs and Qu Yuan's Li Sao, Tian Wen and other works, there are already seven words, such as "stepping on a horse in Xi, Gao Lan, rushing through Jiaoshan, how to stop?" If you can't get in, you will leave. If you retreat, you will repair my initial service. "It's seven words and one sentence. This is indeed a seven-character poem, but it is not a seven-character poem. Moreover, although the Book of Songs, Li Sao and Jiu Ge all have seven-character poems, they are not seven-character, so they are not seven-character poems.
Others say that the earliest seven-character poem should be Zhang Heng's Four Sorrow Poems. Four Sorrow Poems are indeed seven-character poems, which have begun to take shape, but they still retain the rhyme of Chu songs, and are quite different from the real seven-character poems in terms of meter, so they can only be regarded as "Chu songs" and works of transition from five-character poems to seven-character poems.
The real seven-character poem began with Cao Pi's Ge Yanxing, which fully has all the characteristics of seven-character poem. In the history of poetry development, the emergence of xing is of great significance, which marks the formal entry of ancient poetry into the era of five or seven words.
Third, the theme and appreciation of this poem
As the saying goes, poetry is like a person. Cao Pi is a writer, but also a politician. He has both the sensibility of a writer and the rationality of a politician, so his poems are also very rational. So is this song Ge Yanxing. Although it is a woman's yearning for her husband, the expression of feelings is subtle, and it slowly infiltrates your heart like a trickle.
The poem begins with a description of the scenery, "The autumn wind is bleak, the weather is cool, the vegetation is shaking like frost, and the geese are going south." All three sentences describe the scene of autumn. The bleak autumn wind in the first sentence is very common in ancient poems. Cao Cao's "Jieshi Pian" has a poem "bleak autumn wind, surging waves", and "cool breeze blowing gently" is more common, and all children know what it means. The second sentence "vegetation falling" comes from Song Yu's "Nine Arguments": "Autumn sadness is also angry, bleak vegetation falling", which means vegetation falling. "Dew is frost" comes from the Book of Songs: "Frost is light and dew is frost", which means dew forms frost. The third sentence still describes the scenery. No matter the little swallow or the big swan goose, they bid farewell to the north and flew to the south.
From the bleak autumn wind, to the falling vegetation, and then to the geese flying south, it is a very common scene in autumn. The poet showed them one by one. You don't know what feelings he wants to express, but you are gradually brought into a lonely and desolate artistic conception and atmosphere by this gradual superposition. This is a typical performance of Cao Pi. He always infects you bit by bit, instead of surrounding you instantly.
The next three sentences, "I miss gentlemen and guests, I feel heartbroken, I miss my hometown, what is a long stay to send to the other side", gradually exudes women's feelings of missing their husbands. You are traveling abroad. I miss you very much. You are heartbroken. You should also be attached to your hometown and want to come back as soon as possible, but why have you lived in other places for a long time?
The word "promise" has two pronunciations. One is to read Angela, indicating that you have regrets and can't be satisfied; Sometimes I read qiè again to express my satisfaction. The former should be taken here. "Stay long" means to stay for a long time.
"My concubine keeps her room empty, worrying about her husband and forgetting her, tears don't make me feel clothed", which pushes this kind of yearning to a new height. I am alone in my room, thinking of you sadly, and I dare not forget it. Unconsciously, my clothes have been wet with tears.
The word "dare not forget" here is very interesting. Ancient women paid attention to "women's virtue" and must be unconditionally loyal to their husbands. They could not betray their husbands for any reason. If you use "can't forget", it is just a simple expression of love, while "dare not forget" contains more awe. I miss you very much. This kind of missing is a torment. Many people can't persist, but I dare not forget you because of persistence. This is both a sign of love and loyalty.
"When you sing a string, you can't sing a short song", which means that you can play a sad song by plucking the strings with a piano, but you can't go on after singing a few words gently. Today, with the development of communication, when we miss someone very much, we usually call and send messages. The ancients did not have such convenient conditions, so they had to take other ways to vent their feelings. What method? Playing the piano Ruan Ji once wrote a poem "Can't sleep at night, sit up and play the piano". When I can't sleep at night, I get up and play the piano. The same is true for this woman. She started playing the piano because she was afraid of forgetting when she was worried about you, and she couldn't feel her clothes with tears.
"Aid" means taking. Shang Qing is a piece of music. Ancient music is divided into five tones: gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng and Yu. "Shang" stands for autumn, which has been full of sadness and loneliness since ancient times, so Ouyang Xiu said, "Shang is hurt". "Short songs can't be long", why not? It may be that the song is very short, or it may be that my heart is too sad. After playing it, my mood is even more surging, so I can't play it anymore, so it can't be very long. It means "leave a song without renovation, and one song can teach the intestines."
"The bright moon shines on my bed, and it's still early for the stars to flow west. Cowherd and Weaver Girl look at each other from afar, and you are alone on the river beam. " The whole poem begins with scenery writing, slowly transitions to lyricism, and finally returns to scenery writing. The bright moonlight shines on my empty bed, and the milky way flows west, but the night is not over yet. Cowherd and Weaver Girl are on opposite sides of the Milky Way. What did you do wrong? What was blocked by Tianhe?
The first two sentences are very memorable. In the middle of the night when the moon and stars are scarce, the moonlight shines on the empty bed, which is a very empty scene, highlighting the loneliness of the hostess. "The night is still early" means that there is no end in sight for a long night, which is the so-called "happiness is too short for the night and loneliness is longer". The last two sentences are the crowning touch. The poet associates the sadness on the earth with the sadness in the sky. "What can I do to limit the river beam?" It seems that he is complaining for the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, but in fact he is expressing his resentment, mixing his own sorrow with the sorrow of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and writing widely. This sentence alone boosted the style of the whole article.
This poem is unpretentious, but it is written in graceful words, delicate and beautiful, which can well represent Cao Pi's poetic artistic style. Wang Fuzhi said this poem: "There is no difference between ancient and modern times." Very high evaluation.