Wang Jian's Yuefu style poem ruthlessly exposed the cruel feudal oppression. In midsummer, farmers enjoyed a bumper harvest of wheat and cocoons, but they were robbed by the government. They were unable to enjoy the fruits of their labor and could only live a miserable life of "no food and clothing". Let’s enjoy this poem together.
Tian Jiaxing
Wang Jian
The male voice is happy and the female face is cheerful,
People do not complain about saying goodbye.
Although it is hot in May and the wheat wind is clear,
The eaves are buzzing with the sound of cars.
Wild silkworms make cocoons that no one can take.
Autumn moths flutter among the leaves.
The wheat is harvested and the silk is on the axis.
The officials know how to lose.
Don’t look forward to the entrance and get back on your body,
and don’t sell yellow calves to the city.
The Tian family does not have enough food and clothing,
It is a joy not to see the county gate.
Appreciation of Wang Jian’s Poetry
The whole poem changes rhymes four times. According to the conversion of rhyme and rhyme, poetry can be divided into four levels.
The first two sentences are the first level, directly describing the mental outlook of rural farmers:
"The male voice is happy and the female face is happy, and people don't complain about saying goodbye." The first sentence uses intertextuality. The technique cannot be explained by the fact that only the men shouted with joy, and only the women had smiles on their faces. In fact, whether they were men or women, their voices and faces all showed a look of joy and contentment. Their usual worries and resentments were washed away, and even the tone of their words was different from usual. First write about the joy and contentment of the farmer, and then write about the reasons for the happiness and contentment, which creates suspense and arouses the reader's interest in reading further.
The four sentences four, five, six and seven are the second level. This layer uses a concrete image to imply that the reason why the farmers are happy is that they have a good harvest of summer grain and cocoons. In May, the wheat wind is clear, and it is written about the harvest of summer grain; the sound of the wheels on the eaves is written about the harvest of summer cocoons. In order to highlight the abundance of summer cocoons in farmers, the poet also writes from the side: No one collects the cocoons of wild silkworms, and they fend for themselves. This shows that there is indeed a bumper harvest of summer cocoons, which is enough to draw silk and weave silk. At this level, the author writes about wheat harvesting and silk spinning, grasping the most basic food, clothing, and clothing in human life, highlighting the scene of harvest, and giving a good footnote to the joy of farmers in one or two sentences. The next three sentences: "The wheat is harvested and the silk is on the shaft", "The upper body is turned back without looking at the entrance", and "The Tian family's food and clothing are not thick and thin", they are also closely centered on food, clothing and clothing, or narrative, or lyrical, or discussion, reflecting the focus of reality.
The four sentences seven, eight, nine and ten are the third level. This layer of writing about the exploitation of peasants by officials for clever reasons changes from joy to sadness, forming a big wave, which not only shows the beauty of the ups and downs of the writing, but also enhances the depth of the work's exposure to reality. "The silk is on the shaft when the wheat is harvested, and the officials are satisfied with the loss." It writes about the results of a good harvest of wheat and cocoons. "Shaft" refers to the machine shaft of weaving silk. A bumper harvest should have brought the Tian family a life of ample food and clothing, but this was not the case. Wheat was beaten into grain, and silkworm cocoons were woven into silk. However, farmers could not enjoy the fruits of their labor themselves, but had to give most of the grain and silk to the officials to pay taxes. In the mid-Tang Dynasty, the Rent Yongtiao Law was changed to the Two Taxes Law. It was nominally to correct the shortcomings of the Rent Yongtiao Law's heavy taxation. Emperor Dezong of the Tang Dynasty even issued an edict that "the two taxes are extrapolated to one penny, which is a violation of the law." In fact, the Two Taxes Law Although the country was booming, the extortionate levies and expropriations were still numerous, and all kinds of inexplicable advances and demands were imposed on the peasants again and again. The phrase "knowledge" is a stroke of genius. This poem vividly portrays the mentality of farmers who pay exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes again and again, but wonder whether there are new taxes to be paid. The two sentences "no hope" are even more painful. In years of good harvest, farmers do not expect to eat the grain they harvest and wear the silk they weave. They only expect to be able to avoid having to sell yellow calves in the city to pay for the disaster of excessive harvest. So, isn’t it conceivable that the farmers themselves will eat and wear what they want? This objective expression of farmers having a good year but not enough food and clothing effectively indicts the dark reality of the mid-Tang Dynasty.
The last two sentences are the fourth level. These two sentences reveal the cruelty of feudal exploitation in the words of farmers. But this kind of revelation does not come from a direct and tearful denunciation, but through plain and even slightly humorous language, allowing readers to think about it. Just imagine, farmers say that they don’t care about whether they are well fed or well clothed. They think that as long as they don’t go to the county government and get sued, that is the greatest happiness. This view of happiness as not being sued for excessive taxation exposes the ferocity of feudal rulers from another angle.
This poem is quite unique in its conception of the theme of peasant hardship. In general works, when authors express the oppression of the people by feudal exploitation, they mostly describe the hardships of peasant life in a positive way. Not so with this poem. "Tianjia Xing" depicts to readers the scene of a bumper harvest of wheat and silkworm cocoons, and the joy of farmers. But the result of the bumper harvest is not an improvement in life, but greater exploitation. Life remains miserable and there is no way to avoid an unfortunate fate. This kind of encounter is not the hardship encountered by a family that accidentally encounters natural or man-made disasters, but summarizes the common experiences of millions of farmers in the feudal era. Such selection of materials is quite typical and general.
In terms of expression methods, ancient Yuefu mostly narrates, while "Tianjia Xing" selects two sections of farm life, one is the harvest of wheat and cocoons, and the other is the loss of most of the grain and silk to the official, and combines these two aspects. Cross sections are compared. This undoubtedly played an important role in revealing the theme of peasant hardship.
This poem purely uses Fu style to state the matter directly. The language is simple and unpretentious, popular, smooth, concise and vigilant, and it is profound in the ordinary people.
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