Original text of Jingxi:
Jingxi rocks are dangerous and people are cautious, and they will not hear anyone overturning them all the year round. But it is a place where there are no rocks in the level water, and it is often said that there is sinking. Translation and annotation of Jingxi
Translation The rocks in Jingxi are very dangerous and the waves are strong. People are very careful when passing by, so there is no news that someone accidentally fell into it and drowned all year round. Precisely in places where the water flow is slow and there are no rocks, we often hear news of people drowning.
Notes 1 Jing (jīng) Creek: One is Jingchuan, also known as Shangxi. In today's Jingxian County, Anhui Province. It originates from the south of Jingde County, flows north to Jingxian County, and enters the Qingyi River in the west. Li Bai's "Jingxi East Pavilion to Zheng Shaofu Er" has "If you want to go to Jingxi, you have to go far, the dragon's gate ripples and the tiger's eyes turn." "The Monk from the Other Mountains" has "Where the famous monk went to the west of the water, took a boat and stayed in the Jing River for a long time." There is also "There is a Luoxingtan at the foot of the Blue Mountain in the south of Jingxi River, where you can build a Yubo boat and tell the judge Changhao on the stone." [2] 2 Jing (jīng) Shen: Be cautious because of fear. 3. The whole year. 4 capsize: the ship capsizes and sinks. "Sink" below has the same meaning. 5 Advection: Smooth water. Flat, here means the stream does not make waves. 6 places: place. 7 Wen: speaking, hearing. Appreciation of Jingxi
The poem is written with twists and turns and the analysis is thorough. The short twenty-eight words contain profound philosophy of life and exquisite dialectics of life. When Jiang Kui, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, summed up the experience of his predecessors in poetry creation, he used four sublime to illustrate excellent works: "(1) Understanding things that are hindered by obstacles is called the sublime reason; (2) When things happen unexpectedly, it is called the sublime intention; (3) Writing with subtlety "Like seeing the bottom of a deep pool, it is said that the thought is sublime; it is neither strange nor weird, and the literary color is peeled off. If you know it is wonderful but don't know why it is wonderful, it is said to be naturally sublime." Du Xunhe's poem "Jingxi" is a masterpiece of Gao Miao. On the surface, the logic of the poem is incomprehensible. Because when boating on the water, it seems unreasonable to not tip over when encountering danger, but to overturn when the current is flat. However, if we look at the essence through phenomena, we will find that the essence of greatness is hidden in this unreasonable phenomenon. Because the boat is driven by people, the load and sinking of the boat does not depend on the smoothness of the road, but on the condition of the person. When the stream is dangerous and the rocks are dangerous, everyone is alert, and they will be as safe as Mount Tai; when there are no rocks in the level flow, it is easy to slack off, and the boat will often capsize and people will die. This is the brilliance of Du Xunhe's poetic analysis of "Jingxi".
By extension, Du Xunhe here is not just explaining the principles of sailing, he is also comparing the success or failure of personnel. Ouyang Xiu said in "Mei Shengyu's Epitaph": "Poems are poor before work". Sima Qian's "Taishigong Autobiography" listed five people, including King Wen, Confucius, Zuo Qiuming, Qu Yuan and Han Fei, who encountered difficulties and wrote books angrily. A story that finally became something great. The principle is completely consistent with the poem "Jingxi". There is a famous saying in "History of the Five Dynasties: Preface to the Biography of Lingguan": "Be born in sorrow, die in peace and happiness." The "sorrow" in the sentence is just like the "danger" of Jingxi; the "ease" in the sentence is just like the "peace" of Jingxi. "; the "rise" and "death" in the sentence are just like "not hearing the overturn" and "sink" in Jingxi River - the nature of water and human nature are closely consistent here again. Investigating the reasons for this failure, compared with the success or failure of personnel, there are the following four aspects:
(1) Laxity. "Wu Yue Chun Qiu" records: King Wu Fu Chai was inspired by the crisis and worked hard to defeat Yue King Gou Jian. Later, he was ignorant of peace and happiness and neglected to govern the country, and was eventually destroyed by Yue. This story just reflects the lesson that caution leads to success and slackness leads to failure. When the famous Korean Go national player Cho Hoon-hyun evaluated his talented disciple Lee Chang-ho, he asserted that the most likely thing to ruin a disciple's future is failure of self-management (that is, laziness under the reputation). As a result, Li Changhao was cautious in everything, just like Japan. On the contrary, Li Changhao's opponent, the indifferent chess master Nie Weiping, ruined his great career. This is another precise annotation of Jingxi’s poetry.
(2) Paralysis. As we all know, dangerous situations make people wary, and smooth situations make people careless. The poison of failure often lies in carelessness. Chen Shou's "Three Kingdoms" records: The general of the Shu Han Dynasty, Guan Yu, led his troops to attack Wei and besieged Fancheng. The seven armies were flooded and all the soldiers pointed at them were invincible. As a result, Guan Yu became proud and relaxed his guard against Soochow, his retreat. As a result, Wu general Lu Meng attacked and captured Jingzhou, and Guan Yu was defeated and fled to Maicheng, with his head missing. This illustrates the dangers of carelessness and insensitivity. You need to know that nothing goes smoothly in the world, and when things go well, there are dangers. If you live in peace without worrying about danger, it is of course the way to defeat. Knowing this, we can understand the mystery of the destruction of the American Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor during the Pacific War.
(3) Standing still. An old man once said: "If peace and prosperity make people unwilling to make progress and remain complacent, then the real danger will breed in it." In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, the mighty Chinese nation was defeated by the tiny Japan. The reason is very simple. Japan carried out the Meiji Restoration and its national power was booming; China relied on its vast territory and abundant resources and did nothing at all. Comparing the two, the balance of victory and defeat naturally tilts. In the same way, the impregnable Maginot Line could not stop the brave and fierce Nazi soldiers; the huge barrier of the Great Wall could not stop the powerful cavalry of the northern grasslands; the peace dreams of the Han people in the Central Plains were often disrupted by the nomads. The dangers of being complacent and complacent can be seen here.
(4) Split. There is this story in the novel "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms": Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao's main force, and Yuan Shao died of illness. His son and son-in-law united sincerely and retreated to the north. Cao Cao was unable to attack urgently, so he adopted the advice of counselor Guo Jia and led his troops to retreat. The danger has temporarily disappeared, and the Yuan family's children who once fought side by side began to fight for power.
They started fighting each other, and both sides suffered losses. Cao's army followed the trend and marched north, completely wiping out the remaining forces of the Yuan family and unifying the northern part of the motherland. This story profoundly reveals the poisonous effect of happiness on human nature. When the danger disappears, people's hearts also disperse, and the situation of working together to overcome the difficulties no longer exists. Just imagine if we are in the same boat but in opposite directions, how can we not suffer disaster?
The above four points are certainly not the whole story. However, it already has a shocking and huge shocking power. In Du Xunhe's poem "Jingxi", we don't know why the passing ships capsized. However, it definitely has something to do with the boatman losing caution while adrift. All success is due to progress, and all failure is a failure of ambition. Water is like this, people are like this; it was like this in ancient times, and it is like this now. No one can be an exception.
Today, our country is getting stronger and stronger, the lives of our people are getting richer, and the days of worry are gradually fading away. However, underneath the peaceful appearance of singing and dancing, there is an extremely sinister undercurrent. There are the United States and Japan in the east, powerful Russia in the north, Taiwan in the interior, political and economic worries... At this moment when hope and sorrow coexist, we reread the poem "Jingxi", and its practical significance cannot be underestimated. It can enable us to gain insight into the dangers lurking behind peace, review the ancient saying "Thriving comes from sorrow, perish from happiness.", understand the principle that "water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it.", and condense the great tension of national rejuvenation. Help us find ways to face challenges and achieve long-term stability.
This is the essence of water and human nature, and also the true value of Du Xunhe's poem "Jingxi". The contained philosophy: warns people to be prepared for danger in times of peace, to worry about profits and losses, and to be prepared for danger. The creative background of Jingxi
Jingxi is located in the southeast of Anhui Province. It originates from the south of Jingde County, flows north to Jingxian County and joins Shangxi River, and flows northwest to Wuhu. The section of the river from Jingxian County to Wuhu, now known as Qingyijiang River, has many reefs and dangerous shoals and rapid currents. "Tang Feng Collection" is annotated as written by Du Xunhe. In "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty", this poem is also attributed to Luo Yin. Luo Yin is from Fuyang, Zhejiang Province and seems to have passed through Jingxian County in the future. Du Xunhe is from Chizhou, Anhui Province, not far from Jingxian County. , is a tower near the water, the author should take Du Xunhe as his representative.
Poetry works: Jingxi Poetry author: Du Xunhe, Tang Dynasty Poetry classification: writing about water, philosophy