Sending Mayflies to Heaven and Earth comes from "Red Cliff Ode" by Su Shi, a writer in the Song Dynasty.
Excerpt: Kuang Wu and Zi Yuqiao were on the river, accompanying fish and shrimps and elk, riding a small boat with a leaf, and raising gourds to communicate with each other. Sending mayflies to heaven and earth is like a drop in the ocean. I mourn the brief moment of my life, and envy the boundlessness of the Yangtze River. Carrying the flying immortals to travel, holding the bright moon to the end. I don't know how unexpected it is, but I left it in the sad wind.
Translation: What’s more, you and I were fishing and cutting firewood on a small islet in the middle of the river, with fish and shrimp as companions, and elk as friends. We drove this little boat on the river, raising our glasses to toast each other. , like a mayfly in the vast world, as small as a grain of corn in the sea. Alas, we lament that our life is only a short moment, and we can't help but envy the endlessness of the Yangtze River. I want to travel around the world hand in hand with the immortals, embrace the bright moon and live forever in the world. Knowing that these cannot be realized in the end, I have no choice but to turn my regrets into flute sounds and entrust them to the sad autumn wind. ”
This article not only retains the poetic characteristics and charm of traditional fu style, but also absorbs the style and style of prose, breaking the limitations of fu in terms of sentence structure and rhythmic duality. The restraint is more of an element of prose, which makes the article have the deep emotional charm of poetry and the penetrating ideas of prose. The style of prose makes the whole article full of emotions, like "a spring of dendrobium gushing out".
Life Enlightenment
The sentence "A mayfly is placed in the sky and the earth is a drop in the ocean" expresses the philosophy that life is short and things are impermanent. From the perspective of time, human life is. It is just a very brief moment between heaven and earth, as small as a mayfly. From the perspective of space, people are just an insignificant grain of sand in the vast sea.
This sentence tells us to cherish time and not waste our precious lives on meaningless things