Appreciation of the original meaning of Bai Juyi's ancient poem "A Leisure Walk on the Third Day of the First Month"

Ancient poem "A leisurely walk on the third day of the first lunar month"

Era: Tang Dynasty

Author: Bai Juyi

The oriole at the entrance of Oriole Alley wants to talk, but the blackbird The ice at the head of Quehe River is about to be sold.

Green waves flow from east to west, north and south, and there are three hundred and ninety bridges with red rails.

The mandarin ducks flutter their wings, and there are thousands of willows.

I would like to ask whether the spring breeze will come sooner or later, only from the day before yesterday to today.

Work Appreciation

Notes:

1. Oriole, the name of the farm.

2. Wu Que, the name of the river

3. The day before yesterday, the original day.

4. Mandarin duck, a bird from ancient mythology

Appreciation:

In Tang poetry, the landscape with the most southern imprint is the "bridge". And the city with the most bridges and the most written about is Suzhou. The bridge view is not only the most distinctive Suzhou landscape, but also the most prominent and unique place in southern Jiangsu. Among the poems about bridges in Suzhou, Zhang Ji's "Night Mooring on Maple Bridge" is so famous and so beautiful that Gu Jiegang said: "The prince from Shandong came to visit Hanshan Temple and was very upset. He said he had been deceived by the poet. "

Bai Juyi once recited a poem: "It's like the poem of the governor of Gusu. Three people chanted it one after another" ("Sending Liu Langzhong to Suzhou"). Three famous poets in the Tang Dynasty, Wei Yingwu, Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi, all served as governors in Suzhou. Bai Juyi was appointed as the governor of Hangzhou in July of the second year of Changqing (822 AD), and as the governor of Suzhou in March of the first year of Baoli (825 AD). When Bai Juyi was in office in Suzhou, he wrote many good poems about Suzhou. Among them, "Leisure Walk on the Third Day of the First Month" is not famous, and it does not seem to be a good one among his own works. However, the beauty of this poem is The word Yi Xian really has a classic meaning when you think about it seriously. If the beauty of Zhang Ji's Maple Bridge poem lies in a lonely emotion, the beauty of Bai Juyi's poem lies in a state of leisure. "A leisurely walk on the third day of the first lunar month" eloquently chants:

This poem was written when Bai Juyi was serving as the governor of Suzhou. In July of the second year of Changqing, Bai Juyi served as the governor of Hangzhou from Zhongshushe. He did not return to Luoyang until May of the fourth year of Changqing except for the crown prince Zuo Shuzi. Only eleven months later, in May of the first year of Baoli, he returned to Jiangnan and served as the governor of Suzhou. The governor of Suzhou until Bai Juyi left Hangzhou and took office as the governor of Suzhou. In October of the second year of Baoli, he was dismissed due to illness. "Old Book of Tang: Biography of Bai Juyi" states: "At that time, the emperor indulged in lawlessness and was not in charge of the government. He controlled the good people, and Heshuo was in chaos. Juyi was tired of discussing the matter, but the emperor could not use it, so he asked for external appointments. ” It can be seen that Bai Juyi’s appointment in Suzhou was related to his situation in the imperial court. The poet emigrated from the capital, and he asked for it. He was certainly not very comfortable politically, and he was already fifty years old. However, because he was far away from the disputes of the court and the rising factionalism, and the people in Suzhou were harmonious, the poet's His mental state is also particularly leisurely, as evidenced by his own poems: "There are many poets in Wuzhong, and there are also many drunken people. They chant a lot of poems loudly, and laugh out loud. Cups and bowls fly away. I am not even fifty yet, but I can still have fun. I use it. I send you the sun and the moon, what do you think?" ("Composed immediately") The poem vividly describes the poet's leisurely mood of poetry, wine, singing and socializing. The sun is warm in the first month, and in early spring, the climate is pleasant, the scenery is particularly beautiful, and the markets are particularly prosperous, so the mood becomes more relaxed. Therefore, Bai Juyi, who had just written "Spring Journey to Qiantang Lake" (a popular favorite today), wrote "A Leisure Journey on the Third Day of the First Month".

According to Meng Erdong's "Chronology of Poetry in the Mid-Tang Dynasty", Bai Juyi was appointed governor of Suzhou in March of the first year of Baoli (825 AD). He was 54 years old and took office on May 5th; another test In February of the second year of Baoli, he fell off his horse and injured his foot, and he lay in bed for thirty days. At the end of May, he suffered from eye disease and lung injury, so he took a 100-day leave. At the beginning of September, when his leave was over, he was dismissed from office. In October, he left for Suzhou and traveled to Yangzhou and Chuzhou with Liu Yuxi. [2]P305-306 Therefore, the author concludes that the poem "Xianxing on the Third Day of the First Month" was written in the first month of the second year of Baoli, when Bai Juyi was 55 years old. Meng Erdong's poetry chronicle lists many representative works of Bai Juyi during this period, but "Leisure Walk on the Third Day of the First Month" is not among them. Presumably Meng has not yet confirmed this poem as Bai Juyi's masterpiece.

Bai Juyi's stay in Suzhou was relatively short, and he seemed to be often ill. In fact, it was a minor illness that led to a long recovery. Bai Juyi once wrote a poem "Ode to Laziness": "I heard that Uncle Ji spent his whole life in laziness at night. He played the piano and forged iron, and he was not lazier than me." Ji Kang, who had been lazily all his life, was not as lazy as him. The poet has already There is no intention to make progress, and the mind is idle and idle. Therefore, the number of his leisure poems increased greatly at this time, and there were many poems with the word "Xian" in them, and even the titles were often written with the word "Xian", such as "Xian Zhong Xian alone sent a message to Cui Huzhou", "Xian" "A Private Scene in the Leisure Garden", "A Leisurely Retreat to Liu Tongzhou", "A Leisure Tour to the East of the City", etc. "Leisure" is a state of his, and "leisure" is also a mood and realm of his. Therefore, only by focusing on and exploring "leisure" can we truly understand this poem and understand Bai Juyi's state of being.