Appreciation of the original text of "Ye Lao" 1
Appreciation of Zhang Ji's "Ye Lao Ge"
Original text
"Ye Lao Ge"——[Tang Dynasty ] Zhang Ji
The poor old farmer lives in the mountains and cultivates three or four acres of mountain fields. The seedlings were so sparse and taxed that they could not be eaten, so they were transported to official warehouses and turned into soil.
At the end of the year, I hoe and plow by the empty house, and I call my children to climb the mountain to collect acorns. Xijiang Jia Ke has hundreds of dendrobium trees, and the dogs raised in the boat will eat meat.
Comments
"Old Songs from the Wild": a work called "Ci of Mountain Farmers".
Input the official warehouse turns to earth: This sentence means that there is too much food backlog in the official warehouse, and over time, it rots and turns into dust.
The end of the year: the end of the year.
Empty room: Refers to the old farmer’s seedlings being sparse so the harvest is small. However, due to the high taxes imported into the official warehouse and turned into soil, there is no food at home.
Acorn: The fruit of the oak tree, edible.
Xijiang Jia Ke: Refers to merchants in the jewelry business in Guangxi. Xijiang, the water of Guizhou, Guizhou and Yujiang merges in Cangwu County, Guangxi. The eastward flow is called Xijiang, which refers to Guangxi here. Jia Ke, businessman.
Zhubaihu: describes a lot of jewelry. Dendrobium (hú) is a quantifier. In ancient times, one hu of dendrobium was divided into ten buckets, and later it was divided into five buckets.
Long: often.
Translation
The old farmer lives in the mountains. His family is poor and he only relies on cultivating three or four acres of mountain land to make a living. With little land and high taxes, the whole family could not fill their stomachs. However, the grain sent to the government warehouses rotted and turned into dust because it had been stored for too long. At the end of the year, all that was left in the house were hoes and rakes placed against the wall. I had no choice but to ask the children to go to the mountains to collect acorns and bring them back to satisfy their hunger. The rich merchants on the Xijiang boats had to count their jewelry in "dendrobium", and even the dogs on the boats often ate meat.
Appreciation
Zhang, whose courtesy name is Wenchang, was originally from Wujun (now Suzhou, Jiangsu). He moved to Hezhou (now Hexian, Anhui) when he was young. He became a Jinshi in the 14th year of Zhenyuan, and successively served as Taizhu of Taichang Temple, Yuanwailang of the Ministry of Water, and finally the Secretary of the Imperial Academy. In his old life, he was called Zhang Siye or Zhang Shuibu. His poems are characterized by concise and natural language. He was as famous as Wang Jian at that time and was known as "King Zhang" in the world.
Zhang Ji was born into a poor family and wrote many poems that exposed social contradictions and reflected the suffering of people's livelihood. Zhang Ji was also an active supporter and promoter of the New Yuefu Movement in the mid-Tang Dynasty. Many of his Yuefu poems also reflected the social reality at that time and showed his sympathy for the people. His works include "Zhang Siye Collection".
Zhang Ji is one of the masters of the New Yuefu Movement. He is "elegance beyond the popularity, and has no empty prose" (Bai Juyi's "Reading Zhang Ji's Ancient Yuefu"). The spirit of his Yuefu poetry is similar to that of the Yuan and Bai Dynasties. ;The specific methods are slightly different. Bai Juyi's allegorical poems are often "intense but substantive" and are long in length, so they are inevitably exhaustive and full of flaws. Zhang Ji's Yuefu, such as this "Wild Old Song", has a different approach.
In the work, the poet intercepted a typical and ordinary farmer's family, and concentrated on describing his family's miserable life. The old farmer lived in a deep mountain with several acres of thin farmland. Excluding taxes, he was starved of food all year round and had to go up the mountain to pick up acorns to satisfy his hunger. However, the grain in the government granaries rotted and turned into dust due to long-term backlog. Look at those rich merchants, their jewelry is hundreds of dendrobiums, and their dogs eat meat all the year round. How miserable and shocking this is!
The work can be divided into three levels of meaning according to the rhythmic conversion. The first four sentences have a first-level meaning, straight to the point, about the old farmer who works hard all year round and has no food. The five or six sentences have one meaning. In order to survive, the old farmer had to lead his children up the mountain to collect acorns to satisfy their hunger. The seven or eight sentences have one level of meaning, using contrasting techniques to describe the disparity between rich and poor in society at that time, and to expose the reality of inequality in the social system.
"The poor old farmer lives in the mountains and cultivates three or four acres of mountain fields. The seedlings are too taxed to eat, so they are imported into the official warehouse and turned into soil." In these four lines of poetry, the word "mountain" appears twice , intending to tell readers that this old farmer is a mountain farmer, so this poem has another title called "Mountain Farmer's Ci". The old farmers hiding in the mountains originally wanted to escape rent due to poverty. However, after the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty was in a troubled period, with financial difficulties and pervasive feudal exploitation. Even if you escape deep into the mountains, you can't escape taxation. Just as Du Xunhe, a poet of the late Tang Dynasty, wrote in "A Widow in the Mountains": "No matter how deep the mountains go, there should be no way to avoid taxation." Therefore, although the old farmer's The mountainous land was originally not fertile, and there were only "three or four acres". The harvest was meager, but it was difficult to avoid heavy taxes. The whole family can only face the cruel reality of "no food". Here, the poet creates a sharp contrast between "turning into dust" and "not being able to eat", thereby revealing the dark and cruel social reality at that time. It’s shocking to read.
"At the end of the year, we are hoeing and plowing in the empty house, and we are calling our children to climb the mountain to collect acorns." Continuing the above, laying out the narrative facts. The whole family worked hard for a year and paid taxes. In the end, they were left with an empty house next to the hoe and plow at the end of the year. In order to survive, the old farmer had to go up the mountain to pick acorns to satisfy his hunger. "Hu'er climbs the mountain to collect acorns" is very full of life. It makes people imagine the scene of old farmers and their families going out to climb mountains and ridges in search of "acorns". It seems realistic, but in fact it contains the poet's injustice towards the social system and his deep sympathy for the old farmers. The handwriting is extraordinary.
The last two sentences of the work are a direct expression of the poet's inner dissatisfaction and a ruthless exposure of the social inequality at that time. People can only eat "acorns", while dogs "eat meat". What a classic and profound irony! The contrast is sharp, the meaning is profound, and it is thought-provoking.
The theme of the work is so profound, first of all, it depends on the typicality of the material selection*. The old farmer in the work was an extremely ordinary member of the tens of thousands of farmers at that time. He was a microcosm of the people at the bottom of society. He was such an ordinary farmer. Even though he was hiding in the mountains and forests, he could not help but live without enough to eat. an extremely poor life. Secondly, it depends on the use of sharp contrasts. First, the old farmers farmed the land but "cannot eat", while the grain in the official warehouses was too much to use up, and was backlogged into "dust". The second is that old farmers still need to eat "acorns" when farming, and not to mention "Xijiang Jiake" and "Dendrobium", even the dogs they raise have to "eat meat". There is a huge gap between the rich and the poor, and the society is extremely unfair. The phenomenon of equality is highlighted to the extreme. Appreciation of the original text of "Ye Lao" 2
Ye Lao walked back to the river bank in front of the fence, and the Chaimen opened incorrectly along the river.
The fishermen’s nets are gathered under the pond, and the passenger boats are coming back.
On the long road, I care about the Beijiang Pavilion, but why do the clouds come near the piano platform.
Unable to report that Wang Shi had taken over Dongjun, Qiu Sheng painted horns in mourning at the city gate.
Introduction to ancient poetry
The word "yelao" means the old man in the village. Ye Lao is also a poem by Du Fu. This poem was written in 760 (the first year of the Shangyuan Dynasty), when Du Fu had just settled in a thatched cottage in the western suburbs of Chengdu. After years of wandering around, he was relieved to finally have a place to rest. However, the reality of a dilapidated country and devastated people always struck his soul, making him unable to remain calm. This poem reveals the subtle and profound emotional fluctuations in his heart.
Comments
1. Ye Lao: Du Fu calls himself.
2. Qintai: a famous scenic spot in Sichuan. According to legend, it was the place where Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun sold wine. This place refers to Chengdu.
Appreciation
The first four sentences of the poem describe the scene of the thatched cottage, the writing style is leisurely and sparse, and the poems seem to come randomly. The word "ye Lao" at the beginning is Du Fu's self-proclaimed name. The river bank is surrounded by bamboo fences and thatched cottages. At this time, the poet is strolling and admiring the riverside in front of the thatched cottage. The beauty of the sentence "Chai Men" is that it is written effortlessly. This firewood gate seems to have been installed at random. Since the river turned a corner here, the poet built a gate facing the river. It doesn't matter if the orientation is not correct, and everything is left to its own devices. And in the clear green Baihua Pond over there, fishermen were happily fishing with nets. "Chengtan" refers to Baihuatan, which is the water area south of the thatched cottage. Perhaps because the river is meandering, it is suitable for berthing boats, and the merchant ships also docked here one after another, reflecting the sunset. These four sentences are the scene of the poet's ambition, and the words are pure and natural, just like sketching a simple and quiet picture of leisurely living in the river village. The whole picture is full of the interest of the countryside, conveying the poet's leisure mood at this moment. However, Du Fu was not a detached hermit. After looking at it for a long time, he actually had another emotion.
The "Long Road" comes from the "Jia Passenger Ship", and the connection is very natural. Du Fu has a poem that says: "The ships thousands of miles away from Dongwu are parked at the gate" ("Four Quatrains"), which probably refers to these "passenger ships". It was these "thousand-mile ships" that disturbed his calm state of mind and reminded him of the long journey. This "long road" first led his thoughts to the north and south of the Yangtze River, where there were his brothers and sisters who he missed day and night. He often wanted to go eastward along the river. From this, I thought of another "long road": going north to Chang'an, going east to Luoyang, and returning to my hometown. However, the fall of Jianmen not only cut off the return route, but also made the whole situation tense and critical, which made the poet increasingly worried. In this confusion and pain, he looked up and saw white clouds, and couldn't help but ask: "Why are the clouds near Qintai?" Qintai is a famous scenic spot in Chengdu. It is said that Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun were selling wine as a bartender. place, this refers to Chengdu. "Pianyun" is a metaphor used by the poet to describe himself, which means: "Why does my wandering body like a floating cloud stay in Shu?" Firstly, it is because the war has not ended and the fighting has been blocked. Secondly, it is also the poet who is asking: Who is it? Drive him out of the court and deprive him of the opportunity to serve the country? This sentence expresses emotions through clouds, which is profound and subtle. Clouds near the piano platform are originally a natural phenomenon, so there is no need to ask questions. Therefore, this question seems to be clueless and impossible to answer. In fact, it expresses the poet's pain of living outside the sword and having no way to serve the country, as well as his confused mood of not being able to find a way out.
The two sentences at the end convey the poet's sad mood. The poet lamented that after Luoyang fell again last year, it has not yet been recovered, and Tibet is eyeing it in the northwest. There is also a crisis of war lurking in Sichuan. It is very sad and sad to hear the sound of the horn drawn from the city wall of Chengdu in the bleak autumn wind. The whole poem ends with this, leaving an endless aftertaste.
The scene described in the first four lines of the poem is exactly what Wang Guowei said, "a state of selflessness". "In the state of selflessness, one observes things with objects, so one does not know which is me and which is the object." ("Human Words") This means that the poet observes external objects with a peaceful state of mind, and the "self" seems to be integrated into the objective world. The artistic conception written at this time is the "state of no self". In the first four sentences of this poem, the poet is in an indifferent and quiet state of mind, completely intoxicated by the beautiful evening scenery of the riverside, and has reached the state of forgetting both things and myself. After the last four lines of the poem turn to lyricism, they are still not out of describing the scene, but at this time they have entered the "realm of me": "In the realm of me, I observe things with me, and the old things all have my color.
"("Human Words") The scenery here, whether it is clouds or city towers, autumn colors or horn sounds, are all imbued with the poet's sad emotions. The two realms set off each other and produce a strong artistic appeal. When the poem is When the first half showed the picture of Jiangcun, the poet seemed to have forgotten about nature. Only in the lower part did he show his deep concern for the country and the people. It turned out that his leisurely and generous attitude was due to the dilemma of having no way to serve the country. A kind of self-liberation. This helpless detachment in turn deepens the expression of painful emotions. The undercurrent of pain rushing under the calm water is a deeper sorrow. Appreciation of the original text of "Ye Lao" 3 <. /p>
Original text
Wild Old Songs/Mountain Farmers’ Words
Tang Dynasty: Zhang Ji
The poor old farmer lived in the mountains and cultivated the mountains and fields for three years. Four acres.
The seedlings are so sparse that they cannot be eaten, so they are turned into soil in the official warehouse.
At the end of the year, the plows are made in the empty room, and the children go to the mountains to collect acorns.
< p> Xijiang Jia Ke has hundreds of dendrobium trees, and they raise dogs in the boat to eat meat.Translation and Notes
"Translation"
The old man's family lives in the mountains. They make a living by cultivating three or four acres of mountain land. The land is small, the taxes are high, and there is no food. The grain was sent to the government warehouses, where it eventually rotted and turned into soil. All year round, only hoes and rakes were left in the empty house, and the family had no choice but to ask their sons to go up the mountain to collect acorns to satisfy their hunger. On the ships of wealthy merchants from the west of the Yangtze River, hundreds of jewels were measured in dendrobium, and even the dogs kept on the ships ate meat all year round.
「Comments」
① Wild old songs; one is "Shan Nong Ci". This poem describes the miserable life of farmers under tax exploitation and contrasts it with the luxurious life of wealthy businessmen, reflecting the irrational social reality.
②Acorn: The fruit of the oak tree, which can satisfy hunger in years of famine.
③Xijiang: The area around Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province today is a place with prosperous commerce. In the Tang Dynasty, it belonged to Jiangnan West Road, so it was called Xijiang.
④Dendrobium: measuring device; a unit of capacity. In ancient times, one dendrobium was made up of ten buckets, but in the late Southern Song Dynasty, it was changed to five buckets.
⑤Guancang: refers to the taxation of officials in various places, this refers to officials who are greedy for money.
Appreciation
In the Mid-Tang Dynasty, the politics were dark and the ruling class was ruthlessly exploited. Therefore, the theme of describing the suffering of farmers has also become an important theme for the New Yuefu poets. Zhang Ji's "Wild Old Song" is about an old farmer who, under the heavy pressure of high exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, ended up living a life of picking up acorns to fill his belly. Even so, he was not as good as a dog of a wealthy businessman who was called a "bastard" at the time. Through such a tragic situation of contrast between man and dog, Zhang Ji highlighted the pain of farmers and the unreasonableness of society at that time.
The first two sentences explain the identity of the character, using a flat narrative technique to describe an old farmer who lives in the mountains because of his poverty, and only cultivates three or four acres of barren mountain fields. The question here is, why do old farmers want to live in the mountains? In our opinion, since the old farmer is poor, it would be easier for him to make a living in a flat country or small town. Why go to the mountains where farming is difficult? This reminds us of the social environment at that time. At this time, society was in chaos, and the ruling class oppressed the people at will. Faced with all this, the old farmer and his family fled to the mountains, where the mountains are high and the roads are far away, sparsely populated, and it is inconvenient for government officials to come here. The old farmer hopes to get away from it all by living in the mountains.
However, "Even if the mountains are deeper, there should be no way to avoid the corvee." Three or four sentences describe this situation. The old farmer lives in the mountains. This year's Hehe seedlings grew sparsely, and the harvest was not good in the end. Despite this, the official tax collection was extremely high, and the policemen came from time to time to collect taxes. In the end, the old farmer's family even lost all the food rations they could eat. The old farmer was very sad. Some of the food he had worked hard for a year was taken away by the officials and poured into the warehouse, and some was even wasted and "turned into soil". This behavior of exploitation and waste is in sharp contrast to the hard and poor life of working people. Therefore, these two sentences actually reflect the pain of working people being exploited, and also expose the darkness of society at that time.
Five or six sentences follow the previous two sentences, saying that the old farmer has worked hard all year long. At the end of the year, his family is destitute and has few things. Only the tool of the old farmer's hard work-the hoe and plow is still with him. . The word "empty" means that the old farmers have gained nothing after a year of hard work. On the other hand, it means that the exploiting class has deprived the old farmers of everything. In order to grow that food, the old farmer would go out early and come back late. He worked hard all day, but in the end he had nothing to eat. In desperation, the old farmer "hurried up the mountain to collect acorns." Huer said that the old farmer was old, and after working hard for a day, he was no longer able to go up the mountain to collect acorns. "Acorn" is a plant fruit. It is not an ordinary food. It is a temporary food for working people to fill their stomachs when famine occurs. The old farmer asked his son to climb mountains to collect acorns. It can be said that the old farmer was extremely poor and hungry, which illustrates the final pitiful ending of the working people.
The author changed his tone in the last two sentences and said that a big businessman in the jewelry business in Xijiang carried a lot of jewelry on his ship, as much as a hundred dendrobiums. The dogs he fed were fat and covered with jewelry. It's meat. The author uses narrative techniques without making any comments, but puts two contrasting pictures in front of him, one is an old farmer who is hungry, and the other is a meat dog fed by a luxurious and wealthy businessman, which is even more fascinating. Thinking deeply, the life of an old farmer is worse than that of a dog he feeds, which is extremely sad and infuriating.
The whole poem uses narrative techniques to show us the painful life scenes of several old farmers. Although the author did not express any comments, the author's thoughts are reflected in the narrative. The contrasting images in the whole poem are profound and sharp, showing the hunger and suffering of the working people, reflecting the lives of people from different classes, and exposing the exploitation of the working people by the ruling class.