Yuefu and Annotation Translation in Winter
An old man who sells charcoal cuts wood and burns charcoal in Nanshan all the year round.
His face was covered with dust and smoke, his temples were gray, and his ten fingers were blackened by charcoal.
What is the money from selling charcoal for? Buy clothes to wear and food to eat in your mouth.
It's a pity that he only wears thin clothes, but he is worried that charcoal can't be sold, hoping it will be colder.
It snowed a foot thick outside the city at night. In the morning, the old man ran over the frozen wheel tracks in a charcoal car and hurried to the market.
Cattle are tired and people are hungry, but the sun has risen very high and rested in the mud outside the south gate of the market.
Who is the man riding two horses? They are eunuchs in the palace, eunuchs.
The eunuch held the official document in his hand, but said it was the emperor's order and shouted to pull the cow to the palace.
A load of charcoal, 1000 kilograms, was insisted by eunuch officers. The old man is reluctant to give up, but he is helpless.
Those people hung half a horse's red yarn and a silk on the cow's head as the price of charcoal.
The center exposes the reality that the common people bear the wanton exploitation of the exploiting class, exposes the darkness of the society at that time, and shows the author's deep sympathy for the working people at the lower level. The appreciation of this poem is contained in Volume 427 of Complete Tang Poems. The following are the main points of appreciation of this poem by Professor Huo, a Chinese classical literature expert, literary theorist and director of the Institute of Literature of Shaanxi Normal University.
In the first four sentences, it is difficult to write about selling charcoal. "Reducing salary and burning charcoal" summarizes the complicated working procedures and the long labor process. "His face is covered with dust and fireworks, his temples are gray and his fingers are black." He vividly described the portrait of the charcoal seller, wrote the hardships of labor, and also got the image performance. "In Nanshan" highlights the workplace. This "Nanshan" is the Zhongnan Mountain described by Wang Wei as "there is no door to stay at night and call the woodcutter in Jiang Lai", where jackals haunt and are desolate. In such an environment, the eaves of Dai Yue are covered with frost and snow, and it is easy to burn "more than 1,000 Jin" with one axe and one kiln. Every Jin is filled with painstaking efforts and embodies hope. Writing to a charcoal seller is the result of his efforts, which distinguishes him from charcoal sellers. However, if this charcoal seller still has land, planting and harvesting by himself will not be hungry and cold, and only use his spare time to burn charcoal and sell it to subsidize his family, then his burden of charcoal will be plundered and there will be other ways to live. But this is not the case. The genius of the poet lies in that he did not personally introduce the family economic situation of the charcoal seller to the readers, but set it as a question and answer: "What is the business of selling charcoal to sell money?" Wear clothes and eat in your mouth. "This question and answer not only turned the board into a living thing, but also made the literary situation ups and downs, swaying and swaying, expanding the depth and breadth of reflecting the sufferings of the people, and making readers clearly see that this laborer has been exploited to poverty and destitution;" The clothes on his body and the food in his mouth all hope that the thousands of kilograms of charcoal he worked so hard to burn can fetch a good price. This laid a solid foundation for later writing the crime of imperial envoys plundering charcoal.
"The poor man's clothes are just ordinary. He is worried about charcoal and hopes it is cold." This is a well-known sentence. "The clothes on my body are only single", so I naturally hope to be warm. Charcoal sellers put all their hopes of solving food and clothing on "selling charcoal to make money", so they "worry about charcoal and wish for cold" and hope it will be colder when they are shivering with cold. The poet deeply understood the difficult situation and complicated inner activities of the charcoal seller, and showed it so vividly in just a dozen words, and poured infinite sympathy with the word "pity", which made people cry.
These two poems are a bridge from the first half to the second half in terms of composition. "Worrying about charcoal and looking forward to the cold" is actually looking forward to the cold wind and heavy snow. "It snows a foot outside the city at night", and this heavy snow has finally come! No more "worry-free and cheap"! In order to keep warm, the dignitaries and wealthy businessmen at the foot of the son of heaven will not haggle over the trivial price of charcoal. When the charcoal seller "knows how to drive a charcoal cart to run the ice lane", he is not complaining about how difficult it is to walk in the ice and snow, but calculating how much money a "cart of charcoal" can sell and how much clothes and food he can get. If a novelist writes, he can use a lot of pen and ink to write about the psychological activities of selling charcoal Weng along the way, but the poet didn't write a word, because he opened up a vast imaginary world for readers in front.
The charcoal seller finally burned a car full of charcoal, hoping for a snow and money for food and clothing along the way, but he met the "palace envoy" who put his hand on the paper. In front of the emissaries of the palace, the documents and decrees of the emperor, and following the voice of "cursing cows", everything planned and hoped by charcoal sellers in the long process from "reducing wages", "burning charcoal", "wishing the weather is cold", "driving charcoal carts", "rolling ice trails" to "lying mud" came to nothing.
From "Nanshan Middle School" to Chang 'an City, the road is so far and difficult to walk. When the charcoal seller "rested in the mud outside the south gate", it was already "the cows were trapped and the people were hungry"; Now it's "going back to the car and scolding the cows for taking them north" and sending charcoal to the palace. Of course, cows are more sleepy and people are more hungry. So, when the charcoal seller returns to Zhong Nanshan hungry, what will he think and how will he live in the future? All this is not written by the poet, but what readers can't help thinking. When thinking about all this, we can't help but sympathize with the experience of charcoal sellers and hate the sins of rulers. The original intention of the poet to create Miyagi has achieved the expected results.
This poem has profound ideological content and artistic characteristics. What can the poet do with the money from selling charcoal? These words show the only hope that the old man who is almost on the verge of life can have. This is the center of the whole poem. All other descriptions focus on this poetic eye. In the way of expression, contrast and contrast are flexible. The fate of the old man, highlighting his old age with "grey temples" and the hardships of "reducing salary and burning charcoal" with "dust fireworks", set off the desolation and viciousness of Nanshan and aroused people's sympathy. All this reflects the burning of old people's hopes: selling charcoal to get money, buying clothes and food. The old man wears simple clothes, and then uses the "one foot of snow" at night and the "ice trace" on the road as a foil, which makes people feel that the old man is pitiful. All this just reflects the fierceness of the fire of hope for the elderly: it is freezing in the cold, charcoal is expensive, and you can change more clothes and food. Next, "the cow is hungry" and "two riding" reflect the disparity between workers and rulers; "A cart full of charcoal, a thousand Jin" and "Half a horse's red yarn, a foot's silk" contrast the cruelty of plunder in the "palace market". As far as the whole poem is concerned, the burning of the fire of hope in front is precisely to set off the sadness and pain of hope behind.
Unlike some articles in the new Yuefu, this poem did not "express its will", but came to an abrupt end in the conflict, so it was more subtle and powerful, thought-provoking and gripping. It is no accident that this poem has been told by thousands of people for thousands of years.
Explain the Charcoal Man and describe the hardships of an old man who burns charcoal for a living.
At the beginning of this poem, the reader is taken to Zhong Nanshan Mountain near Chang 'an, the capital at that time, to show the reader that an old man who burns charcoal lives a very poor life. "Selling charcoal Weng, Nanshan cuts wood and burns charcoal." The old man who burns charcoal doesn't even have an inch of land. All he lives on is an axe, an ox cart and ten fingers blackened by fireworks. He has no wife and children, and he is alone. He cuts his salary and burns charcoal on Nanshan Mountain, making his face "dusty, smoky, with gray temples and black fingers". The hardships of labor can be imagined. Old people who burn charcoal have low demands on life. "What's the point of selling charcoal to make money?" ? He just wants to have food and clothing and maintain a minimum life. Arguably, it is not difficult for a person to support himself, but even such a wish is difficult for him to realize. "Poor clothes, worry about charcoal, I hope it will be cold." Charcoal was supposed to keep people warm. The old man worked hard to cut wood and burn charcoal, which brought warmth to others, but his clothes were pitifully thin. Thin clothes should have expected the weather to get warmer. On the contrary, the elderly forced by life "worry about charcoal and wish it was cold", and would rather endure double cold in order to sell more charcoal. This ambivalence profoundly shows the miserable situation and hardships of charcoal sellers.
The creation background "Selling Charcoal Weng" is the thirty-second song in Bai Juyi's "New Yuefu" series, and its note is from the cloud: "Miyagi is also." Bai Juyi wrote "New Yuefu" in the early years of Yuanhe (Tang Xianzong year, 806-820), which was the most harmful time in the court market. He has a good understanding of the court market and deep sympathy for the people, so he can write this touching "charcoal man".
Appreciation 2 In order to satisfy their decadent and extravagant desires for life, the feudal ruling class resorted to other means to extract people's blood and sweat, in addition to various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous fees. After the middle Tang Dynasty, the imperial court often sent people to the market to buy things. As soon as they see something they like, they will pay a very low price at will or plunder it at will. Sometimes, they ask the owner to send the goods to the palace, then take a handful from them and extort "door money" and "foot price" from the owner. In Records of Shunzong, Han Yu once recorded in detail that a farmer went to the city to sell firewood with a donkey. The eunuch saw the name of "Miyagi" and gave him only a few feet of silk, robbed firewood and even the donkey to support his family. The farmer couldn't bear it anymore and hit the evil eunuch.
Bai Juyi witnessed this abuse when he was in Chang 'an, and he was very indignant. Although he failed to show the rebellious spirit of the working people in The Charcoal Man, he dared to expose the evil of the court market and reflected the greedy and tyrannical face of the ruler with the emperor as the general background in a unique poetic form, which is really commendable.
In this narrative poem, the author successfully created a touching image of an old charcoal seller by line drawing. "The face is full of dust and fireworks, and the temples are gray and black." The portrait description of these fourteen words not only accurately shows the occupation and age characteristics of the charcoal seller, but also reminds people of his bitter work and painful life. Long-term exposure to fireworks makes the skin discolored, and touching charcoal all day makes the fingers black, while "grey temples" show the sadness and aging of charcoal sellers. This kind of hard work is just to earn some money to make a living. "The poor little thing was wearing a light coat" and "It snowed a foot outside the city at night". The author also uses comparative writing to show the hard life of charcoal sellers. "Worrying about charcoal and wishing for cold" is a deeper psychological representation. When the clothes list can't keep out the cold, most people always hope the weather is warm, while the charcoal seller "hopes the weather is cold" when the clothes list is right. One is afraid that the weather will be warm, charcoal can't be sold, and there is no food and clothes to wear. The other is that it will be cold and he will sell it at a good price. These two poems profoundly expressed his earnest expectation of "selling charcoal for money" and reflected his very miserable life situation. At the same time, this way of writing makes the following words "a car costs more than a thousand Jin of charcoal, and the palace envoy will not regret it" more powerful and can arouse readers' hatred of "the yellow messenger's white shirt".
Ordinary narrative poems often lose their bloated and procrastinating language. The language of this poem is concise and accurate. The words "plunge into the bull's head" and "plunge into the bull's head" are particularly meaningful. The charcoal seller refused to accept "yarn" and "silk", and the unreasonable palace envoy forced him to "tie it to the cow's head". Yarn and silk are not "charcoal straight", but the bad guys who take advantage of it take this useless rotten silk in the palace as a crime. In the other two poems exposing the atrocities of imperial envoys, the poet used five verbs in succession, namely "handling documents", "saying", "returning", "scolding cattle" and "leading north". One after another, the palace envoys left the charcoal seller no room for reply. From these five urgent and continuous actions, the face of brutal plunder by court envoys was exposed, and at the same time, in contrast, the sad image of charcoal sellers was more prominent.
This poem artistically embodies the creative characteristics of the novel New Yuefu, which claims to be Yi: vivid image, prominent theme, popular and vivid language and concise and complete narrative. However, it also has its own uniqueness: unlike another satirical poem, Qin Zhongyin, it does not directly express its love and hate with the method of "expressing one's will with one's death", but uses facts and images themselves to show the author's tendency, leaving the author with rich imagination and allowing readers to draw their own conclusions.
Practical significance Bai Juyi has a preface under the title of each poem in New Yuefu to illustrate the theme of the poem. The preface of "Selling Charcoal Weng" is "Kugong City", which reflects the pain brought by the palace city to the people. In the Tang Dynasty, when the palace needed things, it sent people to the market to get them and gave them some money at will. In fact, this is an open plunder. Tang Dezong used eunuchs to manage it. Bai Juyi wrote "New Yuefu" when it was the most harmful in the court market. He knew the palace market like the back of his hand and showed deep sympathy for the people, so he was able to write this touching "charcoal man". The significance of this poem goes far beyond revealing the palace market. In the typical image of selling charcoal Weng, the poet summarized the bitterness and bitterness of the working people in the Tang Dynasty, and reflected the darkness and injustice of the society at that time in the small matter of selling charcoal. After reading this poem, readers will see more than just a charcoal seller. Through him, they can also see many people who farm, fish and weave. Although it is not a "black finger", it also bears the imprint of hard life; Although they won't be hurt by selling charcoal, they also shed tears of bitterness and hatred under the weight of land rent or taxes. The poem "Selling Charcoal Weng" not only had positive significance at that time, but also had certain educational function for today's readers. Bai Juyi (772-846), a native of Xinzheng, Henan Province, was born in Taiyuan, Lotte, Xiangshan, and drunk. He was a great realistic poet in the Tang Dynasty and one of the three great poets in the Tang Dynasty. Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen * * * advocated the new Yuefu movement, and together with Liu Yuxi, they called the world "Bai Yuan" and "Bai Liu". Bai Juyi's poems have a wide range of themes, diverse forms and simple and popular language, and are known as "the poet's magic" and "the king of poets". Official to Hanlin bachelor, Zuo Zanshan doctor. In 846 AD, Bai Juyi died in Luoyang and was buried in Xiangshan. Up to now, there are Bai's "Changqing Collection", and the representative works include Song of Eternal Sorrow, Charcoal Man, Pipa Travel and so on. Bai Juyi
Smoke is raining. It's snowing. Snow piled up on the branches of plum trees. The road is muddy and difficult to walk, and people are thirsty and hungry. It's sad at the end of the year, and it snows. Snow in autumn and winter, thousands of miles away; Smoke invades the snow ridge, and drums move the river. It snowed outside Yuhang Gate last year. The earth is white, the wind is cold, and many snowflakes fall like big hands. Frozen clouds cover the mountains, and the snow is shining. The valley is desolate, sparsely populated and covered with heavy snow. Hearing the wind blowing through the window, Zhu Cong shook the window and pushed open the door to see the snow-capped mountains. Turtles talk about the cold here, cranes are surprised by the snow this year. Where do magpies fly in the forest? The pine tips are covered with snow. We all miss our brother deeply, but we want to go back. The sun and the moon are both white-haired. It should snow in winter, with the sound of broken jade. The pulse flowers are sparse and the sky is light, the clouds come and go, and there are a few branches of snow.