These are two sentences from Bai Juyi's poem "Buy Flowers" in Tang Dynasty, also called "Peony".
The original poem is as follows:
The imperial city withered in spring, and it was noisy.
* * * If you say peony, you will buy flowers with you.
The price is uncertain, and the reward value depends on the number of flowers:
Burn a hundred red flowers and press five bundles of vegetarian food.
Hang a curtain on it and weave a fence next to it.
Sprinkle water and seal it with mud, and the color will not change.
Everyone is used to it, and everyone is confused.
There is an Weng who comes to buy flowers occasionally.
Bow your head and sigh alone, this sigh is unparalleled:
A bunch of dark flowers, ten people bless!
Translation:
At the end of spring this year, Chang 'an City was full of traffic and excitement. It turned out that it was the time when the peony was in full bloom, and the famous families in Chang' an went to buy flowers one after another. The price of peony flowers varies, and the price depends on the variety of flowers. Some peonies here are lush and bright red, and a small bouquet of flowers costs five bundles of white silk. They are carefully cared for, their owners put curtains on them, built fences, and cultivated the most fertile soil after hard watering, so the colors of the flowers are as bright as before. Everyone is used to it, and no one feels wrong. An old farmer happened to come to the place where he bought flowers. Seeing this scene, I can't help but bow my head and sigh, but who cares about this sigh: the price of this dark peony flower is equivalent to the annual tax of ten middle-class families.
Appreciate:
Li Zhao, a contemporary of Bai Juyi, said in Tang Shi Supplement: "The capital is expensive and has been a peony for more than 30 years. It's a pity that you don't spend time playing in the Spring Festival Gala every year. Holding a golden palace outside the palace, planting it for profit, a book is worth tens of thousands. " This poem reveals some essential aspects of social contradictions through the description of "buying peony flowers in Beijing" and shows a theme with profound social significance. The genius of the poet is that he found an "Tian She Weng" that others turned a blind eye to from the place where he bought flowers, which triggered his inspiration and completed his original artistic conception.
The whole poem is divided into two paragraphs. The fourteen sentences in "Everyone loses something" are about your expensive trip to Beijing to buy flowers. In the following six sentences, write Tian She Weng and buy flowers.
Spring in Beijing is coming to an end, and there are noisy cars and horses coming and going in the streets. It is said that peonies are in full bloom, and friends are called to buy flowers. At the beginning, "imperial city" refers to the place, and "the end of spring" refers to the time. When "spring is near dusk", the countryside is green and yellow, and farming is doubly busy, while Chang 'an, where the emperor and his courtiers are located, is busy "buying flowers". "Noisy" belongs to hearing; "Riding" belongs to vision. In the form of "noise", the scene of men jumping over women and laughing and cheering is displayed at the same time as the picture of cars and horses filling the streets and swallowing lanes. It is really a combination of sound and sound. The following "* * * peony, buy flowers from each other" is a supplementary description of "noisy". When borrowing the car, everyone immediately told each other in unison that the pen was quite clever.
These four sentences are written as "buy flowers", which paves the way for the following writing: buy flowers at a high price and spend them with a small heart. Then there are these rich idle people, driving around and spending money on flowers and plants. Burn a hundred red flowers and press five bundles of vegetarian food. Read jiān, "I", and describe a huge volume made of twenty-five silks. Five horses were used as a bundle in ancient times. "Five bundles of silk" is twenty-five silks. "New Tang Book": "When the' two taxes' were first set up, money was lighter than goods, and silks were 3,200 yuan." At that time, the "two tax laws" came into effect, and a silk was 3,200 yuan, so the "five bundles" were 80,000 yuan! A hundred flowers red peony sells for 80 thousand, which is amazing! Then, it goes without saying that "hang a curtain on it, weave a fence next to it, sprinkle water to seal the mud, and move the same color", and its treasure is no different from jewelry.
Every family takes making flowers as a custom, and everyone is stubborn. The above is only an objective description, and it was not until "everyone was puzzled" that the author's tendency was revealed; However, the exact meaning of "ignorance" needs further clarification. Some of Bai Juyi's satirical poems are often reasonable, and finally abstract comments. This poem avoids this situation. When he witnessed these fanatical flower buyers spending money like water, giving out the feeling that everyone is obsessed, he suddenly found an "Tian She Weng" who occasionally bought flowers from the hungry and cold countryside, saw him bow his head and heard him sigh. This extremely sharp contrast reveals the essence of social life at that time. In the noisy scene of buying flowers, the poet lost no time to take a close-up shot of "bowing his head and sighing alone", and with extremely sharp contrast, he dug out all the subtext from the expression of "bowing his head" and the voice of "sighing": just buying a bunch of dark flowers that "burned hundreds of red flowers" squandered the tax grain of ten middle-class families! Revealed the gap between the rich and the poor in the society at that time. "The rich have a bunch of flowers and ten families have a year's food." Finally, this epigram makes readers suddenly realize that the original "Tian She Weng" who looks at flowers is actually a person who spends money on flowers! By extension, these "noble" flower buyers, their food, clothing, housing and transportation all come from the "tax" squeezed from the working people! With the help of Tian She Weng, the poet sharply reflected the contradiction between exploitation and being exploited. It is very valuable to dare to write people's voices with your own poetry creation.