Born less than 100 years old, often pregnant with chitose worry,
The days are short and the nights are long. Why not travel by candlelight?
If you are happy to arrive in time, why can't you stay here?
Fools cherish expenses, but they are despised by future generations.
Fairy Wang Ziqiao, it's hard to wait.
Creation year: Eastern Han Dynasty
Source: Selected Works of Zhaoming
Literary genre: five-character poems
Author: anonymous
Nineteen Ancient Poems Born in Less than a Hundred Years is a five-character poem in the Eastern Han Dynasty, whose author is unknown. This poem exhorts people to know the world in time, eat, drink and be merry in time, and don't have to worry about useless things day and night, satirizing the ignorance of those who are greedy for wealth.
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A person living in the world is generally less than 100 years old, but his heart is always worried about the sorrow after the Millennium. Why bother?
Since you always complain that the days are so short and the nights are so long, why not take a candle and play around the clock?
Life should be carpe diem! Why wait until next year?
People who are unhappy all day, people who just want to accumulate wealth for their children and grandchildren, are particularly stupid. Unscrupulous children will only laugh at their ancestors and will not enjoy happiness!
I'm afraid it's hard to wait for an immortal Rainbow Ziqiao!
source
One of the nineteen ancient poems, included in Selected Works of Zhaoming. Shan Li of the Tang Dynasty noticed: "There is an ancient poem, but the author is unknown. Still a cloud, I doubt it. " There is a saying that the author is Mei Cheng, but Shan Li is noncommittal.
When Liang Daizhao, ming prince and Xiao Tong compiled The Selected Works, because the author's name was unknown, it ranked before Li Ling's poems in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It is generally believed that this 19 five-character poem was written in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
This poem can be compared with Ximenxing in Han Yuefu. The original poem is as follows:
Step out of the west gate and read it.
If you don't have fun today, how long should you stay?
Husband is happy, and happiness is also timely.
Why can't you sit and be sad? You should wait for us.
Drink and roast fat beef.
Call it whatever you like, which can alleviate your sadness.
Life is less than 100, and I am always worried about my age.
The days are short and the nights are long. Why not travel by candlelight?
Because Wang Ziqiao is not a fairy, his life span is very long.
Life is not a stone, but it can be expected.
Love money and cherish expenses, but they are despised by future generations.
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achievements of art
Ideological significance
Judging from the whole poem, this poem satirizes two kinds of suitors in the world with loose and broad-minded words.
First of all, those who are stingy with money and "cherish expenses" were born under 1000, but they are stupid enough to worry that they are1000. The absurd connection between "a hundred years" and "a thousand years" reveals the ridiculous modality of those who live miserly and "cherish expenses".
The days are short and the nights are long. Why not travel by candlelight? Those who "swim", the meaning of "swim" in the text and "eat, drink and be merry" mentioned below have different meanings from ordinary people's understanding. Swimming and pleasure are not the kind of indulgence in the pool of wine and meat, but a kind of active and healthy life enjoyment for literati, expressing their feelings, talking about wine and poetry, and forgetting frustration and frustration. This kind of happiness is also based on the love of life, showing the pain of life without a way out with broad-minded and wild thinking.
As long as we look at the Jian 'an era when the literati had a way out, this sigh of eating, drinking and having fun was quickly replaced by the generous voice that hurt people's livelihood and made contributions in time, and we can understand this. In fact, it is a mockery of those who advocate immortality. However, this expectation of meeting immortals was finally found to be an empty dream in the depressed late Han Dynasty.
Artistic feature
Doubts about the value of life often seem to be due to the depression of life. Looking at life in depression, many traditional ideas will collapse in questioning eyes. This collection of poems throws a bucket of cold water on two suitors in the world with loose and broad-minded words.
The first is the ridicule of stingy "cost aversion", which accounts for almost the main length of the whole poem. This kind of people, just as the poem "The Book of Songs tang style" ridiculed that "the mountain has a pivot": "The child has clothes, and the flowers are dragged (wrapped); You have a car and a horse, and you can't ride without a car. If you die, others will be happy. " -You don't know how to enjoy the goods in time. What they are worried about is nothing more than the livelihood of future generations. In the poet's view, this is simply stupid and ridiculous: "If you are born less than a hundred years old, you should always worry about being a thousand years old"-even if you can live a hundred years, you can only worry about your children for a hundred years, which is common sense that even children know; Besides, I may not live to be a hundred years old, but it is foolish to worry about "chitose". Starting with the absurd connection between "a hundred years" and "a thousand years", it is really wonderful to reveal the absurd modality of those who live miserly lives. The next two sentences are even stranger: "The days are short and the nights are long. Why not swim by candlelight! " People who swim have fun. It is sensational enough to immerse all the days of life in pleasure, but the poet still "suffers" that the days are too short and whimsical, and advises people to spend their rest time in the evening on pleasure. Unfortunately, he can remember. It's dark at night, so I'm afraid I'll lose my fun. The poet has already prepared a plan: then simply swim with a candle in your hand! -expressing the idea of having fun and enjoying oneself so nakedly and boastfully is probably a shocking voice, not only in the poetry circles of the Han Dynasty, but also in the whole history of ancient poetry. As for those misers who diligently pursue the treasure of gold kiln and silver mine, it is even more staggering. This is the first four sentences (Fang's Zhao Wei) lamented by later poets as "fantastic ideas and outstanding brushwork". The two are at odds with each other, and they clearly oppose the life attitude of lifelong anxiety and indulgence.
The poet seems to have expected that advocating such a dissolute idea will be criticized by the secular. It's not that they don't want to enjoy it, but that they often hold the philosophy of "no pains, no gains" and postpone the limited enjoyment of life to the distant future. The poet flatly denied this philosophy: if you want to eat and drink, you can't wait until next year if you want to be "timely". The poem doesn't say why it can't wait until next year. The implication is that another poem in Nineteen Ancient Poems is on fire: "Life suddenly seems to be happening, and life is not solid"-no one knows what will happen to Laizi, and suddenly it becomes an "old dead man" who can't sleep in a grave for a thousand years (nineteen ancient poems). At that time, it was too late to enjoy himself. This is the painful experience of many lives behind the broad-minded language of "eat, drink and be merry" in the poet's world. From this point of view, it is particularly foolish for those who "cherish expenses" to do nothing all day and just want to save some property for their children and grandchildren. Because they were born "sparing money" and raised a group of idle children and grandchildren. It is impossible to appreciate the virtues accumulated by ancestors when these unscrupulous descendants squander freely. Maybe they will be hysterical, and those who laugh at their ancestors will not enjoy happiness. As Fang Tingjue said, "Fools cherish expenses and despise future generations" (A Collection of Selected Works). The acerbity of his sarcastic remarks does have the power to "wake up drunk dreams" for fools.
At this point, the whole poem has been written, and the pen has always been aimed at people who "cherish fees." Only at the end of the day, it suddenly "rolled back", pointing to another pursuit of the world: worshipping immortals. Xianxian, from Qin Shihuang to Han Wudi, did many stupid things. Even the common people in the Han Dynasty said that Wang Ziqiao was received by a mysterious Taoist priest at Songshan Mountain and finally by a crane. In "Han Yuefu", therefore left "Wang Ziqiao, riding on the white deer cloud. Down the river, Wang Ziqiao "urgent call. However, by the end of the depressed Han Dynasty, this expectation of meeting immortals was finally found to be just an empty dream (see "Nineteen Ancient Poems Driving East Gate": "Seeking immortals by food is mostly caused by medicine. It is better to drink wine and put on tens of thousands and sue "). Therefore, for those who are still dreaming of "becoming immortal", the poet doesn't need to spend more ink, just by mocking the surplus potential of those who "cherish the expense", he closes his burden one by one: "Wang Ziqiao, the immortal, can't wait!" This conclusion seems to escape the main idea in the whole poem, and it is about "immortals" at once, but the poet's original intention is actually to "wake up" those who "cherish expenses", which is what Zhu Yun pointed out in Nineteen Ancient Poems: "Immortals can't be learned. The more you know, it's not a pity to spend silly money." Just a light blow, even if the fairy admirer is cold, takes care of the meaning of "eat, drink and be merry" in the last article: the knot is still broad-minded and ingenious.
Such a fantastic work, expressing "eat, drink and be merry" in dissolute language, seems to really awaken many people's dreams of life; Therefore, some researchers regard this kind of poetry as a sign of "awakening of human nature" in Han Dynasty. But when you think about it, those who "always worry about Chitose" are stupid; But it may not be a sober attitude to say that the value of life lies in satisfying one's indulgence in time. In fact, this attitude is likely to be a powerless protest against the depressed life in the late Han Dynasty. For the underclass who have no way out, this life is turbulent and dying, and it is just another dream after waking up from many dreams (such as "career" and "fame and fortune")-they can't really live a happy life of "clean clothes" and "why not walk by candlelight". As long as we look at the Jian 'an era when the literati had a way out, this sigh of eating, drinking and having fun was quickly replaced by the generous voice that hurt people's livelihood and made contributions in time, and we can understand this. [ 1]