Original text
Moss
Qing Dynasty · Yuan Mei
Youth comes naturally when the day is not around.
The moss flowers are as small as rice, and they also bloom like peonies.
Translation
In the shade where the warm spring sunshine cannot reach, life is still sprouting, and moss is still growing green.
Although the moss flower is as small as a grain of rice, it still blooms as enthusiastically as the noble peony.
About the author
Yuan Mei (March 25, 1716 - January 3, 1798), courtesy name Zicai, nicknamed Jianzhai, in his later years he was named Cangshan Jushi and Suiyuan The owner is the old man Suiyuan. A native of Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang), his ancestral home is Cixi, Zhejiang. Representative poets, essayists, literary critics and gourmets during the Qianjia and Qing Dynasties.
Yuan Mei is a rare talent and is good at writing poetry. In the fourth year of Qianlong's reign (1739), he was born as a Jinshi and was awarded the title of Shujishi by the Hanlin Academy. In the seventh year of Qianlong's reign (1742), he was transferred to Jiangsu and served as county magistrate in Lishui, Jiangning, Jiangpu and Shuyang for seven years. As an official, he was well-known for his political diligence, but his official career was not smooth and he had no intention of getting a salary. In the fourteenth year of Qianlong's reign (1749), he resigned from office and lived in seclusion in Suiyuan, Xiaocangshan, Nanjing, where he chanted poetry and gained many poetry disciples, especially female disciples. In the second year of Jiaqing (1798), Yuan Mei died at the age of 82. After his death, he was buried in Baibupo, Nanjing, and was known as "Mr. Suiyuan" in the world.
Yuan Mei advocated the "spiritual theory" and advocated that the aesthetic creation of poetry should express the soul, write the poet's personality, and express his true feelings in his personal life. Together with Zhao Yi and Jiang Shiquan, he is known as "Qian". The "Three Masters of Jiajia" (or the Three Masters of Jiangyou) are also known as the "Three Masters of Xingling School" together with Zhao Yi and Zhang Wentao, and are one of the "Eight Masters of Parallel Prose in the Qing Dynasty". His writing style is as famous as Ji Yun, a great scholar from Zhili, and was called "Ji of the Southern Yuan and the Northern Dynasties" at that time. The main works handed down from generation to generation include "Collected Works of Xiaocang Shanfang", "Suiyuan Poetry Talk", "Suiyuan Poetry Talk Supplement", "Suiyuan Food List", "Zi Buyu", "Xu Zi Buyu", etc.
The representative work of prose, "Essay on Sacrifice to Sisters", is sad and sincere and has been circulated for a long time. Classical prose commentators mentioned it together with "Essay on Sacrifice to Twelve Langs" written by Han Yu in the Tang Dynasty
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