Drunkenly remembering Yuanjiu with Li Shiyi
Bai Juyi
When we were drunk together, we broke away from the sorrow of spring. When we were drunk, we broke off flower branches to make wine chips.
I suddenly remembered my old friend Tianji, and planned to go to Liangzhou today.
People in the Tang Dynasty liked to commensurate with their rank. The "Yuan Jiu" in this poem is Yuan Zhen, who is as famous as Bai Juyi in the poetry world of the Mid-Tang Dynasty. In the fourth year of Yuanhe (809), Yuan Zhen went to Dongchuan as an envoy. When Bai Juyi was in Chang'an, he went to Qujiang and Ci'en Temple for a spring outing with his younger brother Bai Xingjian and Li Piaozhi (Li Shiyi in the title of the poem), and went to Piaozhi's house for a drink. He recalled Yuan Zhen at the dinner table, so he wrote this poem. This is a song that evokes emotions in the scene and is inspired by events. It is known for its deep feelings and true meaning.
The first line of the poem, according to Bai Xingjian who participated in the banquet at that time, recorded it in his "Three Dreams" as "Spring comes without any plan to break the sorrow of spring", which is said to be reliable; but " In "Bai's Changqing Collection", it is said that "the flowers are drunk together and the spring sorrow is broken". Variations of a poem will appear during the process of circulation or engraving, and the author will repeatedly revise his work and change the draft many times. As far as this poem is concerned, the words recorded in Bai Xingjian may be the first draft, while the words recorded in "Bai's Changqing Collection" are the final draft. So why did the poet make such modifications? In terms of composition, the first sentence of the poem is "Qi", the second sentence is "Cheng", and the third sentence should be "Zhuan". Judging from the relationship between the first sentence and the second sentence, changing "spring has no plan" to "get drunk when the flowers are blooming" will be more closely connected with the sentence "drunk and folding flower branches", and in the two sentences above and below, the word "flower" is closely related to The word "zui" is used repeatedly and upside down, which is even more interesting. Looking at the relationship between the first sentence and the third sentence, "Spring Sorrow" was originally a foreshadowing of "Remembering Old Friends", but if it were said at the beginning that "There is no way to break the Spring Sorrow", the third sentence would not be able to show the turning point. With such a change, it is first said that the spring sorrow has been broken by the drunkenness of the flower time, and then in the third sentence, the word "sudden memory" is suddenly changed, and then the beauty of the ups and downs is seen, thus falling out of the wind spirit of the whole article.
The characteristic of this poem is that it was picked up extemporaneously without any elaboration. It expresses extremely deep and sincere feelings in extremely simple and superficial language. The expression of affection is mainly found in the sentence "I plan to arrive in Liangzhou today" at the end of the chapter. "Ji Cheng" comes from "Sudden Yi" in the previous sentence, which is the deepening of "Yi". When old friends say goodbye, the resident remembers the traveler. As the memory deepens, he will often calculate whether the other person has reached the destination or is somewhere on the way. Here, the poet's thoughts and deep feelings are expressed, and he writes down the real meaning and common feelings in life, giving people a particularly real and cordial feeling.
Bai Juyi's calculation of Yuan Zhen's itinerary was very accurate. When he wrote this poem "Drunk Reminiscing about Yuanjiu", Yuan Zhen was in Liangzhou, and he also wrote a "Dream of Liangzhou": "Mr. Meng went around the head of the Qujiang River together, and also visited Ci'en Courtyard. The pavilion officials shouted People lined up and left the horse, and suddenly they were in ancient Liangzhou. "Yuan Zhen's explanation of this poem is: "I stayed at Hanchuan Station overnight, dreamed of traveling with Liang Zhi and Lotte in Qujiang, and entered the courtyards of Ci'en Temple. 夤, then the postman has called for dawn. "Coincidentally, the real events written in Bai Juyi's poems are consistent with the dreams written by Yuan Zhen. There is a layer of mystery to this incident on the surface, but it is actually a coincidence that is entirely possible in life, and this coincidence is based on the friendship between Yuan and Bai. Ci'en Temple and Qujiang in the southeast of Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty were tourist attractions at that time. Moreover, after the Jinshi passed the imperial examination, the emperor gave a banquet in Qujiang; the Ci'en Temple Tower was the Wild Goose Pagoda, and it was also the place where the new Jinshi was named. Yuan and Bai must have often visited these two places to have dinner together. For Yuan Zhen, when he misses his old friends and reminisces about his past travels during his lonely journey, these two Chang'an scenic spots not only come to his mind from time to time during the day, but of course also enter his dreams at night. Since such a dream originally came from the daily memories of old friends, Chang'an, and old travels, he only wrote it truthfully without exaggerating it, but the infinite lovesickness and true feelings were all in it. Its deep feeling and true meaning can be compared with the beauty of white poetry.
The connection between Yuan Zhen's poems shows the deep friendship between the two, and it also shows that Bai Juyi's poem "Remembering Yuan Jiu" seems to be an accidental thought and an essay, but it is profound. A sincere emotional basis. If we look at the poems of the two people together: one was written in Chang'an and the other in Liangzhou; one writes the memories of residents and the other the thoughts of passers-by; one writes real things and the other writes dreams; "It is said that "the harmony is like a contract." Moreover, the two poems were written on the same day and use the same rhyme. This is the communication and mutual induction between two people in different places. Readers enjoy the truth and beauty not only from the artistic charm of the poem, but also from its emotional content.