Miscellaneous Poems"
Tao Yuanming of Jin Dynasty
The prime years will never come again,
It is difficult to wake up again in one day.
Be encouraged in time,
Time waits for no one.
A glimpse into the poetic image structure of Tao Yuanming's "Miscellaneous Poems"
Time and life are a theme repeatedly chanted by Tao Yuanming and many Wei and Jin poets. This theme is actually the deep formal structure of many poetic images. The reason why it is called formal structure is because the contradictory opposition between time and life runs through many poems implicitly or explicitly, becoming the unique formal element for poets to generate, organize, and construct their image systems. Compared with the concrete surface images, they are more abstract and inner, and are structural clues lurking in the deep layers of the image.
Looking for and discovering structure in poetic texts is the application of linguistic methods in poetics by Western structuralist literary critics. An important viewpoint in linguistics is to regard language as a symbolic system. In this system, the meaning of all factors is derived from the relationship and structure in which it is located. This relationship and structure are always reflected in two things being placed in opposing positions, thus forming differences and contrasts, resulting in respective meanings on another level. This is the structural principle of the so-called "binary opposition". Binomial opposition is the most basic motivation for human brain thinking to produce meaning. The inner structures that run through many of Tao Yuanming's poems - time and life - also gain their respective meanings from mutual opposition and contradiction, and produce a third meaning. These connotations are reflected in the group of images that are generated and expanded by their opposition. Therefore, the contradictory opposition between time and life is an element of form, not a theme belonging to the content category as we understood it in the past. Of course, it is not the theme of ideas or emotional attitudes. In the specific analysis of the following works, we will realize this more deeply.
Tao Yuanming's "Repaying Liu Chaisang", written in the 10th year of Yixi, uses the two oppositions of time and life to create an image:
Poor and widowed, time forgets The four seasons are prosperous; there are many fallen leaves in the courtyard, and it is clear that autumn is known. The new sunflower blooms in the north, and the good harvest grows in the south. I am not happy now. Do you know what will happen next year? The fortune teller carries a weak child, and travels far away on a good day.
The image structure of this poem is: living in poverty and forgetting the time, hints at the loneliness of life; falling leaves know the time, triggering the feeling of the fleeting life; worrying about the haggardness of falling leaves, metaphorizing the autumn of life, enjoying the new sunflower , Jiasui's glory, reflecting the fact that the prosperity of life will never return; the rotation of the four seasons and the unknown next year show the opposition between the eternity of time and the precariousness of life; living in poverty today and traveling with children on a good day constitute an emotional plot. The ups and downs and rhythms give the end of life a bright and optimistic color. The image of time implies the changes of life, and the image of life contains the movement of time. Forgetting the time and knowing the time, worrying about the wanness of fallen leaves and the glory of the sunflower ear, the unknown fortune of the four seasons and the coming year, living in poverty and traveling far away, these four sets of contradictory and opposing factors derived from time and life have emerged, expanded, and Constructs the image system of the entire poem. The binary opposition structure of these two differences and contradictions creates extremely rich, implicit, and endless emotions and interests. As Huang Wenhuan of the Ming Dynasty said: "It is said to be 'forgetting the four fortunes of time', it is also called 'knowing autumn', it is called 'many fallen leaves', it is also called 'new sunflower', 'Jia Sui Yang', and it is called 'generous'. It is also said that "for joy", those who forget will forget themselves, those who know will know it, and their thoughts will suddenly fly; those who are haggard will be haggard, and those who are proud will be proud of themselves. Things have their own special nature. It adds to the fun" (Volume 2 of "Analysis of Tao's Poems"). The changing moods and the prosperous and waning state of things, the unforgettable sorrow of the world and the optimistic joy of life are intertwined into a multi-layered web of meaning.
For a poet who is in a state of imagination and intuition during creation, he has no time and no need to think about the inner structure of the image. For him, each image is just an impromptu and accidental "thought that comes suddenly." However, the logic of emotion and the structure of images unconsciously guide the poet to create a series of image groups, in which the echoes and contrasts, protection and connections are all like living organisms, showing a structural system state. “Any kind of cognitive object, as long as it can be reasonably regarded as a structure, and as long as a suitable starting point for analysis can be found for it, then structural analysis can be carried out” (1). When we analyze a writer's image structure, we want to discover and reveal its internal coherence in the writer's imaginative world of images, and discover a deep structure, an organized system woven from various ideas and emotions. This is the starting point for our analysis of the image structure of Tao Yuanming's seven interrelated poems.
The main theme of the structure of one to seven of the eight "Miscellaneous Poems" written by Tao Yuanming in his later years is time and life, which expands into a series of image groups and variations.
Variation one:
Life has no roots, floating like dust on the road. Scattered and turned around by the wind, this is already abnormal. We are brothers, why should we be close by flesh and blood? We can have fun together, fight and drink with our neighbors. The prime years never come again, and it is difficult to come back again in the morning. We should encourage you in time, and time waits for no one.
The first song starts from the beginning of life. The image of life is composed of a series of metaphors: "Life has no roots", which metaphors life as a plant without roots, thus giving rise to the image of "floating". "Floating" leads to another simile: "Floating like dust on the road."
"Chen on Moshang" regenerates the image of "dispersed and turned by the wind". "Zhufengzhuan" gave birth to the image of "falling to the ground and becoming brothers". "Falling to the ground" implies the metaphor that life is like a seed, and also implies the beginning of life leaving the womb. Since life is a floating seed or flying dust, it has no root or pedicle. It is tossed in the vast sky and earth by the wind. It is really an accident that it "landed" as a human being. Life is not our own, so why should flesh and blood be considered our closest relatives? We are all brothers in the four seas. "Why be close to each other by flesh and blood" is a great awakening to the meaning of life caused by the accident at the beginning of life. Once this accidental life begins, time creates an eternal contradiction with her. "The prime years will never come again, and the day will never come again." Time rushes past in front of life. It is irreversible and unrepeatable. It runs forward forever and leads to infinity; but the measurement unit of life is changed from "years" to "years". "(prime years) to "日" (one day) to "morning" (morning again) to "shi" (timely)...it becomes more and more limited and short-lived. The contingency, impermanence, and finiteness of life form a sharp opposition to the necessity, eternity, and infinity of time. The force that maintains the balance between the two opposing sides is "to have fun when having fun, and to get together with neighbors when fighting for wine", and "to be encouraged in time, and time waits for no one." Grasp the limited, enjoy it, encourage hard work, increase the density and quality of life, in order to resist the plunder of life by time and the helplessness of life in the face of time.
Variation 2:
The sun is shining in the west, and the full moon rises from the east ridge, and the light shines thousands of miles away, filling the sky. The wind comes and enters the house, and the pillow is cold at night; the change of Qi changes when I realize it, and I know that the night will last forever if I don't sleep. If you want to be gentle, you wave your cup to persuade Gu Ying. The sun and the moon throw people away, and their ambitions cannot be achieved. Thinking of this is sad and desolate, and I can't be still at dawn.
Time is alternating, the sun is falling and the moon is rising. "The brilliance is thousands of miles away, and the scenery is swinging in the sky." This is an infinite universe that life cannot compare with, and it is also a void as beautiful and ethereal as life. The two tactile images in the two sentences "wind comes" and "in the night" separate life from the huge space and limit it to one point - the room and the pillow mat; in the two sentences "qi changes" and "sleepless", the words "yi" and "yi" "Eternal" creates a distance between the infinite running process of time and the static "evening". The former is constantly changing, and this time is no longer that time, while the latter is unsteady due to the sadness and anxiety of subjective emotions. It moves, thus highlighting the experience and feelings of life in this "evening".
Life is lonely. Not only is "there is no words left to make peace, but a cup is waved to persuade the lonely shadow", even the time that cannot be separated from life is also ruthless. The earth abandons it and rushes forward on its own, uprooting people's wishes sown in the field of time. "The sun and the moon throw people away, and the good show of life has not officially begun, and the stage of time has not yet begun." It has been hurriedly withdrawn, and the desire to increase the density and quality of life will also be in vain. How can we not "think about this with sadness, and cannot be still at dawn"! If one of the variations is in the lamentation about the contingency of life and the inevitable eternity of time. , is still full of high-spirited ideal tone, then the second variation is mainly the experience of the huge conflict between the loneliness of life and the ruthlessness of time, and its emotional tone is inextricable sadness, sorrow and anxiety.
Time alternates, life freezes; the universe is endless, life is lonely; the show of life has not yet begun, the stage of time has been withdrawn. This is the deep structure of the image in the second poem.
The variation. 3:
It is hard to stay here for a long time, and its rise and fall are immeasurable. In the past, it was a spring lotus house, but now it is an autumn lotus house. It is covered with weeds due to severe frost. The sun and the moon are turning around again, and there is no more sun when I leave. When we look back on the past, it breaks our hearts to recall this.
Life is tragic. “Glory cannot last long, and prosperity and decline cannot be measured. The images of "Three Spring Lotus" and "Autumn Lotus House" allude to the changes in life from prosperity to decline. In the first four sentences, "it is difficult to live for a long time", "immeasurable", "past", "now", "spring", "autumn" "" and other images that hint at the rise and fall of life are all filled with clues of time. "Three Spring Lotus" is an echo of "prosperity", and "Autumn Lotus Room" not only implies the maturity of life, but also foretells the aging of life. The relationship between prosperity and decline The two opposite meanings are contained in the same image. This is the philosophy of Lao Zhuang and the natural law of life. However, what is even more cruel to life is that "severe frost grows weeds, and the grass grows old." The helpless situation. "The soft flowers are covered with frost, and their roots and leaves are often entangled with each other." (Volume 4 of Huang Wenhuan's "Analysis of Tao Poems") implies the decay of people in their old age when their temples are covered with frost and their hair is like withered grass. The sentence "withered and suddenly Weiyang" means that the "half-dead and half-life" situation of life is particularly miserable, and the three words "Weiyuyang" add more flavor. "("Analysis of Tao's Poems") It is a metaphor for the decline of life but not exhaustion.
Absolute time is gone forever, but the relative time symbolized by the sun and the moon begins again and again. "The sun and the moon "Return to the circle, I will no longer be in the sun". Life is swept away by absolute time, and it cannot return with the sun and moon. The image of the first poem implies the contingency of life, and the image of the second poem implies the non-repeatability of life. Nature. Life belongs to "me" only once, but it changes from prosperity to decline so quickly. "Remembering the past is heart-breaking." "This is no longer "encourage more in time" (the first song), yearning for the future, chasing and hoping for time, nor is it "the sun and the moon throw people away, and ambitions are not achieved" (the second song), it is based on the present and facing. Time is deeply regretful and lamentable. There is not much left in the future, so we can only look back on the past and reluctantly follow the footsteps of time to trace the footsteps of life.
Variations. Four:
My husband has ambitions all over the world, and I wish I would never grow old. My relatives live together, and my children and grandchildren still protect each other. Very early.
If you were a scholar in the world, your arms would be full of charcoal. If you return to Qiulong after a hundred years, you will use this empty space to name the Tao.
The conflict between time and life in the second and third songs makes the emotional tone sink to the bottom. In the fourth variation, in the struggle between life and time, the mood changes from low and depressed to joyful.
“My husband has ambitions all over the world, but I don’t want to grow old.” Being old without knowing how to grow old implies the struggle of life against time. One of the ways to fight is: "When relatives live in the same place, their descendants still protect each other." Life is enriched through the harmony of human relations and continued through the reproduction of descendants. This is the shaping and interpretation of the value of life in the cultural context of China’s patriarchal society, which is bound by blood ties. The second way to resist is to sing, drink, and have fun slowly. Xiange includes composing poems and reciting aspirations, which, together with the joyful enjoyment of drinking, are both spiritual pleasures. Since life is so short, only by opening your heart, getting rid of the fetters of famous religions, and enjoying the joy of spiritual freedom can you live up to this precious life. The third way to fight is to enjoy the peace of mind and obtain the meaning of life and psychological comfort in comparison with the contemporary scholars who are "embracing ice and coal". These latter two struggles are the new values ??given to life by the Wei and Jin people in their struggle against time.
Time will eventually heal the many sorrows and regrets that time brings to life. Looking at the present from the future of time, the meaning and value of life will show another picture. "After a hundred years, I returned to Qiulong and used this empty space to name the Tao." Whether it is "timely encouragement", whether "ambitions are not achieved", whether "prosperity cannot stay for a long time", whether "embraces are full of ice and coal", including "cannot be still at dawn", "recalling this is heartbreaking", the sadness of life itself, It will also turn into nothingness in the same way that mounds and graves turn into fields and ridges. Time brings worries and differences to life, and time will erase all worries and differences. It brings everything and takes away everything. With insight into this, the contradictions between life and time are reconciled at a new level. The struggle between the two is won by life's condescending transcendence of time. Understanding all this also brings the emotional experience contained in the image of life and time into another realm - the realm of philosophy and wisdom.
Variation No. 5:
I recall that when I was young, I had no joy and was enjoying myself. I had a strong ambition to travel all over the world, and my thoughts were far away. As time goes by, this feeling has faded away. There is no time for fun, and there is always more worry. The strength is gradually declining, and the feeling is becoming worse day by day. The boat has no need for a moment, and I can't stay there. I don't know what the future is, but I don't know where it will stop. The ancients cherished every inch of shade, and thinking of this makes people fearful.
The fifth song is an echo and expansion of the third song, "The ups and downs are immeasurable" and "Loving the Past". The first four sentences are standing in the present and looking at yesterday. The image of yesterday's life is "The ambition is fierce and the world is far away, and the Qianhe is thinking far away." The middle six sentences are standing in the present and looking at today. The image of life today is "There is no time to have fun, and every time Too much worry. My strength is gradually declining, and I feel worse every day." The following four sentences are about looking at tomorrow from the present. The image of tomorrow's life is "I can't stop the boat for a moment, and I don't know where to stop." It implies that life is a lonely boat with an uncertain future and an uncertain future. "The boat was hidden in a ravine, thinking it would be safe, but in the middle of the night there were still strong people who carried it away." ("Zhuangzi: The Great Master") The image of the boat implies the futility of maintaining health to extend life and the futility of cherishing life to save life. It metaphorizes time as an extremely powerful giant, which has unknowingly carried the boat of life away. The boat of life also implies the image of time like flowing water. It is impossible for a person to struggle in the hands of the giant of time, and for a boat to stay in the rapids of time for a moment. Looking at the future from now, the future of life is not measured in years, months, and days, but can only be speculated in "moments" and "a few moments." On the vast water of time, I don’t know where the boat of life will anchor. "Unknown anchorage" not only implies the unpredictability of the journey of life, but also implies that anchorage is the inevitable destination of the boat of life. This foretells and implies the theme of the end of life in Variation 7.
Variation 5 radiates and unfolds the image at three points in time; first, looking back on the past, the image of life is a roc spreading its wings and flying high. Mood: high-spirited and cheerful; secondly, observing the present, the image of life is the decline and wear and tear of vitality. The mood: "worry", "no entertainment"; thirdly, looking at the future, the image of life is a lonely boat with little future. Mood: fear and fear. The jumps and intertwining of time, the ups and downs of life, and the interweaving of emotions of worry, joy, and fear make the fifth poem like a trio of time and life, showing the whole process of rich and profound life experience.
Variation No. 6:
In the past, I heard the words of the elders, and I was not happy. However, fifty years later, I suddenly got married. I pray for happiness in my prime years, but I have no intention of returning to you; I have gone so far away, so this life is no longer worth it! I spend my whole life having fun, but the years are passing by. If you have children and don’t leave money, why use it after death?
This is a relaxed and playful concerto. The structure of the image is the reconciliation of life and time. Compared with the fourth poem, the reconciliation here presents a new attitude: that is, life adopts an open-minded, tolerant and rational compromise and concession to time. Since time will eventually take away everything in life, why doesn't the subject of life "jump on this time" and consciously and voluntarily take the same direction and the same step with time? If the reconciliation of the contradiction between life and time in the fourth poem is a tragic philosophy and Transcendent reconciliation constructs an image based on life's subjective victory over time. Then, the synchronization of life and time in the sixth poem is a humorous and comic reconciliation between wisdom and reality, using life to objectively compromise time. And construct the image.
This reconciliation made life seem to be completely freed from the entanglement and worries of time. She was really running towards her tomorrow with ease and joy. "It's too far to go, but this life is no longer worth it"! It seemed like the sound of her footsteps getting farther and farther away as she strode past. Life has gone far, and she has left everything in her life behind, "I pray for happiness in my prime years, and I have no intention of returning to it." She also put everything behind her behind, "If you have a son and don't leave money, why leave it behind." She did not look back and chased the pace of time without any regrets.
As if life is making fun of its previous sentimentality, the sixth poem echoes and replays the important melody fragments in the first four poems except the first poem in a relaxed and humorous mood. The following four lines of "I heard the words of the elders in the past" are in response to the following lines of the fifth song "Remembering my youth". The following four lines of "Wish me happiness in my prime years" are echoes of the third song "It's hard to stay in glory for a long time" and "I will no longer be in the sun". The following four lines of "Having fun when the family is lost" are echoes of the fourth song, "The descendants still protect each other", "Slowly bring all the joy", and they are also echoes of the second song, "The sun and the moon throw people away", "Thinking of this is sad" Explanation and resolution. Although it is an echo and repetition of the melody fragments in the first four songs, the emotional connotation of the imagery is different. The images in the first four poems are full of sadness caused by the confrontation between life and time, but the images in the sixth poem echo the relaxation and humor brought by the reconciliation of life and time. This is the relaxation and buffering of the emotional rhythm, which makes psychological adjustments and preparations for the sudden emotional climax of the seventh poem.
Variation No. 7:
The sun and moon refuse to be late, the four seasons are pressing; the cold wind blows the withered branches, and the fallen leaves cover the long road. If you are weak in nature and have bad fortune, your hair will turn gray long ago; if you have a bad temper, your future will gradually become narrower. My home is an inn, and I am like a guest. What do I want to do when I go? There is an old house in Nanshan.
When life really comes to the end of death, the instinct of cherishing life makes her conflict with time become tense. There is neither the sadness of the first five songs nor the optimism and humor of the sixth song, but a tragic feeling of facing the pressing time and dying together with time. "The sun and the moon are not late, and the four seasons are pressing." In the seventh poem, the image of time becomes cold and urgent. "Withered strips" are a metaphor for life, and "cold wind" implies that the cold whip of time has driven away the spring of life. Under the pressure and cleansing of the four seasons of the sun and the moon, the image of life shows the fragmented decay of "weakness and fortune, and the dark hair has long been white". "Falling leaves cover the long road" metaphors that the road ahead in life has been buried by the falling leaves of time, thus triggering the image of "if you put a standard on someone's head, your future will gradually become narrower". Where does time drive life to? "My home is an inn, and I am a guest. What do I want to do when I go? There is an old house in Nanshan." There are two images of "home" in the poem: one is the real home, which is a temporary guest house during the journey of life; the other is the old house and former residence, which is the permanent destination of life. Life means sending; death means returning. The limited life of an individual is just a passing passenger on the endless journey of time. Time will send her to her destination-the grave. The word "old" makes the grave where life is buried reveal a warm, friendly and tearful smile. The earth is the former home of life. Life as flying dust comes from there, and now it returns there. In the first few poems, life still regards "relatives staying together, children and grandchildren still protecting each other" and "having fun while spending time together" as its physical destination. However, in the seventh poem, this home has become a guest house. . The old house in Nanshan is beckoning to life, and it will take its place and become the final destination of life. Life is bound to come to an end, and all nostalgia, sighs, regrets, and sorrows are of no use. Why not live a happy life, with great luck, and move towards your own end? "What are you going to do? There is an old house in Nanshan." It echoes the "Unknown Stopping Place" in the fifth song, implying the inevitability of life towards death.
Did time win? No. Because the death of life also marks the disappearance of time. The first sentence of the first poem is "Life has no roots", and the last sentence of the seventh poem is "There is an old house in Nanshan". They echo in circles, and there is broad-mindedness in sadness, and wisdom in sadness. Life moves from the beginning to the end in the contradiction, opposition, struggle, compromise, confrontation and conflict with time. She perishes with time through her own death. In the end, the two opposing sides became unified. This is the deep structure that runs through the overall image system of the seven poems in Tao Yuanming's "Miscellaneous Poems".