The translation of "Send Xiao Chushi on a Tour to Southern Guizhou" is as follows:
"Send Xiao Chushi on a Tour to Southern Guizhou" is a Tang poem written by Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty. It is very popular and has been collected in Tang Poems and Song Ci.
Text:
Old Xiao Lang is good at writing and drinking, his body is like floating clouds and his temples are like frost. Poetry is a profession for livelihood, and wine is a hometown if one forgets about home. Jiang was first formed from Baxia, and the ape passed through Wuyang before its heart was broken. How can we fight for it without getting drunk? The moon is shining brightly on Mowei Mountain.
Translation:
Chushi Xiao is a good writer and likes to drink. He has a family all over the world, his fortune is like a floating cloud, and his temples are as white as frost and snow. You (Xiao Chushi) abandoned your main occupation of livelihood and loved to write poems and essays; you wandered around the world and missed your hometown, expressing your feelings with wine. I thought about you leaving and rushing to Qiannan, which made me miss you so much that I could only add words to it when I passed through the Bashan of the Yangtze River.
Thinking about you passing through Wushan, where the apes are wailing, is heartbreaking to hear. The environment there is terrible, and the thought of it makes me worried, so let's go to Mowei Mountain today, accompanied by the bright moon, and drink wine without stopping.
About the author:
Bai Juyi (772-846), whose courtesy name was Letian, was also known as Xiangshan Jushi in his later years. In the 16th year of Zhenyuan, he became a Jinshi. During the Yuanhe period, he served as Zuo Shiyi and Zuo Zanshan. Later, he offended the powerful by requesting the arrest of the murderer who assassinated Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng, and was demoted to Jiangzhou Sima.
As a later official, he became the Minister of the Ministry of Justice. In terms of literature, he advocated that "articles should be written according to the time, and songs and poems should be written according to the situation." He was an advocate of the New Yuefu Movement. His poems are easy to understand, and it is said that it took an old woman to understand his poems. Together with Yuan Zhen, he is also known as "Yuan Bai". Together with Liu Yuxi, he pioneered the style of writing lyrics based on sound in the mid-Tang Dynasty. There is "Bai's Changqing Collection".
Poetry Theory
Bai Juyi’s thought combines Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, with Confucianism as the leading thought. Mencius said, "If you are prosperous, you can help the world; if you are poor, you can help yourself." This is the creed he followed throughout his life. Its ambition to "contribute to economic development" is based on Confucian benevolent government, and also includes Huang Lao's theory, the art of managing Xiao and the method of Shen Han.
His "solitary kindness" heart has absorbed Lao and Zhuang's concepts of contentment, equanimity and freedom, as well as the Buddhist thought of "liberation". The two are roughly bounded by the fact that Bai was demoted to Sima Jiangzhou. Bai Juyi not only left nearly 3,000 poems, but also put forward a whole set of poetry theories.
He compared poetry to a fruit tree and put forward the viewpoint of "root feelings, seedling words, beautiful sounds, and real meanings" ("Yu Yuan Jiu Shu"). He believed that "emotion" is the fundamental condition of poetry, " "What touches people's hearts is nothing but emotion" ("Yu Yuan Jiu Shu"), and the generation of emotions is based on feelings and events and is tied to current affairs.
Therefore, poetry creation cannot be divorced from reality and must be based on various events in real life and reflect the social and political conditions of an era. He inherited the tradition of poetry and poetry since the Book of Songs, and attached great importance to the realistic content and social role of poetry. Emphasize the function of poetry in exposing and criticizing political shortcomings.