The world is so big, I don't know where I really set foot, even if it's just a place;
I don't even know who I can talk to, even if it's just a stranger.
1200 years ago, on a late autumn night, on the Xunyang River in Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi), the bleak and silent Leng Yue, the bleak autumn wind, the maple leaves fluttering in the wind and the flowers swaying, witnessed the whole process of a famous poet and a lonely singer's empathy.
As a result, an embarrassing story, a mood that touched many people's heartstrings, and a poem that has been told through the ages have been handed down.
1、
The poet is Bai Juyi. At that time, he was the man of the hour in the whole Tang Dynasty. Everyone knows the famous Song of Everlasting Sorrow.
However, 44-year-old Bai Juyi came to Jiangzhou, but was demoted. He was like a piece of hot coals burning with endless enthusiasm, and was suddenly extinguished by a basin of cold water.
In 772 AD, Bai Juyi was born in Xinzheng, Henan. When he was born, he was a small piece of charcoal.
When he was only six months old, the nurse jokingly asked him to point out the words "know" and "nothing" on the book screen, but he was able to point it out and find it directly in other places, which was always successful. A baby, before he can speak, has contributed an idiom to the vast Chinese vocabulary: little knowledge.
At the age of five, I began to learn to write poetry; Proficient in temperament at the age of nine; At the age of fifteen, he wrote: "I groaned at my own shadow, like a lonely wandering wild goose, and I was torn from my roots like an autumn grass." * * * Looking at the bright moon and crying, for the red heart, five places, all sick and one wish "is a poem to describe a family fleeing from war.
When he first arrived in Chang 'an at the age of sixteen, the great poet Gu Kuang once teased this travel-stained boy: "Chang 'an is expensive, but it is not easy to make a big difference! However, a song "Farewell to Ancient Grass" made Gu Kuang sit up and take notice. "wildfire never quite consumes them, the spring breeze is blowing high" spread all over the streets of Chang 'an.
Bai Juyi not only lived in Chang 'an, but also was treated like a star. The summer heat is unbearable, and rich and powerful people pay for ice that may not be available. Someone sent it directly to his residence without taking a penny.
Clever, it was enviable, but it happened that he still worked hard. Because he was going to take the imperial examination, he returned to Liv's home. Yes, it's Anhui Lifu, which is famous for roast chicken. Bai Juyi's father moved his family here to escape the war.
Because reading for too long, my mouth is sour; Because I kept writing, my elbows were covered with cocoons. His eyes have long been nearsighted, but he didn't have glasses at that time, so he always squinted and stretched out his neck to see people, and his back was already hunched.
He doesn't care about these, because he is a small charcoal, and his heart is burning with a raging flame.
He had to pass the imperial examination to live up to his father who died in Xiangyang, to support their five brothers and their mother's eldest brother Bai Youwen with a meager salary, and to his ideal of rejuvenating the Tang Dynasty.
In the imperial examination, there has always been a saying that "at the age of 30, I am quiet and I am a scholar at the age of 50". Ming Jing, that is, "Ming Xi Jing Shu", can pass if he has a good memory and is familiar with it; Scholars should not only test their understanding of Confucian classics, but also test their political literacy and management ability. As long as you pass the exam, you can get the salary of an official.
He was twenty-nine years old when he was admitted to Jinshi.
"Cienta's inscription is the youngest among seventeen people" records his excitement and pride in that year.
Since then, the small fire charcoal that was awarded the official position has become more and more prosperous.
He's so enthusiastic! His naive fantasy is to use his poems as swords to change the world and realize the wish of reviving the Tang Dynasty!
He believes that as long as he has enough talent and enthusiasm, he will be able to display his ambition.
However, before he could fully display his talent and enthusiasm, he was stabbed with a knife and gun by political opponents with ulterior motives.
At that time, he had just lost his mother and his favorite daughter had just died.
However, Tang Xianzong, who had high hopes, listened to rumors and demoted him to Jiangzhou Secretariat. Within a day, he was demoted to Jiangzhou Sima.
Only equivalent to the mayor's secretary. How painful is this for Bai Juyi who is full of ambition to serve the country?
Who can understand his inner anger, pain and loneliness?
If a person's life has never surged, he will never feel the feeling of death.
He didn't expect to meet the pipa girl in this remote place.
2、
Everyone called her "businesswoman" or "pipa girl", but no one knew that her original name was Pei Xingnu.
She vaguely remembers that when she was very young, she and her parents set off from the vast grassland and walked a long way to the capital Chang 'an.
She likes the prosperity here, and even more likes the guests who drink in the restaurant opened by her parents to praise her for her beauty.
They call her "Hu Nv", and she also knows that her fair skin, curly hair, towering nose and jasper eyes are different from the Han people here.
She quickly took advantage of their laughter and dared to ask them a question that their parents couldn't answer: "Why is it called' Frog Mausoleum'? I haven't seen a toad since I've been here for so long. "
These people burst into laughter and then explained to her:
"Dong Zhongshu, a very famous master of Confucian classics in the Han Dynasty, was buried here. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty respected him very much and dismounted every time he passed his tomb. This place was later called "Xiama Mausoleum". You conference semifinals can't hear Chang 'an dialect clearly, so it's called "Frog Tomb". What does it matter whether there is a toad or not? "
Then these people began to talk about topics that she was not interested in, where there was another war, which buffer region was going to rebel in our time, and what party struggles and eunuchs were, so she ran away and stopped listening.
There is a strange thing in her house, like a pear cut in half, with four lines on it. She often sees her mother fiddling with four lines with her fingers, which will make a very crisp and pleasant sound.
Mother told her: this is a musical instrument, called pipa, and the four lines on it are called strings.
She asked her mother again, "Why do you call it Pipa instead of any other name?" Her mother can't answer.
But she finally knew the answer, as her teacher Cao Gang told her.
There are two "jade" on the word "pipa", which means the pleasant sound made by the collision of two jade. The word "Bi" under the word "Pi" refers to the way these strings are juxtaposed, while the word "Ba" under the word "Pa" is exactly the way the piano is attached to the player's body. "
Yes, the pipa really must be played in your arms. It's completely different from the musical instruments of the Central Plains, and the sound is so crisp and beautiful!
However, this little girl, who always asks why, didn't jump for joy as she did when she knew the answer to "Frog Spirit". Her father was taken to be a able-bodied man, and her mother followed her to the military camp to cook. Once they left, there was no news.
Her common mother, the aunt who loved her since she was a child, had no choice but to send her to the teaching workshop to play the pipa, and she took her brother to live hard at home.
With her beauty and talent, she soon became a sister in the teaching workshop.
Teenagers don't know what it is to be sad. How did she know that she was a low-ranking geisha after all, despite her unique skills in sex and art?
How did she know how much jewelry those rich second generation in Kyoto smashed for her, how much they played, how much wine they spilled when they drank the bill, and how much clothes they soiled? How did she know that those people were competing to give her gifts and be jealous of her, just because she was beautiful rather than really loving her? How did she know that she would grow old and fade away from the thirteen-year-old cardamom, and all the prosperity was just a fleeting illusion?
She only knows that "season after season, joy follows joy, and the autumn moon and spring breeze pass by without her attention."
In this way, she squandered her youth in the noise until she heard the news that her aunt died and her brother joined the army. She suddenly realized that she had no relatives in this world.
Once the world pays attention to it, she can't escape the ending of "cold horse in front of the door", so she hastily found a businessman to marry. As long as you have a home and a place to live.
Her home is on this ship. She is just a businessman's outer room. Her husband takes a pass to sell tea from Chang 'an every month, passes through Jiangzhou, meets her for two days, then sells tea in Fuliang (now Jingdezhen, Jiangxi), and then returns to Chang 'an by water.
All she can do is stay on this ship, waiting, remembering and killing time.
three
On the night of 8 16, Xunyang River was particularly cold.
Autumn is a sad season, and the "heart" of "autumn" days cannot be called "sadness"!
Seeing the increasingly pale moon soaking in the river and the white flowers with a hint of coolness in the night, she suddenly felt panic and helplessness, but she didn't know what to do, and her fate was out of her control.
She really wanted to talk to someone, so she talked, but she couldn't find it.
Her husband just gave her some money from business to live, and then got some comfort from her lonely business trip. Did he listen carefully to what she said?
Bored, she picked up the pipa that she had been carrying with her and played it confidently.
Loneliness is like a black water lily in this dark night, spreading in endless darkness.
She didn't know that anyone on the river had heard of her pipa, and she didn't know that anyone who had listened had understood her inner loneliness. This little musical instrument in her arms can only tell her heart through its four strings.
She heard someone ask outside the boat, who is playing the pipa?
She didn't make a sound Tonight, she plays only for herself.
Loneliness is a person's carnival.
But the man doesn't seem to want to give up. He seems eager to hear her play the pipa.
He chattered outside the boat that he was going to send a friend to a distant place. He is from Chang 'an. I heard that the pipa she plays is Chang 'an ancient music. I feel very cordial and want to invite her to play for my friends. He will pay her accordingly.
She hesitated.
She is no longer a geisha. Considering her status, how can she just play with a stranger?
But that person won't give up. He has repeatedly said that he really likes listening to the pipa. Besides, it's a pity that there is no music at a friend's farewell party!
Think of it as making up for him!
She heard people outside happily say that they would reopen their seats. However, after all, I am in my thirties. How can I compare with my thirteen-year-old self?
How can a down-and-out person like her find herself as high-spirited as she was then?
Having already looked forward, she had to hold the pipa, half covering this vicissitudes of life face, and came outside the ship.
The moon rose a little, still so cold and pale, without a trace of temperature.
What tune is she playing with a gentle pluck?
If you frown slightly, just play colorful feathers, which was written by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty in those days. Yang Guifei's clothes and dancing were also in full swing. If people from other places don't listen to this song when they come to the teaching workshop, then the trip to Chang 'an will be in vain.
She turned gently, and the pipa tinkled, like the collision of jade beads, and like the crisp giggle of a thirteen-year-old girl.
Suddenly, the voice of the pipa became passionate, sudden and slow, just like the sound of jewelry on her head falling on a jade plate. What an unforgettable time in her life!
However, fate prevented her from getting too much care from her parents, and even this simple happiness would be taken away.
Her thoughts are happy and sad, and the pipa sounds like the cheerful chirping of orioles under flowers, and like running water under an ice spring.
Her fingers flicked on the strings, and she was immersed in painful and happy memories.
Thinking of now, living on a boat all the year round, the whole meaning of her life is to live, but there is no one to talk to. Her heart was bitten by a snake and finally stopped.
She looked up and found that there were many boats around besides the two guests who invited her to play. These people who have never heard such wonderful music enjoyed a pipa concert with their ears on such an uninvited night.
There are more silent words than vocal words.
She took a deep breath and looked around at the expectant eyes.
Well, tonight, let the sparkling Xunyang River be her stage, let the moon in the sky be her light, and tell her inner loneliness heartily!
Master taught her the most difficult song "Six hexagrams", not to mention that in this remote Jiangzhou, even Chang 'an in those days, it was her finale.
Let her party again!
So, we can see a woman holding a lute at a concert a thousand years ago. She looked dignified and her fingers danced on the pipa.
Applause and cheers came from the boats around, but she couldn't hear them.
She completely forgot everything around her. She played the song as hard as she could. She is treating the concert with her life.
Perhaps, in the rest of her life, there will never be such an opportunity, and someone will come to appreciate her favorite pipa.
The sound of agitation is like a broken silver bottle, water gushing out and soldiers colliding fiercely on the battlefield.
This thrilling sound passes through the eardrums of people in the place, through the flowers floating in the wind by the boat, through the sparkling river, through the bright moon overhead, and through the Millennium time and space, so that our descendants' ears can also enjoy this unprecedented auditory feast (tāo) in history.
Suddenly, she put away the piano dial and struck it hard in front of the center of the piano groove. Four strings sang in unison, such as cloth and silk tearing, but it came to an abrupt end.
Without applause and cheers, Xunyang River is still cold, and the east ship and the west ship are silent. Everyone is intoxicated by the lingering sound. In the distance, I saw the moon in the middle of the river quietly overlooking everything.
Loneliness is a person's carnival. Carnival is another person's loneliness.
four
I don't know when the pipa girl burst into tears.
Realizing her gaffe, she reached out and wiped away her tears, shyly explaining that she just remembered the past.
She didn't know why she wanted to tell him her life story, maybe it was all from Beijing. Or because he knows her music? It's a shame that she should confide in a stranger! But she did it.
With that, she felt indescribably relaxed.
Whatever, whether he understands or not, we won't meet again after tonight anyway. Just like the river flowing eastward, the river of tomorrow is no longer the river of tonight.
Unexpectedly, after hearing what she said, the man sighed deeply and said:
"Would you please play another song for us? I don't listen to the famous Cai Yu or Liu Yao. Just play your favorite song. "
She paused and immediately began to play. Without any playing skills, even she doesn't know which tune she is playing.
She thought the guest said that he had stayed in this remote city of Xunyang for more than a year. As a northerner, the hot and humid climate in the south was really difficult to adapt to, and he soon became ill.
She also thought that he said with a self-deprecating smile that he had only heard the flute and folk songs in the village for so long, and had never heard a tune like Yue Xian for a long time.
An "unsatisfied" artist with both talents and looks, and a "frustrated" poet who was once all-powerful, all have a passion that has burned for many years. Nowadays, abandoned by years and society, we are also reduced to the end of the world, equally disheartened and desolate.
She shed tears silently because she didn't think that there was such a corner in this world that someone understood her;
He was in tears because someone in this world pried open his long-closed heart with a pipa and let him see that the world still has a little warmth for him.
He couldn't restrain the surging excitement in his heart. He picked up a pen and paper and wrote the immortal pipa in one breath.
Neither Bai Juyi nor Pipa Girl expected Jiangzhou people to build Pipa Pavilion to commemorate this great encounter.
They don't think that when many people are wandering and lonely, they will think of that sentence when they meet someone who can sing with them:
We were all unhappy until the end of the day, when we met. We understand. What is the relationship between acquaintances? .
Thank you for this great meeting and Bai Juyi for leaving us such a poem.
Even if Bai Juyi only left this poem, he is still a great poet with humanistic care in his heart, because he makes us believe that no matter how cold the world is, it will always leave us a touch of warmth.
It makes us believe that no matter what happens, there is always a corner in this world-
Someone understands you.
Pipa player's song
In the tenth year of Yuanhe, he moved to Sima, Jiujiang County. Next autumn, seeing off guests in Songpukou and listening to those who play the pipa in the middle of the night will have the clank of iron in Kyoto. Ask her, Chang 'an prostitute, good at learning Mu, Cao Pipa. She is old and weak, and she is committed to Jia (G incarnation). Then he ordered wine and asked Aauto Quicker to play some songs. When I was young, I told myself what I was happy about. Now I am wandering and haggard, wandering between rivers and lakes. After two years as an official, I feel at ease and feel that I have moved towards the future. Because of long sentences and songs, every 616 words are called pipa xing.
In the evening, I bid farewell to a guest on Xunyang River. Maple leaves and mature rushes rustle in autumn.
I, the host, have dismounted, my guest has boarded his boat, and we raise our cups, hoping to drink-but, alas, there is no music.
Although we drank a lot of wine, we were not happy. When we were leaving each other, the river mysteriously widened in the direction of the full moon.
We heard a sudden sound, a guitar crossed the water, the host forgot to go home and the guests left.
We followed the direction of the melody and asked the player's name, and the voice was interrupted ... and then she reluctantly answered.
We moved the boat closer to hers, invited her to join us, and summoned more wine and lanterns to start our party again.
However, before she came to us, we called a thousand times and urged her for a thousand times, but she still hid half of her face behind her guitar from us.
... she turned the tuning pin and tested several strings, and even before she played, we could feel her feelings.
Every string is a kind of meditation, and every note is a kind of deep thinking, as if she were telling us the pain of her life.
She frowned, bent her fingers, and then started her music, letting her heart share everything with us bit by bit.
She brushes the strings, twists them slowly, sweeps them and plucks them, first "Nishang" and then "Six Yao".
Big strings hum like rain, and small strings whisper like secrets.
Humming, whispering-and then mixing together, like pouring large and small pearls into a plate of jade.
Between Guan Ying's words, the bottom of the flower is slippery, so you can't swallow the spring scenery and flow under the ice.
The ice spring is cold and astringent, and the strings condense, and the condensation will never stop.
The depth of sadness and the hiding of sadness are more told in silence than in voice.
A silver vase suddenly burst, pouring out a stream of water, jumping out of the conflict and blow between armored horses and weapons.
Before she put down the pick, her stroke was over, and all four strings made a sound, just like tearing silk.
The east ship was silent, and the west ship was silent. We saw the white autumn moon entering the river.
She tied it thoughtfully on the rope, stood up and smoothed her clothes, serious and polite.
When telling us how she spent her girlhood in the capital, my family lived in Ling Ran (Ha) of Shrimp.
She mastered the guitar at the age of thirteen, and her name ranked first in the list of musicians.
Her art even attracted the appreciation of experts, and her beauty attracted the envy of all major dancers.
How did the aristocratic youths in Wuling compete generously? Countless red silks were given to a song.
Diàn silver grate (Bi √) shattered, and the color of the skirt's blood was stained by wine.
Season after season, joy followed, and neither the autumn moon nor the spring breeze attracted her attention.
Until her brother went to war, and then her aunt died, and the night passed, and the night came, and her beauty disappeared.
Lengma was at the door, so at last she gave her wife to a businessman.
Who, first of all, stole money, accidentally left her and went to Fuliang to buy tea a month ago.
She has been taking care of an empty boat in the estuary, with no companions except the bright moon and cold water.
Sometimes in the middle of the night, she dreams of her victory and is awakened from her dream by her hot tears.
Her first guitar note made me sigh. Now, after listening to her story, I feel even sadder.
We were all unhappy until the end of the day, when we met. We understand. What is the relationship between acquaintances? !
A year ago, I left the capital and came here. Now I am a sick Jiujiang exile.
Jiujiang is so far away that I haven't heard music, neither strings nor bamboo sounds for a whole year.
Living in a low humidity environment near the basin river, the house is surrounded by bitter reeds and yellow rushes.
What can you hear here in the morning and evening? ? The cuckoo's bleeding cry, the ape's sobbing.
I often pick up the wine and drink it alone in the spring morning and the autumn night in the moonlight.
Of course, there are folk songs and bagpipes in the village, but they are rough and harsh, and they are harsh in my ears.
Tonight, when I heard you playing the guitar, I felt that my hearing was illuminated by wonderful music.
Don't leave us. Come, sit down. Play it for us again. Translate the travel notes of pipa for you.
... she was moved by my words, stood there for a while, and then sat down to play her strings-they sounded even sadder.
Although the tune was different from what she had played before, all the listeners covered their faces.
But which of them cried the most? ? This Jiujiang official. My blue sleeves are wet.