Bai Juyi
The Tian family has less leisure in the month, and people are twice as busy in May. In the evening, the south wind rises and the wheat turns yellow.
Mother-in-law is rich in food, and children are full of pot pulp. Go with Tian Xiang. Ding Zhuang is in Nangang.
Filled with the heat of the country, the back was scorched by the sun. I don't know about the heat, but I regret the long summer.
There is another poor woman with her son in her arms. Grab the ear with your right hand and hang the basket with your left arm.
Listening to his words of concern is very sad. My family's taxes are gone, so I can take this to satisfy my hunger.
Today, I have no merit, and I have never worked in farming and mulberry. There are three hundred stones in the land, and there is surplus food at the age of eight.
Bai Juyi (772-846), a poet in Tang Dynasty, was a Buddhist in Xiangshan. He wrote many poems in his life, among which satirical poems are the most famous, and the language is easy to understand, so he is called "an eloquent old woman".
Bai Juyi once divided his poems into four categories: satire, leisure, sentimentality and miscellaneous methods. Satire is the essence of white poetry. There are 50 representative works of New Yuefu and Qin Zhongyin 10. They widely reflect the major issues in all aspects of social life in the middle Tang Dynasty, and focus on describing the darkness of reality and the suffering of the people. These poems are fiercely worded and have no scruples, breaking through the tradition of "gentle and honest" poetry teaching, and are very prominent in ancient poems criticizing current politics. His satirical poems are direct, complete in narration, vivid in plot, profound in generalization, prominent in theme, vivid in image and clear in language.
The poem Guan Mo Wai, which we are going to study in this volume, is a famous satirical poem of the author in his early days. The narrative of this poem is clear and fluent, and the structural level is very clear and natural.
"The family, idle month less, people twice as busy in May. At night, the south wind rises and the wheat turns yellow. " The beginning of the poem explains the writing background, indicating that May is the busy season for wheat harvest. Then "mother-in-law pays for food, and the child carries the kettle pulp." Go with Tian Xiang. Ding Zhuang is in Nangang. "Two sentences describe the scene of women taking their children to the fields to deliver water and meals to young adults who are cutting wheat. Later, I wrote about the fatigue and hardship of young people. They are "full of the heat of the country, roasting the sky." "I ignored the scorching sun, stepped on the hot land and tirelessly bowed my head to harvest wheat in Nangang wheat field." I don't know about the heat, but I regret the long summer. "Although they are exhausted, they cherish this long summer regardless of the scorching sun. At this point in the poem, the scene of the family's hard work and busyness is displayed in front of us, and the readers also give deep sympathy to it. Then the author painted a sad picture. " A poor woman with a baby in her arms. The right hand holds the ear and the left hand hangs the basket. A poor woman, with a child in her arms and a broken basket in her hand, was picking up the ears of wheat that fell during the wheat harvest to listen to their concern, and the listener was sad. My family's taxes are gone, so I can take this to satisfy my hunger. "It turns out that in order to pay the official tax, her family bought all the fields. Now there is no field to plant and no wheat to harvest, so she has to live on the broken wheat scattered by others when harvesting. It's really sympathetic and sad.
The two scenes described above profoundly reveal the difficult life of farmers under the oppression of heavy taxes. They are busy farming, but there is still no guarantee. Today's wheat reapers are likely to become tomorrow's wheat pickers, and this strong irony is among them.
To annotate ...
This poem was written by the author when he was a county magistrate in the second year of Yuanhe (807) (now Zhouzhi, Shaanxi), and it was a famous satirical poem of the author in his early days.
This poem is clear in narration, natural in structure, clear in hierarchy and strong in logic. At the beginning of the poem, the background is explained first, indicating that May is the busy season for wheat harvest. Then write down that women lead their children to the fields to give food and water to young people who are cutting wheat. Later, it described young farmers cutting wheat with their heads down in Nangang wheat field, fumigating their feet with the heat, and baking their backs in the hot sun. They are tired and don't feel hot, but they just cherish the long days in summer and can do more work. At this point, the farmer's hard work has been strongly demonstrated. Then I described another sad scene: a poor woman, with a child in her arms and a broken basket in her hand, was picking wheat by the wheat harvester. Why are you picking wheat? Because her family's fields have "lost all taxes"-sold to pay the palace tax, and now there is no land to plant and no wheat to harvest, so we have to rely on wheat to satisfy our hunger. These two scenes are intertwined, with both differences and connections: the former reveals the hardships of farmers, while the latter reveals heavy taxes. Since heavy taxes have made poor women lose their fields, they will also make this peasant family who is cutting wheat lose their fields. Today's wheat pickers are yesterday's wheat pickers; Today's wheat harvesters may become tomorrow's wheat harvesters. Strong irony is self-evident. The poet linked the pain of farmers' life with the ease of his own life, feeling ashamed and unable to calm down for a long time. This lyric text is the essence of the whole poem. It is the product of the author's touching feelings and shows the poet's deep sympathy for the working people. Bai Juyi wrote satirical poems with the aim of "only making people sick, and I hope the emperor knows." In this poem, he made a sharp contrast between the peasants and himself as a court official with his own personal feelings, that is, he hoped that the "son of heaven" was affectionate and tactful, which could be described as well-intentioned.
Bai Juyi is the master of art who is best at writing narrative poems. His narrative poems can fully express people's feelings and things, and write the events described in them in twists and turns. Moreover, his narrative poems always contain the revelation of the soul, so they always contain feelings. Although he didn't write much in Watching the Wheat Harvest, he vividly described the hard and painful life scenes of the wheat harvesters and gleaner during the summer harvest. Not only wrote things, but also wrote hearts, including the author's own heart and the hearts of working people. The poet's heartstrings were obviously shaken and trembled by the tragic scene he heard and witnessed, so he raised his pen to express his feelings directly, and his lines were full of sympathy and pity for the workers. Poems such as "It's full of rustic heat, which makes my back burn" and "I lost all the taxes on my land, so I can take this to satisfy my hunger" contain the author's sympathy and pity! Therefore, in the narrative of this poem "Looking at Wheat", there is the infiltration of the author's feelings and the beating of his heart, and the author's heart is integrated with what he tells. What is commendable is that while describing the working people, the author can also truly write the voices of the working people, especially depicting the abnormal psychology of the working people in a certain situation and profoundly revealing the theme of the poem. In The Charcoal Man, "Poor man's clothes are simple, but he is worried about charcoal, wishing it would be cold", describing the abnormal psychology of the old man who sells charcoal because of food and clothing. "I don't know the heat when I'm exhausted, but I regret the long summer" in "Watching Wheat Cutting" is also a kind of abnormal psychology. This description depicts the working people's hearts in detail and goes deep into the details. The perfect unity of writing and writing in poetry is more shocking than the general unity of narrative and lyric. Bai Juyi is also an expert in using contrast techniques. In his poetry creation, he not only compared the poverty and kindness of the working people with the luxury tyranny of the landlord class, but also compared his own comfort with the poverty of the working people. After writing about the hardships and pains of farmers in the hot summer, the poet also thought of himself, feeling that he had no "merit" and "didn't work for farmers and mulberry", but he was paid "three hundred stones" and still had "surplus grain" by the end of the year, so he was "ashamed of it and couldn't forget it every day". It was very rare for poets to take the initiative to compare with farmers at that time. This contrast is really novel, accurate, commendable and thought-provoking, which shows the ideological height of this poem.