-Cao Cao's "Short Songs" Part I
Zhong Rong said in "Preface to Poetry": "Down to Jian 'an, Cao Gong and his son are kind and gentle. "The success of writing style in Jian 'an period is closely related to the hobbies and opinions of Cao Shi and his son. They strive to get rid of the influence of Confucian poetics of "being in pairs, being filial to others, being kind to others, being beautiful in education and changing customs", and consciously gradually dilute the relationship between poetry and politics and education since the pre-Qin period. Their poetry creation, on the one hand, hits the reality directly, on the other hand, expresses their feelings directly, and their writing style is vigorous and clear, and on the other hand, they are sincere and sincere. Their conscious reflection on the independent value of poetry, full affirmation and co-construction with * * * have become an important milestone in the history of China's poetry development.
There is a set of scenes in the movie Red Cliff, in which Cao Cao drank in the breeze before the war and recited poems before the war. This is his masterpiece and one of the short songs of ancient Yuefu. The details of the movie scene are borrowed from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is full of artistic imagination and exaggeration. Of course, it is not completely in line with the historical truth, but it is the true interpretation of Cao Cao in my imagination: I am proud of the world, both civil and military, not dangerous and not chaotic. At the beginning, I said first, "When drinking, what is life like?"
Ancient Yuefu didn't pay attention to antithesis. "Right" and "Dang" can be understood as synonymous transitive verbs here, and they are good songs for good wine. It can also be a transitive verb and a will verb, and you should sing it in the face of good wine. No matter how you explain it, it is a rare life, and it is a wonderful day. After all,
"If it is morning dew, it is difficult to go to Japan." How time flies!
? Battle of Red Cliffs: At that time, Cao Mengde was over 500 years old, so it was inevitable that he was pressed for time. Those who dislike me can't stay yesterday, and those who disturb my heart are more worried about today. Being an emperor is one thing, and the great cause of unifying the world will always be completed. His passion for thousands of miles is particularly strong in the current war, and it is out of control. "Generous and unforgettable." "Generosity" is actually "generosity". Cao Cao expanded the two words into four words for the needs of sentence pattern, and the meaning remained unchanged. He described his emotions as very exciting. Although the troubles are "unforgettable", you can't indulge in them; Only its "unforgettable" needs "forgetting" more. If the outside world is always full of bloodshed and tension, borrow a pot of wine for a different angle and attitude. Du Kang is the only solution. Cao Cao's posture of singing wine is so free and easy, optimistic and heroic.
This posture is completely different from Li Taibai's. Li Shixian's glass of wine seems to have never been put down for a moment. No matter how wild your feelings are, you can't get rid of the shadow of drinking to drown your sorrows. In "Oh, let a man with spirit take risks where he likes, and never point his golden cup at the moon!" " It is not "pride", and drinking 300 cups can't pour out the grievances, dissatisfaction and resentment in the chest. That is the indulgence of a gifted scholar and the willfulness of a poet. Cao Cao is not only a poet, but also an outstanding politician. No matter how dizzy and hot, alcohol can hardly blur the rationality of his logical thinking and the inertia of his behavior. He can't be like Li Bai. Even if he wants to give up his "troubles" for a while, it is not selfish, not a child's small emotions, but a yearning for his home country and the world: "Green children are leisurely in my heart. But for the sake of the monarch, I have thought it over so far. "
"Thinking" means thinking about a person or a thing, thinking day and night, thinking and thinking, and mumbling involuntarily. It's easy to remind people of being immersed in love and lacking heroism. In the movie "Red Cliff", Cao Cao's "Jun" points to Xiaomei of Qiao's family in a down-to-earth way, and catching Xiao Qiao is also one of Cao Cao's purposes. Alas. It's really sloppy and really abrupt, hero. These poems were not written by Cao Cao himself. He just wrote the Book of Songs. Zheng Feng? Amethyst's ready-made sentences have just come out smoothly. "Biography of Mao Poetry" explains the meaning, saying that this poem satirizes that the world is too chaotic, schools are deserted, and students don't come to study. "Green neck, green collar also. Services provided by students. " It is Sun Quan and Liu Biao's son Liu Qi who let Cao Cao "ponder" so far. Cao Mengde pour out, I value you two so much, why don't you join me?
Cao Mengde is eager for talents. He cares about talented people, not beautiful women. But he was really drunk. The next paragraph is a ready-made sentence in The Book of Songs: "Yo yo Luming Literature, wild apple. I have a guest, blowing sheng. " There was no such thing as copyright at that time anyway. He thought there were some ready-made sentences to express his feelings, so he used them. He said that if you want to join me, I have a lot of delicious music to entertain you. Cao Mengde said that he was not an emperor, and he really didn't become an emperor, but the hegemonic spirit in his heart was deep-rooted, and this drinking Gauguin explained all this, because he quoted these words from the Book of Songs? Xiaoya's first chapter, Luming Literature, was used by the monarch to hold a banquet for his ministers.
From Sun Quan and Liu Qi, he thought of Liu Bei again. "It seems like a month, when can I wait? The troubles come from this and cannot be cut off. " Cao Cao said, you are as tall as the bright moon, and I don't know when you can be used by me, so I can't help worrying. I always feel that this "worry" that Cao can't give up at this time is not entirely sadness or anxiety, but more what we call depression today-
"Buildings, waste each other. Talk about it and remember the old grace. " The words "Yue" and "Du" in the first sentence are synonymous verbs, which both mean "Guo" and "Du". Architecture is the road of east, west, north and south. In the second sentence, "waste" and "use" are two antonyms, that is, compromise. "Qikuo" and "Sandalwood" are the superposition of two antonyms, which meet respectively. Together, these four sentences are: You came to see me after so many twists and turns. Even if we are not together now, we have always been together. We should cherish the old friendship. Liu Bei lost the battle and voted alone. Cao Cao sent troops to help him fight against Lu Bu and recaptured his two wives. It's not that he didn't help. Since the two armies confronted each other head-on, how could Cao not be depressed? How can you ask me without being depressed: I was so good to you, why don't you remember?
The last four sentences are "the moon stars are rare, and the black magpies fly south." Turn around the tree three times, what branches can I rely on? " Turning is turning. It's late at night. It's time for the black magpie to go to bed. Cao Cao took advantage of the scenery to give his unforgettable sage a guide to the maze: good birds choose wood to live in, and if it doesn't belong to me, what good place is there? Secondly, the trend, the last four sentences summed up forcefully:
"The mountain will never be too high and the sea will never be too deep. Duke Zhou vomited, and the world returned to the heart. "
The first couplet comes from the text of Guanzi, the original text is called "the sea does not hesitate to water, so it can achieve great things;" Mountains don't care about earth and stone, so they can be high; A master never tires of others, so he can become a crowd; Scholars never tire of learning, so they can become saints. The allusion of "Duke Zhou vomited food" in the later couplet refers to the story of Duke Zhou assisting his nephew after his death in Zhou Wuwang. In order to recruit talents to rule the world, whenever he finds talents, Duke Zhou will spit out what is in his mouth even if he is eating, and hurry to see others first. Often "spit and feed three times a meal" and eat three times a meal. Cao Cao compares himself to the Duke of Zhou here. The implication is that I am more humble to Corporal Xian, and all the talents in the world are mine sooner or later!
The twenty-first capital written by Cao Caocun is Yuefu poetry, which consists of four words, five words and miscellaneous words, mostly sixteen sentences or more. "A Short Song Xing" was originally two chapters, and the second "Zhou Xibo Field" was mainly about historical events. At the end of Shang Dynasty, Xibo Zhou Wenwang was divided into two parts in the world, and still respected the Yin royal family, saying that "the minister's day was not long"; During the Spring and Autumn Period, Qi Huangong "conquered the world without personnel carriers"; Jin Wengong's "bowing to the king" and "surrendering to the princes" are all traditional models of assiduously assisting the central kingship. Cao Cao belittled his deeds and praised his merits, which is not only a further explanation of "Duke Zhou vomited food", but also a direct explanation of his usurpation of Han independence. Two short songs, one lyrical about scenery and the other lyrical about history, complement each other, fully demonstrating Cao Cao's literary talent, life ideal and political ambition.
At the end of the Han dynasty, the rich gentry advocated "talking clearly", and everything they wrote should exaggerate Confucian teachings, which was prone to moral kidnapping and hypocritical and melodramatic writing style. Cao Cao once asked them to say what they wanted to say in the chapter on the table, trying to express their feelings directly, succinctly and rigorously. Cao Cao took the lead in writing current affairs with the old theme of Yuefu, and made full use of the lyricism of poetry to publicize his political opinions and strategies, which was later vigorously developed by poets in the Tang Dynasty. And a really good poem cannot be separated from true feelings, true meaning and "momentum". The so-called "true feelings" may not be good or bad, but the "momentum" is different. Even if Cao Cao writes about a desolate place, he always contains an open mind, a heroic spirit and a broad and strong will, which is the words of a great hero with great talent. The reason why Duijiu is more popular than Zhou Xibochang has a greater influence on later poems is also attributed to the politician's feelings and lyrical artistic conception naturally revealed between poems.
From the format, Duijiu Yin is a neat four-character poem, but it is not the previous four-character poem. The four-character poems in The Book of Songs are basically two sentences and one line. The meaning of a single sentence cannot be independent, and there are various repetitions, stacks and even sentence orders. In Cao Cao's poems, in addition to borrowing sentences from the Book of Songs and following the poetic structure of the Book of Songs, poems such as "generosity, hardship and unforgettable" and "the mountain is not too high and the sea is not too deep" have formed a complete sentence meaning, which is syntactically independent, and the upper and lower sentences are mainly related by poems, without grammatical dependence or intention to pursue. This is Cao Cao's drastic transformation of the structure of The Book of Songs in form. The second book "Zhou Xibo Chang" has new changes, including five-character and six-character sentence patterns, and many prose sentence patterns. It can be seen that Cao Cao is a poem, but he wants to express his thoughts and feelings incisively and vividly, and is not limited by a fixed format.
Not everyone has the courage to challenge tradition and innovate, let alone just have the courage. Therefore, Mr. Lu Xun will say that Cao Cao is not only an outstanding politician and strategist, but also a "founder of reform articles".