Early summer among guests
Sima Guang was well informed and wrote many well-known poems in his life. Among them, the famous poems are "Early Summer among Guests", "Living in Idleness" and "Drinking and Hospitalizing in the South Garden". And the words are exquisite, which shows that his literary attainments are very high. Early Summer of Hakka is a seven-character quatrain. Sima Guang expressed his lofty political ambition and loyalty to the country by describing the scenery in early summer. The whole poem "Early Summer of Hakka" describes the characteristics of summer scenery, the combination of distant view and close view, the contrast between real view and virtual view, and depicts a vibrant scene in midsummer.
Seclusion is also a seven-character quatrain, but its overall style is quite different from Early Summer among Guests. The overall feeling of Idle Residence is depression and desolation. At that time, Zhao Yong of Song Shenzong appointed Wang Anshi as prime minister and implemented the New Deal. However, Sima Guang and Wang Anshi have different political views. In desperation, Sima Guang resigned and went back to his hometown to write a book, which lasted for fifteen years. The poem "Living in Idleness" was written under such circumstances. Sima Guang, from the weeds in the yard, can't help but feel more deeply when he thinks of the schools that are now in full swing to implement the New Deal.
"Drinking to Stay in the South Garden" is a five-character poem. Compared with the above two poems, the writing technique of this poem has no outstanding characteristics, but its implication is profound and thought-provoking. Sima Guang expressed his willingness to never compromise with others and his determination to stick to his political views.
Sima Guang famously said that Sima Guang not only has outstanding political talent, but also has a high literary accomplishment. Sima Guang persisted in writing all his life and wrote many famous sayings. These famous sayings have certain reference significance today, which is worthy of our careful taste.
Portrait of Sima Guang
Talent is the capital of virtue; The phrase "virtue is handsome" is widely circulated today, and it is also the dialectical relationship between talent and virtue. Sima Guang believes that if a person only has virtue and does not care about the cultivation of his own talents, then even if he has a heart to do good, he will not succeed. On the other hand, if that person has talent but no virtue, then he will do good and bad things, depending on what he thinks. If there is no virtue and his talent is excellent, then the greater the probability that he may do bad things. Talent and virtue are indispensable and complement each other.
Besides the above sentence, it is also meaningful to make friends with fools instead of villains. The general idea of this sentence is that it is better to make friends with a person with poor virtue than to make friends with a person who has no talent but works hard. This tells us that a person's bad virtue will also affect his friends around him, and the two affect each other, so keep your eyes open when choosing friends.
There is a saying in Sima Guang's "Learning from each other" that "goodness can be the law". Evil can be done, which is very worthy of our reference. Sima Guang believes that we should learn from a person's strengths, even if we can't. Besides, we should also see a person's shortcomings and tell ourselves not to make the same mistake.