Four Spring Farewell Orders (Part 4)·Xiao Yi
At dusk, I moved to the west of the Wei Bridge and saw the cool moon and clouds.
If the moonlight is not near or far away, it should shine on people who are far away from crying tonight.
During the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, the hand signals of the crown prince and kings were called "orders" or "teachings". Poems and essays written in response to the crown prince and kings, or poems and essays written in accordance with their orders, can be called "Ying Ling" or "Ying Jiao". These four poems by Xiao Yi were written by Xiao Gang, the Crown Prince of Fenghe (Emperor Jianwen of Liang Dynasty), hence the title. Before Xiao Yi composed this group of poems, Xiao Zixian first wrote "Four Spring Farewell Poems", followed by Xiao Gang's "Four Spring Farewell Poems with Xiao Shizhongzi Xian". The three of them sang to each other and competed for new ones. This was the trend of poetry creation at that time.
"At dusk, I moved to the west of the Wei Bridge, and I saw the cool moon and the clouds." The Wei Bridge, in Chang'an (now Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province), was built in the Qin Dynasty. In the dim dusk, a wanderer was wandering on the west side of the Wei Bridge. The vast flow of water under the bridge and the trees and flowers on the shore all made him emotional. Being left in a foreign country and living a wandering life already made him feel bored; but now it was the sunset when "the most difficult pastime is the dusk", which made him feel even more dejected! The second sentence further describes the scene he saw by the Wei Bridge: He suddenly looked up and saw a bright moon hanging high in the sky full of gray clouds. The cool moonlight reflects the loneliness and sadness of the wanderer. What kind of emotion is contained in this moonlight? The poem then transitions naturally to what follows.
The last two sentences of the poem closely follow the word "moon" in the second sentence. "If the moonlight is not near or far, it should shine on people who are far away and cry tonight." According to the general writing method of "looking at the moon and cherishing the distance", after mentioning the moon, the wanderer's feelings should be expressed head-on. However, the poet here writes about the psychological activities of the wanderer when he looks at the moon, and he is very creative: he imagines the lovesickness of his wife at home from the scene in his guest. If the moonlight in the sky shines brightly regardless of the distance or thousands of miles, then tonight it should also shine on my wife who is crying sadly because the moon is not full. As far as the conception of the poem is concerned, the wanderer originally missed his wife, but instead he imagined that his wife must be missing him in front of the moonlight tonight. This is the so-called "writing from the opposite side" method. This method is more thought-provoking than directly expressing the sorrow of lovesickness. It can greatly enhance the lyricism of the poem and express the wanderer's lovesickness in a more euphemistic, tortuous, sincere and profound way. Du Fu's famous line: "Tonight the moon in Yanzhou, I can only look at it alone in my boudoir." ("Moon Night") also uses this artistic technique. The poet who "read more than ten thousand volumes" had this idea, perhaps because he was inspired by Xiao Yi. Inspired by two poems?
Xiao Yi's "Four Spring Farewell Poems", together with Xiao Gang's and Xiao Zixian's singing and harmony works, are short poems composed of seven words and four sentences. At that time, this was a new style of poetry, which basically had the prototype of the seven-character quatrain that was very popular in the Tang Dynasty. This point is a contribution of the above-mentioned trio's harmonious work in the history of literature.