This poem was written in the first year of Jing Shou in the Northern Song Dynasty (1034). At that time, Fan Zhongyan was 46 years old, in charge of Suzhou, and was inspecting the water situation in Suzhou-Changzhou area to control floods. I was filled with emotion when I saw a boat in the river, floating and sinking in the stormy waves. ?
This poem points out that people who come and go drinking and having fun on the river only know the delicious bass, but they don't know and don't want to know the danger and hardship of fishermen fighting with stormy waves.
By reflecting the hardships of fishermen's work, I hope to arouse people's attention to the sufferings of people's livelihood and reflect the poet's sympathy for the working people. The whole poem uses concise words, no flowery words, no difficult words, no axe marks, and expresses unusual thoughts and feelings in ordinary language, ordinary people and things, which has produced unusual artistic effects.
Literary appreciation
The language of this poem is concise and vivid. There are only 20 words in the whole poem, but the words are near and far, and the words are shallow and deep, which can trigger rich associations. There is a kind of "who knows that every grain in China is hard" (Li Shen's Two Poems of Compassion for Agriculture), which contains the author's idea of "worrying about the world first, and enjoying the world later".
The first sentence is about people coming and going on the river bank, bustling and very lively. Naturally leads to the second sentence. It turns out that the purpose of people coming and going by the river is "but love the beauty of perch". But love is only love. Perch has a flat and narrow body, a large head and thin scales, and is delicious. People gathered at the river in order to get there first. But no one knows that it is not easy to catch bass, and no one has observed the hardships of fishermen. The world only loves the delicious perch, but does not pity the fishermen's hard work, which is unfair in the world.
So in three or four sentences, the author constructs a vivid picture to reflect the hard work of fishermen on the river. A leaf boat, lingering in the wind and rain, is really "life is at stake, and the weather is unpredictable."
The poet didn't make it clear why the fisherman had to take such a risk, so he came to an abrupt end, and readers could already understand the author's implication. This is: fishermen are completely forced by life, and the beauty of perch is bought by fishermen's suffering. This inexhaustible technique makes this poem meaningful and memorable.