The whole poem uses metaphor to describe the process of the bird from straying into the dust net to seclusion, thus expressing his dissatisfaction with reality and praising the pastoral life away from the hubbub.
The first six sentences of this poem are about the stray bird, lonely and wandering. At dusk, a lost bird is still flying alone. It is alone, perched in fear, wandering in the sky trembling, always unable to find a place to rest. Day after day, night after night, its cry becomes more and more sad. In its piercing cry, you can hear the ideal of longing for a deep and lofty place. It flies around, but there is nowhere to go. The birds here clearly symbolize the poet's habitat panic in the first half of his life. Since the age of twenty-nine, Yuan Ming has been a small official intermittently, such as offering wine to Jiangzhou and joining the army in towns and counties and Jianwei. At the age of 41, he worked for Peng for eighty-five days. Because he "can't bend over to the villains in the village for five buckets of rice", he was dismissed. These life experiences of the poet are the facts implied in the first half of this poem.
In the second half of this poem, I wrote about the bird's shelter and vowed not to leave. It met a lonely pine tree, so it folded its wings and came here from far away to live. The implication is that it has found an ideal seclusion. The sentence "gale" is a stroke, which was brought out by writing about birds. Under the strong storm, there will be no lush forest, but the solitary pine shade will never decline. These two sentences obviously mean that there is nowhere to live in troubled times, and they can only live in seclusion in the countryside. They expressed strong interest in rural life. So in the last two sentences, the poet sighed through the bird's mouth: I have such an ideal place to live, and I will stick to it forever and never leave. Here, the poet compares his secluded place to a solitary pine, which makes sense. Yuan Ming has a special affection for pine trees, just as he treats chrysanthemums. For example, the eighth song of Drinking praises solitary pine, among which there is such a sentence: "The pine is in the East Garden, and the grass has no posture." First frost is different, you can see the tall branches. "He spoke highly of the excellent quality of this pine tree in Ao Shuang. And knowing that there is probably a tall and straight pine tree in the East Garden where he lives, he also said in "Come home to Xi Ci": "The three paths are barren, and the pine chrysanthemum still exists." He also said: "The scenery is going to enter, and it is lonely and lingering." It can be seen that the "solitary pine" here is both a symbol and practical significance. Of course, the noble and honest of pine trees have something in common with the lofty and upright personality of Yuanming. In these six sentences, the poet expressed his attachment and love for rural life. For example, in the last poem of the same group of poems, "Building a house in a person's environment", he fully expressed his feelings and thought it was the best way to stay away from the hubbub, so he was willing to keep it for thousands of years and never part.
This poem all adopts the style of Bixing, which inherits the writing technique of Bixing since the Book of Songs in China. For example, Feng Wei's Storytelling and Fu Feng Jie are all works of figurative style, and so is Ode to Orange in Chu Ci. Tao Yuanming accepted the traditions of The Book of Songs and Songs of the South. He vividly described himself as a lonely bird, which is more intriguing and meaningful than a direct statement. He also has a set of four-character poems "Returning to Birds", which also expressed similar feelings. For example, one of them said, "Returning birds has wings, and going to the forest in the morning is far away from the Eight Tables and near the clouds and Cen. The wind is not harmonious, I am looking for my heart, caring for each other, and the scenery is bright. " It also reflects the poet's experience of being tired and knowing how to return home. This view that the bird's return to the nest symbolizes the poet's own retreat from official position is also quite common in other works of Yuanming, such as "Birds love the old forest and pond fish miss the old garden" in Five Poems of Returning to the Garden. In the Ci of Returning to Xi, it is said that "the clouds come out of the hole unintentionally, and the birds fly home when they are tired", all of which mean returning home. This poem, from beginning to end, has inspired countless poems that use birds to describe people. For example, Bao Zhao's Farewell to Cao, Han Yu's Singing Wild Goose, and Du Mu's Early Goose are all metaphors of wild geese, which are in the same strain as Yuan and Ming's poems.
Another feature of this poem in writing is its strong contrast. The first six sentences of the poem express the frustration of solitary birds, which makes them lose their flock and live naturally and uneasily. In addition, they fly alone in the dusk, which makes people feel sad. Besides, it is uncertain, which you can see; It went on to say that its song turned from sorrow to joy, which was heard by ears. Finally, it inferred its thoughts from its songs and wrote them layer by layer, vividly describing the embarrassing situation of the solitary bird. However, it is naturally fun to suddenly turn around and gather in the shade of interest. What's more, in the absence of a prosperous tree in the world, a tall, straight and shaded pine tree is my habitat, making it an ideal paradise, so I will stay here for 1000 years. The next six sentences describe birds appropriately and do their best. But only on the basis of the disappointment in the first half can we feel the value of the situation written in the second half more deeply, which constitutes a strong contrast and makes the poem more vivid. This is the wonderful use of comparison in poetry creation, on the contrary, it complements each other and achieves a more touching effect.
As for the predecessors' explanation of the meaning of this poem, it is often thought that in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties, they not only expressed their desire to retire, but also deliberately satirized the literati who were officials in the new dynasty, mainly based on the sentence of "strong wind without honor". But the theme of the whole poem lies in the bird's own situation, and "gale" is a metaphor for the chaos of the times, but it may not mean anything. When reading Bibi's poems, it is best to avoid excessive infiltration, which is what we should pay attention to in poetry appreciation.