Five-character quatrains in the genre of Birdsong Stream

Author: (Tang Dynasty) Wang Wei

When people are idle, osmanthus flowers fall,

The night is quiet in the spring mountains null.

The moonrise scares the mountain birds,

They sing in the spring stream.

[Edit this paragraph] Literary knowledge

1. Author information

[Edit this paragraph] Wang Wei’s life experience

He Jinjun, his younger brother who is one year younger, has been extremely talented since childhood. When he was fifteen years old, he went to the capital to take the exam. Because he could write good poems, was good at calligraphy and painting, and had musical talent, the young Wang Wei immediately became the favorite of the princes and nobles of the capital as soon as he arrived in the capital. Regarding his talent in music, there is a story: once, a man got a music picture, but he didn't know why he titled it. After seeing it, Wang Wei replied: "This is the first beat of the third stack of "The Song of Colorful Feather Clothes"." He invited musicians to play, and it turned out to be exactly the same.

In terms of poetry, there are documented materials written when he was fifteen, seventeen, or eighteen years old. It can be seen that he was already a famous poet in his teens. This is rare among poets. At that time, in that aristocratic society, a versatile talent like Wang Wei would naturally be highly appreciated. Therefore, he passed the Jinshi examination at the age of twenty-one.

After becoming an official, Wang Wei used his spare time in bureaucratic life to build a villa at the foot of Nanlantian Mountain in the capital to cultivate his body and mind. The villa was originally owned by Song Zhiwen, a poet in the early Tang Dynasty. It was a very spacious place with mountains, lakes, woods and valleys, and several buildings scattered among it. At this time, Wang Wei lived a leisurely life with his close friends. This is his semi-official and semi-hidden life.

Wang Wei, who had always lived a comfortable life, was involved in unexpected troubles in his later years. The Anshi Rebellion broke out in the fourteenth year of Xuanzong Tianbao's reign (755). During the war, he was captured by the rebels and forced to become a puppet official. This became a serious problem after the war subsided, and he was handed over for interrogation. Fortunately, during the chaos, he had written a poem about longing for the emperor, and with the intercession of his younger brother, who was the Minister of Justice at the time, he was able to escape the disaster and was only demoted. Later, he was promoted to the position of Minister Youcheng.

Wang Wei had positive political ambitions in his early years and hoped to accomplish a great cause. Later, when the political situation changed, he gradually became depressed and started eating fast and chanting Buddha's name. When he was in his forties, he specially built a villa in Wangchuan, Lantian County, southeast of Chang'an, and lived a semi-official and semi-hidden life. This poem is a chapter in his secluded life. The main content is "statement of ambition", which describes the poet's desire to stay away from the world and continue to live in seclusion. The scenery described in the poem is not deliberately laid out, it is natural and fresh, as if it were picked up at hand, and the distant scenery can be seen by itself, which is very much in the style of Tao Yuanming.

[Edit this paragraph] Analysis

This poem is all about the tranquility of spring mountains. "Quiet" was strongly felt by the poet. why? It is because "people are idle", that is, people are quiet. People's tranquility is due to the tranquility of their hearts, so they are aware of the fall of the sweet-scented osmanthus.

Flowers fall, the moon rises, and birds sing. These "moving" scenes set off the tranquility of the spring stream.

Birdsong Stream is a place with extremely beautiful scenery. Jian is a mountain stream, a flowing water sandwiched between two mountains. This poem describes the unusually quiet scene in Spring Mountain at night. The main idea of ??the poem is: In a quiet environment with no human voice, the sweet-scented osmanthus blossoms and falls by itself, as if you can feel the sound of the sweet-scented osmanthus falling to the ground. When the night becomes quieter, the spring mountains, which are full of scenery, seem to be empty. The moon had just risen, and as soon as the light appeared, it startled the birds in the trees, and they chirped from time to time in the spring stream.

This poem mainly writes about the quiet night in the spring mountains. The flowers fall, the moon rises, and the birds sing, they are all moving. The author uses movement to contrast the stillness, and achieves the artistic effect of "the mountain with the singing of birds becomes more secluded".

"Leisure" means that there are no human disturbances around, indicating the poet's inner peace. With this as a premise, the subtle sweet-scented osmanthus fell from the branches and was noticed. The poet can discover this kind of "falling", either by the touch caused by the flower falling on the skirt of the clothes, or by the sound, or by the trace of fragrance emitted when the petals fall. In short, the factors that "fall" can affect people are very subtle. And when this subtle factor can be clearly felt from the surrounding world, the poet can't help but marvel at the silence of the night and the emptiness particularly revealed by the silence. Here, the poet's state of mind and the environmental atmosphere of Chunshan are consistent with each other and interact with each other.

Writing about an ethereal and quiet environment and state of mind, the protagonist uses all his heart and soul to listen carefully to the sounds of falling flowers and birds singing. His heart is peaceful and indifferent, but also full of elegance and elegance. The extremely quiet nature is vivid and full of life in the poet's writing. The moonrise is silent, while mountain birds fly in fright. This is an artistic scene that contrasts movement and stillness. "Er'an Shuo Tang Poetry": "Youcheng is good at Zen theory, and his poems are all in line with the holy teachings." "Notes on Tang Poetry": "It is wonderful to have leisurely things and leisurely people to lead this leisurely fun." "Poetry Methods Yi Jianlu": " Birdsong refers to a motive; stream refers to a narrow environment. If you first write the five words "Jingyue Spring Mountain Sky" in front of it, and then point out the bird singing stream, you will feel an empty and quiet scene, which becomes more obvious due to the birdsong. Revealed beyond the pen and ink. A piece of machinery that cannot be reached by human effort. "

This poem is one of the representative works of Wang Wei's landscape poetry. Appreciated from the perspective of literary creation, the subtlety of this poem lies in the poetic and picturesque contrast between "motion" and "quietness".

The first sentence, "Osmanthus flowers fall when people are idle, and the spring sky is clear in the quiet night" uses sound to describe the scene, and cleverly uses synaesthetic techniques to combine the dynamic scene of "flowers falling" with "people are idle". The flowers blooming and falling are all sounds of nature. Only when the mind is truly free and let go of the obsession with worldly distractions can the personal spirit be elevated to a state of "emptiness". The background was "late night", and the poet obviously could not see the scene of the falling osmanthus, but because of the "quiet night" and the "quiet mind" of the people watching the scenery, he still felt the blooming osmanthus falling off the branches and falling down. , the process of landing. While we were reciting, we seemed to have entered the scenic scene of "Fragrant Forest and Rain of Flowers". The "Spring Mountain" here also leaves a blank in our imagination. Because it is a "Spring Mountain", we can imagine the noisy scene during the day: the beautiful spring sunshine, the singing of birds and the fragrance of flowers, and the laughter and laughter. At this time, in the dead of night, the tourists have left, the noise of the day has disappeared, and the mountains and forests have become idle. In fact, what is "empty" is the poet's state of mind as a Zen practitioner. Only with his free and easy state of mind can he capture scenes that others cannot experience.

The last sentence, "The moonrise scares the mountain birds, and they sing in the spring streams." It uses movement to describe stillness. One "startle" and one "sing" seem to break the tranquility of the night, but in fact, it uses sound. The description sets off the tranquility and leisure in the mountains: the moon emerged from the clouds, the quiet moonlight streamed down, a few birds woke up from their sleep, murmured a few times from time to time, and sang softly with the spring mountain stream. The sound of water flowing brings the overall artistic conception of this silent mountain forest to the reader's eyes, which is similar to Wang's "The noisy cicada forest is more quiet, and the bird singing mountain is more secluded" ("Entering Ruoye Creek").

"Articles are created by nature, and skillful hands accidentally acquire them." This is an old saying. Good poems in ancient times are composed of beautiful scenes that are created by nature, and are narrated by skillful hands. While we were chanting and drinking, our minds seemed to follow the poet's words into that quiet and unconventional picture.

[Edit this paragraph] Poetry

The spring evening is silent, only the spring osmanthus is falling silently. The silence makes the mountains feel even more empty on a spring night. The moon came out, and the titmouse was startled by the moonlight, and its chirping echoed in the mountain stream.

[Edit this paragraph] The scenery of the poem

There are quite different opinions on the osmanthus in this poem. One explanation is that there are different types of osmanthus such as spring flowers, autumn flowers, and four-season flowers. The one written here should be the one that blooms in spring. Another opinion is that literary and artistic creation does not necessarily have to copy life. It is said that Wang Wei's painting "Yuan An Lying in the Snow" has green bananas in the snow. Things that cannot appear at the same time in real life are in literary and artistic creation. Allowed. However, this poem is one of the "Five Miscellaneous Poems of Huangfu Yue Yunxi" written by Wang Wei about his friend's residence. Each of the five poems describes a scene, which is close to landscape sketching, but different from ordinary freehand paintings. Therefore, it is appropriate to interpret it as the actual spring osmanthus in the mountains at this time. Another explanation is that "Osmanthus Falls" is a song from the Tang Dynasty.

Birdsong Stream The osmanthus branches have lush leaves and small petals. Falling flowers, especially at night, is not easy to detect. Therefore, the word "人 leisure" at the beginning cannot be easily read. "People are free" means that there are no human disturbances around, and it shows the quietness of the poet's heart. With this as a premise, the subtle sweet-scented osmanthus fell from the branches and was noticed. The poet can discover this kind of "falling", either by the touch caused by the flower falling on the skirt of the clothes, or by the sound, or by the trace of fragrance emitted when the petals fall. In short, the factors that "fall" can affect people are very subtle. And when this subtle factor can be clearly felt from the surrounding world, the poet can't help but marvel at the silence of the night and the emptiness particularly revealed by the silence. Here, the poet's state of mind and the environmental atmosphere of Chunshan are consistent with each other and interact with each other.

In this spring mountain, Wan Lai is intoxicated with the color of the night and the tranquility of the night. Therefore, when the moon rises and brings a bright silver glow to the empty valley shrouded in night, the mountain birds are startled. The birds were frightened, of course, because they were accustomed to the silence of the valley, and it seemed that even the moonrise brought new excitement. But the brightness of the moonlight caused the scenery before and after the valley to change suddenly, as you can imagine. As the saying goes, "The moon and stars are sparse, and the magpies are flying south." Wang Wei lived in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which was different from the chaos of war and chaos in the Jian'an era. Even birds and beasts could not help but feel panic. Wang Wei's "Moonrise Startles the Mountain Bird" is set in the stable and unified society of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Although the bird is frightened, it is by no means "circling the tree three times with no branches to rely on". They did not fly away from the spring stream, or even took off at all. They only made occasional calls among the trees. "The time is ringing in the spring stream", they are not so much "surprised" as they are fresh about the moonrise. Therefore, if we compare it with Cao Cao's "Dan Ge Xing", in Wang Wei's poem, we can not only see the charming environment of the spring mountain decorated with the bright moon, falling flowers and birdsong, but also feel the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The peaceful and stable social atmosphere of the era.

In his landscape poems, Wang Wei likes to create a quiet artistic conception, and this poem is also written in this way. But what is written in the poem is the falling flowers, the moonrise, and the singing of birds. These moving scenes make the poem appear full of vitality and not dull, and at the same time, through movement, they more prominently show the tranquility of the spring stream. Moving scenery can achieve a static effect instead. This is because the contradictory sides of things are always interdependent. Under certain conditions, the reason why movement can occur or be noticed by people is precisely based on stillness. "The mountains are more secluded when birds sing", which contains the dialectics of art.

Stream: It is a mountain stream, a creek sandwiched between two mountains, and a flowing water sandwiched between two mountains.

Xian: quiet.

Empty: empty.

Time: sometimes, occasionally.