"The Turtle Lives Longevity" is a very philosophical poem. The poem expresses Cao Cao's optimistic, confident, tenacious and enterprising spirit, which has a great motivating effect on future generations. There are fourteen lines in the poem. Except for the last two lines, which are music score formulas that have nothing to do with the content of the poem, the other twelve lines are divided into four lines each.
"Although the divine tortoise has a long life, it still has time to survive. A flying snake rides on the mist, but in the end it becomes ashes."
These four sentences support things to stir things up, and the excitement is justified, and they are inspired by the spirit. The metaphors of turtles and soaring snakes illustrate the objective laws that everything in the world is born and must die, and everything that flourishes must decline. "The turtle is long-lived", which means a long life; "The snake rides on the mist" means that it is highly skilled in speaking. No matter how long one's life is or how high one's abilities are, one cannot escape the fate of death in the end, that is, one cannot violate the objective laws of nature. The same is true for people. They may live a long life and hold high official positions, but in the end they will become ashes.
Death is equal to everyone, but it leads to two different attitudes towards life. One kind thinks that since everyone is going to die, everything will be useless after death, so it is better to enjoy life in time; the other kind thinks that since everyone is going to die, life should be made meaningful and valuable. And what does the poet think?
“The old man is lying in the stables, and his ambition is to a thousand miles. The martyrs are still ambitious in their old age.”
The thousand-mile horse is old and crouched in the stables, but it does not grow tired due to old age. , not lazy because he is not in the grassland, but still "aims for a thousand miles", which shows the quality and spirit of the thousand-mile horse. These two sentences are metaphors, meant to evoke the idea that "the martyr's twilight years are full of ambition." "The martyr's old age" echoes the "old man's ambition", and "the martyr's ambition is endless" and "the ambition is thousands of miles". At this time, Cao Cao had defeated Yuan Shao and his son, pacified Wu Heng in the north, and was preparing to send his troops south to attack Soochow. Therefore, he was full of pride, ambition, and full of confidence in making great achievements.
These four sentences are the purpose of the whole poem, and they are also what people have always praised. The first four sentences have a dark and sad meaning, but as soon as these four sentences come out, the tone changes suddenly, a high-spirited sound is sounded, and a voice of generosity bursts out. It can be seen from this that Cao Cao obviously advocates active creation, establishing achievements, and making his name in history during his lifetime.
"The period of growth and contraction is not only in heaven. The blessing of nourishing happiness can lead to eternal life."
People's lifespan will eventually end, but the length of their lifespan is different. , the length of this period is not only determined by destiny, but also in the hands of people themselves. If you pay attention to material maintenance and have appropriate mental recuperation, you can prolong your life. The poet here seems to be talking about health maintenance, but in fact he has another philosophy, expressing an attitude towards life that does not accept old age and does not believe in sweetness.
At the end of the poem, it is written in the format of the end of the movement, "Fortunately, I sing to sing my ambition." On the surface, the poem means to clarify the ambition.
This poem has won the praise of future generations and drawn spiritual power from it, because it is tangible, rational, and emotional, and it unifies the three to the point where they are in harmony. Pure reasoning will make the poem boring; abstract romance will also make the poem poor; blindly showing the form will also make the poem thin. There is emotion in this poetic theory, and emotion is reflected in the form, thus enhancing the appeal. The whole poem mainly has three levels: the first level is all about using things as metaphors, using shapes to express meanings, and the meanings are implicit in words, and the metaphors are rich. "Although the divine turtle has a long life, it still has its time" is expressed in general terms; "The snake rides on the mist, but eventually becomes ashes" is described in figurative language. The two sentences intertextualize, saying that magical turtles, soaring snakes, longevity, and high energy all come to an end. On the second level, the metaphor of the horse is written first, and then the human affairs are described. First, the specific writing method of "aiming for thousands of miles" is used, and then the general language of "ambition is endless". The virtual and the real complement each other, the objects and people are related to each other, the images are vivid, and the analogies are appropriate. "There is still time to come" and "In the end it will be ashes" have the same meaning, and "aiming for thousands of miles" and "ambition are endless" have the same meaning, making the writing rich in changes. The third level responds to the first level, goes one step further, summarizes the above, and attributes it to rationality. The first level is quite subdued, the second level is high-spirited, and the third level is deep thinking. In this way, the whole poem is full of ups and downs and has a meticulous texture, shining out the light of philosophical wisdom, emitting a feeling of forge ahead, and resonating with an optimistic tone.
The whole poem is unpretentious, lofty in style, impassioned and impassioned, showing the poet’s enterprising spirit of self-improvement and optimistic spirit of loving life
In short, this poem is a generous and passionate lyric The poem embodies the distinctive characteristics of Jian'an style. It reads sonorously and powerfully, without any lingering and sad mood. It reveals the poet's firm will and consistent personality both internally and externally. Not only that, this poem is a blend of poetry and philosophy, with innovative ideas and clear and vigorous language, which expresses the poet's thousand-mile ambition with great force.