The Dream of Xizhou —— On Xizhou Qu

"Nantang autumn lotus, lotus over the head. Bow your head and get lotus seeds, as clear as water. "

Those who have read Mr. Zhu Ziqing's Moonlight on the Lotus Pond will probably remember that it is a poem of predecessors mentioned by the old man. Those who are deeply impressed may remember that these two poems are from the Western Zhou Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. What is this poem? What does it say? What has passed down to this day, and even been quoted by such famous articles as Moonlight on the Lotus Pond?

First of all, briefly introduce: the Western Zhou Dynasty Song is a poem with folk customs, which was created in the chaotic era of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. This is actually very unusual. Why do you say that? You have to talk about this era of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

The Southern and Northern Dynasties were between the Three Kingdoms and the Jin Dynasty, and the Sui and Tang Dynasties flourished. At that time, Jian 'an had a strong character, and the legacy of Wei and Jin dynasties was still prevalent, which was not far from the prosperity of Tang poetry. This is an era of cultural continuity and vitality. However, such an era is full of violence, darkness and terror. Although the separatist forces in Wei and Jin dynasties no longer exist, the change of dynasties in both the south of Han people and the north of Hu people is outrageous, and almost all the dynasties in it are synonymous with bureaucracy, corruption and tyranny. At that time, the people were either suffering from war or exploitation, and the hardships of life could be imagined. So on the surface, the culture of the Northern and Southern Dynasties is indeed a link between the past and the future, but in fact, most of the people who really participated in it were the upper-level dignitaries. As for the people? Forget it, it's nature to live. As for culture, it can't be eaten as a meal. Why do you want it?

From this point of view, the position of "Xizhou Qu" as a "folk song" is extremely disproportionate to that of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, which further highlights its important position in the whole history of China literature. In fact, regardless of the date of birth, Xizhou Qu is definitely one of the best poems in ancient China, and it is also rare in the world love carols. Next, let's read "Song of Xizhou" and taste this strange poem in troubled times:

Miss Mei wants to go to Kau Xizhou and break plum blossoms on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Thin clothes are as red as apricots and hair as black as crows. Where is Xixi Jiao? The two oars on board can be placed at the ferry pier of the Kau Xizhou Bridge. At dusk, Shrike came and the wind blew the tallow. Under the tree is her home, and her emerald hair is exposed in the door. She opened the door and didn't see her sweetheart. She went out to pick red-violet flowers. Autumn, autumn Nantang, she is holding a lotus seed, and the lotus grows taller. With his head down, he fiddled with the lotus seeds in the water, which were as green as the lake. Hide lotus seeds in your sleeve. Lotus seeds are red and transparent. Miss my husband, but not yet. She looks up at the swan in the sky. The sky was full of geese, and she went up to the tower to see her husband. Although the tower is high, she can't see her husband. She leans against the railing all day. The railing bent and bent into the distance, and her hands were as bright as jade. The curtain is so high, rippling like sea water, empty and generally dark green. If the sea is as long as a dream, then you are sad and I am sad. If Nanfeng knows how I feel, please blow my dream to Puxi Island.

I don't think it is necessary to put in a translation, because the original text is easy to understand.

However, people are not sure about the theme of this poem until now. It can only be said that the mainstream view is that it was written by a man who misses his wife far away, because "Xizhou Song" is a poem that looks at flowers in the fog. The specific creation time, author, location of lyrics, emotion and object are unknown, which has also caused great difficulties for future generations to textual research this poem. Of course, these fogs did not dilute the brilliance of Xizhou Song at all, but added a dreamy color to it, just as the poem itself gave us the same feeling.

The poem begins with a memory, "Remember that Mei went to Xizhou and sent Mei to Jiangbei." Since ancient times, the citation of place names has always left people with countless reverie. Whether it's "why did you restrict the river beam before Xizhou" or "I don't want to see Yuzhou after Xizhou", people can know where the poet is from the place names, and then deduce the poet's ideas. Xizhou is naturally in Jiangnan. Separated from Jiangbei by a river, it is connected by plum branches. Lu Kai wrote in "A Gift for Ye Fan" that "flowers are given to people in Gansu." Jiangnan has nothing, talk about a spring. "Sentenced to? However, Lu Kai's poems are impromptu, and the content is all about the feelings between friends, which is quite different from the writing style of Xizhou Song, which starts with memory, ends with the other shore, and ends with love and yearning. In contrast, there is a sentence in Nineteen Ancient Poems of Han Dynasty, which is very similar to this opening scene. Well, time has drifted back in time. Where will the missed train go?

"Single shirt apricot red, double-faced crow young color." These two sentences can be called the pinnacle of writing beautiful women's looks in ancient times. In ancient times, there were many sentences to write beautiful women, and the ways were also very clever. They are directly described, such as "the mountains overlap and the temples are full of fragrant cheeks and snow", "If she only turns to smile, there are hundreds of spells, and the paint in the sixth palace fades away", etc., or they are set off by scenery, such as "Clouds want clothes and flowers to be beautiful, and the spring breeze blows over the threshold to reveal the fragrance" and "What's the matter, flowers are as beautiful as peaches and plums" and "The grandson of Wang Ping" But compared with these two sentences, the difference is still reflected: none of the two sentences in Xizhou Song falls on "wealth". Although it is not gorgeous, there is another point. When the ancients wrote beautiful women, they were either romantic or praising other women. Obviously, they have a beautiful wife by their side, but they didn't mention anything in the article. Instead, I covet other people's homes. Perhaps, as Tso Gong said in A Dream of Red Mansions, "A wife is not as good as a concubine, and a concubine is not as good as a thief. "There is no way, since ancient times, people are so mean. But I believe that no matter who watches the Song of Xizhou, they will not doubt that it is the love of husband and wife, and only in this way will people really feel "happy but not obscene, sad but not hurt". "The most beautiful sentences are always left to you.

"Where is Xizhou? Two oars cross the bridge. " I have to sigh the poet's pen power. These two sentences not only cleverly avoid the topic of the location of Xizhou, but also strengthen the hazy beauty of the poem. With the scene of an imaginary lover sailing to Xizhou, the environment changes beautifully and smoothly, and the following is slowly unfolded.

"At dusk, withered flies and wind blow the Chinese tallow tree." This kind of environmental description is beautiful at first glance, but it doesn't make sense. So we use the knowledge of biology and geography to analyze. We pay attention to the two images of shrike and tallow. Shrike is a common songbird. Sapium sebiferum is a tall tree that likes to grow by the water. In addition, in the evening, there is often a lake wind blowing south of the Yangtze River. We can know that these two sentences describe the scenery of the lake in the south of the Yangtze River, which is probably the Xizhou (well, there are big and small Jiangnan) written by the poet. If the first triple is beautiful, the fourth quadruple's environmental description is slightly sad. The sunset and the wind itself have a sad breath, while shrike reminds people of the desolation of "Old Swallow Scattering". Coupled with the whimper when the wind blows the dense branches and leaves of Sapium sebiferum, the dark red tail feathers of Shrike and the light crimson leaves of Sapium sebiferum melt in the oblique sunset, and the whole poem.

"The tree is in front of the door, and the door is green." No wonder the poet had to write Wuseberry before, which has directly opened the bottom line. Even better is the next sentence, "I have never seen him before." The little girl is still a little shy, or a little naughty. No one came out, but the hair accessories appeared first.

"If you can't open the door, go out and pick red-violet flowers." The poet will never forget to say, "I miss my wife on the nth day when she is away."

The next two sentences are quoted by the old gentleman Zhu Ziqing in Moonlight on the Lotus Pond:

"Nantang autumn lotus, lotus over the head. Bow your head and get lotus seeds, as clear as water. "

It seems that the ancients wrote that women in the south of the Yangtze River liked to write about picking lotus. In Nineteen Ancient Poems, there was also a sentence like "Picking lotus on the river (referring to lotus flowers) Lanzeduo Cao Fang", but in these two couplets, "picking lotus" was given different meanings by the poet. "Lotus" is the homonym of "pity" here, and the lotus seeds here are no different from "Reiko Kobayakawa". Combine the next sentence "Lotus Heart Sleeves are all red." In Chinese, "lotus heart" means "pity". Judging from this, the man who writes poetry is definitely a crazy wife. The word "pity" itself has two explanations: one is pity, and the other is love and pity. I guess the "pity" in these three sentences is probably a pun on these two meanings: the poet not only likes his wife's beautiful face and gentle figure, but also pities her for urinating when she was young, so that she faces each other across the river. And this "Lotus Heart", with blue waves on one side and rouge on the other, is a pure and sad story when the autumn in the south is dizzy.

"I don't remember Mandy, but I looked up at Hong Fei." I also emphasized the difference between the poet himself and his wife (it seems that every time I say "Lang is not here", I will switch scenes).

"Hongfei is full of Xizhou, and Wang Lang is on the brothel." How did this swan goose "fill" Xizhou? Which brothel did this girl go to?

"I can't see the height of the building and will spend all my time on the railing." The next sentence answered my doubts. Before the Tang Dynasty, "brothel" must be a woman's residence. Otherwise, you say "this girl wants her husband to go to a brothel", which is very strange to think about.

On the calm lake in the Western Zhou Dynasty, she couldn't see her lover. Although there is only a small Hong Fei on the horizon, for her, the sky without a lover is always gloomy. If you want to see further, the crazy girl goes to her building and thinks, "But you can expand your vision by 300 miles just by going up a flight of stairs." Well, she actually knows it's futile, but she still has a beautiful delusion in her heart, "If he comes back, can we meet earlier?"

"The railings are twelve songs, and the hands are as bright as jade." I have to mention "Nineteen Ancient Poems", and there is a saying that "Yingying is a girl upstairs, a window." E-E red makeup, delicate hands. "It's quite similar to this paragraph. The woman who misses you upstairs always gives people a faint melancholy temperament, and the hand that a woman extends from a tall building always touches the cold at the height first. This cold and bright jade hand always gives people a lonely beauty. At one end is the sky, the lover from the sky, and at the other end is the winding empty bar, which is the heart of missing.

"The blinds are high and the sea is shaking green." My hands miss the lover outside reach for the sky, and she rolls up the embroidered curtain, but there is only a lofty and indifferent sky and a distant and silent sea.

The next two sentences end with the swan song of Xizhou Song.

"Sea dream leisurely, you worry about me. The south wind knows what I mean and dreams of Xizhou. " Are so many memories just now true, or are they groundless fantasies in the poet's mind?

This poem was written by a commoner in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Why did he leave his wife and go to the north bank of the Yangtze River alone, unable to go home? The answer is obvious: he is an ordinary soldier in this war-torn period, an insignificant actor in the chaotic tragedy of this era, and he feels inner pain in that dilapidated city, and the only thing that can comfort him is his hands as bright as jade. He was unable to resist this era, and probably he didn't want to resist, just eager to see his wife again, but the indifferent era cruelly rejected this simplest cry. What else can he do? What else can we do?

The whole song "Xizhou Song" may be his answer. He deliberately opened up a fertile ground for her in his heart. Xizhou is just the simplest name of that land. He imagined her in Xizhou in spring, spring, summer, autumn and winter: she would "fold plum blossoms and send them to Jiangbei" in spring, and quietly listen to the Chinese tallow tree "picking lotus in the south pond" in summer, looking up. He knew it was a dream, but he didn't want him to stop, because the dream was the opium of his spirit. Without it, he can only see the desolation of reality. False is true, true is false, and inaction is everywhere.

The dream is still shattered. Is his destination death or eternity?

He didn't give up hope. This little life is still fighting. Since he is awake, please send Nanfeng's absurd dream to her, so that she can also listen to this beautiful dream.

I wonder how many people will cry after reading these last two sentences. Song of Xizhou ended in this illusory eternity. It is this paradise in troubled times, the destination of countless lonely hearts, the cry of ordinary people in suffering, and the beacon for chasing dreams in adversity. Later, it became the peak of folk songs in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, another peak after the pre-Qin Book of Songs, Chu Ci, 19 ancient poems in the Han Dynasty, the wind of Jian 'an and the elegance of Wei and Jin Dynasties. They watched together, watching the dawn of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

This should also explain why there were such enduring masterpieces in the Northern and Southern Dynasties when the literati monopolized culture. Because this is the only sustenance of people suffering from mental distress, the paradise lost in their hearts, and the only motivation to support them stumbling on the road of life. In ancient times, war was an eternal theme, and countless men and women accused their fate in words in this wild theme in every era; Every era has its own Song of Xizhou.

Life is endless from generation to generation, and Xizhou is only similar year after year.