The poet hates being an official and yearns for living in seclusion in the mountains, so he faked this poem to express his anguish by the crow of thrush birds. Birds are the products of nature, and only by returning to nature can they show their talents, especially birds, not to mention people. Only in an unrestrained environment can we show our ambitions. The "lock" in the poem represents the knot that the poet can't untie, and the golden cage is like wealth. If we can put aside all this and retire to the mountains, maybe we can find ourselves!
wood thrush
Author: Ouyang Xiu Dynasty: Song Style: Four Musts
original text
Hundreds of sounds follow the heart, and the flowers are red and purple.
I just realized that it is better to sing freely in the forest than to listen to the golden cage.
Poetry annotation
The birds sang softly. (2) high and low. The golden birdcage is an expensive birdcage.
In Ouyang Xiu's Thrushcross, the first two sentences describe the scenery, and the thrush sings and dances, which makes the colorful mountain flowers more pleasing to the eye. The last two sentences, I really envy thrush flying in the forest, free and unrestrained. It should also be understood that the author Ouyang Xiu was excluded from North Korea at this time.
Flowers and Birds (Appreciation of Ouyang Xiu's Thrush) Li Lienan (2009-08-2611:25: 28)
Prose Classification of Ouyang Xiu's Thrushcross Birds and Purple Trees
Ordinary bird songs make us think deeply. Appreciation of Ouyang Xiu's Thrush Birds
Li Lienan
Ouyang Xiu, the literary leader of the Northern Song Dynasty, often works with deep feelings and profound thoughts. His famous poem Thrushcross Bird is a very thought-provoking work. I'm afraid the depth and breadth of this ordinary poem are beyond the author's own imagination.
Hundreds of sounds follow the heart, and the flowers are red and purple.
I just realized that it is better to sing freely in the forest than to listen to the golden cage.
This poem was written by the poet when he knew Chuzhou. During this period, Ouyang Xiu often wandered between the mountains and rivers of Chuzhou, and wrote such famous works as Zuiweng Pavilion and Fengle Pavilion. While enjoying the scenery of Chuzhou, a clever and good-singing bird, thrush, aroused his particularly fresh feeling, so he sang "The Four Wonders".
"Hundred Tones"-Listen, how touching the crow of the thrush is. A word "a" gives a concise and vivid description of the beautiful voice of thrush; Listen carefully again, this little thrush, with its neck singing, changeable phonology, myriad tones and amorous feelings, makes people feel relaxed and happy ("hundred" and "thousand" are empty fingers and varied). This situation made Ouyang Xiu feel fresh and surprised, and at the same time noticed that thrush might form thousands of customs and rhymes. It not only sets off the posture of thrush flying freely and jumping to sing, but also vaguely shows the causal relationship between the latter and the former, laying the groundwork for the ending of "it is better to sing freely in the forest"
The careful poet continued to observe: "The mountain flowers are red and purple." In the spring of Chuzhou, a "mountain flower is red and purple" is colorful. Thrushcross jumps up and down on this colorful tree and sings freely. This rich natural color and vast space are the inspiration for the excitement and excitement of thrush.
The first two sentences of emotional description are full of Ouyang Xiu's extraordinary feelings. How does a poet feel? It turned out that a long time ago, Ouyang Xiu also saw a thrush, but what he saw was a thrush in a golden cage. At that time, the author was intoxicated with the song of thrush in the cage, thinking that the song at that time was already beautiful; However, when he came to the forest in Chuzhou and listened to the stirring and charming sound of birds outside the cage, he found that the sound of thrush in the cage was not as good as that in the forest. So he sighed: "I just know that it is better to cry freely in the forest than to listen to what is said in the golden cage." It was a dream when I woke up.
The word "beginning to know" spans a lot in time and space. These two sentences show that the author's singing of flying birds in the forest is far better than that in the cage, and it took a long time to suddenly realize; At the same time, the author has no time to express his feelings about the basic common sense that a bird in the forest is better than a bird in a cage. The word "beginning to know" is deeply touched in the transfer. The word "less than" connects the life scene of the thrush in the "golden cage" with the scene of the thrush singing in the forest described in the whole article, forming a seamless artistic scene, which can be described as perfect harmony.
Ouyang Xiu's feelings are so deep that he has a profound political background. The author wrote this poem in Chuzhou, but he got to know Chuzhou because he was seriously frustrated in the political struggle. Li Qing five years (1045), because of its meaning and anger, because Fan Zhongyan fake dismissal only know Chuzhou. Knowing this background, we can know the poet's attitude towards Chuzhou.
Ouyang Xiu obviously compared himself invisibly to a thrush who escaped from a cage and entered the forest. The sweetness and ease of this active thrush in front of me is simply a portrayal of the carefree mood of the poet who left the political whirlpool in Beijing. Readers who understand this background can easily perceive the carefree and emotional feelings implied by the author. It is worth thinking that this little poem also conveys another message. It is a sharp contrast between the monotony of the poet's singing of thrush in the cage and the profusion of singing in the forest. Ouyang Xiu's delicate appreciation, taste and contrast may be unintentional and have no profound sustenance, but it is easy to arouse readers' deep association with the society and times in which the poet lives.
First of all, this poem is sensitively related to the life situation of intellectuals in the Song Dynasty. As we all know, the preferential policies of the rulers of the Song Dynasty for literati are unprecedented. The scholar not only serves as a national official at all levels, but also enjoys a comfortable life, and even gets half of his salary when he leaves his job. Song Taizu vowed not to kill the minister, and Song Taizong also instructed not to pursue the shortcomings of the literati too much. The rulers of the Song Dynasty also allowed and encouraged literati and bureaucrats to keep prostitutes and enjoy singing and dancing. On the other hand, the rulers strengthened their ideological control over the scholar-officials and held imperial examinations according to Confucian classics. Philosophers' works are not allowed to be used, which limits the freedom of thought (especially compared with the Tang Dynasty). While maintaining orthodoxy and doing their best for the country, Ouyang Xiu and other Song Dynasty literati, as "advanced intellectuals", urgently need to gain more knowledge and life perception and seek more spiritual nutrition for the society and themselves. As North Korean officials, their work and even retirement expenses are borne by the state, just like thrushes in cages, so they don't have to worry about "livelihood". However, correspondingly, their space for free activities and independent thinking is quite limited. The poet's description and admiration of thrush in the forest is full of passion for extensive knowledge and colorful life.
In this poem, the word "lock" suddenly comes into view, which can give readers a deep association today. Ouyang Xiu's life is still in the stage of behind closed doors. As we know, Ouyang Xiu was a leader who doubted the ancient ideological trend. He raised many questions about the traditional theory and made some breakthroughs in some theoretical ideas. As a politician and scholar who pursues free and independent research, he always has many ways to pursue the truth. Yearning for the vast world. The author's "ambition" to attract talents from all over the world is great. In order to get those talents who often can't get out, he tried his best to get through the "old clothes" and "seeking the wonders of the world" (Preface to Secreting Poetry). In the Collection of Ancient Records, he revealed that he was diligent in collecting and recording ancient cultural relics, because "Take a husband with you", "The voice of earthworms", "The stars wither on the ground" and "The sun, the moon and the five stars all travel eastward" (three miscellaneous notes) all aroused his interest and thinking. In addition, Ouyang Xiu has a tendency to publicize personality and diversity in his personal life. His life of "finding pleasure in it" and "collecting three generations of precious stones, playing a piano and playing a chess, and always buying a pot of wine" (Biography of 61 laity) shows his value trend of enriching spiritual life and cultivating temperament in the free world.
If we further associate and extend the profundity of this poem, we can also find that it can have another explanation for the vigorous spring. In fact, the topic can be changed from thrush to woodbird spring. Please see, the first two sentences, "Every tone is with the heart, and the mountains are full of flowers and purple trees", are not just a general description of the vitality of spring? A bird alone is not spring, and a flower alone is difficult to bloom. Only when a hundred birds are singing and a hundred flowers are blooming, is the real spring. Therefore, it is imperative and necessary to understand the sentence "It is better to let birds fly and sing freely in the boundless forest than to keep them in a golden cage".
The author's explanation of Ouyang Xiu's poems in this way certainly does not conform to Ouyang Xiu's original intention. But if readers who haven't read this poem recite it first and then guess the topic, I'm afraid the guess of "Spring of the Woodbirds" should be reasonable. Ouyang Xiu's poems can arouse such association, which is not only related to his lyric poems, but also related to his character and mind. Su Shi once praised his teacher Ouyang Xiu and said, "Therefore, Prince Shao Shi Ouyang Gong. Being the best in the world, it is better for scholars to seek the public. " Master Qian's poems show his broad mind and strong thirst for talent. It can be seen that the poet's wonderful description of the flying environment of birds reflects his expectation for the free growth environment of thousands of talents. Ouyang Xiu was the leader of the poetry innovation movement in the Northern Song Dynasty, and his poems were unusual.