Su Shi
It looks like a ridge from the side and a peak from the side.
The height is different from near to far.
I don’t know the true face of Mount Lu,
It’s just because I am in this mountain.
[Notes]
1. Xilin: Xilin Temple is located on Lushan Mountain in what is now Jiangxi Province. This poem is inscribed on the wall of the temple.
2. Yuan: Because.
3. This mountain: refers to Mount Lu.
[Brief Analysis]
When Su Shi was demoted from Huangzhou to Ruzhou to serve as deputy envoy of regiment training, he passed through Jiujiang and visited Mount Lu. The magnificent mountains and rivers triggered great thoughts, so he wrote several travel poems about Mount Lu. "Tixilinbi" is a summary after visiting Mount Lushan. It describes the changing appearance of Mount Lushan and uses the scenery to reason. It points out that observation issues should be objective and comprehensive. If it is subjective and one-sided, no correct conclusion can be drawn.
The first two sentences, "Looking at it from the side, it looks like a ridge and a peak on its side, with different heights from near and far", which is a realistic description of what you see when you travel to the mountains. Lushan Mountain is a large mountain with crisscrossing hills and undulating peaks. Visitors will see different scenery depending on their location. These two sentences summarize and vividly describe the ever-changing scenery of Lushan Mountain.
The last two sentences, "I don't know the true face of Mount Lu, just because I am in this mountain" are reasoning in the scene and talking about the experience of traveling in the mountain. Why can't we recognize the true face of Mount Lushan? Because we are in Lushan Mountain, our field of vision is limited by the peaks and ridges of Lushan Mountain. What we see is only one peak, one ridge, one hill and one ravine of Lushan Mountain, only part of it. This is bound to be one-sided. This is what you see when you travel to the mountains, and it is often the same when you observe things in the world. These two poems have rich connotations, and they inspire us to understand a philosophy of how to deal with people - because people are in different positions and have different starting points for looking at problems, their understanding of objective things will inevitably be one-sided; to understand the truth of things and the overall picture, we must transcend the narrow scope and get rid of subjective prejudices.
This is a philosophical poem, but the poet does not make an abstract discussion, but closely talks about his unique feelings about the mountain tour. With the help of the image of Mount Lu, he uses popular language to express the philosophy in a simple and profound way. , so it is friendly, natural and thought-provoking.
[About the author]
Su Shi (1037-1101), a writer of the Northern Song Dynasty. His courtesy name was Zizhan, his nickname was Dongpo Jushi. Together with his father Su Xun and younger brother Su Zhe, he was collectively known as "Sansu". He was a native of Meizhou (now Meishan County, Sichuan). There are "Dongpo Seven Episodes", "Dongpo Yuefu" and so on.
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