Moonlight over the Lotus Pond
Author: Zhu Ziqing
My heart has been quite uneasy these days. Tonight, I was sitting in the yard enjoying the shade, and suddenly I thought of the lotus pond I walked past every day. It must look different in the light of the full moon. The moon was gradually rising, and the laughter of the children on the road outside the wall could no longer be heard; my wife was patting Run'er in the house and humming a lullaby in a daze. I quietly put on my coat, closed the door and went out.
Along the lotus pond, there is a winding small cinder road. This is a secluded road; few people walk it during the day, and it is even more lonely at night. There are many trees growing on all sides of the lotus pond, which are lush and lush. On one side of the road are some willows and some trees whose names I don’t know. On a moonless night, the road is eerie and a bit scary. Tonight is very good, although the moonlight is still faint.
I was alone on the road, walking with my hands behind my back. This world seemed to belong to me; I also seemed to have transcended my ordinary self and entered another world. I love being lively and calm; I love being in groups and being alone. Like tonight, a person can think about anything and think about nothing alone under this vast moonlight, and he feels like a free person. Whatever you must do or say during the day can be ignored now. This is the beauty of being alone. Let me just enjoy the boundless lotus fragrance and moonlight.
On the surface of the winding and twisting lotus pond, one could see fields of leaves. The leaves are high out of the water, like the skirts of a graceful dancer. Among the layers of leaves, white flowers are dotted here and there, some are blooming gracefully, and some are holding their petals shyly; just like individual bright pearls, like stars in the blue sky, and like flowers just emerging from the bath. beauty. The breeze passed by, bringing wisps of fragrance, like the faint singing from a tall building in the distance. At that time, the leaves and flowers also trembled slightly, like lightning, which immediately spread across the lotus pond. The leaves were densely packed side by side, and there seemed to be a ripple of solid blue. Under the leaves are veins of running water, which are covered and some colors cannot be seen; but the leaves are even more beautiful.
The moonlight is like flowing water, quietly flowing on this leaf and flower. Thin green mist floats in the lotus pond. The leaves and flowers seem to have been washed in milk; they are also like a dream wrapped in a veil. Although it was a full moon, there was a thin layer of clouds in the sky, so it couldn't shine brightly; but I thought this was just the right thing - a sound sleep is essential, but a nap also has its own flavor. The moonlight shines through the trees, and the dense bushes high up cast jagged and mottled black shadows, as steep as ghosts; the sparse shadows of the curved willows seem to be painted on lotus leaves. The moonlight in the pond is not uniform; but the light and shadow have a harmonious melody, like the famous music played on the Buddhist bell.
On all sides of the lotus pond, far and near, there are trees high and low, among which willows are the most numerous. These trees surrounded a lotus pond; only a few gaps were left on the side of the path, as if they were specially left for the moonlight. The color of the trees is gloomy, and at first glance they look like a cloud of smoke; but the beauty of the willows can also be distinguished in the smoke. Faintly looming above the treetops are distant mountains, just a general outline. There are one or two street lights leaking through the cracks in the trees, looking listless like sleepy eyes. The liveliest sounds at this time were the cicadas chirruping on the trees and the frogs croaking in the water; but the excitement was theirs and I enjoyed nothing.
Suddenly I remembered the lotus picking thing. Picking lotus is an old custom in the south of the Yangtze River. It seems to have existed very early, and it was most popular during the Six Dynasties. We can roughly know it from poetry. Those who picked lotuses were young women. They went in boats and sang erotic songs. Needless to say, there are many people picking lotus, and there are also people watching lotus picking. It was a lively season and also a romantic season. Emperor Yuan of the Liang Dynasty said it well in "Poem of Picking the Lotus":
Therefore, the fairy girl and the girl are willing to go boating; the hawk's head slowly returns, and the feather cup is passed on; the general moves and the algae hangs, and the boat is about to move. And Pingkai. Her waist is slender and her clothes are tied tightly, and her steps are delayed. At the beginning of summer and spring, when the leaves are tender and the flowers are blooming, she smiles because she is afraid that her clothes will be stained, and she pulls back her clothes because she is afraid of the ship capsizing.
It can be seen that there was a lot of fun at that time. This is really interesting stuff, but unfortunately we are no longer blessed with it.
Then I remembered the sentence in "Xizhou Song":
In autumn, the lotus flowers in Nantang are more than human heads; I lower my head to pick up the lotus seeds, which are as clear as water. If there are lotus pickers tonight, the lotus flowers here will be considered "outstanding"; just a few shadows of running water will not do. This makes me miss Jiangnan after all. ——Thinking like this, I suddenly looked up and found myself in front of my own door. I pushed the door gently and went in. There was no sound. My wife had been asleep for a long time.
Writing Background of Moonlight in the Lotus Pond< /p>
"Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" was written in July 1927, and was originally published in "Novel Monthly", Volume 18, Issue 7, on July 10, 1927.
On April 12, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek rebelled against the revolution in Shanghai. In three days, more than 300 people were killed, more than 500 people were arrested, and more than 3,000 people disappeared. Overnight, white terror enveloped the country. When the news reached Beijing, Zhu Ziqing was shocked and felt restless for several days, full of bitterness, grief, anger and hesitation.
Zhu Ziqing was baptized by the "May 4th" movement and witnessed the entire process of the "March 18th" tragedy (he participated in the petition march that day). Although he is a petty bourgeois intellectual, he is full of justice and patriotism. At the climax of the Great Revolution, he was very excited, always paying attention to the revolution in the south, and longing for the reunification of China and the realization of democracy.
However, it is undeniable that Zhu Ziqing's ideological and political stance changed in his later years. In his early years, he believed in the Kuomintang. He once wrote in his diary: "Chen Jun came to visit and talked about state affairs. He had very left-wing ideas. Yu frankly confessed that Yu's position was the same as that of the government." The government in the diary was the Kuomintang government. Zhu Ziqing grew up from an intellectual of petty bourgeois origin to a famous poet, writer, and scholar who "expressed the heroic spirit of our nation." He went through a bumpy road.
Four. The January 2nd coup dealt a huge blow to him. He wrote in the letter: "It seems a little strange these days, like a small boat on the boundless sea, like a hunter in the endless forest." It takes a lot of effort to walk and talk; it is still not satisfactory. My heart was a mess, or a fire. I seemed to be struggling to understand something, but there seemed to be nothing. "(Excerpt from a letter written by Zhu Ziqing on September 17, 1927) "Only by participating in the revolution and counter-revolution can this panic be resolved. When you are unable or unwilling to participate in such practical actions, there is only one way to escape temporarily. ... Since I cannot participate in the revolution or counter-revolution, I have to find a basis so that I can live a peaceful life. I just want to find something, get into it, and spend my life. I finally found a topic in Chinese Studies and started to learn like a child. This is a "dead end"; but I am willing to go this way, so there is no other way. " (Zhu Ziqing's "Where to Go" February 1923)
Zhu Ziqing was disgusted with the "counterrevolution" of the Kuomintang, and was suspicious of the "revolution" of the Communist Party, and fell into the dilemma of not knowing "where to go". In "panic", he "hid in academic research" and hid in nature, which not only provided "refuge", but also maintained the relative independence of intellectuals while keeping a distance from politics.
"Moon in the Lotus Pond". "Color" was born in this mood.
3. Structural Framework
There are two clues in "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond". One is the change of the author's mood before and after appreciating the moonlight over the lotus pond. , one is the author's whereabouts. The full text has eight natural paragraphs, each paragraph has its own independent content.
The time, place and reason of the first paragraph of the trip to the lotus pond. /p>
The path, trees, and moonlight in Section 2.
The feeling of walking on the path in Section 3.
The beautiful view of the lotus pond in Section 4.
The moonlight in the pond
The scenery around the lotus pond
The seventh paragraph is associated with the old custom of picking lotus.
< p>Paragraph 8 Going HomeFrom the perspective of describing the scenery, paragraphs 2 to 6 are obviously the main content of the article and should be classified as a part. The first paragraph is the "introduction" and should be independent. . Paragraphs 7 to 8 start from reality and imagine the old customs in ancient times, and then make a sudden transition (back to the home) to conclude the whole article.
With this analysis, the full text should be divided into three parts:
The first part (paragraph 1) writes "The Origin of Viewing the Lotus" (love)
The second part (paragraphs 2-6) writes "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" (scenery)
The third part (paragraphs 7-8) writes "the person in the scene" (emotion)
The structure of "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" is circular, both in the outer structure and the inner structure. From the perspective of the external structure, this work depicts a summer night outing in spatial order from the author going out through the path to the lotus pond and back again. From the internal structure, the emotional thoughts are from being quiet, seeking quiet, getting quiet, and finally getting out of quiet. It is in a circle. The consistency of the internal and external structure perfectly meets the author's need to show a psychological process.
There are three echoes at the beginning and end of the article. One is the sentence at the beginning. "My heart is quite uneasy." This is the text of the whole article, but it is also a suspense. The corresponding sentence at the end of the article answers this suspense: "This makes me miss Jiangnan after all." The second is the beginning of "My wife was patting Run'er in the room and vaguely humming a lullaby", which echoes the ending of "My wife has been asleep for a long time". The third is the beginning of "I quietly wrapped my arms around "Put your clothes on and go out" and "Gently push the door and go in" at the end. These two echoes are very close. "Quietly" and "gently" show that my mood has not changed much. The three echoes at the beginning and end , making the article coherent and organically unified
4. The fragrance of lotus and moonlight are poetic and picturesque
The whole text is like a meticulous painting, depicting a moonlight over a lotus pond for us. Picture. Let’s take paragraphs 4, 5, and 6 as an example to see how the author uses coloring and text layout.
The author first focuses on the lotus pond, first the lotus leaves in the field, and then the other. He wrote about the blooming lotus and flower buds among the green leaves, and the fragrance of flowers blown by the breeze. Then he captured the scene of the leaves trembling in the breeze, "like lightning, it spread across the lotus pond in an instant." Went over there. The leaves were densely packed side by side, and it seemed like there was a ripple of solid green." This is a moving picture. The combination of movement and stillness vividly conveys the vibrant grace of the lotus pond. In this paragraph, the author There is no mention of moonlight, but whether it is a still picture or a dynamic scene, there is a faint moonlight everywhere, and this moonlight is melted into the author's detailed description of the leaves and flowers, as well as the mood of the breeze. The ripples of solid green are all formed under the reflection of the light moonlight.
Next, focus on writing about the moonlight. First, write the scene of the moonlight pouring on the flowers and leaves like flowing water. "A thin green mist floats in the lotus pond", which is a realistic description; and "the leaves and "The flowers seem to have been washed in milk; and like a dream covered with gauze." It is also virtual, but the reality can be seen in the virtual, and it aptly expresses the erratic posture of the lotus under the hazy moonlight. Using reality and fiction to create a soul-stirring artistic conception. Writing about moonlight alone is relatively monotonous, so I also focus on describing the shadow of the moon, including the "dark shadows" of "jagged" and "mottled" shrubs, and the "sparse shadows of curved willows", and these "shadows" are like "paintings". On the lotus leaf". The interlacing of light and shadow connects the trees on the shore and the lotuses in the pond, forming a beautiful and complex pattern, making the lotus pond look even more graceful against the background. The moonlight is deliberately written here, but the lotus pond is not forgotten everywhere. The "thin green mist" formed by the moonlight quietly flowing over the flowers and leaves like flowing water is the moonlight and the foggy leaf color and water vapor in the lotus pond. A hazy scene formed by mixing together. Finally, I wrote about the four sides of the lotus pond, with the focus on the willow trees. The description of the tree scene under the moon is because there are willow trees from far and wide, surrounding a lotus pond. There are only a few gaps where the moonlight leaks in, so "the trees are all gloomy, and at first glance they look like a cloud of smoke." The "glorious beauty" of the willows is revealed in this misty mist. The inking is thicker here. Then, write about the distant mountains in the treetops, the lights in the cracks of the trees, the sound of cicadas on the trees, and the drums of frogs in the water under the trees. This is just a random touch. The alternating shades of light and shade outline the moonlit elegance of the entire lotus pond.
The author writes that the moonlight is the moonlight in the lotus pond, and the lotus pond is the lotus pond under the moonlight. There are layers within layers, giving the whole picture a sense of three-dimensionality and penetration; among them are movement and stillness, virtuality and solidity, shades and sparseness. Density is the setting of the painting and the arrangement of poetry. This not only makes the color of the picture uniform and pleasing to the eye, but also reveals a charm and a rich poetic flavor.
5. Artistic techniques
"Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" successfully uses a variety of artistic techniques. There are vivid metaphors, the lotus leaf out of the water is "like a graceful dancer's skirt", the buds holding flowers are like "pearls", and "like stars in the blue sky", which is not only appropriate, but also vivid; There is a sharp contrast. The sparse "beautiful shadows" of the curved willows appear more and more light and delicate against the "dark shadows" of the shrubs that are "steep and ghost-like"; there is a strong contrast, with the "languid" lighting. To set off the brightness of the moonlight, the sound of cicadas and frog drums are used to highlight the surrounding silence; there are vivid personifications, the gracefully blooming lotus flowers are like "beauties just emerging from the bath", and the white lotus on the water surface is extremely beautiful. . But what is even more admirable is that because the author has an extremely deep understanding of the object of description, he breaks through the general experience and produces a unique and novel technique, such as "The breeze passes by, sending wisps of fragrance, as if there is a vague feeling on a tall building in the distance." "Like a singing voice." The fragrance of flowers originally appealed to the sense of smell, but the author wrote it into a melodic singing voice, giving people a sense of smell and hearing. Another example is "Light and shadow have a harmonious melody, like the famous music played on a Buddhist bell." The flowing light waves, originally silent, are described as beautiful music, giving people a visual and auditory experience. Logically speaking, fragrance, light and shadow have nothing in common with singing and piano sounds, but the author uses the artistic technique of "synaesthesia" often found in classical poetry to transform the images of smell and vision into auditory images, imitating The intermittent and vague forms of fragrance and light make the indescribable feeling concrete through another sensible image. This kind of superb artistic processing method is rare in modern prose creation.
The description of "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" is very detailed, which comes from the writer's careful observation and appreciation of objective objects. The detailed description of the sound of cicadas alone is enough to explain the problem. Some readers raised objections and thought that there should be no cicadas on a moonlit night. Because of this issue, Zhu Ziqing consulted many people and finally observed it for himself, "Two more times I listened to it personally. Only when I heard the sound of cicadas on a moonlit night did I give up the idea of ??revising it. ("About "The Sound of Cicadas Under the Moon"). The entire article "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" embodies the author's creative spirit of careful scrutiny. He not only makes an overall guess at the lotus pond, but also makes a partial examination. Sometimes the lotus pond is the main scene, the moonlight is the background, and sometimes the moonlight is the background. As the main scene, the lotus pond is used as the background. Sometimes the flowers and leaves are copied, sometimes the willows on the bank are depicted, sometimes the clouds are lightly drawn, and sometimes the shadows of the trees are lightly sketched. They are laid out layer by layer and developed step by step, delicately showing the "amazing" moonlight of the lotus pond. beauty.
The artistic achievements of "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" are not only unique in description techniques, but also have outstanding features in language. The biggest feature of Zhu Ziqing's language is its natural novelty. As he himself advocates, it is "new without losing nature." He often successfully uses "non-European spoken language" ("Preface to "You and Me"") to depict mental states and expressions. The expressions of meaning, such as "I quietly put on my coat and closed the door and went out", "The road is eerie and scary," etc., are as plain as words, natural and smooth, without any trace of polishing, which makes people feel extra special when reading them. kind. A beautiful artistic realm must be achieved through high-quality language, so all outstanding writers attach great importance to language training. Zhu Ziqing paid great attention to the accuracy and appropriateness of his words, such as "The moonlight is like flowing water, quietly pouring on this leaf and flower. A thin green mist floats in the lotus pond." The word "Xie" is the same as the word "floating". The words "make the moonlight and fog come alive."
Another example is writing that "the leaves and flowers also trembled slightly" when the breeze passed by, "the leaves were densely packed side by side, and it seemed like there was a ripple of solid blue"; "A distant mountain", "There are also one or two street lights leaking between the trees": "a trace", "a line", "a belt" and "one or two points" are all quantifiers used as adjectives, which enrich, polish and strengthen the image. As well as the role of rendering and strengthening the poetic and picturesque feeling.
In "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond", the author also uses many overlapping words and phrases to deepen the image of the physical state. For example, "Tiantian" is used to describe the density of lotus leaves, and "layers" are used to describe the density of lotus leaves. "Layer" is used to indicate its depth, and "Zigzag" is used to indicate the breadth of the lotus pond. Another example is the overlapping of the two-syllable word "芊芊yu", which not only shows the number of trees, but also strengthens the dense night atmosphere; "far, near, near, high, high, low" is a combination of far, near, high and low. He wrote about the dense bushes on all sides of the lotus pond. There are many such examples, you can find them all over the place. These various forms of overlapping words are not only full of artistic expression, but also have distinct rhythms, coordinated rhymes, and full of musical beauty. In short, the language art of "Moonlight over the Lotus Pond" has indeed achieved the "smooth", "early" and "eye-pleasing" state that the author pursues.
The beginning of the article does not directly describe the moonlight in the lotus pond, but says that the author "has been quite uneasy these days", although the Chinese teacher at the time also analyzed with us the author's decision to write this article. The cultural background also allows us to understand the author's situation to a greater or lesser extent. Maybe it was because of the "uneasy feeling in my heart" that I naturally thought of "the lotus pond I walked through every day". Then I had the desire to see the lotus pond which had a "different look".
At this time, the author still did not write about the moonlight in the lotus pond, but expressed his inner feelings on the way to the lotus pond. "I love liveliness, but also calmness; I love living in groups, but also love being alone." "I can think about anything and think about nothing under the vast moonlight," "I feel like a free man." From this, we can see the author at this time. That's the real him. There is no embellishment, no hypocrisy, I just "feel like a free person." Wanting to be your true self under the circumstances is not something that can be done in a few words, because some things are often done involuntarily, and some are forced to do. So while "this world seems to be mine", "all the things that must be done and said during the day can be ignored now." The only thing to do is to "enjoy the boundless moonlight of the lotus pond." The color is good."
The author changed his writing style and naturally led the readers to the moonlight of the lotus pond, which is like an ancient painting.
"The twists and turns of the lotus pond", "fields of leaves", "like the skirt of a graceful dancer". "Scattered white flowers", "coquettish" or "shy", "like pearls", "like stars", and "beauties just out of the bath". From the beginning, the author used rich metaphors and personification techniques to vividly depict lotus leaves and lotus flowers from different angles. Overall it gives people a fresh and noble feeling.
"The breeze passes by", "wisps of fragrance", "like the faint singing from a tall building in the distance". Very vividly evokes auditory and auditory associations from the sense of smell. When describing the trembling of leaves and flowers, it is "like lightning" and "like ripples of solid blue". At this time, "the veins of running water under the leaves are covered, but the leaves are more beautiful."
After the description of the lotus pond, the next thing is the moonlight. "The moonlight is like flowing water", "quietly flowing over this leaf and flower." With the word "shed", the originally static moonlight becomes dynamic, giving people a romantic feeling like "moonlight bathing" mood. "Thin green mist", "milk", "dream of gauze", seem real and illusory, real and illusory, cleverly cast a mysterious veil on the moonlight of the lotus pond.
Then the "mottled black shadows" dropped by the shrubs are described as "ghost-like", and the "sparse beautiful images of the willows are painted on the lotus leaves". "The melody of light and shadow", "like a famous song played on a Buddhist bell". Although there are only a few strokes, it can bring different sensory impulses and enjoyment to readers from different directions and degrees.
Write from the lotus pond to the moonlight, and then from the moonlight to the four sides of the lotus pond, proceeding layer by layer. Although the author did not describe in detail the willows, distant mountains, lights, and even the sound of cicadas and frogs around the lotus pond, it may be due to mood factors. Because from the author's "the excitement is theirs, I have nothing", there is a sense of "the past is too painful to look back on".
The author ended the article with the story of "picking lotus". I think of lotus picking from the lotus pond, and then I think of "Lotus Picking Ode" and "Xizhou Song":
In the autumn of picking lotus in the south pond, the lotus flowers exceed the head; lower the head to pick the lotus seeds, the lotus seeds are as clear as water.
In this way, the whole article came to an end in a poetic, song-like and picturesque tone.