Yuan Shu, a great talent of the Middle Tang Dynasty, was famous for his "widowhood and thin luck". Yuan Shu was originally the archetypal character of Zhang Sheng in the Book of the West Chamber, who lived in Puzhou at the age of twenty-one and fell in love with the daughter of a distant relative.
Unfortunately, yuan shu finally abandoned him for the sake of wealth and fame, and married Wei Cong, the daughter of Jingzhao Yin Wei Xiaqing. Although Wei and Yuan were "political marriages", they still had a long-term relationship after marriage.
Later, Wei Cong died of illness, and Yuan Shu wrote three mourning poems, which became the best in ancient mourning poems. The Qing Dynasty Hengtang retired soldier commented on this poem: Ancient and modern mourning poems, those who are unable to produce these three poems.
These three poems win with their plain style and sincere feelings, and the narrative is full of many details of life. In particular, "Three Songs of Sorrow and Sorrow, The Second", the language is the most simple, closer to the lives of ordinary people.
The last sentence of the poem, "Poor couple Pepsi Lament", later became a folk saying. Ordinary poor couples, once they encounter a bad life, then they always like to put this sentence on the lips.
However, the original meaning of this saying in Yuan Shu's "Three Songs of Sorrow and Sorrow" is not that the husband and wife are poor and lowly, so they are sad in everything in their lives.
What Yuan Shu wants to express in the poem is that because the husband and wife have experienced hardships together and come from poverty and hardship together, the death of his wife has made him feel even more sad.
If you want to correctly understand the meaning of Yuan Shu's words, you still have to understand this poem first. Next, let's take a look at Yuan Shu's "Three Songs of Sorrow and Sorrow, Part II"!
Appreciation of "Three Songs of Sorrow and Sorrow"
"Sending Sorrow and Sorrow to the Second Song" - Tang Yuanshu
In the past, the jokes behind the scenes are now in front of the eyes.
The clothes have been exhausted, and the needle and thread are still not open.
Shang still wanted to pity the servants in the old feelings, and he also sent money because of dreams.
I sincerely know that this hatred is for everyone, and the poor and lowly couples are sad.
Vernacular paraphrasing:
In the past, I used to joke with my wife and talk about what happened to each other a hundred years later. At that time, everyone thought that they were still very young, but who could have predicted that now it was life and death.
After the wife left, according to the custom, the clothes she wore and the objects she had used during her life were given to those in need. Seeing that the clothes were about to be gone, only the sewing kit she had used before she was left, lying quietly on the dressing table, I couldn't bear to open it.
Still unable to give up the feelings with her, he could only empathize with the servants she had summoned before. I have never been superstitious, and I once dreamed of her, and when I woke up, I went to burn incense and give money to others.
I know very well in my heart that the separation of life and death between husband and wife is something that everyone will experience. But I couldn't control the sadness in my heart, because she had gone through the tribulations with me and had gone through all these years of poverty and hardship.
In Yuan Shu's "Three Songs of Sorrow and Sorrow, Part II", the explanation of "sincerely knowing that this hatred is everyone has, and the poor couple and the poor couple are mourning" are unified in all dictionaries today.
The original meaning of these two poems is that husband and wife have experienced hardships and hardships together, so the author will touch the scene and feel sad, and then feel sad when he sees everything.
So, why do folk insist on understanding "poor couples and Pepsi lamentations" as - because of poverty, so Pepsi mourns? In fact, this matter still depends on Yuanshu himself, because there is "cattiness" in the narrative of his three poems.
Although the group of poems "Three Songs of Sorrow and Sorrow" is one of the best in Chinese mourning poems, it has also been criticized because of the untruths in its narrative. In the first poem in this group, Yuan Shu once explained some of Wei Cong's circumstances during his lifetime.
The poem mentions that when the couple was the poorest, the family lacked firewood, and his wife Wei Cong went to pick up the leaves of the ancient locust tree. In addition, their families often eat wild vegetables to feed their hunger, but these are likely not to be true.
In the seventeenth year of Zhenyuan (801 AD), Yuan Shu's examination in the official department landed. Subsequently, he met Wei Cong's father, Wei Xiaqing, on the recommendation of his friends. The latter was Jing Zhaoyin at that time, and held a high position of power in the imperial court.
Yuan Shu was nicknamed "Yuan Caizi" at that time, and he was young and tall, and he was handsome and handsome. Wei Xiaqing cherished his talent and was optimistic about his future, so he reached a political alliance with him. Yuan Shu was also very knowledgeable about current affairs, and decisively abandoned the "warbler" and became close to Wei Cong.
The Wei family was very rich at that time, and it was absolutely impossible for Wei Cong to eat wild vegetables after marriage. In fact, in "Three Songs of Sorrow and Sorrow", Yuan Shu himself has already spoken out. He mentions in the poem that his wife had always been served by "servants" during her lifetime.
I would like to ask, can a family that is so poor that it can only eat wild vegetables and rely on the branches of ancient locust trees to burn fires, can it afford to raise servants? This is obviously not possible.
In fact, Yuan Shu also mentioned in "Sleepwalking In the Seventy Rhymes of Spring" that the Situation of the Wei Family's Wealth at that time. He said in the poem: "Towards the jade pei ying, Takamatsu female Luofu." Weimen is in full bloom, and there is a lot of joy in and out.
Because Yuan Shu married the daughter of the Wei family, he often accompanied his father-in-law in and out of the rich house and interacted with high-ranking officials and nobles. Wei Cong was very favored in the family, and later his father was sent to Luoyang as an official, and Yuan Shu moved to Luoyang with his wife and his father-in-law.
The most difficult period in the lives of Yuan Shu and Wei Cong should be between Yuan and Yuan and Yuan and Four years. During that time, Yuan Shu was demoted to a county lieutenant in Henan, and later his mother died, serving at home for three years. During this time, they were far away from the Wei family, and Yuan Shu had no income.
However, before Wei Cong's death in the fourth year of Yuan He, Yuan Shu had already become the inspector of imperial history. Although he had been ostracized by the Koreans and beaten by the eunuch Qiu Shiliang and others, he was definitely not poor enough to eat wild vegetables.
Therefore, we say that Yuan Shu's "poor couple Pepsi lament" absolutely cannot be the kind that ordinary people imagine, because they are too poor to be reconciled, so there is "Pepsi lamentation" between husband and wife.
In addition, Yuan Shu's wind evaluation in the folk has always been bad, and he has been scolded as "negative and thin luck". This was mainly because in the second year after Wei Cong's death, he "married" the concubine An Xian Concubine. After another five years, he married his stepmother Pei Shu.
However, Yuan Shu was also bitter, because Wei Cong only left Yuan Shu with one daughter and no son after his death. After Yuan Shu married Concubine An Xian, the latter bore her a son and two daughters.
However, three years later, Concubine An Xian also died. Finally, after another five years, Yuan Shu continued to marry his stepmother Pei Shu. Moreover, in order to inherit the incense, it was not uncommon for ancient men to marry three wives and four concubines, not to mention that Yuan Shu finally once became an official to Shangshu Right Cheng .
epilogue
In fact, I personally have always disagreed with the interpretation of "poor couples Pepsi Lament" in the folk. Because as the saying goes, poor has fun, poor has poor happiness.
Poor economic status and low social status will certainly bring difficulties to the life of husband and wife, but it is not the only factor that can affect the emotional life of husband and wife.
It is necessary to know that joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness are all emotions, spiritual things. People who are poor and happy, even if they live in the dark alleys, will feel very happy with a daily meal and a scoop of drink.
Moreover, modern people often say, "There is a sentient drinking water, and the cold of the golden house is merciless." Therefore, the spiritual pleasure of loving couples is not completely subject to the material world.
It is necessary to understand "poor couples Pepsi lament" as: because of poverty, the life of husband and wife must be very sad. That is to take the importance of money and status in marriage too much.
Poor is poor, there are lovers in the world, what a happy thing! But once the common tribulation, the same joyful couple lives and dies, the remaining one, "a thousand mountains and twilight snow, only the shadow goes to whom"?
There is nothing more tragic in the world than this separation. Therefore, the remaining one, from now on, looks at one thing of sorrow, looks at Pepsi sorrow, and sees that everything is only left with endless sorrow.