Life becomes warmer and warmer because of the companionship of friendship. Confucius said that there are friends who come from afar and are very happy! Du Fu said that the flower path had not been swept by guests, and the Pengmen gate was opened for the king today. Zhou Zuoren said that if you are in a cottage in Jiangcun, leaning against the glass window, baking a white charcoal fire bowl, drinking tea, and gossiping with friends, it is quite a pleasant thing.
However, not everyone has friends around when they need them. Feng Zikai said that after the people dispersed, a crescent moon was like water. The night is dark, the moon is cool as water, the friends are scattered, the intention is still unfinished, leaving one alone. Between friends, gathering is also yiyi, scattering is also yiyi, the process of waiting is full of ardent expectations, and there is an impatient anxiety, Zhao Shixiu more than nine hundred years ago has such a real experience.
Zhao Shixiu, Zizhi, Trumpet Lingxiu, Southern Song Dynasty poet. He had a bad career, saying to himself that "the official is three years old and has nothing to do." In his later years, he lived in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, died in Lin'an, and was buried in the West Lake. Zhao Shixiu was the eighth grandson of Song Taizu, who was a jinshi at the age of twenty, and together with Xu Zhao, Xu Jie, and Weng Juan, he was called "Yongjia Four Spirits", known as "Ghost Talent", and created a generation of poetry style of "Jianghu School".
Once, Zhao Shixiu asked a good friend to play chess together, but the friend did not arrive for a long time, which made him very anxious but helpless. At this time, it was the rainy season, it was raining lightly outside, and the cries of frogs everywhere made Zhao Shixiu feel bored, so he could only play chess with himself at such a boring time, watching the wick burn into ashes and fall... Later, he felt that this scene was very poetic, so he chanted a poem called "The Guest", which became a famous passage that has been passed down through the ages.
"The Guest"
[Song Dynasty] Zhao Shixiu
Huangmei season home rain,
The grass pond is full of frogs.
There is about not coming to spend the night and a half,
Idle knocking chess pieces fall lights flowers.
This poem is written late at night, and its specific time is the Yellow Plum Season, the summer night in May in Jiangnan. Outside, the sound of rain pouring down, floating in the fields, ponds, grass under the cover of night, the sound of rain accompanied by the frogs in the wild grass pond, intertwined and looped, ringing. This is an outdoor situation. Indoors, the poet sits alone under the lamp, waiting for a long time, gently tapping the chess pieces with his hands to dispel the boredom and loneliness in his heart.
The first two sentences are "When the yellow plum season is raining, the grass pond is full of frogs." "Writing about the environment and seasons is a completely unique scene in Jiangnan, when "yellow plum" is pointed, "grass" is pointed, "family rain" and "frogs everywhere" are intermingled with each other, so that the sound of rain and frogs are intertwined, forming a picture full of rich seasonal characteristics, the artistic conception is excellent: the grass by the pond is wet because of the rain, the water surface ripples with thin water vapor, the plum tree in the distance stands quietly in the night, and the frog sound is crisp and long, straight into the poet's heart.
But through the literal, not to say the whole day, as far as the "home" is concerned, the reason why the guests "have an appointment" is not coming. The sound of frogs "everywhere" renders the phenological characteristics of jiangnan plum rain. The noise of outdoor rain and frogs is incessant, and it is set off by the quiet atmosphere of the next sentence, which is like a bean, forming a strong contrast, which shows the poet's lonely mood and the unique feeling of not arriving.
The third sentence, "There is no time to spend the night and a half", this sentence only points out the title of the poem, and also makes the depiction of the scenery and sound in the above two sentences have a landing. I originally had an appointment with the guest, but I didn't see anyone in the middle of the night, no doubt because this continuous night rain prevented my friends from coming to fulfill the contract. Late at night, it is obvious that the poet has been looking forward to it for a long time, the hope is earnest, and reading the poem to this point, it seems that the situation of not arriving at the guest has been written, but a small cushion at the end of the sentence makes the poetry very colorful.
The fourth sentence, "Idle knocking on the chess pieces and falling flowers", only writes a small dynamic of the poet, but in this dynamic, the poet's anxious and expectant mood is portrayed in detail. Because a lonely person cannot play chess, it is said that "idle knocking chess pieces", the chess pieces are not knocked, but used to knock, which reflects the bitterness in loneliness; the word "idle" indicates boredom, and behind this "idle" word, it implies the poet's disappointment and anxiety.
This "The Covenanter" is extremely beautifully written, and for me, what is more important is the poet's heart. When friends do not come, they idly knock on chess pieces, which is a kind of calmness and leisure, and "falling lights and flowers" makes us feel the tranquility in the poet's heart. At this time, the arrival of friends, is it still so important? Because the process of waiting for a friend is good enough. In life, there will always be some unexpected "small troubles", instead of complaining, it is better to face it calmly and feel the beauty of life.