Every day poetry hunting, pay attention to the reading dogs!
In ancient times, all kinds of flowers, birds, fish and insects had certain symbolic meanings or beautiful meanings. For example, the four gentlemen in the flower, Meilan Zhuju, symbolize the qinggao festival of the literati and gentlemen, the deer symbolizes the authority of the world, the fish symbolizes the prosperity of life, the crane represents longevity, and the swallows pin their nostalgia.
In the eyes of the ancients, even small insects had their symbols and meanings. In the writer's pen, bees and butterflies are synonymous with prodigal sons, dragonflies symbolize spring and youth, fireflies have a strong and tenacious spirit, and spiders often mean "joy from heaven" and long-term reunion.
So what is the symbol and meaning of the cicadas that "squeak, squeak" in the forest in summer? In ancient times, cicadas had two spiritual meanings and a symbol of destiny in people's hearts. Let's dissect them one by one.
Yu Shinan, a poet of the early Tang Dynasty and one of the Twenty-Four Heroes of LingYange, wrote a poem about cicadas:
cicada
Don Yu Shi Nan
Drink the dew,
Flow out of the tree.
Speak loudly and far away,
Not by the autumn wind.
The little poem is to the effect that cicadas suck on clear dew in the woods, and their cries come out of the sparse sycamore leaves. The reason why its chirping is heard far away is not because of the impetus of the autumn wind, but because it is at the end of the tree, high up.
"Speak high and far away", this poem not only tells the common place in life, but also metaphorically refers to a spiritual symbol of the cicada - high! In the hearts of the ancients, the cicada symbolized the noble character. Yu Shinan's small poem focuses on its "high" quality, praising the high standard rhyme of cicadas, and relying on things to speak of zhi, metaphorically stating that it is tall and clean, without the help of external objects.
The meaning of the cicada is gao jie, Yu Shi nan alone sings its high, and Luo Binwang's "Cicada in Prison" focuses on its "purity":
Cicadas in prison
Don Luobin Wang
The cicadas of the West Land sing, and the South Crown guests think deeply.
The shadow of the kanxuan came to groan at the white head.
It is difficult to fly heavily, and the wind is loud and easy to sink.
No one believes in purity, who gives to the heart?
Yu Shinan, as one of the twenty-four heroes of Ling Yan Pavilion, was in a high position, and Wing Cicada only took his "high", while King Luo Bin was imprisoned for opposing Wu Zetian and was imprisoned, and Wing Cicada naturally expressed his "purity".
"It is difficult for the dew to fly heavy, and the wind is loud and easy to sink", referring to the difficult situation of the cicada, the dew wetting the wings makes it difficult to fly, and the wind is so loud that the cicada's chirping is drowned out. It is both a cicada and a plight of yong himself who is in prison. The last two sentences, "No one believes in purity, who gives to the heart" speaks of the cicada's noble character and discipline, and the cicada speaks to himself, and makes a defense for his own purity.
From these two Tang poems, it can be seen that "high" and "clean" are the spiritual meanings of the cicada, which symbolizes the innocence, purity, and purity of the literati and character. In addition, from Luo Binwang's poem "It is difficult to fly in the dew, the wind is loud and easy to sink", it can also be seen that the cicada also symbolizes a kind of fate.
The Han and Wei poet Cao Zhi once wrote a "Cicada Endowment", which contains the sentence "Groan hoarse to be frustrated, and withered to lose shape", which means that the hoarse voice is close to death, and the body is withered and eventually lost. It symbolizes the difficult survival of cicadas and symbolizes the fate of poverty and sorrow. The late Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin's cicada poem expresses the meaning of fate symbolized by the cicada - "poor":
Don Lee Shang-yin
Ben was difficult to satisfy, and he hated it in vain.
Five more neglectful, one tree is merciless.
The thin eunuch stem is still widespread, and the old garden has been flattened.
Annoyed Jun is the most vigilant, and I am also a clean family.
In Li Shangyin's pen, the cicada is in a high place but "difficult to satisfy", and the daily chirping is "futile". The cicadas ate and drank, but they did not have enough to eat, and their cries were almost hoarse but they could not get the sympathy of the trees. The fate is poor, troublesome, and difficult, combined with the poems of Luo Binwang, there are also "dew and heavy flight is difficult to enter, the wind is loud and easy to sink", which shows how bumpy the life of the cicada is. This difficult and troubled fate is the third symbolic meaning of the cicada.
Li Shangyin's life was a difficult career, so he entrusted himself to express his poor life, unfair fate and difficult situation.
Three Tang poems, one showing the cicada's meal and drinking dew, high standard yi rhyme, one expressing the cicada's innocence, and one sympathizing with the cicada's hardships and poverty. From these three poems, it can be seen that in the minds of the ancients, the cicada symbolized noble conduct, but also symbolized the fate of poverty and sorrow.