The word "pitiful" has seven different meanings| Wu Qiyao

Mr. Chu Yuan , who had just died ( November 2 , 1934 – February 21 , 2022 ) was the director of the film Poor Parents' Hearts (1960).

"Poor parents in the world" is a well-known saying, which is said to have originated from a poem written by Empress Dowager Cixi for her mother Fu cha's birthday: "The love of fathers and mothers in the world is the most true, and tears and blood dissolve into the bodies of children." Exhausting all his efforts will eventually be a son, and the heart of poor parents in the world. Poetry is naturally not a good poem, otherwise it would have been spread long ago, and the Qianlong Emperor wrote more than 10,000 poems, and none of them have been passed down to the world. Writing poetry in their capacity, no matter how lame the poem is, no one will be harsh. However, the phrase "poor parents in the world" is still broadcast to the population today, but most people do not know who the author is.

I remember that when I was in middle school, the Chinese teacher repeatedly warned us that "pitiful" here is not "worthy of pity" for adjectives, nor "pity" for verbs, but "lovely". I still remember living in the school at that time, there were often parents of students to send rice, vegetables and other daily necessities to the school, the Chinese teacher took the opportunity to play and said: "Parents in order for you to be admitted to college, tirelessly sent rice and vegetables, how cute the world's parents are to their children's fists." I listened to it and wondered, why must it be "cute"? "How precious is the heart of parents in the world to their children?" also makes sense, right? After class, I went to the teacher with anxiety, and the teacher explained after a moment of deep thought: "Pity" has the meaning of "love", and "pity" and "expensive" have no relationship.

I have always felt that the teacher's explanation is not unreasonable, and later went to college to read a foreign language major, busy memorizing words and memorizing texts, neglecting the study and improvement of my native language, and usually not paying attention to the understanding of some words in Chinese. It was not until he later accepted a political task to translate the classic expressions cited by the leaders of the country, including ancient poems and popular sayings, that he suddenly found that many words and sentences that he usually thought he understood could not be translated, and suddenly there was a "skill panic"! So I began to make up lessons, reading some notes on ancient poems and books that helped to improve the cultivation of ancient Chinese and classical literature, and I was quite successful in the past few years. The four volumes of "Ancient Chinese" edited by Mr. Wang Li took more than a year to read through, and although Mr. Zhang Xiang's "Interpretation of Poetry and Song Words", Mr. Yang Shuda's "Higher National Grammar", "Interpretation of Ancient Books and Sentences" and "Interpretation of Words", "Five Examples of Doubts in Ancient Books" written by Yu Fan and others, Xu Renfu's "Examples of Doubts in Ancient Books", Guo Zaiyi's "Commentaries on Exhortation Series" and Zhang Yongyan's "Brief Treatise on Exegesis", "Brief Theory of Lexical Studies" and "Collection of Language Theories", etc., although they cannot be read through, they are placed at hand for reading and viewing at any time. Although such a bad meal has also received certain results, it is not a long-term strategy in the end, and I know very well that to effectively improve the cultivation of ancient Chinese and classical literature is not a one-day achievement, it is necessary to persevere and persevere.

The topic is far away, back to the understanding of the "poor world parents' hearts". In the "Ancient Chinese" edited by Wang Li, it is said that since the Tang Dynasty, the word "poor" has been used consecutively, and there are three meanings. First, pitiful, worthy of pity. Du Fu's poem "Mourning Wang Sun": "Under the waist of BaoJue green coral, poor Wang Sun wept in the corner of the road." "Two, cute. Du Fu's poem "Looking for Flowers Alone on the Riverside": "Looking east at the small city full of smoke, a hundred flowers and tall buildings are even more pitiful." "Third, it is enviable. Du Fu's poem "Titled The Water Tower of the Ming Dynasty": "Poor guests pour over, where the old man comes to give poetry." "I looked up the Du Shiying translation of Professor Emeritus Ofe Yuwen Suoan of Harvard University and found that he translated 'Poor Wang Sun Weeping Road Corner' as: a pitiable young prince weeps at the roadside." "Poor" is translated as pietable; "A hundred flowers are more pitiful" is translated as: the tall building, the "Hundred Flowers", is even more attractive. Enviable" (enviable) there is no small distance.

Mr. Zhang Xiang's "Poetry, Song, And Phrase Interpretation" lists "pitiful" entries, which give a total of six meanings: gratifying, cute, enviable, precious, heavy, unfortunate, strange. In order to facilitate understanding, I dared to make a copy of the text, copying six interpretations and examples of verses that the reader is more familiar with, and explaining them slightly.

Poor as a gratifying righteous, Wang Changling's poem "Xiao Donkey's House Flower Candle": "Poor tonight in a thousand doors, the silver Han star chak is passed together." "It is said that Xiao Ma married the daughter of the emperor, and its gratifying feelings are like the story of the cowherd weaver girl Yinhan also." Bai Juyi's poem "Qujiang Early Spring": "Poor spring is shallow and there are few tourists, so get off the horse by the pool." "There are still few tourists who are happy to say that there are still few people, and they can walk idly by the pool."

His work is a lovely righteous person, pity has love and righteousness, Cui Hao's "Young Woman of the Wang Family" poem: "Dance loves the green of the creek before the dance, and the song is long in the night." Qian Qi's poem "Taniguchi Shozai": "After the bamboo pity the new rain, the mountain loves the sunset." These two examples illustrate that pity and love are intertextual, pity can be interpreted as love, and pity can be loved. Wang Wei's poem "Drama Rock": "Poor rock near the spring water, there is a weeping Yang whisking wine cup." "This is the loveliness of the rock near the spring. Li Bai's "QingPing Tone" poem: "Borrowing from the Han Palace who is similar, poor Fei Yan leans on new makeup." This word Zhao Feiyan is cute with new makeup. Du Fu's poem "Again at Wei Place Beggar Dayi Porcelain Bowl": "The white bowl of the Junjia family is better than frost and snow, and it is also pitiful to send Mao Zhai in a hurry." "This is the cuteness of the white bowl. Qiu Zhao'ao's "Detailed Notes on Du Shi" said: "First of all, it is precious and lovely, because I hope that he will send Mao Zhai in a hurry." "The explanation is the same. Send some quickly to my thatched study, for they are worth cherishing, without translating the meaning of white bowl cuteness. Du Fu also wrote in Du Fu's poem "Wei Satire Recorded The General Cao's Drawing of a Horse": "Poor Nine Horses Compete for the Divine Horse, Gu Shiqing is high and deeply stable. "This word of the cuteness of the god Jun also. It is touching how those nine horses compete in divine pride,their turning glances are noble and pure,their tempers deep and steady. Touching has the meaning of "touching, moving", not necessarily "cute".

His work can be envied, pity has envy, Li Shangyin's poem "Drinking Mat Drama Gift to the Same House": "The pearl tree re-engages in pity for jade, and the jade building double dances envy the chicken." "Pity and envy are intertextual, so pity can be envied." Bai Juyi's "Long Hate Song" poem: "Sisters and brothers are all in the soil, and poor and glorious people are born of portals." "This envy of the Yang family's noble Shengye." Mr. Jin Shengyao's "Three Hundred New Notes on Tang Poems": After Yang Guifei was canonized, the eldest sister married the Cui family and was named Lady Korea; the third sister married the Pei family and was named Lady Yuguo; the eighth sister married the Liu family and was crowned lady of qin. His brother Yang Feng (杨銛) was conferred the title of Hongxu Qing (弘胪卿), Yang Kui (杨锜) was conferred the title of Duke of Wei (锜锜) (锜) the Prince of Wei (锜锜) as a servant of the Imperial Household, and Yang Zhao (Guo Zhong) was particularly prominent. They were all able to divide the territory (Lietu), which was enviable enough to be envied. But Mr. Kim's interpretation of "pitiful" as "enviable and lovely" seems ambiguous, and the meaning of "cute" seems debatable here.

His work is valuable and can be re-righteous, Han Yu's poem "TingYu": "The guests are not yet seen, and they are willing to go to the gate of the quan." The power of the people, there are thousands of customers. Nine cattle died a dime, not in many rooms. There is nothing to take care of in the past, and there is no pity for oneself. "This is not a valuable thing to those who have power. Wang Anshi's poem "Passing Liu Gong's Father": "Therefore, I know that there are poor people today, and they all look back and fight narrowly." "This is said to be a valuable and heavy person, but the person who knows the fighting is a small instrument. Wang Anshi's "White Clouds" poem: "When the times come, you can be the rain, and you are the most pitiful without a heart." This remark is also valuable that Baiyun has no heart.

Pathetic, yuyun pity also. Han Yu's poem "Commentary on Gifting Cui Li": "Poor and useless spirit, like a golden throw." It is a pity that this statement is in vain and useless. And Han Yu's "Durian Flower" poem: "Poor here there are no carriages and horses, upside down moss falling into The Ying." "It is a pity that no tourists come to enjoy the flowers, and let them fall behind." Su Shi's poem "Strike Xuzhou to Nanjing Immediately Walk Away": "Poor Hong Shangshi, who listens to the sound of the middle of the moon." "It's a pity that no one listens to the sound of the water on the flood." Lu You's "Shi'er" poem: "The tooth-dropping boy Fang Realized this, but It is a pity for Weng to see things." "It's a pity that it's too late to see things.

Poor and strange righteous, the eleventh of the twelve poems of Du Fu's "Relief from Boredom": "Cuigua Bi Li Shen Yu Zhen, Red Pear Pu Tao Han Lu Cheng." Poor first is not different branches, this thing Juan Juan long life. "First, the original meaning. It means that the strange ones are originally the fruits of the branches, and the ones born from afar are beautiful. The last two sentences are translated as: Too bad they had not from the start thought such vines and branches rare—this thing is so lovely always growing far away. Li Shangyin's "Jia Sheng" poem: "The Xuanfu asked for a sage to visit and chase the courtiers, and Jia Sheng was even more ruthless." Poor night half empty front seat, do not ask the heavens to ask the ghosts and gods. "This strange Han Wen did not ask Cang Sheng but asked the ghost god also. Mr. Ye Liangqi's "Notes on Li Shangyin's Poetry Collection" has a detailed explanation of this poem: this is a borrowing of "Jia Sheng" to express the feeling of not meeting Huai Cai. Isn't it impossible to take Emperor Wen of Han's talent and Jia Sheng's talent even if they can't know each other and use their strengths? Shang Yin deeply bears the aspirations of the world, but the people he has met in his life only love his literary style, and purely treat him as a scribe who specializes in writing and ink, which is a regret that he has always been depressed, so he borrowed Jia Sheng to pour out, "ask the ghost god" is just a loan to express the sigh of not encountering the true reward. Isn't it strange that a poet has the ambition to go through the ages, but the so-called appreciators don't know! Lu You's "Ping shui" poem: "Poor strangers are far away from the grass, and one kind of spring is short and long." "This strange grass is the same as spring, but the short length of growth is different.

Combined with Wang Li's "Ancient Chinese" and Zhang Xiang's "Poetry, Music, And Words", the word "pitiful" has seven different meanings, we go back to explain "poor parents in the world", I think the "pitiful" in this sentence is "worthy of pity", "cute", "precious" seems to be indispensable, there is no need for glue pillar drums, only limited to the "cute" solution.

Finally, by the way, Mr. Zhang Xiang's book "Poetry and Song Dictionary Interpretation" is not only valued and relied upon by those who govern ancient Chinese and classical literature, but also appreciated and loved by literary creators, remembering that Mr. Sun Li once said: "Zhang Xiang's "Poetry, Song and Phrases Interpretation", I thought it was very useful, there was nothing to translate, it was good for creation. "That's a very pertinent statement.

Author: Wu Qiyao

Editors: Andy, Qian Yutong

Editor-in-Charge: Shu Ming

*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.