Interpretation丨 Chinese culture is a happy land for poetic life

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The realm of poetry, the poetic life

In the ancient Chinese mythological system, myths and legends such as Nüwa Patching Heaven, Houyi Shooting Day, and Dayu Zhishui are actually literary expressions of the heroic deeds of human heroes and clan leaders. The divinity of Nuwa and others is actually the sublimation of the noble and great personality, and they are completely different from the gods of Greek mythology who look down on the human world from the heavens and sometimes arbitrarily punish human beings. In ancient Chinese mythology, such as the Chao clan, the Fu ren clan, and the Shennong clan, they invented the construction of rooms, drilling wood for fire, and agricultural production, respectively, while the Yellow Emperor and his surrounding legendary figures are regarded as the inventors of various production techniques and cultural knowledge in ancient China. The main place of activity of the mythological figures is the human world, and their main deeds are to eliminate harm to the people and invent and create. Since the ancestors of China were convinced that culture was created by themselves, this culture must have people as its core. The pursuit of personality perfection, the pursuit of human happiness, and the pursuit of harmony between man and nature have become the core value orientation of Chinese culture.

In Chinese culture, man is the center of all things in the universe and the measure of the value of all things, and man's moral code does not come from God's commandments, but from human nature. Man's wisdom also does not come from God's revelation, but from man's heart. This mindset has laid a profound national imprint on Chinese culture, that is, the people-oriented spirit. Because of this, although the hundred sons and hundreds of families of the pre-Qin Dynasty were talking about each other, they were all the main objects of human thinking. Their wisdom is the wisdom of life, and the objects of their care are real life.

Take Confucius and Zhuangzi, two of the most important thinkers of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, as examples. In order to realize his political ideals, Confucius was in a state of panic and did not have time to warm up. After the failure of political activities, he engaged in scholarship and education in the spirit of Wei Biansanjie, and truly achieved "anger and forgetfulness, happy and forgetfulness, and did not know that old age was coming", and it was this positive and promising attitude towards life that made him feel full and confident in life, thus realizing an aesthetic sense of pleasure in the pursuit of truth and goodness, and sublimating into the realm of poetry, which is the "Happy Place of Kong Yan" that was admired by Hou Confucian.

Confucius was like this, so why should Zhuangzi be so? Zhuangzi treats life with a romantic attitude, hoping for absolute freedom beyond the real environment, but in the pursuit of the spiritual realm of life and the contempt for material enjoyment, he is the same as Confucianism. It is on the basis of this dashing and romantic attitude towards life that Zhuangzi can spread his wings and soar in the free spiritual world. The opposite of Confucianism and Taoism constitutes the basic life idea of the Chinese nation, and their attitude towards life, which scholars may call artistic or aesthetic outlook on life, I think is more accurate than calling it a poetic outlook on life. Because that persistent and dashing attitude to life, that sense of pleasure based on one's own moral perfection, that understanding of simple and simple beauty, and the pursuit of values that integrate truth, goodness and beauty, are simply indescribable except for the word "poetry".

Write your heart with poetry

Because of this, "Poetry and Speech" has become the pioneering program of Chinese poetry, and "the hungry sing their food, and the laborers sing their deeds" has become the common understanding of the essence of poetry by the Chinese ancestors. Ancient Chinese poetry was neither a tribute to Kagura nor was it expelled from the Republic by philosophers, as Plato put it. The main body of Chinese poetry is human, and the object it expresses is also human, which starts from people and takes people as its destination. The poetry creation of the Chinese ancestors is a common way for the whole nation to write the voice of the heart, and the land of China has become a country of poetry. Confucius carefully studied poetry to educate his children that the Book of Poetry was among the Confucian classics; the entire book of Lao Tzu was rhyming and could almost be regarded as a long philosophical poem; the rich imagination and vivid image of Zhuangzi made the whole book full of poetry, and the propositions in the book about "unsatisfactory speech" and "getting carried away" provided rich ideological nourishment for future generations of poetics. The two schools of Confucianism and Taoism, one positive and one negative, have watered the hearts of future generations of poets from the aspects of social function and aesthetic function, respectively. Since Chinese culture has endowed poetry with incomparably powerful functions and has become a cultural form deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, poetry will inevitably become the most dazzling pearl in the crown of Chinese culture.

In ancient China, poets became a noble title admired by the whole society, and even those who were emperors still wanted to obtain this laurel crown. In the history of China, there have been countless heroes and benevolent people, who are often outstanding poets themselves, who express their inner pursuit of the moral realm of life with beautiful verses, and poetry has become the most precious cultural heritage they have left to future generations. The Sanlu Doctor who walked in yinze and the shaoling yelao who wandered in the rivers and lakes have gained eternal life in the hearts of Chinese people with their magnificent poems, and Wen Tianxiang's personality spirit of sacrificing life and righteousness has been condensed in two poems: "Whoever lives since ancient times has not died, and whoever leaves Dan's heart to take care of Khan Qing". In modern times, Tan Sitong declared the spirit of martyrdom in two poems in prison, "I smile at the sky with a horizontal knife, and go to leave the liver and gallbladder for two Kunluns", and Lu Xun, who studied in a foreign country, expressed his full love for the motherland with the sentence "I hope that the cold stars are not noticed, and I recommend Xuanyuan with my blood". When we recite these well-known ancient poems, we receive aesthetic pleasure and moral edification. This kind of edification is not an abstract moral preaching, it will be accompanied by a beautiful artistic conception and a moving image to quietly enter the heart, it is like the spring rain of "sneaking into the night with the wind, moisturizing things silently" quietly nourishes our hearts and pushes our spiritual realm towards the sublime.

Read good poetry and achieve poetic survival

If we choose first-class poets who have a great influence on future generations in terms of both their attitude towards life and the realm of their works, we will first think of the following list: Qu Yuan, Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Shi, and Xin Zhiyi.

Qu Yuan is a unique martyr in the poetry country, but also the earliest great poet in Chinese history, his works and the "Book of Poetry", known as the two major sources of Chinese poetry, his noble and magnificent personality spirit and unswerving patriotism have become a permanent model. In that era when the debaters were running around and facing the Qin Dynasty, Qu Yuan was loyal to the motherland in life and death, and finally martyred himself from Shen Miluo. He prided himself on the small people with his noble political character, and he rejected the world with his lofty pursuit of life. Qu Yuan ended his physical life in a fierce way of self-indulgence, but gained eternal life spiritually, thus realizing the great transcendence of life.

Tao Yuanming is the most famous hermit in the poetry country, he was born in the chaotic world of the Jin, Song and Yi dynasties, his life was unremarkable, after several minor officials, he resigned and returned to his hometown, living in seclusion for the rest of his life. His works were simple in content, bland in style, and not known for their strange grandeur, and received little attention from the literary world at that time. However, Tao Yuanming's reputation behind him grew day by day, and he eventually became a cultural great man who was greatly admired by future generations. The reason is that when others are scrambling to cling to power and wealth, and the whole society is permeated with hypocrisy and impetuosity, Tao Yuanming stands out with a sincere and cunning character. Tao Yuanming has set up a typical example of poverty and happiness in history, honesty and high purity, and its significance lies in the fact that he has explained the meaning of ordinary life with practical behavior, proved that ordinary life that has nothing to do with meritorious achievements can also reach the realm of extraordinary sanctification, and also proved that simple and even poor ordinary life can also have a strong poetic meaning.

Li Bai is a unique hero in the poetry country. He is frank and uninhibited by nature, which fully embodies the romantic, optimistic, heroic and positive spirit of Sheng Tang. Li Bai's thinking is unrestrained and free, and it is by no means limited to a certain family or a certain sect. He never blindly obeyed any authority, and pursued free thought and independent will all his life. Li Bai's poetry is full of enthusiasm and bold style, pouring out like the gushing Yellow River, creating an otherworldly magical realm and containing the spirit of exploration from heaven to earth. The significance of Li Bai is that he has maintained his personal dignity with his actions and poetry, and carried forward the spirit of a high-spirited and energetic life. Reading more Li Bai can inspire our will to live, and can make us pursue the noble in the realm of life and reject vulgarity, and pursue freedom and liberation in our thinking and refuse to be cocooned and self-bound.

Du Fu is the most typical Confucian in the history of Chinese poetry. He obeyed the Confucian idea of benevolence and love for the people, and took it as his duty to care for the people of the world. Du Fusheng personally experienced the turbulent era before and after the Anshi Rebellion at the historical juncture of the Tang Empire, and the rapids and rains of the times caused great waves of emotion in his heart. Du Fu is known as the only "poetic saint" in the history of Chinese poetry because of his extraordinary personality and his poetic achievements. Du Fu's greatest significance lies in the fact that he was a poor and depressed cloth cloth clother, who had achieved no merit in his life, but he deservedly became one of the sages in the history of Chinese culture, thus achieving the greatest transcendence in the realm of life. Du Fu was the true practitioner of the Confucian proposition that "everyone can be Yao Shun", and he will always be the spiritual teacher of future generations to enhance the realm of personality.

Su Shi is the most authentic layman in the history of poetry. On the one hand, he was deeply influenced by the Confucian spirit of shushi, and his demeanor was awe-inspiring when he was an official in the dynasty, and he achieved outstanding achievements in the local official position. On the other hand, he absorbed the free spirit of independence from Taoism and Zen Buddhism, and formed a dashing and calm attitude towards life. Su Shi endured many hardships in his life, exiled three times, until the deserted Hainan, but he was proud of the difficult situation with a tenacious and open attitude towards life, and truly realized the spiritual transcendence of the reality of suffering. Su Shi loves the world, he embraces life with a broad mind, tastes life with an eclectic aesthetic taste, and his poems are rich in content and full of interest, which can be called a guide to achieve poetic survival in a stormy life.

Xin Is a rare heroic warrior in the poetry country. He was originally a good general with wisdom and courage, and when he was young, he rode on the battlefield and slashed the flag; after the southern crossing, he proposed a comprehensive anti-Jin strategy to the imperial court, and his talent was roughly unparalleled in the world. Unfortunately, the small imperial court of the Southern Song Dynasty took partial security as the national policy, and was full of suspicions about the "returnees", so xin abandoned the disease and reported to the country, and finally died of his ambitions. Xin's lyrics are full of heroic feelings of sacrificing one's life to serve the country, and are full of heroic arrogance and arrogance. As a military lyricist, he incorporated the spirit of heroism into the elegant realm of poetry, and then created a majestic and bold genre in the world of words. Reading more Xinzi can cultivate patriotic sentiments and cultivate the spirit of martial arts. The value orientation of fighting for the sake of the just cause will inevitably lead to the transcendence of the realm of life.

The above six poets have different experiences and deeds, and their poetry creations are also one, but they all transcend the actual environment in which they live with lofty pursuits, and their poems contain abundant spiritual power. Confucius said that "poetry can be prosperous", Zhu Xi accurately interpreted "xing" as "feeling the will", and Wang Fuzhi had a more detailed explanation of the role of "xing": "Those who are happy, those who are born of sex are also angry." Procrastination and obedience, the world is natural, but it is not the case, all day long and can not live beyond the Lu position, the field house, the wife, a few meters of salary, day by day to discourage their anger. Look up at the sky and do not know its height, look down at the earth without knowing its thickness, although it feels like a dream, although it looks like a blindness, although it moves its four bodies diligently but the heart is not spirited, but it is not happy. The saints teach poetry to purify their hearts, to shake their twilight breath, to accept them to Haojie and to the sages in the later period, and to save humanity from the great power of the chaotic world. "Reading poetry, reading the good poems of the above six poets, will surely awaken us from the drowsiness of the muddled state of mind, and will surely make us break free from the vulgar environment of purple and red dust, and thus make great strides in the direction of poetic survival."

Why pursue poetic survival? Because that is the highest state of life, the true meaning of life.

◎ This article was originally published in Guangming Daily (author Mo Lifeng), the source network, the copyright of the picture and text belongs to the original author.