At the "Chinese Poetry Conference", Kang Zhen mentioned Meng Haoran's "Su Jian Dejiang", and explained the famous sentence "Wild Sky Low Tree" in the poem as: Because the field of vision is particularly wide, it feels that the sky is lower than the tree, this tree instead goes to the sky, and the moon is very close to us.
When I first learned of this incident, I personally thought that Kang Zhen's interpretation was "not in the middle, nor far away". After all, "poetry has no reach", the appreciation of classical Chinese poetry mainly relies on stimulating the reader's own associations and achieving the purpose of moving. So what you see, it's what it is.
The poem "Su Jian Dejiang" was written in the eighteenth year of the new century (730 AD), after Meng Haoran went to Luoyang to seek official frustration, and when he traveled south to Zhejiang Zhongzhong.
Appreciation of "Su Jian Dejiang"
"Su Jian Dejiang" - Tang Meng Haoran
Nagisa, Nippori guest new.
Wild sky low trees, Jiang Qingyue is close to people.
In fact, when Meng Haoran created this poem, he also wrote a poem "Sutong Lujiang Sent Guangling Old Tour", poem Yun:
The mountain is listening to the ape's sorrow, and the cangjiang river is rushing at night.
The wind whistles the leaves on both sides of the river, and the moon shines on a lonely boat.
Jiande non-Wu tu, Wei Yang reminisced about the old tour.
There will also be two lines of tears, sent to the west end of the sea.
From the content of this poem, we can see that Meng Haoran's mood at that time was very low. Initially, because of Wang Wei, he got an opportunity to meet with Tang Xuanzong, thinking that he could become an official and show his talents.
Unexpectedly, because he wrote a poem "Returning to Nanshan at Dusk", he offended Tang Xuanzong and cut off his career. Originally, he came to Chang'an with great ambition, but after the setback, Meng Haoran's emotions and thoughts entered a confused and overwhelmed state.
Therefore, Meng Haoran did not return directly to his hometown, but traveled south alone. When he came to Jiandejiang, he wrote down the famous sentence of "wild sky and low tree". In fact, this sentence is not puzzling for people who often travel outdoors.
If, on a particular night, you walk on an endless prairie and look at the bright moon in the sky, you will find that it seems to be in a lower position than the trees nearby.
Therefore, it seems that the "wild sky low tree" actually refers to the fact that the plain field is reckless and the sky dome is hanging low, so it seems that the position of the nearby tree is higher than the sky.
However, some people retort that if the "wild sky and low tree" can be interpreted as "the tree is higher than the sky", then the next sentence "Jiang Qingyue is close to the people" should not be interpreted as "The river is farther than the moon"?
The answer is: Yes. Because this is the artistic effect that Meng Haoran wants to achieve. The bright moon in the sky reflects on the water, and the author feels very close to him when he sees the bright moon.
However, why do you feel that "Jiang" is far away from you? Some people will say that this is because the "river water is clear" and there are no water marks, so Meng Haoran feels that the "river" is farther away from him.
In fact, it may also be because Meng Haoran was drunk at the time. Meng Haoran traveled south twice in his life after frustration and wrote at least three poems.
In addition to "Su Jian Dejiang", the scenes of homesickness and tears are mentioned in the two songs of "Su Tong Lu Sends Guangling Old Tour" and "Early Cold and Nostalgia". It can be seen that Meng Haoran's mood at that time was unusually low.
What needs to be explained here is that Meng Haoran is an "alcoholic". Li Bai once mentioned in the poem "Sending Meng Haoran" that he was "drunk in the moon and frequently sacred", which means that he was often in a state of drunkenness.
A person with rich feelings, after encountering a career blow, is "in tears" due to low mood, and at this time, he still does not borrow wine to pour sorrow? In this way, do the things that are not clear in the "wild sky and low trees, Jiang Qingyue is close to people" still need to be explained more?
In short, Meng Haoran was crying and drunk a lot, so at that time he just wrote down his "drunkenness".
The reason why the last two sentences of "Su Jian Dejiang" are seen by Meng Haoran after drinking high wine, there is also evidence, that is, the first sentence of the poem that has puzzled many people for many years - "Moving the boat to the yanzhu".
As we all know, "Nagisa" refers to a small island in the river. The location of this small island is in the Jiande section of the present-day Xin'an River in Zhejiang, and according to the title of "Sutonglu Sent Guangling Old Tour", a more accurate location may be the "Tongjiang" section.
The width of the Xin'an River is about 100 to 350 meters, and the "Tong River" is its downstream tributary, and the river surface is narrower. Then, the largest area of the island where Meng Haoran stopped his boat could not exceed 150 square meters.
On such a small palm island, it is impossible to see the scene of "plain wilderness and wilderness", and the sky dome hanging low on the horizon. So, how did Meng Haoran see such a scene? Naturally, drink too much.
The reason why Meng Haoran wrote the two sentences of "Wild Sky and Low Tree" and Li Bai wrote "Raise a glass to invite Mingyue and make three people to the shadow" is for the same reason. If you agree with this interpretation, then it is easy to understand the true meaning conveyed by Meng Haoran in "Su Jian Dejiang".
Because of frustration, loneliness, loneliness, so buy a boat to go south, drunk and hallucinations. In the poem, "heaven" is written lower than the tree because he wants to be close to "heaven"; "moon" is written close to "river" because he wants to invite the moon as a companion.
This is a poem that expresses the poet's loneliness and loneliness, longing to be close to heaven and man. What makes it brilliant is that it does not directly describe the inner loneliness like the author's other two poems, but all conveys emotions through the description of external scenes.
Now, let's look back at Kang Zhen's interpretation of "the tree went to heaven instead", do you think there is a problem? The answer is: one thing.
First of all, when Meng Haoran wrote this poem, it was possible that he really saw the scene of "the tree went to heaven instead". But the poems written by Meng Haoran are not simply drunken graffiti. He used the wine to inspire and then create.
After the wine wakes up, Meng Haoran will also make changes. Otherwise, why didn't he just write "drunk and look at the sky and low trees", and add the word "wild" in front of the verse?
With the word "wild wilderness", it can expand the reader's imagination of poetry, making people automatically think of the feeling of being on the vast desert wilderness, which is the wonderful thing about classical Chinese poetry. If kang zhen's interpretation is followed, this poem seems too shallow.
In addition, according to Kang Zhen's interpretation in the "Chinese Poetry Conference" program, it seems that he did not realize that Meng Hao's next two poems were actually his own "drunken illusions".
epilogue
Professor Zhao Changping once said: Many experts who understand classical poetry generally do not like to translate ancient poems because they are thankless. Ancient poems are concise in vocabulary and too rich in connotation. A poem can often be interpreted in many ways, and some interpretations are still in opposite directions.
However, it is not completely impossible to correctly understand the connotation that ancient poetry wants to convey. Scholars interpret ancient poems by referring to the time of their creation, the author's experience and emotional state at that time. Interpreting ancient poems in this way is more convincing.
"Wild sky low tree" is generally interpreted as: because the plain field is vast, it seems that the position of the sky dome is lower than the tree. If we combine Meng Haoran's emotional state of frustration and loneliness at that time, it is also reasonable to interpret it as the author's "hallucination after drinking, seeing that the sky is lower than the tree".
Kang Zhen interprets it as "the tree went to heaven instead", which is similar to the second interpretation. But he is only literally interpreting the ancient poems, and does not combine the state the author was in at that time to understand, so many netizens will feel a little "absurd" when they listen to it.