Xie Yong, a professor at Xiamen University, used to be known for excavating scholars' past events, but in recent years he has devoted himself to interpreting Chen Yinke's poems.
After reading a few articles, I know that Xie Yongji's method of Chen poems is as follows: first look at the writing time of a certain Chen poem, and then check what eye-catching events occurred in the same time period, and then you can conclude that Chen poems are related to something.
The tricky thing about this approach is that although everything in the world is complicated, it is not difficult to find a little correlation between them.
It cannot but be said that this method of interpretation is very bold. But does it work?
Take, for example, Xie Yong's recent article "New Solution" (published by The Paper on April 9, 2022) published by the Shanghai Book Review.
A collection of Chen Yinke's poems
Chen Yinke's "Two Slogans of Conghua Hot Spring", written in 1956, is as follows:
Fire cloud steaming hot soup pool, to be washed in the city white jade grease. Unfortunately, Xi Shi's heart was not united, and he could only stay with Yu Dong Shi. (Chen's self-note: Doctors say that people with heart disease should not bathe in this spring)
Cao Xi drank seven years late ("late", Xie Yong quoted as "Hugh"), cold and warm with people's belly. The unanswered West River flows endlessly, and the mouth of the Ma Zen master is exaggerated. (Chen's self-note: Drink a lamp of hot spring water for the rest of the day)
I thought, literally, that these two poems were the work of Chen Yinke's momentary play after bathing in the hot springs. The first song is not suitable for hot springs because of heart disease, so Chen and his wife who suffered from heart disease made a joke, comparing it to "Xi Shi" and calling himself "Dong Shi". Chen Yinke's wife Tang Yun was weak all her life, and when she grew up, she was induced by myocarditis and almost died, which is recorded in many biographical materials of Chen Yinke. The second song is self-deprecating. Zen master Matsu once said, "Wait for Ru to suck up the water of the Xijiang River...", the author took this word to say that he drank a lamp of hot spring water every day, in vain to Mazu to boast, but did not know that the water of the Xijiang River is inexhaustible.
Chen Yinke took a group photo with his family
But as we all know, Chinese poetry has a tradition of rejoicing and complaining, and there is often a deep meaning outside the literal.
Before Xie Yong, Hu Wenhui and others explained these two poems, and at most dared to guess that they were related to the political and cultural atmosphere at that time. Xie Yong's new solution has taken a big step forward, referring to specific people and events, and believes that it refers to Zhang Shizhao's trip to Hong Kong.
Xie Yong's main arguments and arguments are as follows: In the same year that Chen Yin ke bathed in the hot springs and wrote poems, Zhang Shizhao was ordered to go to Hong Kong to run for peace between the two sides of the strait, and when he passed through Guangzhou, he once went to Conghua Hot Springs and wrote a poem; Zhang Shishi had a verse that reads "Alone for gelatinous plots", and Chen Shi said that "the white jade grease to be washed in the city" "Xie Yong "speculated that Chen Yinke should know this poem", and then determined that Chen Shizhao implied Zhang Shizhao's special identity and special mission. "It is a pity that Xi Shi's heart is not united, and he can only stay with Yu Dong Shi" YunYun is Chen Yinke's judgment on cross-strait relations.
The new calcite is earth-shattering, but unfortunately the argument is very weak, and the argument is close to absurdity.
Let's look at the time first. If Chen Shi was sent because of Zhang Shizhao's visit to Hong Kong, it must have been after Zhang Yu Hot Spring and Fu Shi.
Xie Wenzhong said: "Zhang Shizhao traveled to Hong Kong in March 1956" In fact, in the spring of this year, whether Zhang Shizhao really went to Hong Kong is inconclusive, and Zhu Ming, who chronicles Zhang Shizhao, is skeptical about this, because after consulting the diaries of Jin Yudi, Xu Baoyu, Gu Jiegang and others, he found that from March to May of this year, Zhang Shizhao had a record of being in Beijing (see "Who Brought "On the Origin of Regeneration" out of The Overseas" published in Sanlian Life Weekly in 2013?). article).
Leaving this aside, I would like to acknowledge that Zhang Shizhao did have a trip to Hong Kong in March 1956. But when was Chen Shi written? Hu Wenhui believes that it was February 1956, based on the fact that at that time, Tao Zhu invited some teachers from Guangzhou to Conghua Hot Spring to attend a symposium of intellectuals, and Chen Yinke and his wife attended.
This argument given by Hu Wenhui cannot be denied, so how could Chen Yinke in February write a poem for the subsequent trip of Zhang Shizhao?
In order to justify himself, Xie Yong's explanation is: "In the case of uncertainty about the specific month and day, there is a time difference of several months during the period, and it is speculated that Chen Shi's composition should be within the reasonable range after Chen Zhang's meeting." This means that although Chen Yinke bathed in hot springs in February 1956, it does not mean that these two poems must have been written in February.
Is this speculation really plausible? Xie Yong probably ignored a basic common sense of old style poetry.
The title of the poem is "Slogan". What is a slogan? The ancients also called it "mouth occupation", which means that the poet is inspired by the situation and recites casually, so the mouth occupation body is a temporary work.
Since the two poems are called "slogans", they must have been a whim by Chen Yinke when he bathed in the hot springs in February.
Let's examine the only "internal evidence" that Xie Yong found in Zhang and Chen shi, and see how much correlation there is between the "gelatin" of Zhang Shi and the "white jade fat" of Chen Shi.
Bathing in hot springs thinking of Yang Guifei thinking of Bai Juyi's "hot spring water slippery washing gel", is this not a very natural association for Chinese literati? Is it true that Chen used "white jade fat" because he had seen Zhang Shi in advance? In addition, Zhang Shizhao Shiyun "alone for the gelatinous plot", which is to attack the old era hot springs can only be enjoyed by noble concubines and other dignitaries, and according to Xie Yong's interpretation, Chen deliberately used the word "white jade fat" to imply Zhang's special identity after reading Zhang's poems, considering that the two were good friends and had mutual singing remuneration, how is this possible?
Zhang Shizhao wrote one of his own poems
"Poetry is not good", yes, but it does not mean that there is no bondage. Those who write old poems must follow that set of mature syntax, rules, etc., and the interpreter can certainly play a brilliant idea, but it must also be within that set of "rules".
Chen's second poem, first said "Cao Xi is seven years late, cold and warm with people's belly", which is clearly written that he has lived in Guangzhou for seven years, then the next two sentences "The unsolved West River is inexhaustible, and the exaggerated mouth of Ma Zen Master" can be interpreted as a general life self-deprecation, and may also imply a certain impression of the author's current politics through the form of self-deprecation. But either way, the subject of "unsolved" and "rambling" is the author himself, not another person.
In a poem, the first two sentences write about themselves, and the last two sentences can certainly jump to other people and other things, but they must meet a condition, that is, either there is a literal transition or a certain relationship in meaning. And this condition is clearly lacking in this poem.
Whether Chen Yinke's two poems have a deep meaning beyond the literal meaning, and what the deep meaning is, in all fairness, unless the author himself is called to ask, it cannot be conclusively understood. It can be seen that Hu Wenhui and others before Xie Yong are also suspected of guessing. However, because it is a relatively broad interpretation, it may be wrong, but after all, there is still the possibility of guessing correctly.
And what is the probability that Xie Yong's so-called "new solution" is correct? Frankly speaking, if Xie Yong's set of poems can be established, the entire history of Chinese poetry will probably be completely rewritten.
For example, in a certain month of a certain year, Su Shi was very happy to drink at home and gladly gave a poem, but later the interpreter checked the emperor's record and found that the emperor had also drunk alcohol in a similar time period, so he believed that Su Shi's poem was actually an allusion to the emperor's indulgence. Ask the basis, then the answer is straight: don't there be wine in both things! Isn't it a joke to interpret the poem in this way?
(The original title of this article is "The Incredible "New Solution"--Xie Yong's "New Solution" Discussion", by Huang Sanlu)