Today I would like to share with you a somewhat difficult poem - Li Bai's "North Wind Line".
Let's talk about the title first, "North Wind Line" is the old title of Lefu, Bao Zhao and other poets have written it during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, generally writing about the sadness of the wind and rain in the north and the difficulty of returning pedestrians.
The earlier source is the Book of Poetry. The "North Wind" chapter in "Shao Feng" does not begin with "The north wind is cool, and the rain and snow are cloudy." "Well, the snowflakes flutter and the north wind is xiaoxiao, which sets the tone for the winter slaughter in the northern country."
North Wind Row
Li bai
Candle dragon perched cold door, the light is still open.
Why can't the sun and moon shine like this? Only the North Wind roared up from the sky.
The snowflakes of Yanshan Mountain are as big as a mat, and the pieces blow down the Xuanyuan Platform.
Youzhou Si Woman In December, stop singing and laughing at the double moth destroyed.
Leaning on the door and looking at the pedestrians, the Great Wall is cold and sad.
Don't mention the sword to save the side, leave this tiger text golden thunderbolt.
There is a pair of white feather arrows, and the spider has a web of dust.
The arrows are empty, and the people who have died in this battle will not return.
I could not bear to see this thing, and burned it to ashes.
The Yellow River is still full of soil, and the north wind and rain and snow are hard to cut.
Li Bai is best at using the old lefu topic to push out the old, so how did he write this topic? Let's look at the first six sentences, "The candle dragon perches on the cold door, and the light is still open." Why can't the sun and moon shine like this? Only the North Wind roared up from the sky. The snowflakes of Yanshan Mountain are as big as a mat, and the pieces blow down the Xuanyuan Platform. ”。 What are these six sentences written about? In writing about the wind and snow in the north, how to write it?
"Candle dragon perched on the cold door, the light is still open." At the beginning of the poem, the poet first tells a mythical story about the north, saying that there is a kind of god with a human face dragon body called the candle dragon, who lives in the yin land in the far north, and the candle dragon opens its eyes to day, and closes its eyes to night.
The problem is that there is no light in the overcast land, how to distinguish between day and night? The candle dragon has candles, and in the daytime it is lit with candles, which is a myth written in "Huainanzi", so what does Li Bai do with this myth?
The so-called "rising up" is to borrow things to make love and lead others. "The candle dragon perchs the cold door, and the light is still open." Pay attention to this "Jude" word, Judas is still ah, the candle dragon perched in such a cold cold door, but there can still be light during the day, this is a concession sentence ah.
Then the other place it leads to must be inferior to this place, right? Look at the next two sentences, "Why does the sun and moon shine less than this, only the North Wind is angry in the sky", how this place can not shine whether it is the sun or the moon, only the North Wind Fury comes from the sky, this is really a terrible place!
The sun and moon are not as good as the color, the north wind is the roar, and the heavens are the potential. Such colors and such momentum are even more terrifying and harsh than the cold door where the candle dragon stays!
So where is this place? Look at the next two sentences, "The snowflakes of Yanshan Mountain are as big as a mat, and the pieces blow down the Xuanyuan Platform." The Yanshan Mountains, on the north side of the Hebei Plain, Xuanyuantai is the place where the Yellow Emperor and Xuan You fought in that year, in today's Huailai, Hebei.
It turned out that this place was Youzhou, and the snowflakes of Yanshan Mountain were as big as the mats, and they fell on the Xuanyuan platform one by one, which was Li Bai's snowflakes.
It's not like a plum blossom, it's not like a pear blossom, it's not like a willow, it's not like any of the metaphors we've seen before about snow, it's bigger than that. It was as frightening as a mat, churning and churning in the wind one by one, and finally falling down and landing on the Regulus Platform.
That's an exaggeration, right? Of course, it is an exaggeration, but the exaggerated multi-qili, multi-transmission, just like "white hair three thousand" or "will drink three hundred cups", everyone knows that it is an exaggeration, but everyone feels empathy, as if it must be so.
So now many people do not know the complete poem, but they know that "the snowflakes of Yanshan Mountain are as big as a mat", which is the power of exaggeration.
"The candle dragon perched on the cold door, and the light was still open." Why can't the sun and moon shine like this? Only the North Wind roared up from the sky. The snowflakes of Yanshan Mountain are as big as a mat, and the pieces blow down the Xuanyuan Platform. How magnificent and terrifying are these few poems!
Black and white background, the overwhelming sound of the wind, the snow like the mat, the cold Yanshan Mountain, the Xuanyuantai that once made an ancient battlefield, put these images together, not only the winter scenery of Youzhou is written, the author's feelings are also written, what feelings?
Look at the next four sentences, "Youzhou Si Woman in December, stop singing and laughing at the double moth destroyed." Leaning on the door and looking at the pedestrians, the Great Wall is cold and sad. On this cold and gloomy December day, a si woman in Youzhou stopped singing and laughed, and tightly frowned a pair of moth eyebrows, she ignored the wind and snow and clinged to the door, looking at the passing pedestrians, why was she sad? What was she looking at again?
"Nianjun Great Wall is bitter and cold and sad", she was thinking of her husband, her husband went to the great wall farther north to become a soldier, Youzhou City is still so cold, how bitter and cold should her husband be there.
So here, how is the Great Wall wind and snow? Does the poet still want to write? There is no need to write, because the front has already laid enough, "Candle Dragon Perch Cold Gate" is already gloomy and cold enough, but youzhou is even more gloomy and cold than the cold gate, then Youzhou is not the extreme of bitter cold? Not yet.
The Great Wall is still farther north and more desolate, which is like the Northern Song Dynasty Ouyang Xiu's "Pingwu ends at the end of the Spring Mountain, pedestrians are more outside the Spring Mountain", Pingwu already needs to look far away, but there is also Spring Mountain at the end of Pingwu, Spring Mountain is already far away in the sky, but pedestrians are still outside Spring Mountain.
Far to be incredible, cold to be incredible, how to express this incredible? Instead of directly describing it, it is better to contrast with each other, once the reference is written to the extreme, then the things that the poet wants to say are self-evident, the young woman leans on the door to look forward to her husband and the husband does not return, and it is difficult to send sorrow, what to do?
Look at the next eight sentences, "Don't mention the sword to save the side, and leave this tiger text golden thunderbolt." There is a pair of white feather arrows, and the spider has a web of dust. The arrows are empty, and the people who have died in this battle will not return. I could not bear to see this thing, and burned it to ashes. ”
The husband who can't see it, the sad intestines that can't be solved, and the helplessness of all kinds, the young woman has to take out the objects left by her husband to pin her thoughts on love, what object?
"Don't mention the sword to save the side, leave this tiger text golden thunderbolt." There is a pair of white feather arrows, spider webs and dust", when the frontier husband raised the sword and ran generously to the battlefield, leaving only a quiver embroidered with tiger pattern gold thread, "lifting the sword to save the side", what a determination! "Tiger Wen Golden Thunderbolt", and how majestic, how beautiful!
In ancient China, there was a tradition of borrowing things to refer to people, so the virtuous Liu Lanzhi in "Peacock Southeast Flying" must "stomp on the silk shoes under the feet and light on the head." That heroic teenager in Cao Zhi's "White Horse Chapter" must also be "white horse decorated with gold bonds, even flying northwest", the beauty of the quiver and the whiteness of the arrow feathers represent the hero's majesty and nobility, what a perfect husband!
Of course, the young woman cherished what her husband had left behind, but she was afraid that she would see things and think of people, and she did not dare to move these things easily, and over time, the spiders were all webs on the arrows, and the white feathers were stained with dust, so when did the young woman pick up this pair of white feather arrows again?
"The arrows are empty, and the people who have died in battle will not return to them." I could not bear to see this thing, and burned it to ashes. "The husband rushed to the frontier, and the white feather arrow became the spiritual sustenance of the young woman, and she felt that the arrow was there, and the husband was still there."
However, suddenly one day bad news came, her husband was killed in battle, all worries and thoughts, all acquaintances had been disappointed, the young woman's spirit collapsed, and she took out her treasured white feather sword and burned it to ashes. How painful it is, how desperate it is to turn arrows into ashes and hearts to ashes!
Then some people may say, since the young woman's husband has died in battle, why should it be written at the beginning of the sentence "Leaning on the door to look at the pedestrians, reading the Great Wall of the King is cold and sad"? This reflects the length of the young woman's pain, her husband is dead, but every time a pedestrian comes from the road, the young woman will feel that her husband has returned.
The husband has turned into white bones, and every time the wind blows and snows, the young woman will still wonder if her husband will feel cold. A fire can burn away the white feather arrow, but it can't burn the pain of the young woman, and it is this endless pain that makes the young woman feel that Youzhou City is so dark.
The so-called "Yanshan snowflakes are as big as a mat, and the pieces blow down xuanyuantai", this is not only a portrayal of youzhou city in winter, but also a portrayal of si women's hearts, that is, under this sad and indignant mood, the last two poems rush out like volcanic eruptions, "The Yellow River is still full of soil, and the north wind and rain and snow are difficult to cut." ”。
The "Yellow River Holding Soil" uses the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. The allusion to the Zhu Fu Biography originally meant that the Mengjin ferry port of the Yellow River could not be blocked with soil, but what? Here, Li Bai said that "the Yellow River can still be plugged with soil", and even the Yellow River that is rolling in the east can be stuffed with a bunch of soil.
However, the young woman's hatred of life and death is as boundless as a long snowstorm, and it is difficult to eliminate, and what a strong feeling it is to contrast the two!
"The north wind is cool, the rain and snow are cloudy." The north wind of this angry trumpet and the wind and snow in the sky not only echo the description of the scene at the beginning, but also appropriately reflect the melancholy of Si Woman, which is not "this hatred is endless", but "tears flying as a pouring rain", shocking the world and weeping ghosts, full of Li Bai-style emotions and strength.