Time flies, and we must turn our days into poetry

Authorized images | Teng Shoushi photographed

Source: Digest Newspaper (excerpt from "Mo Lifeng Says Tang Poems")

The most famous metaphor of time in ancient China was proposed by Confucius. Confucius stood on the edge of the big river, watching the gushing river flowing to the east all the time, and sighed: "The deceased is like a sif, not willing to give up day and night!" In the Han Le Fu folk song "Long Song Line", it is said: "When will the hundred rivers go east to the sea, when will they return to the west?" The young man does not work hard, and the old man is sad! "What is time like in the chants of the ancients?"

Years and years and years and flowers are similar

The poet contrasts human life with nature, and feels that life becomes too fast, but nature seems to be permanent. Therefore, Liu Xiyi of the early Tang Dynasty wrote two famous sentences: "The flowers are similar from year to year, but the years are different." Legend has it that after Liu Xiyi wrote these two famous sentences, his uncle, the famous Song Zhiqing, saw these two poems written by his nephew and was very envious and felt that they were too well written. When he learned that Liu Xiyi's poems had not yet been read to others, he begged him and said: If you give me these two poems, you will say that I wrote them. Liu Xiyi refused. Legend has it that because Liu Xiyi refused to transfer the copyright of these two poems, Song Zhiqing killed this nephew.

Of course, this legend is untrue. It shows that these two poems are so well written that Song Zhiqing did not hesitate to kill people because he was jealous and hateful. It contrasts the short life with the eternal nature, which is both vivid and concise, so it has become a warning sentence.

When Du Fu was forty-seven years old, he was in Chang'an, and it was after the Anshi Rebellion that the Tang army had just retaken Chang'an, and Du Fu returned to the capital with the imperial court. Du Fu's career was not smooth at that time, and his mood was very depressed, and that spring he came to Qujiangchi in the southern suburbs of Chang'an, and when he saw the falling flowers flying, he couldn't help but feel very sad, he said: "A piece of flowers flying but spring, the wind is drifting ten thousand points is worrying." "It is when there is a petal on the branch that floats down, the spring color is reduced by a few points, and now "the wind is drifting", which is too sad.

The same scene, in Li He's pen, is "the situation is that the youth day will be twilight, and the peach blossoms will fall like red rain." Peach blossoms fell one after another, like red raindrops, and the poet was very sad. It is precisely because the poets are sad when they see the flowers falling, so they must seize the opportunity to appreciate the flowers.

Li Shangyin is the best at appreciating flowers, he even said: "After the guests wake up late at night, they even hold red candles to admire the remaining flowers." "It is that he drinks with the guests during the day while admiring the flowers, and in the late night, the guests are scattered, and he wakes up after getting drunk, and he feels that he is not finished, and picks up a candle to go to the courtyard to admire the residual flowers." Why do you have to seize the time to enjoy the flowers at night? Because the flowers will be thanked tomorrow, Li Shangyin seized the last opportunity to enjoy the flowers.

In Li Shangyin's view, even the plants that have withered are worth watching. There is such a detail in "Dream of the Red Chamber", that is, Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu and others play together in the Grand View Garden, Baoyu saw a pool full of dead lotus leaves, said that he hated these dead lotus leaves the most, and tomorrow called someone to pull it out. Lin Daiyu said that I don't like Li Shangyin's poems very much, but one of his favorite sentences is called "Stay dry and listen to the rain." Although the lotus flowers have long withered and the lotus leaves have begun to dry up, the raindrops on them make a very pleasant sound, so it is necessary to leave those dead lotus leaves. This is Li Shangyin's poem, and this is the Tang Dynasty poet's feeling about flowers blossoming and falling.

The moon is not long, round, and the flowers are easy to fall

The blossoming and falling of flowers makes people sigh, and the same is true for the lack of a full moon. One of the Xinlefu poems written by Bai Juyi is called "Shangyang White-Haired Man", which is the Shangyang Palace in Luoyang, a cold palace of the Tang Dynasty, where the emperor rarely went. "Shangyang White-Haired People" is written about the unfortunate palace women who are locked up in the cold palace, because of their beautiful appearance, they were selected to enter the palace at the age of sixteen, and then locked up in the cold palace, until the age of sixty, their hair was white, and they were still locked in the deep palace. All of youth, all of life, was buried in that dark and dark palace.

When reading this poem, the most touching thing is four sentences, related to the moon, Bai Juyi said: "The warbler returns to the swallow to grow quietly, and the spring to autumn does not remember the year." But looking at the bright moon in the deep palace, the east and west are four or five hundred rounds. "It is the palace maid who is locked up in the deep palace, and as the year goes by, her spirit is numb, and time feels meaningless." Spring has passed, autumn has come again, year after year, and I can't remember exactly how many years have passed. They only remembered that every night they were so miserable that they could not sleep, and they looked at the bright moon in the deep palace in a daze, and the moon was round and missing, missing and round, and there had been four or five hundred rounds, that is, more than forty years had passed. This is the vivid impression that the moon has left on the palace women, and it is also the vivid impression that the moon has left on the poet.

Similarly, when Wei Yingwu was an official in Chuzhou, he had two good friends, one named Li Yan and the other named Yuan Xi, and once, two friends had not seen him for more than a year, and both of them said that they wanted to come to visit him this year, but they always did not come, so Wei Yingwu wrote a poem to ask them: "Wen Dao wants to come to inquire, and the West Building looks at the moon several times." "I heard that you were coming to see me, so I went up to the West Building to look at the moon, and the moon has been round several times, that is, several months have passed, and you have not yet come. It can be seen that the moon has changed from a circle to a lack, and from a lack to a circle, and the poet often uses this image to represent the passage of time.

It is precisely because the moon is not often round, and the flowers are not often blooming, there is a poet named Wu Rong in the late Tang Dynasty, who wrote a poem that is the most beautiful scenery, called "the moon is not long and the flowers are easy to fall"! The moon rarely becomes round, but the flowers are easy to wither, and this most beautiful poem is all about the facts. Therefore, the poets are very sad to see the lack of a full moon, and they must seize the opportunity to appreciate the bright moon in the sky. Didn't Li Bai say, "This month once illuminated the ancients, and the present people did not see the ancient moon," but at the same time he said, "I hope that when the song is against the wine, the moonlight will always shine in the golden bottle." He hoped that when he sang about the wine, the moonlight would always shine in the wine glass, that is, to drink against a round of bright moon, and to seize the time to appreciate the moon.

And you have to live for half a day

In 822, Han Yu was fifty-five years old, and he lived for a total of fifty-seven years, when he was already in his twilight years. Han Yu's officials at that time did a great job, and they became "officials and waiters". On a spring day that year, from morning onwards, the sky was overcast, and in the evening, it turned clear. So Han Yue was in a happy mood, so he asked his friend, a poet named Zhang Juyi, and another, the more famous poet Bai Juyi, who asked Zhang Juyi and Bai Juyi to say that we should go to the South Qujiang River in Chang'an City to enjoy the spring together, because it was not easy to get sunny.

As a result, in the evening, Zhang Zhi arrived as promised, but Bai Juyi did not come, and Han Yu wrote a poem to rebuke Bai Juyi, saying that I asked you to swim in the spring, why didn't you come? The poem is very interesting, he wrote: "The desert is light and cloudy and opens at night, and the blue sky and the day reflect the terrace." Qujiang River is full of flowers and thousands of trees, and refuses to come when there is a bottom busy? "The sky is overcast, and in the evening the clouds disperse, and as soon as the sky turns clear, the blue sky and white clouds and the pavilions on the edge of the Qujiang River are reflected in the water, and the scenery is very beautiful." The Qujiang Pond is already full of spring water, and thousands of trees and flowers are blooming on the water's edge. "Such a beautiful view, why don't you Bai Juyi come?" Are you so busy that you don't come to see such a beautiful view? Han Yu scolded Bai Juyi in this way. Yes, we should also ask ourselves, "When you are busy, you refuse to come", are you so busy?

Let's take another example of the late Tang Dynasty poet Li Changfu. Li Changfu's poem, there are two poems can not be mentioned, Li Changfu said: "If there is nothing to do, it should be difficult and more flowery!" "What do you mean?" That is, if you had to wait until nothing was going to see the flowers, then the flowers would not exist for a long time. We often meet such people, and if you persuade him to go and see the flowers, he will say, Oh, I'm busy, and I'll go see it when I'm done. He didn't expect that things would never be finished, and when you finished everything, there would be no more flowers. Not only are there no flowers in nature, but even the flower season of life has passed. Therefore, leisure must seize the opportunity.

Another poem by the Middle Tang Dynasty poet Li Shi. The content of Li Shi's poem is more special, and the gist of the first two sentences is that I was busy all day long, so busy that I was groggy, and suddenly heard that spring was almost over, so I seized the last opportunity to climb the mountain. The last two sentences are very interesting: "Because of the words of the monks in the bamboo courtyard, I have to float for half a day." ”

Now some friends, they will also take time to go to the scenic area to relax for a few days. But when they got there, what did they do in the green mountains and rivers? They pull out their phones and ask "what's wrong with the stock market" or if there are any opportunities for promotion in the unit. People with this mood, even if they are in a beautiful scenic spot, cannot appreciate the "flower morning and moon".

We should be like Li Shi, who ran to the temple to play, and gossiped with the monks who no longer cared about the political situation in the imperial court and how his promotion was, and he at least temporarily gave up these things, so that he could "float for half a day", which is the real sense of leisure.

Old age sad autumn strong self-reliance

Autumn, in the eyes of ordinary people, is a season of sadness. Jia Dao has such a famous sentence: "The autumn wind blows the water, and the fallen leaves are full of Chang'an." "In autumn, the scenery of autumn winds and falling leaves can be said to be a depression. But if you look at autumn with an aesthetic eye and a healthy mindset, it also has something to appreciate.

Liu Yuxi liked autumn, he said: "Since ancient times, autumn is sad and lonely, and I say that autumn is better than spring dynasty." From ancient times to the present, every autumn, everyone said that they were very sad and felt very lonely, but I said that autumn is better than spring, if you don't believe it, please see the next two sentences: "A crane in the clear sky is lined with clouds, and it leads poetry to Bixiao." "On a clear autumn day, there are no clouds in the sky, and a crane flutters its wings and soars straight into the clouds, thus leading my poetry to the blue sky. As long as you have this mood, then autumn also has a pleasing view.

In the autumn of the year when Du Fu was forty-seven years old, his mood was very melancholy, and he went to a friend's house in Lantian County to celebrate the Chongyang Festival, and he said: "When you are old and sad and autumn, you are strong and self-reliant, and you are happy today." "It is that the old people are easy to be sad, so they reluctantly comfort themselves: today is the Chongyang Festival, and I want to spend a good festival with my friends." At the end of the poem, it is said: "Next year I will know who is healthy, and drunk to look at the cocoon carefully." "On the day of the Chongyang Festival, the ancients planted a herb called Zhu Yu on their bodies, which is said to be able to ward off evil spirits, which was a custom at that time.

Du Shi means that it is completely unpredictable whether we are still alive or not to celebrate the festival now, and that we are still alive today next year. So we must seize the opportunity in front of us, take advantage of the fact that we are still alive, quickly and carefully watch the Cocoon, and happily celebrate a Chongyang Festival.

Whether a person can live happily depends on your own psychological state, as for the external scenery, flowers, or months, this is secondary, the key lies in your mentality.

Frost sideburns Ming Dynasty another year

The moment when people can most painfully feel the speed of time is the end of the year, that is, the Chinese New Year's Eve. One year on Chinese New Year's Eve night, the poet Gao Shi was on a journey, spending the New Year alone in a foreign land, very bored and lonely. Under the complicated mentality, Gao Shi wrote a short poem with two sentences, saying: "Hometown thinks about thousands of miles tonight, frost sideburns Ming Dynasty another year!" "Chinese New Year's Eve night, I was supposed to be reunited with my family, but I am now alone on the road, so tonight I especially miss my hometown thousands of miles away and my family in my hometown." The second sentence is that I have two sideburns stained, my hair is white, and tomorrow it will be another year, which is of course very emotional.

When Du Fu was forty years old, he was in Chang'an, and we know that Du Fu entered Chang'an from the age of thirty-five to seek an official position, but he has not been successful, and he has been in Chang'an for ten years, life has become more and more difficult, and there is no way out politically, this state has continued until the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion at the age of forty-five, which is the so-called Chang'an Decade.

The year of forty years old was a midpoint in Du Fu's Chang'an decade. On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve that year, Du Fu stayed alone in Chang'an for the New Year, because his family was poor and could not support his wife and children, so he sent his wife and children to relatives in other places to foster care. If you stay in Chang'an alone, how did you spend this year? Du Fu had a nephew named Du Wei who lived in Chang'an. He went to this nephew's house for the New Year. Chinese New Year's Eve night, Du Fu was full of emotions and wrote a poem with the following two sentences: "The forty Ming Dynasty has passed, and the twilight scenery is soaring." "That is to say, I am forty years old this year, and by tomorrow, I will be forty-one years old, so forty years old is only until today, and tomorrow will pass." Time, it is really like a horse galloping, in the blink of an eye, the slanting sun has been shining in the west, and life is about to enter the twilight years.

In the eyes of the ancients, forty years old is the age when there should be some signs of success in life and career, and at this time, Du Fu is about to exceed forty years old, and he has achieved nothing. He wanted to seek an official, there was no way out politically, his ideals could not be realized, even life became a problem, and he had to go to other people's homes in the New Year, so he said "Forty Ming Dynasty", how many emotions are contained in this bland sentence!

Advise the king to take a young age

The poem that best combines leisure and deeds is the last poem in the "Three Hundred Poems of Tang Dynasty", "The Golden Robe".

"Golden Silk Dress", there are many books that say that Du Qiuniang wrote, "Three Hundred Poems of Tang Dynasty" said that du Qiuniang composed, in fact, it is not, Du Qiuniang only sang this poem, this is a popular song in the Middle Tang Dynasty, there were many people singing at that time. Du Qiuniang was a famous singer in Jinling, and later married a person named Li Kun as a concubine, Li Kun was very fond of singing this song "Golden Silk Dress", so Du Qiuniang often sang with him. Du Qiuniang is a legendary woman, the experience is very complicated, if everyone is interested, you can read a poem by Du Mu, called "Du Qiu Niang Poem".

"Golden silk clothes" are clothes made of gold thread hooks, very precious, the whole poem is four sentences: "Persuade the king not to cherish the golden silk clothes, persuade the king to cherish the youth." The flowers can be folded straight and folded, and there is no need to fold the branches without flowers. "It's you, don't cherish this golden robe too much, although it is a dress made of gold thread, it is very precious, but you should not cherish it." Why? Because you have something even more precious to cherish, that is, "when you were a teenager." "Youth" is the era of youth, the time of youth, you have to double cherish the beautiful youth. Three or four sentences are saying that when the flowers are full of branches, you should hurry to fold the flowers, do not wait until the flowers have withered, you will not fold the flowers, at that time you can only fold an empty branch, because the branches have no flowers.

The poem "The Golden Robe", please think about it, does the poet want us to cherish time and enjoy life, or let us cherish time and hurry to do business? I think there are both, and both are fused in this poem. Folding flowers at the moment of full bloom can not only be a metaphor for enjoying life, but also symbolize making full use of good youth. The poet does not say it explicitly, but the reader may wish to associate it with his own. So I think the best poem about the Tang people's cherishing of time is this "Golden Silk Dress". Of course, the late Tang Dynasty poet Wang Zhenbai wrote a more popular poem called "one inch of time and one inch of gold", but that poem was not written beautifully enough, and it was this "Golden Silk Dress" that was written beautifully.

Ru feng everyone