When Wang Wei was young, he wrote a long Yuefu song entitled "Peach Blossom Spring", which was completely based on Tao Yuanming's "Peach Blossom Spring". Later, he mentioned the Peach Blossom Source many times, and until his later years, he wrote a poem to Pei Di saying: "Leisurely plan the quinoa cane and return to the Peach Blossom Spring." "There were many poets in the Tang Dynasty who sang about the Peach Blossom Spring, but few people did not hesitate to create the Peach Blossom Garden for themselves for many years like Wang Wei. Wang Wei's peach blossom source is the Rim River, which is the place where he lives in seclusion, the place where he vacations and relaxes, the place where he recites poems and paints, and the place where he worships Zen and worships Buddha. However, because he was an official in the court and was busy with official business, the days he really lived in Gongchuan were actually limited. Most of the time, he came on holidays, sometimes for more than half a year between leaving and coming. In the poem "Farewell to Gongchuan", it is said that "less than a year to Dongshanxiang, it is not time to plant spring fields when you return", which should not be an exaggeration.
At the beginning of the ninth year of Tianbao (750), Wang Wei passed away because of his mother, and he lived in Gongchuan until the spring of the eleventh year of Tianbao (752). He has lived in Gongchuan for more than ten years, and if you want to say that he has lived in adulthood for months, it has been these three years. It is likely that it was during this long and leisurely period that he calmly managed his Peach Blossom Spring, so he had twenty scenes of Rim River, and then chanted with Pei Di one by one, so there was "Rim Chuan Collection".
Gongchuan Beiye not only owns the house that "the Rim Water is around the house" mentioned in the "Old Tang Book", but also wins with landscape gardens. In contrast to the mansions in the city, they often have private gardens and are located in places with mountains and rivers. Ancient Chinese garden art began as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and developed to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and private gardens flourished with the gate lord clan. And because of the ideological trend of advocating Laozhuang, as well as the flourishing of pastoral poetry and landscape poetry, natural landscape gardens came into being. By the Tang Dynasty, garden art had matured, on the one hand, adapting measures to local conditions, skillfully borrowing the beauty of natural landscapes, and on the other hand, exerting imagination and integrating poetry and painting. Wang Wei is a master of writing landscapes, and is a master of painting landscapes, he loves nature and is obsessed with garden art.
It's a pity that the other industries and gardens of the Tang Dynasty have all disappeared, and Wang Wei's Gongchuan other industries are no exception, but he left behind the "Gongchuan Collection". There are 20 scenes in Gongchuan Beiye, and Wang Wei and his friend Pei Di each gave five unique songs, a total of 40 songs. Wang Wei prefaced: "Yu Beiye is in the Gongchuan Valley, and its tour stops at Mengchengao, Huazigang, Wenxingguan, Jinzhuling, Luchai, Mulan Chai, Zhuyupan, Gonghuaimo, Linhu Pavilion, Nanyuan, Xianghu, Liulang, Luanjiase, Jinshaquan, Baishitan, Beiyuan, Zhuliguan, Xinyiwu, Qiyuan, Jiaoyuan, etc., and Pei Di is leisurely, each endowed with quatrains. I think I am proud of it, just such a short preface, but Wang Wei did not hesitate to list the twenty scenes of the Rim River one by one. Judging from the name of the scenic spot, there are only Wenxing Pavilion, Zhuli Pavilion and Linhu Pavilion that really have buildings, and the rest should be adapted to local conditions and skillfully borrow the beauty of natural landscapes. However, "clever borrowing" is not the same, with Wang Wei's artistic ingenuity and Zen philosophy, he must also have exerted the skills of managing the garden. For example, Wang Wei, who knows the wonder of "returning to the deep forest and shining on the moss", will he put some strange stones covered with moss in his garden? Will Wang Wei, who chanted "sit alone in the secluded fence and play the piano and roar", will he make his bamboo forest dense so that the clear light of the bright moon can sprinkle into it? Will Wang Wei, who wrote "hibiscus flowers in the wood, red calyx in the mountains", prune his Xinyi flowers and trees into a beautiful posture?
What is the garden art of the twenty views of the Rim River, it can only be left to reverie. Fortunately, Wang Wei's songs are left in every scene, so let's select the three most famous songs from the "Rim River Collection" to enjoy them. Let's take a look at the fifth song "Luchai" first:
There is no one in the empty mountain, but there is a sound of people's voices.
Return to the deep forest, and revisit the moss.
There are mountains, people, sunsets, and deep forests in the poem, and there are too many things to write about from any of these angles, but the poet writes in the most subtle places. In the first two sentences, the mountain is only written as "empty", and the person is only written as "human language", and between "empty mountain" and "human language", it constitutes a very wonderful poetry. First, it is precisely because of the silence of the empty mountains and fields that the voices of people and people can be heard. Second, there is no sound in the mountains, and there is no shadow, but I hear the "sound of human voice", which contrasts with the silence with sound, which makes people feel quiet. Third, after the "human voice", the mountains and fields returned to silence, and their "emptiness" became more and more apparent. Wang Wei, who often lives in seclusion in the mountains and meditates, can best appreciate the "emptiness" of the mountains, and this technique of contrasting the "empty mountains" with "human voices" should benefit from the real experience of living in the mountains for a long time, and also benefit from the musician's artistic sensitivity to sound.
In the last two sentences, there are three images: "returning to the scene", "deep forest" and "moss". Between the three, they form an ethereal and quiet picture, containing an indescribable Zen interest. In the last sentence "return to the scene into the deep forest", there is only one word "enter" between the two images, and the picture is very beautiful. "Returning to the scene" is the same as the afterglow of the sunset. The deep forest in the evening is dark, and the sunset is obliquely reflected, and the rays of light form a strong chiaroscuro contrast with the deep forest. The next sentence, "Repeating the moss", focuses on the close-up where people are most likely to ignore. "Moss" grows in dark and damp places, and the reason why it grows in the deep forest is because the dense trees block the strong rays of the sun. At this time, the sunlight is the dim afterglow of the setting sun, and it is only because it is reflected obliquely that it can shine on the green moss. "Fu" means again, and when used here, there is a change in time. If the "return to the scene" is reflected in the "deep forest" and the "moss" is regarded as the same time, it is not unavoidable. But the poet's intention seems to be more than that, what he wants to convey is that the afterglow of the setting sun is reflected in the dark deep forest, and as the sun sets, the angle and brightness of the light continue to change, and finally "again" a touch of the slanting sun shines on the moss. Without the tranquil state of mind of a meditator, it would be difficult to write such subtle verses.
This little poem expresses the emptiness and tranquility with Zen fun. "There are no people in the empty mountain", the pen is an empty and lonely mountain with no shadow. "But I hear the sound of people's voices", with movement against the static, it seems more and more empty. "Returning to the deep forest" highlights the empty and quiet scenery. "Reflecting on the moss", it writes the emptiness and silence to the extreme.
The seventeenth song of "Gongchuan Collection" is "Bamboo Pavilion". Different from the empty silence and tranquility of "Lu Chai", "Bamboo Pavilion" is full of the joy of returning to nature:
Sitting alone in the secluded grate, playing the piano and howling.
Fukabayashi Ignorant,Ming Moon Rai Aiteru.
What is expressed in the poem is not only Yaxing, but also a kind of Yixing. "Sitting alone in the secluded fence" at night in the mountains and wilderness, such a situation is elegant and refined, but it is inevitably a little cold and lonely, right? But what the poet wants is to be free, here, he is far away from the hustle and bustle of the capital, the treacherous clouds of the court, the cases of official business, and the endless trivial matters and entertainment in the secular life, he can free himself as much as possible, and he can be unrestrained. He "played the piano and whistled", played the piano, and led to a long whistle, so uncomfortable!
However, if a person sits alone in the deep bamboo forest, and is "playing the piano" and "howling", who will listen to it? This is not Chang'an, the capital city, and his music performances, paintings, poems, calligraphy, and even a few philosophical and Zen interpretations can always win the applause of others. There are only mountains, rivers, grasses, birds, beasts, insects and fish, and only the starry sky and the bright moon overhead. The world doesn't know, so what's the matter?" people in the deep forest don't know, and the bright moon comes to take pictures. The bright moon seemed to understand the sound of his piano and whistling, and sprinkled the light like water into his bamboo pavilion. The word "come" personifies Mingyue, and it is as cordial and harmonious as a close friend.
In ancient poetry, "playing the piano" is mostly the elegant act of the gentleman and the hermit, and the "long howl" often reminds people of the passionate expression of the warrior, but the poet is "playing the piano and repeating the long howl". It turns out that the gentleman who plays the piano under the moon also has passionate times, he can sing and howl, or he can say "the bright moon comes to take pictures". Tonight's bright moon is not the moon where he wrote poems at the emperor's behest and should be written, nor is it the moon that sings in harmony with his subordinates, but the moon that listens to his piano and whistling, and the moon that he is alone. He is naturally integrated with heaven and earth, his mind is unhindered, his mind is refreshed, and Yixing follows. It can be said that in a quiet and vulgar atmosphere, it shows ease and passion, which is also one of the reasons why this little poem is attractive.
The eighteenth song of "Gongchuan Collection" is "Xinyiwu". "Dock" is a high and low place around the terrain, and "Xinyi Dock" is a low land where Xinyi flowers bloom. In the poem, it is said that "there is no one in the stream", which shows that this land is located next to the mountain stream. The full poem is as follows:
Hibiscus flowers, red calyx in the mountains.
The stream is lonely, and they open and fall.
"Wood dust" refers to the treetops, and "hibiscus flower" refers to Xinyi flowers. Xinyi flowers are divided into white and purple, and today the white ones are usually called white magnolias, and the purple ones are called purple magnolias. The purple Xinyi flower has huge petals like a hibiscus, and the color is beautiful, and it blooms at the top of the treetops, so the poet says "Mumo Hibiscus Flower". Such a delicate flower "red calyx in the mountains" hides in the mountains and valleys, and blooms in the empty mountains.
With the first two sentences, according to the general way of writing, the last two sentences either sing about the beauty of Xinyi flowers, or praise the indisputability of Xinyi flowers, but the poet suddenly turned his pen and ink and wrote: "The stream is lonely, and they are blooming and falling." "The mountain stream is empty, and the Xinyi flowers are blooming and falling. "Stream" refers to the fact that the rocks on both sides of the mountain stream are facing each other like portals, and this is the mountain stream. The second line of the poem just says "the red calyx in the mountains", and the fourth sentence says "one after another opens and falls", which is of course not what you see in a moment and feel in a day. The flowering period of Xinyi flowers is about two months, and it is not as short as cherry blossoms and the like, and it blooms and falls as it goes. The poet writes that Xinyi flowers "bloom and fall one after another", first of all, by using exaggerated techniques to highlight the feeling and emphasize the passage of time.
But the moral of this sentence is much more than that. Think about it, in the empty and uninhabited rock valley and mountain stream, the Xinyi flowers bloom and fall by themselves, and they are self-extinguished, what kind of artistic conception is this, and what kind of Zen realm is this? Hu Yinglin said it well, he said that this is "a work of entering Zen", "reading the life and experience of forgetting, all thoughts are silent."
In the view of Buddhism, flowers bloom and fall, people have life and death, there is no difference, everything is natural and casual. But from the world's point of view, human life and death are great things. Even the famous Yongjia Xuanjue Zen Master couldn't help but sigh when he first saw the Six Ancestors Huineng, "Life and death are big, and impermanence is rapid." Hui Neng told him, "Why don't you take the idea of lifelessness and speedlessness?" Why don't you experience "lifelessness" in order to understand what you mean by "impermanence and rapidity"?
"Unborn" is a Buddhist term that means there is no birth and no death, no birth and no death. Wang Wei believes that in the face of ruthless years, only by understanding "no life" can people get out of the trouble of life and death. His poem "Sitting Alone on an Autumn Night" says: "Sitting alone with sad temples, empty hall and wanting two watches." The mountains and fruits fall in the rain, and the grass and insects chirp under the lamp. White hair will never change, and gold will not be made. If you want to know how to get rid of old age and disease, you can only learn without life. The poem "Sighing White Hair" says: "In the past, Zhu Yan became twilight teeth, and his white hair became drooping. A few sad things in my life, I don't sell them to the empty door. Both poems lament the passage of time and the brevity of life, emphasizing the need to find liberation from Buddhism. If "the fruits fall in the mountains in the rain, and the grass and insects chirp under the lamp" is to render the sadness of the dissipation of life, so as to pave the way for the last two sentences "If you want to know how to get rid of old diseases, you can only learn without life", then the "no one in the stream, one after another" in "Xinyiwu" is itself a symbolic picture and a hint of Zen, subtly conveying the understanding of "lifeless".