I believe that when it comes to the Northern Song Dynasty poet Zhang Xian, poetry lovers should be familiar with it. Of course, it is not strange to a large extent not because of how high Zhang Xian's writing level is, but because of a story circulating.
Legend has it that Zhang Xian, when he was gray-haired, married an 18-year-old girl, and Su Shi, who was a good friend at the time, went to the wedding banquet and wrote a "crooked poem" to ridicule Zhang Xian:
Eighteen brides eighty lang, pale hair against red makeup.
Mandarin ducks are lined up in double nights, and a tree of pear blossoms presses begonias.
But in fact, this is just a fabricated story, not a real historical event. At that time, Zhang Xianna's concubine Su Shi did write poems for him, but it was written "Zhang Ziye's Eighty-Five Shangwen Buying Concubines shu Guling Poems". But it is undeniable that Zhang Xian did "make a name for himself" because of this fabricated story.
In fact, Zhang Xian's own writing achievements are also extremely high, because the image of "shadow" often appears in his lyrics, and he writes pictures very well, especially "the clouds break the moon to make flowers and shadows", "delicate and lazy, curtain rolling shadow", "soft willow swaying, falling light and shadowless", Zhang Xian has won a "Zhang Sanying" reputation. In addition to this title, Zhang Xian actually has a "peach apricot marrying Dongfeng Langzhong" ya number, and the origin of this ya number is related to an interesting incident when Zhang Xian was young.
Zhang Xian was also an amorous talent when he was young, and once had a good relationship with a little nun, and the two often met. The Buddhist Gate was originally a pure place, and when the nunnery learned of this, they locked Xiao Ni in an attic and did not allow him to be with Zhang Xian. The love of young people is always moving forward, and even if there are more obstacles, they will try to break through. In order to meet Xiao Ni, Zhang Xian often sneaked into the nunnery. It's just that the good times are not long, and this matter was finally discovered by the nunnery, and the two were forced to break up due to helplessness. On the occasion of parting, Zhang Xianyi reluctantly wrote the following love words to express his feelings.
"A Bunch of Flowers"
When is it too old to be poor? Nothing seems to be affectionate. Detachment from sorrow is leading to a thousand chaos, more strange, flying and misty. Riding is getting far and farther away, the dust is constantly collecting, where to recognize the traces of Lang!
The water of the double mandarin pond is dissolved in the swamp, and the north and south are small and crossed. After dusk, the ladder horizontal painting pavilion is still, and the moon curtain is tilted. Hate and think carefully, it is not as good as peach apricot, and it is better to marry the East Wind.
The first sentence of this poem is a sigh that goes straight to the chest. When will the melancholy of ascending to the horizon and pinning on acacia stop? In fact, there is a lot of information in this short sentence, the writer has climbed the stairs many times before, but the parting thoughts are still impossible to discharge, and this sadness has always haunted his heart. The next sentence is the answer to "when is the poor", there is nothing else in the world more intense than sincere feelings, so it is not difficult to see the sincerity and obsession of the writer for this relationship.
The next three sentences are the feelings of the woman seeing Fei Fei. Looking at the willow branches swaying with the wind and the flying feathers floating around, I can't help but provoke the woman's inner thoughts. However, the lyricist used a very special way of expression, not to say that the real scene seen caused the melancholy, but to write the melancholy that caused the willow branches and flying fissions that I saw. Such an empathic technique has no intention of writing invisible thoughts into tangible and qualitative, and it can be said that there are other ingenious ideas.
The last three sentences are the scene when the woman ascended to the heights and could not help but recall the scene when the lover left, he rode away on a horse, slowly disappeared into the dust that rose, and now looking far away, he is no longer there, which is where does the woman go to find him? This scene makes people read it and can't help but appear in front of their eyes a woman image like a wangfu stone, which makes people sad.
The first two sentences of the next sentence of the woman's gaze gradually moved from the distant sky to the pond not far away, only to see that the Mandarin ducks were in pairs, but the woman was indeed alone, such a contrast was undoubtedly more desolate, looking at the small boats, the woman could not help but remember that the lover was also riding a boat to meet herself.
The next three sentences describe that the sun has sunk, near dusk, the woman's eyes have returned to the attic where she lives, the ladder that once erected the attic window has been removed, and the lover can no longer climb into his boudoir from here, leaving himself looking at the window that will never be entered again.
The last three sentences are in li he's "South Garden" in the "poor sunset yanxiang fall, marry and the east wind without mediator", writing that the woman's heart is full of sorrow, remembering her own zero life, just like the helpless floating peach blossom apricot blossom, but the peach blossom and apricot blossom still knows that when it is withering, it is good to have a home. And I am not as good as peach blossoms and apricot blossoms, and I can only spend my youth in loneliness and loneliness, which is how sad it is.
Zhang Xian's poem is indeed written in a long and compassionate way, especially the last three sentences are the finishing touch. After Zhang Xian wrote this poem that year, this word was widely circulated, and Ouyang Xiu loved it after reading it, and admired Zhang Xian very much, only hating not being able to see him in person. Later, Zhang Xian passed by the place where Ouyang Xiu was to visit him, and Ouyang Xiu did not even wear shoes and hurried to greet Zhang Xian, and shouted directly in his mouth, "This is 'Peach Apricot Marrying Dongfeng' Langzhong." It is not difficult to see the influence of Zhang Xian's poem at that time.
What do you think about Zhang Xian's words? Feel free to speak up in the comments section.