Author: Ye Zi
In the autumn season, although the summer mood is strong, you can already see the golden yellow sycamore leaves, which is the yin and yang quietly transforming into each other. The yellow leaves in the middle of summer and the buds of the winter solstice are all things that are meant to be outside the word, do not violate the logic of the season, but only to convey the true meaning of the season. The moonlight in front of the window, the sunset of the long river, the unspoken meaning of the poem, is also like this. The poems of the late Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin are known for their lingering pity and lamentation. The first reading of his seven masterpieces, "Night Rain Sending North", seems to violate the poet's creative logic, and tasting it carefully seems to be more obscure than other obscure works.
"Night Rain Sends North"
Li Shangyin (Tang)
Junwen returned to the autumn pond at night.
He Dang cut the candle in the west window together, but when it rained at night.
"Night Rain Sending North" was written around 851 when Li Shangyin was stranded in Bashu. The style of the poem changes the poet's usual tact and poignancy, and it seems very restrained in rendering the mood. Each sentence seems to be paving the way for the emotions that follow, and the expression in anticipation does not appear directly, but the pen turns sharply, as if to take care of him. In the author's opinion, this is because the poet, while expounding his state of mind, has hidden his judgments about his own life, the pursuit of life's memories, and his regrets about unfinished things.
The first sentence "There is no period for the return of the king". The deceased in the distance asked for the return date, and a certain Jun may be a friend or a wife of deep affection, Wang Shi. When he returned to the capital Chang'an, even the poet himself did not know. But this answer is not only for his relatives in the north, but also for Li Shangyin to write to himself. Rather than being unable to give an exact return date and generating helplessness or apologies, the poet used this question and answer to make an assertion about his current situation and even his lifelong unsatisfactory. The same assertion, Su Shi's "no wind and rain and no sunshine", expressing an attitude toward the human world, the object is actually the external world, not the self; and Li Bai's "I am born to be useful", which seems to define himself, is actually looking forward to more actions in the future, which is openness, rather than a conclusive assertion. Here, Li Yishan seems to use a seemingly ordinary reply as a determination of his own destiny. The sentence in Li Yu's "Meet and Greet" that "lonely Wutong Deep Courtyard Lock Qingqiu", the word "lock" in it is just like the "not" here, which is also an assertion of the current situation of the self. Whether it is Li Yishan's "un" or the "lock" of the Southern Tang Dynasty Lord, there are naturally unwilling and uneven inside, but more is a white depiction of the reality of life. In an unsatisfactory environment, there is little point in making value judgments about the outside world, and maintaining a clear understanding and judgment is the way for the wise to live on their own.
The second sentence, "Bashan Night Rain rises autumn pond", is a description of the living environment and seasons, and does not point out the mood that seems to be involved in the previous sentence, but while controlling the emotional outpouring, the dissection of the self is converged. This is not even a sight to behold, not "a cool autumn", or "a crane shadow in a cold pond". This sentence is an ambush pen for the fourth sentence of the poem, which is only proposed here first and then set aside. The land of Bashu is wet and rainy, and the water in the pond rises in autumn, which is nothing special. The word "autumn" seems to be melancholy again, but this is not the poet's intention, the time to write poetry is in autumn, and it is nothing more than objective here.
The third sentence is the commanding height of the mood of the whole poem, "He Dang cut the western window candle together", a "common" word, whether the object is a friend or a lover, is the true feeling of the true love. Cutting candles is naturally at night, if it is a friend, it is a friendship that is talked about at night with candles, and if it is a lover, it is a portrayal of the deep affection of the couple. So, when will we be able to join Jun, at the window at night, cut off the wick of the candle and let the little flames illuminate each other's hearts? This expectation is so common, but in the real world where the return date is unknown, it seems so difficult and hopeless. In this hopeless expectation, perhaps there is the poet's truest self. It is not that he knows that he cannot do it, nor is he "seeking revenge for no reason", but just a rational and sober person who is presenting his wishes to the deceased and to himself. Although this sentence is the most emotional point of the whole poem, the expression of emotion is still extremely restrained, and the obscurity of Li Shangyin's poetry may also lie in this kind of concealment of emotion.
The fourth sentence breaks the "unspoken rule" of never repeating the usual seven words, and the "Bashan night rain" appears again. The words "but when it rains at night" and "how" form a certain tension with the "not" in the first sentence and the "common" in the third sentence, and the poet is unwilling to say or difficult to say the true self, and finds a foothold in it. "Not" is a helpless negation, it is this negation that makes the self into a dilemma; "common" is a hopeless expectation, but the self has to be sought; "but" is a virtual reality produced under a strong imagination, and the meeting with the deceased only exists in the imagination now, but the poet has already thought out what to say, just say today's night rain and autumn pond. Thinking of this, the ego suddenly has a landing, as if the person who has not been able to meet the face is already in front of him. Later Generation Yan Shu's "At that time, I was a flower appreciator, and now there is no half of the flower appreciators", the former flower appreciators are now many gone; here in Li Shangyin, it is precisely because he deeply feels that in the real future, the people he misses today may not be able to see, so he let the deceased people immediately come to the front of the eyes and listen to the night rain of Bashan.
The fourth sentence of "Night Rain Sends North" is the poetry of the whole poem. At this point, the sober poet finally abandons his sobriety and throws himself into the fiction of self-creation. This kind of brushwork, which leaps directly from absolute reality and reason to the imaginary world, may be the only way to seek self-salvation for reason. The poem was written after Wang's death, so it has always been believed that the poet wrote it to a friend rather than a wife. But judging from the whole poem's restraint on emotions and the fiction of the meeting, isn't it more like a kind of mourning? Precisely because it is impossible for a deceased wife to say goodbye, "no period" is an assertion written to each other in this life, and "Bashan Night Rain" is both a real moment and an eternal reincarnation time in memory. Li Shangyin's seven masterpieces, seemingly straightforward, are still obscure. This obscurity does not lie in the confusion of "just being confused at the time", but in the apparently imaginary moment of escape, when the poet remains awake.
(The author is Deputy Editor, Ph.D., Guangxi Normal University Press)
Source: Guangming Network - Literary And Art Review Channel