28
Oct
"Gentleman's Journey" is a poem written by Cao Zhizuo, a famous writer of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, and the first four sentences have been circulated for a long time: "Gentlemen are defensive and not suspected; melon fields do not take care of themselves, and Li Xia is not crowned." ”
Translations
A gentleman should take precautions and not put himself in a situation that can easily cause suspicion.
Passing by other people's melon fields do not bend down to wear shoes, and do not raise your hand to tidy up your hat when passing under a plum tree.
Sister-in-law and uncle do not hand over things, and elders and juniors do not walk side by side.
Diligence and humility are the root of virtue, and it is more difficult to be introverted than to restrain oneself when alone.
Zhou Gong went to the hut to visit the poor and ask about hardships, and Corporal Li Xian repeatedly spat out the food in his mouth before he could eat.
Wash his head three times and hold his hair and come out to meet the guests, so that people in later generations call him a sage.
exegesis
(1) The melon field does not take care of the shoes, and the plum is not the right crown: when passing the melon field, do not bend down to lift the shoes; walk under the plum tree, do not raise your hand to sort out the hat, so as not to suspect that you are stealing melons and picking plums. This shows that in everything you do, you must pay attention to avoiding places that are prone to suspicion. "Northern History, Yuan Yuxiu Biography": "Guatian Lixia, the ancients were cautious. I wish to have this heart, and not to be blamed" is the truth.
(2) White house: that is, the residence of the poor family. It refers to a white roof covered with white grass, or a white house with wood without paint.
(3) One Mu Three Grip Hair: "History of lu Zhou Gong Shijia" "one mu three grip hair" as "one mu three catch hair". Holding hair and spitting and feeding is simplified from "one mu three grips, one meal and three spit feeding". This means that to wash your head once, you must hold your hair three times and stop washing your hair to receive the priests. To eat a meal, you have to spit out the food three times to answer the questions of the soldiers. This phenomenon illustrates two problems: one is that Zhou Gong is diligent in political affairs and sleeps and eats restlessly; the other is that Zhou Gongli is a corporal and receives many sages. Later generations often described this as seeking talents eagerly, courtesy corporals, and striving for talents. For example, according to the "Later Han Shu Ma Yuan's Biography", Ma Yuan was dissatisfied with Gongsun Shu's disrespectful corporal, and said to his companions: "The male and female in the world are undecided, and Gongsun (Shu) does not spit out and feeds the yingguoshi, and the figure succeeds or fails, and modifies the edges, such as the puppet shape." How long has this son been a soldier? Or to illustrate the state of industriousness. For example, Wang Chong's "Commentary on Heng and the Book": "King Wen did not have time to eat, which is said to be performing "Yi" and benefiting." Zhou Gongyi Mu held his hair three times and made it for Zhou to change the law. "Say that although they are extremely busy, they can still write books and speak immediately." Three Kingdoms Cao Zhi "Gentleman's Walk": "Zhou Gong went down to the white house, spit and fed too much to eat, one Mu three shook his hair, and was called a sage in later generations." Cao Cao also has a verse that reads, "Zhou Gong spits out and feeds, and the world returns to the heart." Later generations called spit grip, spit feeding, spit feeding grip hair, holding hair spit feeding, are different statements derived from this allusion.
Appreciation
At the beginning of the poem, a gentleman should take precautions and not let himself be in the gap and be suspected. In "Zhou Yi Ji", Yun said: "A gentleman thinks of trouble and hesitates to guard against it." This means that a gentleman should be prepared before a calamity occurs, and "not being suspected" is also an act of prevention.
In the next four sentences, four examples are used to illustrate how to "not be suspected.". The first example is not to bend down next to the melon field to lift the shoes, because this behavior is easy to be suspected of stealing melons in the field, and the second example is not to tidy up your hat under the plum tree, because this behavior is easy to be regarded as stealing the plums on the tree, and these two poems are also the source of the idiom "melon field plum".
The third example is that uncles and sisters-in-law should not pass on objects by hand, which in ancient times was not in accordance with etiquette, and mencius Li Lou Shang recorded: "Chun Yu Jie: 'Men and women are not intimate, courtesy and etiquette.' Mencius said, "Reiye." The fourth example, which states that the elder and the young cannot sit side by side or walk side by side, is also a kind of ancient ritual, which means that the elder and the young should be orderly and distinguish between honor and inferiority.
Finally, he sighed: diligence and humility always have traces to follow and rules to follow, but it is more difficult to be talented and introverted than to restrain yourself when you are alone. The ancients had the idea that silence is golden, and believed that a gentleman should be low-key and unobtrusive, "Zhou Yi Zhixia" has the saying that "a gentleman hides his instrument in his body and waits for the times to move", and in "Cai Gen Tan", there is also "the talent of a gentleman, the jade is hidden in pearls, and it is not easy for people to know." " statement.
Creative background
"Gentleman's Walk" is ostensibly a poem about a gentleman, but in fact, Cao Zhi borrowed "gentleman" to express his desire to make meritorious achievements and repay Ming Jun's ambitions, but unfortunately his situation was very different from that of Zhou Gong, and in the 12 years of Emperor Wen of Wei and Emperor Wei Ming II, he was moved many times, did not get reused, and finally ended depressed, and a generation of "immortals" fell.
Cao Zhi (192–232), courtesy name Zijian, was a native of Peiguo (沛国谯; present-day Bozhou, Anhui). A famous writer of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms and a representative figure of Jian'an literature. The son of Emperor Cao Cao of Wei and the younger brother of Emperor Cao Pi of Wei, he was the King of Chen during his lifetime, and after his death, he was nicknamed "Si", so he was also known as King Si of Chen. Later generations called him "Three Caos" together with Cao Cao and Cao Pi because of his literary achievements, and the Southern Dynasty Song dynasty writer Xie Lingyun had the evaluation that "there is only one stone in the world, and Cao Zijian has eight buckets". Wang Shizhen tasted that in the two thousand years since the Han and Wei dynasties, the poets can be called "immortals", Cao Zhi, Li Bai, and Su Shi.