Why did you write three eulogies to yourself before you died?
On the fourth day of the Chinese New Year, the grandmother was buried, and according to the custom, the Buddha rose to mourn, entered the cemetery, and the coffin could not be seen when the sun came out. The funeral procession hovered over the mountain road, and the people in pairs of threes and threes talked loudly about the latest situation, and if it were not for the filial piety on their bodies, they would think that they were going on a wild outing. Walking in the crowd, I couldn't help but think of two poems by Tao Yuanming, "Relatives or residual sorrows, others have also sung."
Among the poets of ancient China, Tao Yuanming was probably one of the authors who most liked to think about death. While he was alive, he wrote three "Quasi-Elegy Words" for himself.
Elegy is the ancient people to sing the song when the funeral, the earliest elegy was produced in the Spring and Autumn Warring States, after the Han and Wei dynasties to sing elegy is one of the funeral customs stipulated by the imperial court, "bang" means to mourn the dead.
The two most famous elegy of the Han Dynasty, one is "Artemisia", the other is "Xuelu", "Xuelu" is the Han Dynasty specially written for the funeral of the prince and minister, it can be seen that people at that time already had this awareness, even if it is the life of the prince and minister, it is not as good as a dew on the blade of grass. Xue Lu said in the middle, "Xue Shang Lu, He Yi Xi." The Ming Dynasty of LuXi fell even more, and when people died, they returned. "The dew on the blades of grass, as soon as the sun comes out, is dried, and the dew is dried, and at night there will be new dew falling. But when a person dies, he never comes back.
Tao Yuanming wrote in the third part of the "Proposed Elegy Lyrics", "The wild grass is vast, and the poplar is also XiaoXiao." In the middle of September, he sent me out of the hospital. He imagined that his death would take place in the autumn, when everything on the earth was slaughtered, and everyone was in pain, and sent his body to the outskirts of the city to be buried. He then imagined what life would be like after death, "Once the secret chamber is closed, there will be no return to the dynasty for a thousand years, no dynasty for a thousand years, and the virtuous will not be helpless." After the funeral procession had finished worshipping, everyone closed the last tomb brick, and an eternal darkness began in this burial chamber, and the morning sun was no longer visible the next day. Whether it's a thousand years, or ten thousand years. So where did those who came to deliver funerals go, Tao Yuanming said, "They have always sent people to each other, and each of them has returned to his home." Relatives or grief, others have also sung. "After attending the funeral, your immediate family may still be sad, but others have really sung songs and run to their respective lives."
Tao Yuanming thought about how people should face death, and he felt that when people are alive, they should have a consciousness, and this consciousness is "what is the way to die, the body is the same as the mountain", which means that when we are alive, we must have a kind of enlightenment, that is, to discover and understand the natural flow of life, and live endlessly. In this way, when imagining life after death, you can imagine that you have become another form, but still exist in the world, and man is only subsumed into the torrent of life. Then we, like the mountains, look speechless, but as eternal as the mountains, standing as tall as the mountains.
Reading Tao Yuanming's poems can be a good consolation of death anxiety. Because in his pen, every grass and tree has feelings, and every grass and tree has humanity. His people are "born and die, and it is not a fate to die." Yesterday twilight is the same person, this day in the ghost record. The nature of his writing is that "when the heavens and the earth are not long, and the mountains and rivers are unchanged, the stings are terrified, and the grass and trees are stretched." Flying birds. "When spring comes, those little bugs that are dormant, when they hear the thunder, wake up in fright. Those plants and trees are also like children who have just woken up. Beginning to stretch their waists horizontally and vertically, the birds of spring flew and breathed, and they gathered their wings and stood on the branches and sang happily.
Tao Yuanming has a poem called "Rongmu" Rongmu refers to the hibiscus flower, the ancients believed that the hibiscus flower blooms and falls, and its life is only one day long. So it has another name called Shunhua. The Book of Poetry also says that "there are female chariots, Yan Ru Shunhua". Because the life of hibiscus is so short, if the hibiscus flower is used as a metaphor for our life, where is the meaning of our life so fragile, short, and small, Tao Yuanming used two different narrative methods to express, showing two possibilities, one is meaningless, the other is meaningful.
The first chapter of the "Rongmu" reads, "Picking the Rongmu, taking root in The Zi, shining in the morning, and dying in the evening." "Rongmu flaunts its beauty when it opens in the morning, and it doesn't know that its life is only this short day. Then he said, "Pick the wood, Yuztogen." Prosperity rises, and twilight does not exist. At this time, Rongmu had a sigh and a thought when he opened in the morning, "Bandit DaoYi, Bandit Xi Dun" Since life is not long, since everything is unsure, then simply do what you think is right, that is, we say but do good deeds, do not ask about the future, Tao Yuanming thought of using moral commitment to provide meaning for meaningless life.
The aria of the loss of life is the eternal theme of literature and art, and Tao Yuanming of the Eastern Jin Dynasty can have such a thorough understanding of life and death, and the magic is that these perceptions and theories are still avant-garde and fresh ideas today. Whether you like it or not, death will come to you, and you can only be in awe of this, and there is no choice. To explore death is to break through loneliness and find inner freedom. Death is also an extremely complicated thing, but our culture is secretive about it, life and death is a compulsory course for everyone, only by understanding death, can we live more calmly and steadily.