An old song, although it has been a long time, but because of the melody and euphemistic vicissitudes, it can make people tireless. An ancient poem, even if it spans thousands of years, can also resonate with readers because of its sincere emotions and novel themes. Every time I read Du Fu's Three Officials and Three Farewells, I will be touched by the broad heart of the poet Sheng; every time Jiang Chengzi recites Dongpo, he is also struck in the heart by Mr. Du's sincere words.
Poetry has such a magical charm, sometimes just a few words, it makes people reverie; sometimes it is just a simple description, and it makes people cry; sometimes it is a few words, but it is very ironic. For example, the famous Southern Song Dynasty poet Liu Kezhuang's "Pengchen Is the Matter":
The poet Ander has a green shirt,
This year and a million.
Since then, the West Lake has been planting willows,
Leftover mulberry trees raise Silkworms.
Liu Kezhuang (Chinese: 刘克庄; pinyin: Lī Kīng Đạng), a native of Putian, Fujian, was a famous poet of the late Southern Song Dynasty. He once served in the imperial court, but his time was short, because he wrote two poems", "Dongjun falsely holds the power of flowers, but he is afraid of being lonely and high", which offended the emperor and the courtiers, and was dismissed from his post and idle. He studied the spirit of Lu You and created many poems that reflected real life, and this poem "Pengchen Is a Matter" reflects real historical events.
In the second year of the Southern Song Dynasty (1206), Emperor Ningzong of Song adopted the advice of the powerful minister Han Nongxin and hastily sent troops to attack Jin without adequate preparation. As a result, due to poor planning and poor command, the battle was lost. The government and the public were in an uproar and became angry with Han one after another, so they killed him, sealed his head, and sent someone to Jin Ting to beg for peace.
In the first year of Jiading (1208), that is, the year of the Xia calendar, the peace agreement was completed. From then on, Xiang Jin claimed his nephew, and the annual currency increased to 300,000, and another 3 million taels of silver and 300,000 silk horses were given to the "army money". This was another peace treaty after the "Shaoxing Peace Conference" and the "Longxing Peace Talks". The "immediate matter" in the title of this poem is to give a poem inspired by this event of loss of power and humiliation of the country.
In the opening sentence " The poet Has a green shirt " , the poet wrote from his own life , pointing out that the people of the Southern Song Dynasty were even difficult to buy the cheapest clothes , and life was extremely inconvenient. The "green shirt" here is quoted from the "Book of Poetry Zheng Feng" "Qing Qing Zi Gong", posterity believes that "Qing Gang, Green Collar, the student's clothing", Green Shirt is the reader's home casual clothing, here refers to the daily clothes of the people. So the author here asks, what is the reason why even cheap clothes are not available?
In the second sentence, "This year and the millions of people", the poet angrily points out the reason, the court took a lot of money to please the Jin people, so that the people were exhausted. The "He Rong" here refers to the negotiation with the Jin people; "缣", is a kind of double silk fine silk. In ancient times, peacemaking was often made with a bow as a gift to "lose sincerity" to the other party.
Compared with the Northern Song Dynasty, the territory of the Southern Song Dynasty has been greatly reduced, and with the destruction of the war, the Huainan and Jianghan regions have become a ruin, and the south bank of the Yangtze River has also been greatly damaged. When it was already in the situation of "the people's strength was trapped and the people were starving", the rulers of the Southern Song Dynasty, in order to cope with the insatiable demands of the Jin people, had to increase the "old coins" again, which caused a shortage of materials in the Southern Song Dynasty and the people did not want to live!
The third and fourth sentences, "From now on, the West Lake will be planted with willows, and the remaining mulberry trees will be planted to raise Wu silkworms" can be regarded as black humor! Literally, it was for the Southern Song Dynasty, but in fact it contained sharp ridicule - if the "Herong" policy is not changed, even if the West Lake grows mulberry silkworms, it will be difficult to satisfy the desires of the Jin people.
The Southern Song Dynasty poet Chen Dewu also has a similar saying in the "Water Dragon Yin": "The first state in the southeast, the West Lake has been beautiful since ancient times." ...... Ten miles of lotus flowers, three autumn guizi, four mountains clear and green. So that a hundred years of southward crossing, a moment of great mastery, have forgotten the aspirations of life. "Lux pushes the mountain, Tianwu moves the water, and makes the peasant mulberry land."
In order not to let the imperial court continue to indulge and lead to the accelerated demise of the country, they all suggested that the imperial court should make the West Lake a nongsang land, produce more materials, pay tribute to the Jin Dynasty, or ensure people's living needs. Of course, they knew that the Southern Song court could not possibly adopt their suggestions, so they only used it as a kind of irony.
Looking at the whole poem, although it is only four short sentences and twenty-eight words, it is small and large, and a major theme linking the rise and fall of the national fortune and the mourning of all peoples is included in the ordinary and common scenery, allegorizing irony and discussion in the image, and there are ups and downs within the scale, reaching a high degree of unity between the truth of life and the truth of art, showing a painful scene of tragedy in a specific historical period. The poet's feelings of worrying about the country and the people are also rippled in a thousand folds.