cattle
Song Ouyang Xiu
Sunrise East Hedge Yellow Sparrow Frightened,
Snow sells spring grass sprouts.
The slope of the earth is flat and slow,
Carrying a child with a calf.
The sun rises, the morning glow awakens the yellow finches in the trees, and the birdsong that rises and falls pleases the morning light. The spring breeze is budding, and the last bit of residual snow in winter has melted and revealed grass buds.
Looking up, the flat and wide field is endless, and an old cow in the field walks slowly, carrying a shepherd boy lying on his back, followed by a calf.
This poem was written in the fourth year (1059) of the Northern Song Dynasty, when Ouyang Revised served as a Scholar of Hanlin, a reviser of the Embassy, and a governor of Kaifeng Province, holding several positions. Presiding over the cultivation of the New Book of Tang and the Kaifeng Prefecture of Quanzhi were very tedious and arduous, and the responsibility was heavy, even the young and powerful prime-aged people were tired of coping, not to mention that Ouyang Xiunian was nearly a flower armour and suffered from eye diseases, foot diseases, thirst-quenching and other diseases (possibly diabetes), and his body was very weak.
Physically ill and weak, coupled with his disapproval of Wang Anshi's new method, Ouyang cultivated a heart of retreat. He said in the preface to the "Return to the Field": "Now that he is old and sick, he will eventually bear the favor of the Lord, and he will spend the money of the peasants for a long time, and he will be the rat of Taicang." For the sake of the sub-plan, it is said that it is advisable to beg for the court, to retreat from the glory and favor, and to travel to the acres of the land, to do the best of the heavens, and to steal the name of the sage who knows the end."
This self-prologue adopts the form of "subject-guest Q&A" commonly used in the "endowment" style article, and says in the tone of "hearing and slandering the remnants" and rebuking "me": "You are old and sick now, you should no longer eat vegetarian food in the corpse, hurry up and apply for retirement and return to the field to live in seclusion, maybe you can still fall into the name of a wise person who knows what is in and out." These words were spoken under the pretense of others, expressing Ouyang Xiu's desire to return to the hidden countryside.
Also writing about cattle, Kong Pingzhong said that "the old cow has coarse cultivation debts, and the grass slope lies in the sunset", and Li Gang said that "but all sentient beings are full, and they do not hesitate to lie in the sun". Although this poem is about cattle, it is written in a leisurely and distant pastoral scenery, which is exactly what the poet's heart wants.