Zhu Xi, a native of the Southern Song Dynasty, was a great thinker, philosopher, and educator. At the age of 19, he ascended to the jinshidi and was given the same jinshi birth. At the age of 22, he was awarded the main book of Tong'an County, Quanzhou. At the age of 24, he studied under Li Tong and established a firm belief in Confucianism. He devoted his life to writing books, establishing academies, teaching and preaching, and was a generation of chinese masters after Kong Meng. However, Zhu Xi's embarkation on the path of research and scholarship was not accidental, nor was it deliberate, but a helpless move.
In the thirty-second year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty (1162), Emperor Xiaozong ascended the throne, Zhu Xi wrote to Chen Shi, and the following year he was summoned by Emperor Xiaozong. Zhu Xi played the Three Zhas, which was not adopted by the emperor, and later returned because he advocated resisting Jin, disagreed with the leader of the Lord and the Sect, and resigned, and was sent to supervise the Nanyue Temple. After repeatedly refusing to give advice, Zhu Xi was discouraged and determined to give up rolling in the official arena, but devoted himself to teaching apprentices and immersing himself in scholarship, and later after years of research, on the basis of absorbing the academic achievements of his predecessors, he gradually formed a complete theoretical system with his own characteristics.
In the second year of the Southern Song Dynasty (1196), in order to avoid the calamity of the powerful minister Han Nongxin, Zhu Xi and his disciples Huang Gan, Cai Shen, and Huang Zhong came to the Wuyi Hall on the side of Shuanglin Temple in Fushan (present-day Zhushan Village, Sheping Township, Lichuan County) in Xincheng Ton. Later, at the invitation of Wu Lun and Wu Chang brothers in Shangtang Toad Nest Village, Nancheng County, he went to the village to give lectures, wrote "Rong Mu Xuan" for wu hall hall, "book building" for the reading pavilion, and wrote "Shecang Record" for the shecang founded by the Wu brothers, and also wrote two famous poems in the village.
"Two Songs of Reading Books with Feeling"
[Song] Zhu Xi
One
Half an acre of square pond opened, and the sky light and clouds lingered together.
Where is the canal as clear as promised? For there is a source of living water to come.
Second
Last night, the spring aquatic water on the riverside was born, and the Mengchong giant ship was light.
It has always been a waste of time to push the force, and the flow of this day is free.
These two poems depict Zhu Xi's feelings of "reading books", with the help of the phenomenon of pond water clearing due to the injection of living water, the metaphor is that we must constantly accept new things in order to maintain the vitality and progress of our thoughts.
The first song of the shanglian "half an acre of square pond is opened, and the sky light and cloud shadows are hovering together." The second sentence writes the scene: the half-acre "square pond" is as clear and clear as a mirror, and the mirror is opened to reflect the "sky light and cloud shadow". These two sentences not only present the beauty of the image, but also contain a kind of rationality: the water is clear and deep, in order to reflect the beautiful things, on the contrary, if it is very shallow and dirty, it cannot present the beauty of the scenery well.
The lower link "Ask the canal that is as clear as promised?" For there is a source of living water to come. Two sentences of discussion. The square pond is not large, it is easy to dry up and pollute, but the water in front of the pond is so clear, what is the reason? The answer to this alone is not found in the pond itself. The poet let go of his eyes, and only then did he understand that there was a steady stream of living water flowing above the "square pond", so that it would never dry up, never be turbid, and always maintain the true color of the clear cave and illuminate all things.
Although these two sentences are argumentative, they are by no means abstract reasoning, but are alluded to in the image. It clings to the upper link, delays the brush, and follows the top of the square pond to outline a babbling stream - "living water". This allows people to taste and chew its philosophical meaning from this concrete image, and the "rational interest" of the poem is also generated.
The second song "Last night the river was born in spring, and the Mengchong giant ship was light": Because "last night" it rained heavily, "spring water by the river", thousands of streams, rolling and gushing, flowing into the river, so the "Mengchong giant ship" that was originally stranded floated up like a hong mao. These two poems also describe objective things, and the image is more distinct. But the poet's purpose is not to simply write scenes, but to associate these scenes with "reading the book with feeling", thus revealing a philosophy.
The lower link "has always wasted the pushing force, and the flow of the day is free. Two sentences of reasoning. In the dry season, the shallow water is large, and a lot of effort is wasted, and it cannot be pushed. Now, the boat is moving freely in the heart of the river, without any effort. This is the rational sublimation of the poem, which vividly illustrates the importance of external conditions. Giant ships are in the water, shallow water is easy to run aground, navigation is difficult. The water depth buoyancy is large, and the water is good for boating. "Spring aquatic life by the river" and "middle stream free walk" are each other's cause and effect, and the image is vivid and vivid. In this poem, the poet uses the metaphor of pan boating to emphasize that reading and learning must make hard work and make great efforts. Only when kung fu arrives at home, can it be controlled freely and handily, which is also a new realm when life cultivation reaches the water.
Zhu Xi's two poems, one that emphasizes the subjective state of mind of the writer and the other that emphasizes the contradiction between the writer and the objective, both illustrate the utility of reading, and because of the specific reasoning of things, the reasoning contained in the changes in their things can be attributed to reading, and can also be diffused to other aspects, which also makes the meaning of the poem rich. This is why this kind of poem is not a "quotation lecture" but is full of emotion.