In 846, Du Mu had been transferred to Chizhou, Anhui, and became a Chizhou assassin, at that time Du Mu was in his prime, but his career was not satisfactory, and it was a time of bitterness. At that time, the spring rain was continuous, and it was the Qingming season of another year, Du Mu was walking on the streets of Chizhou, only to see that the pedestrians around him were about to go to worship the ancestors, as if they had lost their souls, and their expressions were so sad, they added a cloud in Du Mu's heart. Suddenly, Du Mu's spirit flashed, and good poetry fell from heaven, so he wrote a famous poem throughout the ages, "Qingming", for:
During the Qingming Festival, the rain is pouring, and the pedestrians on the road want to break their souls.
Asking where the restaurant was, the shepherd boy pointed to the apricot blossom village.
This "Qingming" has been sung for thousands of years, and now it is also included in our teaching materials, and most people can recite it out of the mouth and praise it, which shows the status of "Qingming" in people's hearts and its own level.
The brilliance of the poem "Qingming" lies in its creation of an artistic conception. During the Qingming Dynasty, the smoke and rain are hazy, and the drizzle is like silk, which lowers the brightness of the whole picture at the beginning, creating a sad and depressing atmosphere. In the second sentence, the people who go to worship the ancestors look sad and bored as if they have lost their souls, further showing the sad situation.
When the poet saw this scene, his heart was like a fish in his throat, and his nose was sour, so he thought of finding a restaurant to drink some wine to dispel his sorrows, so he asked the shepherd boy on the road where this restaurant was. But the shepherd boy did not speak, but slowly extended his finger and pointed to the distant apricot blossom village, even the children who should have symbolized hope, should be full of vitality, lively and naughty, at this time were silent, which showed the sadness and depression in the hearts of every household during the Qingming Period.
The whole poem reads as if it were like seeing a light ink painting, making people feel as if they really entered the hazy and depressing chaotic situation at that time, and felt the melancholy, melancholy, melancholy but indescribable sadness, which made people shake their hearts.
It is precisely because of this that this "Qingming" has been able to resonate with countless people, and still stirs our heartstrings after a thousand years, becoming a truly famous work through the ages. The vast majority of experts and scholars also greatly praised "Qingming", and Luo Dajing's "Shixing" commented that "Qingming" is "here, and the meaning is there, and the playful taste is recognizable."
However, among the voices of praise, there are also many voices of doubt, the most important of which is that there is a redundancy in the words of "Qingming". For example, the famous poet Xie Hao of the Ming Dynasty proposed in his "Four Ming Poems" that the poem "Qingming" can be abbreviated into a five-character poem.
For example, in the first sentence, the title of the poem is already "Qingming", and the word "Qingming" in the first sentence can go up. In the second sentence, since it is already a "pedestrian", it is natural to walk on the "road", so the word "on the road" is also slightly redundant. In the third sentence, "where" is already asked, then the word "borrowed" is redundant. In the fourth sentence, "pedestrian" has been mentioned earlier, and with a subject, the removal of the word "shepherd boy" does not affect the poetry.
Therefore, Xie Hazel believes that Du Mu's "Qingming" can be completely changed to a five-character poem, such as the last two sentences, which can be changed to "where is the restaurant, the apricot blossom village on the river", or "the sun oblique people are planning horses, the wine shop apricot blossom west", etc., if there are other better solutions, they are not afraid of much.
For xie hazel and other scholars, in fact, it is not completely unreasonable, one of the most exquisite points in ancient poetry is the refining of characters. Every word in a poem must have its specific meaning and usefulness, and if a poem has a complicated meaning, it is not a good poem. Xie Hazel's move is a point that needs great attention in the appreciation of poetry.
However, Xie Hazel focused too much on the so-called alchemy and neglected the more important poetry and the musical beauty of the poem itself. First of all, five words and seven words themselves are two concepts, five words because the sentence is shorter, the rhythm can not be twisted and reciprocated, so it will be more bright and short to read, so the five words are more suitable for expressing cheerful, admiration, majesty and so on.
But the seven words are different, seven words and one sentence is "ping ping ping", the rhythm has 3 back and forth, it is more tactful to read, and the error between the verses is longer, so it is more suitable for expressing sadness, mourning, quiet, elegant emotions.
Take the "borrowed to ask where the restaurant is, the shepherd boy remotely refers to the apricot blossom village" and "where is the restaurant, the apricot blossom village on the river" two sentences to compare, it is obvious that the former read the mood is more sad and poignant, while the latter is more short and bright, who is more suitable for the clear mood of the two, naturally it is self-evident.
In addition, the words that Xie Hao mentioned that can be omitted cannot be easily omitted. For example, the "shepherd boy" in the last sentence of "Qingming" is very necessary. As mentioned above, even a child who should be happy and happy, when he arrives at the Qingming season, he is so depressed that he does not say a word, which further expresses the lingering melancholy that hangs in everyone's heart during the Qingming season, and the "Apricot Blossom Village on the River" cannot achieve such an effect.
Therefore, on the whole, the author believes that the words of scholars such as Xie Hazel are quite overcorrected, at least compared with the revisions proposed by him, the original text of Du Mu's "Qingming" is more moving and poignant. But everyone's understanding of poetry will be different because of their personal interests, personalities, experiences, and artistic sensitivities, so how do you think about Xie Hao and others?