It is the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, and we meet you again when the flowers are falling.
From "The Year of Li Gui in the South of the Yangtze River" by Du Fu, a poet in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
It is common in Prince Qi's house, and I heard it several times in front of Cui Jiutang.
It is the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, and we meet you again when the flowers are falling.
Appreciation
It is sentimental about the harshness of the world. Li Guinian was a famous singer in the early years of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. He often sang in aristocratic houses. Du Fu was very talented when he was young. He often visited the court of Yuqi King Li Longfan and Zhongshu Supervisor Cui Di, and was able to appreciate Li Guinian's singing art. The first two sentences of the poem recall the past contact with Li Guinian, expressing the poet's nostalgia for the prosperity of the early Kaiyuan years; the last two sentences express his emotion about the decline of the country and the displacement of artists. Only four sentences summarize the vicissitudes of the times and the great changes in life during the entire Kaiyuan period (Note: the Kaiyuan period is from 713 to 741). The language is extremely plain, but the connotation is infinitely rich.
Li Guinian was a famous singer who was "specially responsible for Gu Yu" during the Kaiyuan period. Du Fu first met Li Guinian when he was a boy who "opened his mouth to chant the phoenix" and coincided with the so-called "Heyday of Kaiyuan". At that time, the princes and nobles generally loved literature and art. Because of his early talent, Du Fu was accepted by Qi Wang Li Longfan and Zhongshu Supervisor Cui Di, and he was able to appreciate Li Guinian's singing in their mansions. An outstanding artist is not only a product of a specific era, but also often a symbol and symbol of a specific era. In Du Fu's mind, Li Guinian was closely connected with the prosperous Kaiyuan era and his own romantic teenage life. Decades later, they met again in Jiangnan. At this time, the Tang Dynasty, which had suffered eight years of turmoil, had fallen from the peak of prosperity and fell into many contradictions; Du Fu wandered to Tanzhou, where "the bones were covered with sparse cloth, and it was painful to run around without warmth." His later life was extremely desolate; Li Guinian also lived in the south of the Yangtze River. "Whenever there is a good time and beautiful scenery, he will sing for many people. When everyone hears it, everyone will stop crying and drink wine" ("Minghuang Miscellaneous Records"). This kind of meeting would naturally easily trigger the infinite vicissitudes of life that had been brewing in Du Fu's chest.
"It is common in King Qi's house, and Cui Jiutang heard it several times before." Although the poet is recalling his past contact with Li Guinian, what he reveals is his deep nostalgia for the "heyday of Kaiyuan". These two subtitles seem to be very light, but the feelings they contain are deep and solemn. "Prince Qi's house" and "in front of Cui Jiutang" seem to be spoken casually, but in the minds of those involved, these two places where literary and artistic celebrities often gathered were the places where the rich and colorful spiritual culture of the Kaiyuan period was concentrated. The name is enough to evoke the poet's fond memories of the "heyday". At that time, it was "common" and not difficult for poets to come into contact with artistic stars like Li Guinian "a few times". Looking back many years later, it was simply an unattainable dream. The emotion contained here about the separation between heaven and earth can only be appreciated by readers by combining the next two sentences. The two lines of poems, repeated and chanted, reveal the poet's infinite attachment to the heyday of Kaiyuan, as if to prolong the aftertaste.
Memories like dreams cannot change the reality in front of you after all. "It is the beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River, and you will see it again when the flowers are falling." The beautiful south of the Yangtze River was originally a place that poets longed for for a pleasant trip in the peaceful era. When the poet was truly exposed to the situation, what he faced was the "season of falling flowers" with eyes full of withered flowers and wandering artists with white heads. "The Season of Falling Flowers" is like a calligraphy of a scene, and it also seems to have a special meaning, placed intentionally or unintentionally. These four words are a metaphor for the decline of the world, the turmoil of society and the poet's decline and wandering. However, the poet did not deliberately set up metaphors at all, and this writing method seems particularly muddy. In addition, the two function words "it is" and "you" in the two sentences are changing and falling, and there is infinite emotion hidden between the lines. The beautiful scenery of Jiangnan is a powerful contrast to the chaos of the times and the sinking life experience. An old singer and an old poet reunited during their wanderings. The scenery of falling flowers and flowing water, dotted with two haggard old men, became a typical picture of the vicissitudes of the times. It ruthlessly confirmed that the "Kaiyuan Heyday" has become a historical relic. It was an earth-shaking turmoil that reduced people like Du Fu and Li Guinian who had experienced the prosperous times to a miserable state.
The emotion is very deep, but when the poet wrote "I meet you again when the flowers fall," it ended sadly, containing deep emotion and painful sorrow in the silence. In this way, "it's just the beginning, but it's the end", and I don't even want to say more, which seems extremely implicit. Shen Deqian in the Qing Dynasty commented on this poem: "The meaning has not been stated, and the case has not been resolved." The poet's "unstated" meaning is not difficult to understand for Li Guinian, who had similar experiences; for later generations of readers who are good at knowing people and commenting on the world, It’s not difficult to grasp either. Like what Li Guinian sang in "The Palace of Eternal Life: Tanci", "The clear songs were in the sky at that time, and the drums are playing along the streets today", "I can't sing all the dreams of rise and fall, I can't play all the sad sighs, my eyes are full of desolation," etc., even though they sing repeatedly Sigh, the meaning is not more than that of Du Fu's poem, but it is very much like the playwright extracted it from Du Fu's poem.
Four lines of poems, from the "hearing" song in Prince Qi's house and in front of Cui Jiutang, to the "meeting" again in Luohua Jiangnan, "hearing" and "meeting" connect the era of forty years Vicissitudes of life, great changes in life. Although there is not a single line in the poem that directly touches on his life and life, the poet's memories and lamentations show the shadow of the great turmoil that brought havoc to the material wealth and cultural prosperity of Tang Dynasty society, as well as the consequences it caused to people. Huge disaster and trauma. It can be said that "the chaos of the world's destiny, the rise and fall of the Chinese years, and the desolation and wandering of each other are all involved" (Sun Zhu's comment). Just like there is no setting on the stage of an old opera, the audience can imagine a very broad spatial background and event process through the actors' singing performances; and just like in novels, an era is often reflected through the fate of a person. The successful creation of this poem shows that among great poets with a high degree of artistic generalization and rich life experience, a short genre such as quatrains can have a large capacity, and when expressing such rich content, it can be light and smooth. A traceless artistic realm.