Chapter 33 Preface to Twenty Poems on Drinking Alcohol (Part 1)

Yu lives in solitude, and the night is longer than that. Occasionally, he drinks famous wine every night.Gu Ying was alone, and suddenly became drunk again.After getting drunk, I entertain myself with a few sentences.There are so many papers and inks, and there are no interpretations of words.Talk to the old man to write it, and think it is a laugh. Decline and prosperity are uncertain, and they are more in common with each other. In the melon field of Shaosheng, it is better than Dongling! There is metabolism in cold and heat, and human nature is like this. When a master understands his meeting, there will be no more doubts when he dies.

Suddenly with a glass of wine, day and night joyfully hold each other. "Twenty Poems on Drinking Poems" is an important representative work of Tao Yuanming.According to the old theory, it was written in the twelfth (416) and three years of Emperor Yixi of Jin'an.According to the nineteenth poem of the original poem: "It's time to stand up for the year, and the will is too shameful. So I will be divided, and I will return to the field after death. The air of the stars will return to the pavilion." "Return to the field after death" means Tao Yuanming resigned from Peng Zeling in the first year of Yixi (405) and returned to hermitage. After another period (that is, twelve years), it happened to be the thirteenth year of Yixi, when the author was fifty-three years old.Or according to the sixteenth poem "going to Buhuo (40 years old is called the year of Buhuo), if you stay there, you will not succeed", and the nineteenth poem "returning to the field after death" is interpreted as Tao Yuanming's resignation at the age of 29. When he returned home from the wine post, he was about to stand at the age of thirty (30 years old), and one more year was added as the year when he wrote the poem. Therefore, he believed that this poem should have been written when the author was forty-one or two years old in the second year of Yixi Yuan.In fact, the sentence "Xing Xing" recalls the past, not the year when this poem was written, and after Tao Yuanming resigned from the state sacrifice to wine, he went out of office several times, which is also inconsistent with "returning to the field after death", that is to say, "It is time to "Li Nian" is not the same thing as "returning to the field after death".When this poem was written, it was the time when the Jin and Song Dynasties were changing, so the predecessors called this group of poems "feeling poems" (see Ming Zhongxing and Tan Yuanchun's selection of "Ancient Poetry Return" and Tan Yuanchun's words), full of understanding of the current situation and the author's life experience. emotion.

The preface explains the origin of the poem, the broad-mindedness reveals sadness, and the writing style is excellent. "Than", recently. "Bi Ye" is "Autumn Night". "Gu Ying", looking at his own figure. "Gu Ying is alone" is the meaning of the author of "Miscellaneous Poems" "waving a cup to Gu Ying". "Ci Wu Quan Ci" means that there is no choice or order in the words, which means that the words are written in a casual way.According to the preface of the poem "Longer than the night" and "After getting drunk, I often write a few sentences to entertain myself", this group of poems should be written one after another in the same autumn night.At the time of writing each song, although it was just based on the feelings at that time, it was written directly from the heart without any pre-planning, but in the final arrangement, it took care of the connection between the front and the back, and the structure of the whole group was quite rigorous.Although only nine of the poems in the group are directly written about wine, all of them are about drunken thoughts, so the title is "Drinking Wine".Drinking alcohol is to dispel the depression in the chest, and writing poems after drinking is to indulge in books.Xiao Gang, the prince of Liang Zhaoming, said: "There are doubts about Tao Yuanming's poems, and there is wine in every piece. I think the meaning is not in wine, but wine is also a trace." ("Tao Yuanming Collection Preface") Fang Dongshu, a Qing Dynasty man, also said it "It's also miscellaneous poems...using drinking as an ear, not singing about drinking. Ruan Gong (Ruan Ji) "Yong Huai", Du Gong (Du Fu) "Qin Chuan Miscellaneous Poems", Tui Zhi (Han Yu) "Autumn Huai", It is all the same as this example, that is, the so-called "Qi Xing Ye" ("Zhao Mei Zhan Yan"), the discussion is very accurate.

"The decline and prosperity are uncertain" is the first poem of the original poem. It is written that the decline and prosperity are uncertain, and the world is not normal, so you should be optimistic and entertain yourself with drinking.This is the general outline of the whole group of poems. The first two sentences pose a philosophical question. "Decline and prosperity" still refers to prosperity and decline. "Rong" originally means the flower of vegetation, and by extension it means prosperity. "Each" refers to the decline and glory in the previous sentence.Everything in the universe, society and human affairs, all have decline and prosperity, and the two are closely connected: if there is glory, there will be decline, and if there is decline, there will be glory; there is no eternal, unchanging decline, and there is no eternal, unchanging glory.Decline and prosperity are mentioned together in the poem, but the focus is on changing from prosperity to decline.The following is followed by a discussion on personnel affairs.

According to "Historical Records Xiao Xiangguo's Family" records: Qin Dongling Hou Zhao (Shao) Ping, after the death of Qin, became a commoner, and his family was poor. He grew melons in the east of Chang'an (now Xi'an, Shaanxi), the capital of Western Han Dynasty. "Aventurine Melon".Shao Sheng in the poem refers to Zhaoping (Zhao and Shao were originally the same surname in ancient times).When Shao Ping worked hard to grow melons in the melon field, compared with the wealth and splendor of his noble family in the Qin Dynasty, who was a marquis in the Qin Dynasty, with high chariots and four horses, bells and dinning food, slaves and servants like a cloud, there is a world of difference! "Ning", is it, is it.Using rhetorical question to express negation can make the tone stronger and strengthen the meaning of exclamation.Shaosheng cannot be rich and honored for a long time, just like grass and trees cannot be prosperous and dry.Shao Sheng is like this, I don’t know how many princes and generals are similar to Shao Sheng; furthermore, I don’t know how many times the rise and fall of the dynasty has been replayed.When the author wrote this poem, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was on the verge of collapse after Sima Daozi's rebellion, Sun En's rebellion, and Huan Xuan's usurpation.As far as the author himself is concerned, his great-grandfather Tao Kan was the great Sima of the Jin Dynasty, and his grandfather and father also served as prefects and county magistrates, but by his generation, the family background has declined.Therefore, although these two sentences are written about historical events, they actually contain sighs about the current situation and one's own life experience.However, the author is neither regretting the decline of the Jin Dynasty, nor is he nostalgic for the wealth of his ancestors, because not long ago he voluntarily resigned from Peng Zeling, and he was also resigned by the imperial court in Yixi's last year when he was recruited by the imperial court as the author's coordinator.If there is any resentment, it is resentment that at the time when the politics were extremely dark and the family system was extremely strict, the "Great Benefits to the Common People" ("Gan Shi Bu Yu Fu") that he set up in his early years and hoped to establish a "spring silkworm The desire for a better society in "Peach Blossom Spring Poetry" ("Peach Blossom Spring Poetry") is no longer possible to realize.

However, "cold and heat have metabolism, and human nature is always like this." The ups and downs of social and human affairs are just like the replacement of cold and heat, which is an unchangeable objective law.A person who understands things knows this truth, so he will not be frightened by this change, and will not be concerned about his own gains and losses. He will drink happily day and night and be comfortable.This is similar to the meaning of the author's "Gui Qu Lai Ci" "Talk about multiplication and return to the end, and happy husband's destiny will be ridiculed". The two sentences "cold and summer" are not only a summary of the above, but also a conclusion drawn from the above four sentences, and this conclusion itself is also a philosophical metaphor.This metaphor has similar meaning and the same function as the first two sentences "decline and glory" (both talk about social and personnel changes), but the former is a direct statement, while the latter is a metaphor, and the expressions are different. They are respectively placed in the historical figure of Shao Sheng. Before and after the illustration, through repeated chanting in this way, the theme is emphasized and deepened, and the appeal of the poem is enhanced. The original meaning of "hui" in "Jie Qihui" is gathering, which refers to the reason mentioned above. "死" and "oath" are words expressing determination. "Suddenly" has a similar meaning to "Suddenly" in the preface, and it has a casual meaning, which means to carry a pot of wine casually, and drink as many glasses as you want. "Huan Xiang Zhi" writes about the joy of drinking, but judging from the emotion above and the content of the other songs on this topic that are more emotional and sad, it is actually a distraction through drinking, not really being in a good mood all day long.

Using precise metaphors to reveal profound philosophy, and citing typical historical figures to demonstrate it, not only enhances the moving power of the work, but also avoids dull and boring content.So although this poem is almost all discussion, it is intriguing to read.