Chapter 54 Seven Poems of Poverty (Part 1)

All races have their own support, but the lonely cloud has no support; when the warm sky dies, when will the afterglow be seen.As the morning glow breaks through Suwu, all the birds fly with each other; leave Lin He after a long time, and come back in the evening?Keeping the old ways within our means, wouldn't it be cold and hungry?If there is no confidant, what is the sorrow? "Song of the Poor" is a group of poems, including seven poems, each of which is relatively independent, but has parts and parts to form a whole.The first and second poems are the outline of the seven poems. The first poem is about being noble and lonely, and retreating from poverty; The following five poems are divided into chanting the good principles of the conduct of poor people in the past dynasties. At the end of the seventh poem, it says "Whoever said that it is hard to be poor, it is difficult to practice before", which echoes the end of the two poems, expressing that I have learned from a long distance and practiced before. The ambition of the wind.

Mr. Wang Yao compiled and annotated the year of this group of poems in "Tao Yuanming Collection". According to the imagery in the poems such as "the morning glow blooms in Cebu, and the birds fly together", it is judged as the time when the new and old dynasties alternate, that is, when Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty was born forever. Made in the second year of junior high school (420).Mr. Lu Qinli's proofreading of "Tao Yuanming Collection" was deduced to be before and after he refused to accept the food and meat from Jiangzhou Governor Tan Daoji in the third year of Yuanjia (426) because the poems often talked about poverty and the sentence "I don't care about the nobles, and I don't pay for the generous gifts". It was the year before Tao Yuanming's death.There are some reasons for the two theories, but it seems that there is still no conclusive evidence for both of them, so you might as well save them for reference.However, judging from the appearance of the poor and the old and the obvious sad sound described in the seven poems, it is not the same as the tranquil mood at the beginning of hermitage. It can be seen that her state of mind is aging. The meaning is also in the heart "the rich and the poor are always at war", no longer the peace at the beginning, but self-improvement before.Therefore, there is no doubt that it was written in old age and poverty.This will be further seen from the three selected poems.

There are twelve sentences in this poem, four sentences are divided into three layers, and two scenes are one emotion. The purpose of the poem is of course the lyricism of the last four sentences, and the scene language in the first two layers is interesting. The first scene should be seen at dusk, everything is supported by it, only the solitary cloud in the sky, with no one to rely on, gradually drifting to the unknown distance in the dim light, the poet can't help but sigh; See its afterglow?I'm afraid we won't see each other again. The second picture is the morning scene, the rising sun dyes the clouds, and dispels the heavy fog that is separated from the night. All the birds are flying in the clouds and clouds, but there is only one bird that is late. Forest.

After looking at these two scenes, a question arises first: what is the relationship between the two?Still continue to meditate.To solve this problem, we should also start with the understanding of the two poetic images of clouds and birds. Clouds and birds are common images in Tao Yuanming's poems, and they are often used together.In his early and mid-term works, the image of Guangyuan and leisure is mostly shown, such as "Shizuo Zhenjun Joining the Army and Crossing the Quhe" written at the age of forty, which says: "Looking at the clouds and ashamed of the high birds".There are also "Yunhe", "Yunhe" and so on.The famous "Gui Qu Lai Ci" even said: "Clouds come out of Xiu without a heart, and birds know to return when they are tired and fly."Although these are all related to seclusion, they all show a kind of tranquility. The so-called "floating clouds and wild cranes" are just the right people.However, there are great changes in this poem. Although the solitary cloud and the solitary bird are still metaphors for the hermit, the solitary cloud is noble and pure, "when the warm sky dies, when will you see the afterglow", in the ambiguous tones, it has become There is a mournful sound that the days are numbered.Although it is still a returning bird, but in contrast with Zhaoxia Liyu, the word "chichi" also shows a tired and twilight state.This kind of tiredness is also different from the tiredness in "Guiguilaici".It is in the changes of these two poetic images that we can see that the poet is no longer as cheerful as when he first hid. At this time, his mood is heavy and sad. Therefore, it can be determined that the poem is about looking forward when the old and poor are sick. Cultivation is made for self-relieving.So the meaning of the poem emerges.

The emotion at the end of the poem comes from the poet after a night of emotional brewing.At dusk, the poet was excited by the passing away of the lonely cloud in the twilight, asking "when will I see the afterglow", which is the mood of seeing the old man getting old and foreseeing the end of life.So it is natural to reflect on the course of life. After a sleepless night of reviewing and thinking, the poet finally has no regrets about his retreat and poverty. Like the world that tends to be popular, he has not been an official for a long time; later, he was forced by life and had to go out of the mountain, but because he did not want to bend his waist for five buckets of rice, he returned immediately, just like the lone bird that came out late and returned early.So he said with emotion: I stick to the usual way of life, but I have done it repeatedly and according to my ability.I also know that this kind of life will inevitably suffer from hunger and cold; but old friends are scattered, and there are no bosom friends in the world. In this case, there is nothing to be sad about living in poverty for the rest of my life. "What is sad" is a word of relief, and it can be seen that the poet was really full of sadness when he wrote the poem.

Tao's poems are known for their naturalness, but nature is not straightforward. If you are not aware of it, there is actually ingenuity. Su Dongpo said that it is "like a master craftsman transporting jin, without the trace of an ax chisel" (quoted in "Lengzhai Yehua"), which is very true. The structure of the poem is natural and ingenious. Viewing it from the scene, from dusk to morning, is written sequentially, viewing it from thoughts, and reflecting on middle age from old age, which is retrospective.The two walked towards each other, but because of the mutual occurrence of the scene, they didn't see any stitches, so they saw the subtle emotions in the smoothness.Xiao Tong said that Tao Qian's "reciprocity is graceful and pleasant", which is very insightful.

Denseness in sparseness is another expression of natural ingenuity in structure. From the dusk scene to the morning scene, there is a night in the middle. The poet does not describe it step by step. The tide of thought fluctuates, and only when there is a gap, there is more room for imagination. Only where there are no words, there is a piece of brushwork and ink rhyme.Sparse, but not separated, the poet ingeniously connects the two scenes of the night in the hollow with the mood in the image, from the afterglow of the solitary cloud at dusk, to the morning glow when Cebu first opens in the morning, and the light of the clouds Rhyme is the best medium for thinking about space, so although it is sparse, it is still harmonious.

The quality of the lines in this poem is very expressive, such as seeing a lone cloud disappearing in the "warm", and asking "when" after the afterglow is about to go, "slowly" leaving the forest and "returning in the evening", All of them describe profound scenes with extremely ordinary sentences, and embody deep hatred and long-term ambition.There are many overlapping words in Tao's poems, and this poem is used for two purposes, which also shows its connection with the same line. As long as you read and chant carefully, you can feel that Tao's poems have profound meanings, which are actually the common characteristics of Tao Qian and Xie Lingyun, the two originators of pastoral and landscape poetry at the turn of Jin and Song Dynasties. It shows the characteristics of the two people's times. However, Tao's poems are light in language, smooth in thought, and clear in structure, which is easy to understand. , it is the different personality characteristics of the two.Although the two have separated and there are countless ways to follow, Tao Zhi is better than Xie, and this is the reason.If Xie is regarded as the best in poetry, Tao is also regarded as the god.