Chapter 55 Seven Poems of Poverty (Part 2)

Miserably old and cloudy, with a brown exposure to the front porch.There is nothing left in the south garden, and the dry strips fill the north garden.Tilt the pot to drain the remaining water, and see the stove but see no smoke.Poems and books are stuffed outside the seat, and there is no need to study them every day.It's not Chen E who lives at home, but he steals his words and opinions.How to comfort me, Lai Guduo this virtuous. This poem inherits the "one" and "won't it be cold and hungry", first describing the conditions of poverty, hunger and cold.The new wind is terrible, and it is almost the end of the year.The old poet, who has no way to keep warm, can only embrace the coarse clothes and bask in the sun under the front porch.Looking up, the flowers that bloomed in the four courtyards in those days have all disappeared, and the lush trees have become bare withered stalks.The first four sentences of the poem depict the image of a poor man named Saumer against the harsh winter scenery.The severe cold hits people, and the hunger comes to fry.The wine that poets have depended on all their lives, now no matter how tilted the empty pot is, no drop will come out; food is the most important thing for the people, but when the meal time comes, they look under the stove, but the smoke and fire disappear.Yixing has disappeared, and although there are many poems and books, they can't cure the hunger and cold. If they are randomly stuffed outside the seat, until the sun goes down, there is no interest in studying them again.The five to eight sentences start from cold and hunger, from scenery to emotion, and extend the meaning of "won't it be cold and hungry".As for after the sun, it will be another dusk and winter night. The poet has not said how to drive it away, but it is not difficult for readers to imagine.Tao Qian in his later years was indeed in extreme poverty. The chaos in the world and the famine years made his "poverty" which was only an ideal spirit in the early days become a harsh reality. The valley is gone, the new valley has not been climbed, and he is quite an old farmer, but it is a calamity in the year, and the sun and the moon are still long, so there is no end to trouble. Tired. Years and nights are passing, and I am full of emotion forever. If I don’t describe it today, I will never hear about it in future generations.” The situation described can be mutually invented with this poem. "Hunger drives me away, I don't know why; when I walk to Sri, knock on the door and speak clumsily, the master understands what I have left, and the bequest is not in vain." The poem "Begging" even described "Don't bend your waist for five buckets of rice" The poet has to beg for a loan to survive.Poverty, after all, is not so easy to be "satisfied", how can we be indifferent?At the beginning, Confucius was trapped in Chen, and his resources and food were cut off. "The follower is sick, and he can't be prosperous. Zilu saw it and said: 'A gentleman is also poor!' Confucius said: 'A gentleman is always poor, but a villain is too poor.'" Confucius Can be so poor and live in peace, but he is not compared with a saint, so how can he not be as sullen as Zilu can see in his words and expressions?But despite the hunger and cold, despite the injustice, the poet is still unwilling to abandon the "old track" and change his original aspirations; so what is the poet's spiritual comfort?The last sentence answers: relying on the many "poor people" who have been high-spirited and upright in ancient times and kept poor.

Comparing Tao Qian's verses when he first hid, we can understand the poet's mentality more clearly. In the poem "Drinking Wine", "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, leisurely seeing Nanshan", "Although a cup enters alone, the pot pours itself when the cup is exhausted,... under Xiaoao Dongxuan, chatting to regain this life" has become "pour the pot The embarrassment and frugality of "seeing the stove but not seeing the smoke" has been replaced by the embarrassment and frugality of "reading the biography of the king of Zhou, and the pictures of mountains and seas" ("Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas"), which has also become "poetry and books outside the seat, daily life". Lan Shan, who is not afraid of research.So the scenery in the hope also changed.The wind and cold are not new to the poet, but at the beginning, "the green pines are in the east garden, and the grasses have no appearance; the frost casts down the different species, and the high branches stand out" has been replaced by "the south garden is full of beauty, and the dead branches are full of the north garden." of the Saumur depression.He no longer has the feeling of "in the middle of May and June, lying down by the north window, when the cool wind comes temporarily, he claims to be the master of Xihuang" ("Shu with Ziyan et al"); This poetic image shows that he was not only physically, but also mentally tired at that time.It may be unfortunate that poverty brought the naive poet back to the earth from his leisurely wandering in the clouds and mist, but it also gave the poet's noble character a more substantial connotation; making him one of the few poets in the history of Chinese poetry. A reclusive poet who is truly worthy of the reputation of being poor and chaste.Although the hunger and cold reduced him to the point of begging, what he bowed his head to was not the officials like those governors, but the "plain-hearted people" he got along with day and night; although his mood was tired, the arrogance in his bones was not Not less strong.The last four sentences of the poem use the classics of Confucius and Chen Cai, which have a profound meaning. "It's not Chen'e to live in idleness, and I have a feeling of resentment", which literally means that I have not reached the spiritual realm of Confucius, so I have a resentment; From the point of view of this consistent thinking, these two poems are really proud of self-blame.Confucius spent his whole life pursuing his principles of benevolence and righteousness. From the point of view of Taoism, which Tao Yuanming admired most, it was an act of accumulating oneself with external things.From a positive point of view, there is no need to do anything in the world, and it is not necessary to know what can not be done, so it is said that "the turmoil of the world cannot be compared with Zhuang's language", and even think that the ruler of the country is like a tortoise in the scorpion.From a bad point of view, Zhong Geng used the mouth of Robber Zhi to denounce Confucius as a man of fame, wealth and honor.Judging from Tao Yuanming's consistent attitude towards Confucianism, although the second sentence does not necessarily have the meaning that Robber Zhi blamed on Confucius, but in the comparison between "leisure dwelling" and "Chen E", although there are injustices, he will still stick to the plain practice. It is not difficult to feel that Confucius' actions were considered unwise.Therefore, at the end, he didn’t follow Confucius’ meaning, saying that Confucius should be poor and safe as an example, but he should use the various high-ranking scholars mentioned below as examples to show that even though he is poor, he will not re-enter the world’s net and mess me up.” Sincerely."Although poverty caused Tao Qian to descend from the sky to the earth, it further purified his spirit. Time, and it is in this whisper of poverty that its sublime high standards are all the more apparent.It is precisely because of this that although this poem is about hunger, cold and poverty, the impression it gives people is definitely not as frugal as Meng Jiao and Jia Dao later, but it shows a lonely and lonely attitude, a kind of profound charm.Su Shi said that Tao's poems are "thick but solid", and you can understand it by reading this poem.

The posture charm of this poem is also due to the natural integration of structural language.Just imagine, if you write cold in the first two sentences, and then write hunger, it will definitely create a sense of urgency and thrift.For example, Meng Jiao's poems often list the state of hunger and cold, which is very poor, which makes people sour.Now after writing about the cold, add two lines to describe the scenery, and then continue with the two lines about the poem and book after writing about the hunger. The understatement of "Looking at the Stove" and the implication after "Ri Zan" are not euphemistic but not revealing. After reading it, I feel that Tao's poems are still popular on the water.What is even more valuable is that although the above structure is ingenious, it is not a deliberate operation.Sitting under the front porch, you will naturally look forward to the scene, and when you have nothing to eat and drink, you will naturally think of books as your companions, but when you want to read, your interest suddenly fades, which further expresses the poet's state of mind.Seeing the secrets of heaven from inadvertently, this is the artistic truth that Tao's poems and the profound interest in their content are intertwined.