Chapter 61 Three Elegies

Where there is life, there must be death, and early death is not fatal.Yesterday evening, we were both human beings, but today we are in Guilu.Where is the soul qi scattered, and the dry shape is sent to the empty wood.Jiaoer asks her father to cry, and a good friend caresses me to cry.Gains and losses will no longer be known, right and wrong can be felt!After thousands of years, who knows honor and disgrace?But when I hate to be alive, I can't drink enough. In the past there was no wine, but now there is a clear sky.When can you taste the floating ants in spring mash!The food table is full of me, and the old relatives are crying next to me.If you want to speak, your mouth will be silent, and if you want to see, your eyes will be dull.I used to sleep in the high hall, but now I live in the barren grass village; once I go out, I return to Liang Weiyang.

How vast is the barren grass, and the poplars are also rustling.Severe frost in mid-September, send me out of the outer suburbs.There are no people living on all sides, and the high tomb is in the middle of the house.The horse screams for the sky, and the wind is for the depression.Once the secluded room is closed, it will not return to court for a thousand years.The dynasty will not return for a thousand years, and the sages have nothing to do.I always send people off, and each returns to his home.Relatives or Yu Bei, others have also sung.What is the way to die, and the body is on the same mountain.

①Good: One book is "Night". Over the years, I have always insisted on a view that Tao Yuanming's poems and essays should be read in their entirety without selection; and Tao's poems are as clear as words, especially without comment and appreciation.As for Tao Zhi's character, there has been a conclusion for a long time, and any further criticism is purely resignation.Recently, when I re-read Tao's poems, I found his three "Elegy Poems" (the title of this collection is "Supposed Elegy Ci", which is based on "Selected Works") to be very innovative.So I made a brief summary of my experience, which can be regarded as filling the gap that I have not talked about Tao poetry for decades.

One of the characteristics of Tao's poems is that he can say whatever he thinks, which is basically a "fu" pen that states the matter directly, and there are not many places where he uses metaphors.Therefore, although the coinage is shallow, the meaning is deep, and although the expression is plain, it is actually reasonable. It seems that it does not pay attention to writing skills, but it is more natural.This is what Su Shi said is dry but full.People in the Wei and Jin Dynasties talked extravagantly, and talked a lot about life and death.But a virtuous man like Wang Xizhi cannot help sighing that "death and life are too great, so it's not painful". Tao Yuanming was probably the only one who could really break through the barrier of life and death at that time.For example, he said at the end of the poem "Xingyingshen · Shenshi": "In the midst of the waves, neither worries nor fears; everything should be done, and there is no need to worry about being alone." It means that life lives between heaven and earth like Jumping into the big waves, ups and downs have no owner, but you should deal with it with "neither worry nor fear".This is very rare.As for life and death, he actually held a very frank attitude, thinking that "when it's time to die, let him die, why worry about it!" "At the end of the book, "Talking about multiplication will be exhausted, and happy husband's destiny will be ridiculed", which actually means the same thing.

Although this kind of philosophical thinking that breaks through the barriers of life and death is rare, it is relatively easy to say this when a person is in good health and can use reason to think about problems.It is far from being a serious illness, knowing that you will die soon, and still being able to realize this wisely, and writing a self-element in a tongue-in-cheek way (such as "but I hate drinking enough while I am alive"). Common people can reach.Whether Tao Yuanming only lived to be in his fifties (the theory of Liang Qichao and Gu Zhi) or lived to be sixty-three ("Song Shu·Ben Zhuan" and Yan Yanzhi's "Tao Zheng Shi Yi") is still controversial; Therefore, there are differences of opinion on whether this group of self-element poems were written before death.Mr. Lu Qinli, a close friend, said in "The Years of Tao Yuanming's Deeds, Poems and Essays" that he did not write his last words. He believed that Tao lived to be sixty-three years old and almost died of a serious illness at the age of fifty-one. of.I haven't studied the dates of Tao's birth and death in depth, so I don't dare to comment; but for these three elegiac poems, I conclude that he wrote them when he was seriously ill, or at least when he thought he was about to die.The optimistic thinking and calm attitude in the face of life and death embodied in the poem are, after all, too rare.As for the writing time, since "Zijiwen" clearly stated that "the year is only Dingmao, and there is no shooting in the law", that is, September of the fourth year of Yuanjia (427) of Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty, and the first four sentences of the third poem of the self-element say: "Wild grass He is vast, the poplars are also rustling, and the severe frost sent me out of the outer suburbs in mid-September." It is actually the same season as "Self-Sacrifice Text", if the self-element poem is written first, what a coincidence!Therefore, I think it is more appropriate to still refer to these three poems as the last pen of the author before his death.

The first stanza clarifies the meaning, explaining that people are born and must die, even if they die early, they are not short-lived.This is the gist throughout the three poems, and it is also the central thought of the author's outlook on life and death.Then go on to write in detail from birth to death, as long as you stop breathing, you will be registered as a ghost.Judging from the specific description of the poem, the author understands the truth that when a person dies, he will no longer be conscious. He knows that there is no such thing as a soul, so he said: "Where does the spirit of the soul dissipate, and the dry form leaves the empty tree." Only one body was left in the empty coffin.The following two sentences of "jiaoer" and "good friend" are based on the life experience before death, assuming that after death, the child and the friend will still have an incessant relationship. The four sentences of "gains and losses" are the author's words of great enlightenment. As long as a person dies, he knows nothing about everything, and of course there is no need to worry about honor and disgrace after death.Although the last two sentences are almost humorous, they show Tao Yuanming's true nature.He has no regrets in his whole life, and the only regret in his life is that his family is too poor and cannot drink often.This is a documentary, not necessarily an allusion.However, since Tao compared wine with the honor and disgrace of his posthumous gains and losses, it seems that he still has something to say.During the Western Jin Dynasty, Zhang Han said: "It is better to have a glass of wine immediately if I have a posthumous reputation." (See the biography of "Book of Jin·Wen Yuan") It is similar to the meaning of this poem.

These three poems are connected back and forth, using the unobvious technique of thimble and continued hemp.The first one ends with "drinking too much", and the second one begins with "no alcohol in the past".However, the poetry is written from encoffining to being buried, and the transition is very natural, without any traces of needlework. "Zhan" has no training, deep training, thick training, and many trainings (some note this training is clear, training is clear, it seems not sure). The "Zhan empty cup" here means that the cup is full of wine. "Today, but the glass is empty" means that the wine glass was always empty during the lifetime, but now the wine glass is full of wine before the spirit, but it can only be left there. "Spring mash" refers to newly brewed wine in spring.Generally, new wine starts brewing after the autumn harvest, and can be drunk in the second spring. "Floating ants", a layer of foam appears on the surface of the wine, like ants floating on it, the words come from Zhang Heng's "Nandu Fu".Here it is said that although the spring wine is good, it will be a matter of the coming year, and I will never taste it again. In the four sentences of "dish case", it is written on the front that the deceased is offered a sacrifice. The four sentences "in the past" predict the situation after the burial, but it is not yet the time for the burial.Because "once going out" refers to the near future, it is said that once the coffin goes out, it will never come back. It can be seen that this second poem has not yet written about the funeral.The last sentence means that after going out this time, if I want to go home again, I am afraid that I will have to wait until endless days.The first book is "Returning to the Night", which means that I want to go home again, but the underground night is endless, and I will never see the light of day.Also pass.

Judging from the artistic achievements of the three poems, the third one is the best, so Xiao Tong only selected this one in "Selected Works".This first chapter describes the funeral process throughout, but focuses on the mourners. The two sentences of "Wild Grass" not only inherit the previous part, but also write the background of the cemetery, creating a miserable atmosphere for the following. The period of "severe frost" indicates the season, and the sentence of "send me" directly describes the funeral situation. The two sentences of "four sides" describe the real situation of the cemetery, indicating that I can only be neighbors with ghosts.Then write "horse" in one sentence and "wind" in one sentence, and describe all the scenery along the funeral process.Then use the two sentences of "the dark room" as a summary, explaining that when the pit is closed, people and ghosts have different paths, which is echoing the last sentence of the second first sentence.But the above is only about the various phenomena during funerals. The author has not fully expressed the true view of life and death, so he repeated the sentence "thousands of years", and then positively pointed out the meaning of "the virtuous have no choice but to do nothing".Gai no matter the virtuous or the talented, they are always powerless against the natural law of life and death.This is not negative, but it is concluded because of the thorough investigation.And the most exciting part of an article lies in the last six sentences. "Always" still means "just now".The people who came to deliver the funeral just now, once the coffin was put into the cave and the private room was permanently closed, they naturally dispersed one after another and went home.This is in contrast to the above statement that the dead will never be able to return home. The two sentences of "relatives" are words extracted after understanding the true meaning of life.Family members, because they are related by blood, may feel a little sad when they think of the deceased; while those who have no deep relationship with them have already forgotten the deceased and went to do what they should do. "The Analects of Confucius Shu Er Pian": "The son cried every day, but he didn't sing." This means that if Confucius attended someone else's funeral and cried in mourning for the dead, then he must not sing on that day.This is not only because the thoughts and feelings cannot be changed for a while, but also it is too unreasonable for the deceased to sing happily after crying.In fact, what Confucius did was a manifestation of an educated person appealing to reason; if it is an ordinary person, going to a funeral is just a ritual entertainment. From an emotional point of view, he is not sad at all. As long as the funeral is over, he can naturally sing. up.Tao Yuanming has seen through the secular human feelings, so he reversed the meaning and straightforwardly wrote about the behavior of ordinary people from thought to action. This is where the author is truly philosophical and unpretentious.The preciousness of pottery is also here.Moreover, there are still materialistic factors in the author's outlook on life, so he wrote in the last two lines of this poem: "What is the way to die, and the body is on the same mountain." In other words, he entrusted the body to nature, so that it will be reduced to dust, like the soil at the foot of the mountain.This is a very valuable materialistic view at the turn of the Jin and Song Dynasties when the concept of reincarnation in Buddhism was very popular.

As for the three Tao poems I mentioned earlier, they are very innovative, which refers to their artistic conception.Before Tao Yuanming, sages like Confucius and Mencius, and great men like Lao Zhuang, no one had conceived from the perspective of the deceased what subjective and objective conditions would happen after he passed away; The figurative language has been written into poetry, and its degree of innovation can be said to be unprecedented.Of course, artistic innovation must also be based on clear and thorough thinking.People without Tao Yuanming's high-level cultivation cannot conceive such novel and true works that are both realistic and romantic.