Li Qingzhao's "Eternal Happiness"

------------------Analysis of Li Qingzhao's "Yong Yu Le"

The setting sun melts gold, the dusk clouds merge, and people are there where?

Dyeing the willows with thick smoke, playing the plum flute with resentment, how much do you know about the spring spirit?

During the Lantern Festival, the weather is harmonious, will there be no wind and rain?

Come and greet me with your beautiful car and BMW, and thank you for your wine, friends, and poets.

The sun is booming in Zhongzhou, and there are many flaws in the boudoir. Remember to focus on the three or five.

It is paved with green crowns, twisted with gold and snow willows, and the clusters of ribbons compete with each other.

Now I am haggard, my hair is covered with frost, and I am afraid of going out at night.

It’s better to sit under the curtain and listen to people’s laughter.

Everyone has sad past events. This is as common as sleeping and eating in life. Some people have more, some have less. And everyone who is alive has a dream-like past. When I opened the picture of the past, I realized that all the tears of bitterness had been shed, and the laughter of my youth could only be expressed with emotion. Life is not always heavy. When the social environment you live in does not require you to be heavy, it is difficult to pretend to be heavy. Once the wind and rain hit us, it would be more than just heavy. A woman, especially a woman in ancient times, would not expect misery to come. They would rather stay in their boudoir, swing on the swing, or write a pleasant poem or play a heart song to spend their whole life. This only refers to women with status and status, who are very lucky. It's a pity that good days don't always come. You could live happily, but unexpectedly the incompetent emperor was kidnapped, half of the country was destroyed, and all the dreams were burned by the war. This is what happened to Li Qingzhao, a writer in the Song Dynasty. After the fall of the country, she followed the refugees to the south. Her husband Zhao Mingcheng died of illness on the way. Later, she settled alone in Hangzhou until she died.

When people get older, they like to think of things from their youth. Kuang Li Qingzhao’s talent allowed her to write boldly, so her writing contained more words and chapters that recall the present and recall the past. This ever-recited song "Eternal Happiness" is the scar left by a collision in her spiritual world when she was revisiting her youthful years in her later years.

Today, I will use this Lantern Festival poem written by Li Qingzhao in her later years to try to understand her spiritual world in her later years.

The Lantern Festival is the Lantern Festival. Shangyuan Festival is one of the most important traditional festivals in my country. In the Song Dynasty, it was a festival that the officials and the people valued and the whole country celebrated. Therefore, the poems of Shangyuan Dynasty basically describe the richness of its prosperity and joy. Su Shi's "Die Lian Hua Mizhou Shangyuan" is the next Shangyuan poem following "Fire Trees and Silver Flowers". There are phrases like "The incense of the sheng is blown under the tent and the musk deer is blown out, and there is not a trace of dust following the horse", and "The drums and flutes are played, but one enters the Nongsang Society", but there is no content that is newer than the taste of Bisu. Zhou Bangyan, the master of Ci Guo rhythm, even wrote a masterpiece of the Shangyuan Dynasty, "Jie Yuhua", which is not only good at composition, but also shows extremely meticulous skills in refining words and forging sentences. From "The wind sells the crimson wax, and the dew blooms on the red lotus" to "Osmanthus flows on the tiles. The fine clouds disperse, and Geng Geng Su'e wants to come down" to "The clear leak moves, the flying cover returns, and the song stops from dancing" all reflect his extremely artificial style. The posture and the writing are so gorgeous that it is difficult for ancient and modern writers to match it. After reading the whole article, you can tell that it is a masterpiece of praise, and the content repeats the grand scene of "Fire Trees and Silver Flowers", which can be said to be unparalleled. In the critical period of the late Northern Song Dynasty, it was really a pity to sing such a hymn. Those who followed him had to sigh that "the words are exquisite, but there are no singers". On the other hand, Xin Qiji's "The Sapphire Case" is quite impressive, and should be another famous poem in Shangyuan poetry after Su Weiwei. "Looking back suddenly, that person is there, in the dimly lit place" indeed writes a new artistic conception. The Shangyuan Ci written by Li Qingzhao appears in front of readers with a sad tone, which is different from the Shangyuan Ci written by the predecessors. Why does "Yong Yu Le", which is uncharacteristic of the norm, squeeze into the first-class poetry?

The sentence "The setting sun melts gold, the dusk clouds merge together" is very neat. The colors are vibrant and the views are spectacular. The slowly sliding sunset is as dazzling as melted gold, and the rosy clouds on the horizon have been dyed orange, which makes people's minds wander and linger. In the east, a bright jade-like full moon has jumped up from the edge of the mist, with distant evening clouds billowing underneath, like a brilliant pearl set on a colorful silk ribbon. How vivid, how magnificent! The mere eight characters describe the Shangyuan dusk in Hangzhou so wonderfully and beautifully without losing the natural beauty. The long tone of the four-fourth sentence is particularly suitable for confrontation. Ci writers have always shown their wisdom and competed for their glory. "It's cold to suppress the flowers, and the smoke will trap the willows", "The night is cold with drums, and the spring is light with hanging lanterns", "The clear water frightens the autumn, and the yellow clouds condense at dusk", "The mountains are covered with light clouds, and the sky is covered with fading grass"... without losing its beauty, But I feel that it is made of bricks and mortar, and it lacks the taste of Tiansu. Li Qingzhao's eight-character sentence starts with a beautiful and moving pen, which has the charm of poetry without losing the natural charm.

After describing the beautiful and spectacular natural scenery, the female poet sighed quietly, "Where are people?" It turned out that the female poet who had gone through the disaster had not forgotten where she was. This rhetorical question is actually her unforgettable longing for her motherland quietly revealed, and a strong homesickness has begun to surface in her writing. Of course she knew she was in Lin'an--Hangzhou tonight. But she will not, will never forget that "their descendants have been traveling south for the past few years, wandering around and joining the wandering people." How could she forget that her hometown in Qingzhou gambled on books and poured tea, and how could she forget that "Although the aura is responding to Xiaoxiao, How can Weng Zhong be like this in the grass? How can the remaining people still plant mulberry and hemp? "Where is my hometown? If I forget it, I will be drunk." This question reveals Li Qingzhao's inner confusion at this time. A sense of disillusionment lingering over the vicissitudes of life. People who don't have real life feelings can't write about it.

On the occasion of peace, the wealthy may sing "When I wake up from a sad dream, the setting sun shines deep in the courtyard." lamenting that time is fleeting. A person who is frustrated in officialdom may say, "Where I am hurt, I can see the high city and the lights are already dusk." This is how a specific person expresses his or her feelings in a specific environment. Heaviness is the main atmosphere in Li Qingzhao's poetry in his later years. The poems of the two famous writers of the graceful school mentioned above, Yan Shu and Qin Guan, are mostly sentimental and lack the heaviness in Li Qingzhao's poems. This is a specific work of a writer under a specific environment, and others cannot imitate it. Here we should point out the reason why Zhou Bangyan's lyrics were highly praised by later generations, but he was left with "no singer". The Northern Song Dynasty in which he lived was already surrounded by crises, but this did not prevent him from creating works that praised virtues and virtues and came out one after another. Therefore, Zhou Bangyan's lyric skills are first-rate, but the content is empty. It is indeed a great pity.

The biggest difference between Li Qingzhao and Zhou Bangyan is that one has his true self in his words, while the other has a self that shows off his talent and learning. As for the emotions that are relevant to life, there are really not many of them in Zhou's poems. Even if they are found, they have to be searched carefully in his extremely fastidious Bai Zhuan chapters, and the reason is often not clear. Of course, this does not prevent Zhou from becoming the founder of metrical poetry. The works you read in Shuyu's collection have a unique feature, that is, they are clear in language but profound in emotion. This poem is certainly no exception.

The dusk in Hangzhou is of course beautiful, especially when the sun sets. Hangzhou written by Li Qingzhao is also so beautiful. When Li Qingzhao's unforgettable thoughts about her motherland are slowly flowing out, how will she face the next events in her extremely desolate spiritual world?

"The smoke from dyeing willows is thick, and the plum flute is played with resentment." Outside the window is a deep sea of ??willows. Dusk has come, the smoke is thick, and the hanging twilight mist is swaying with the flying willow branches. The willows are hanging down at dusk, and the light smoke is everywhere, which is enough to make people feel confused and uneasy. Moreover, the sound of the flute of "Plum Blossom Resentment" is coming from the faint smoke of the willows, reaching the heart of the haggard female poet. The scenery in front of me is confusing and unsettling. It is a twilight of willows that lacks bright green and looks lost. However, the confusing spring scenery combined with the sad sad music "Plum Blossoms Fall" pushed the increasingly uncomfortable mood to the edge of melancholy. So the feeling of spring became lighter, and I no longer had the intention to pay attention to the spring scenery in front of me. "How much do you know about spring?" It is the most appropriate expression of the mood in this situation. In short, because there is no mood, no matter how good the scenery is, it will be difficult to awaken the poor heart. This was not the case for Li Qingzhao when she was young. A continuous cold food rain made her half-dead annoyed. "She loved the willows and flowers, and the cold food was close, and there were all kinds of annoying weather." She was worried that she would not be able to go out to play during the Cold Food Festival until "the clear dew flows in the morning, and the new tung trees begin to bloom." Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief, and burst out with joy, "How much it feels like to have a spring outing"! In the end, I wasn’t too reassured, “The sun is high and the smoke is gathering, but it will be sunny at the end of the day?” After experiencing the destruction of her family and country, the loss of cultural relics, being rewarded with money, remarrying, and wandering around, Li Qingzhao is no longer young, at least emotionally she is indeed old. The smoke in the willows and the sound of the flute would disturb her peaceful inner world. Such elegant things as enjoying spring are now a luxury for her. People can't go back to the past. Let's keep the laughter and laughter of the past. When we mention it, we feel emotional. Especially for a woman like Li Qingzhao, who has experienced great changes in her life, she is even more miserable than others.

The scenery in the distance is magnificent, and the scenery nearby brings people into the confusing colors. Next, the female poet revealed the mentality of a troubled world where things are unpredictable and storms come unexpectedly. "On the Lantern Festival, if the weather is harmonious, will there be no wind and rain?" This true confession is pungent. How can there be wind and rain all of a sudden when the weather is nice? It seems that Li Qingzhao's worries are unnecessary, and this is precisely the manifestation of the fear of disaster that has been imprinted in people's hearts after the war. This is the psychology of a certain era. After the Jingkang Rebellion, society was in turmoil and the people suffered deeply from the war. The shadow of the war was deeply imprinted on the hearts of those who had witnessed the war. The people in power had long forgotten the eternal shame of his father and brother being kidnapped. What the emperor wanted was not to avenge his shame, but he was afraid that his father and brother would not be able to become emperor when they came back. Therefore, the Shangyuan Festival after the southern crossing is still colorful and prosperous. Carpe diem has become the most important life pursuit of these forgetful powerful people. No wonder later generations say "Hangzhou is always regarded as Bianzhou". To be sure, Li Qingzhao revealed more than just a personal relationship at this time. People must be good at forgetting sometimes and not keep too many pains firmly in mind. This is not good for one's own health, and one person's strength cannot save a country from decline. The men who should be responsible are hiding away to drink and have fun. Why do you, a woman, complain? Li Qingzhao, are you okay? Can you fight? So, being honest is the right thing to do. Stop satirizing the emperor and saying things like "He was born as a hero, but died as a ghost. He still misses Xiang Yu and refuses to cross the Yangtze River." These words make men ashamed. The tragedy of Li Qingzhao is that she is not good at forgetting and does not know how to "exchange ten thousand words of military strategy for her boss to plant trees and books" (Xin Qiji's "Partridge Sky"). This is a person's character, so you can't blame Li Qingzhao. In this passage, we find that Li Qingzhao's wounds that were difficult to heal were torn apart again. Just like a person in a trance, one moment he thinks the sky is sunny and the next moment he thinks a storm is coming. Li Qingzhao at this time should look like this in the eyes of any ordinary person. And will the past be that important? In this way, the person hurt will eventually be yourself. Li Qingzhao repeatedly exaggerated her amazing memory and her eternal sorrow.

The first three paragraphs and the last sentence are all rhetorical questions.

From the confusion of where he is to the feeling of despair that spring has faded, and finally revealing the unpredictable mentality of the world, it vividly depicts the author's spiritual world that is numb and incomprehensible after being baptized by war. This is a gradual and in-depth process, from the confused and ignorant question about where she is, to the inner confusion of being alone in front of the sea of ??spring willows, and finally highlights her unpredictable mentality. The first two sentences of each paragraph are four-character sentences, and the author writes them as descriptive sentences and makes them contrast. Although the number of words in the third sentence of the three paragraphs is different (the order is 4 words, 5 words, 6 words), but because the sentence structure is the same, they still form a row of sentences. It has a sense of rhythm when recited, and the number of words in the questions at the end of each paragraph increases, thus strengthening the emotional weight. The first two sentences of each line are all positive, written with flowers and flowers, and the words are carefully crafted, but they are later denied with a question. Through the sharp contrast, the poet's melancholy and difficult feelings are expressed, and as the number of words in the question at the end of the paragraph increases, its intensity becomes even more apparent.

In the first three paragraphs of narration, readers have clearly seen the female poet's desolate inner world in her later years. Perhaps, there is always something unique about a good poet, what about Li Qingzhao? The author also specially arranged a small interlude in the last paragraph of the first half, "Come to summon me, bring me beautiful cars and BMWs, and thank him for wine, friends, and poets." After all, Li Qingzhao is still famous, and the family members of high-ranking officials have not forgotten Li Qingzhao. But she declined all their kindness. These friends should all be people with considerable literary accomplishments. They should often drink and talk poetry with Qingzhao, otherwise there would be no need to use the term "drinking friend, poet couple". I could have taken this rare opportunity to have fun with my friends, relieve my worries, drink wine and compose poems, and have a good Lantern Festival, which is rarely lively after the war. This was a matter of course, but because she was in a really bad mood, she politely declined the kind invitations from her friends. When a person falls into the situation of "it's boring to test lights, and I'm not in the mood to walk in the snow", then I still have the mood to go out and have fun and relax. Why doesn't the author want to go out with his friends to relax and have fun? In the second half of the work, the author reveals the true feelings.

Since I can’t go out to play, I can only stay at home alone. If you stay alone for a long time, you will inevitably think about miscellaneous things, the past, today, and yesterday, some are happy, some are sad, there are strings of laughter, and there are tears mixed with the rain in the parasol trees. Wow... Li Qingzhao had so many memories for her in his later years. Her husband died, she married by mistake, her country was ruined and her family was destroyed, all her cultural relics were scattered, and now she is alone. Once you think about this kind of experience seriously, you can't help but feel even more painful. So Li Qingzhao began to cast his memory back to a Lantern Festival decades ago.

“On the prosperous day in Zhongzhou, there are many flaws in the boudoir, so remember to focus on the three and five.” It turns out that at that time, women paid special attention to the Lantern Festival. Since women in the feudal era did not have any rights to participate in political, military and other major social activities, they could only do labor at home. Women from wealthy families or women from respectable families would at most add some red-painted girls to drinking parties or playing games such as grass fighting and horse racing. Even writing lyrics, poems and essays were considered to be elegant affairs in the boudoir and could only be passed around in the boudoir. Too much publicity. Personal freedom and the right to study are extremely restricted. Therefore, some of the more famous female writers before and after Li Qingzhao did not achieve outstanding achievements. The days that women look forward to most are grand festivals, such as Hanshi, Qingming, Chinese Valentine's Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Spring Festival, Shangyuan, Ren's Day, etc. During these festivals, they can dress up happily and go out for spring outings with their partners, husbands and children to enjoy the lanterns, or reunite with their loved ones to recite poems, sing, drink and perform orders. Or invite a few good playmates to fight grass and horses. Only these festivals can bring them into complete contact with the outside world. How eagerly are the young girls and women locked in their boudoirs looking forward to the arrival of such festivals! Among these festivals, the Lantern Festival is the favorite festival among women. Shangyuan means Lantern Festival, which is the last day of the Spring Festival. In the Song Dynasty, this was a festival that both officials and people attached great importance to. Zhou Mi's "Old Martial Arts: Yuan Xi" records: "There are thousands of kinds of mountain lanterns, which are extremely novel, strange and strange, and they are all-encompassing... There is endless publicity in the streets throughout the night. The ladies of the capital are as beautiful as clouds." Who can let it go during the grand festival? Especially for women who are locked in the boudoir.

"Put Cui Guan'er, twisting golden snow willows, and competing with each other." Pu Cui Guan'er is a hat decorated with jade feathers, which is a seasonal decoration for women during the Lantern Festival. Twisted gold snow willow is a kind of snow willow made by twisting silk with gold thread in addition to silk or paper. Snow willow is a flower made of silk paper. "Tudai" is a dialect of the Song Dynasty, which means to wear jewelry densely all over the head. "Qi Chu" means beautiful. The meaning of the above three sentences is that in order to look prettier than others, women pick up beautiful and noble accessories to dress themselves up. Of course, the female poets back then were supposed to be in a light mood. She is interested in paving the emerald crown with golden snow willows, and the ribbons are in full bloom. Who knows that fate plays tricks on people, and they may live a prosperous life in their youth, but be desolate in their later years. The lively girl who "always gets drunk with willow flowers in the snow every year" ("Qing Ping Le") has been reduced to a widow with an extremely desolate mood, "yellow flowers pile up all over the ground and are haggard and worn out. Who can pick them now." This passage is the poet's recollection of his own excitement during the Lantern Festival that year. It was so lively that it was displayed in front of the readers and the author like a painting. The years have passed, and the beautiful life was broken by a sudden war that broke the peace it deserved. Everything that should not be lost has disappeared. What I didn’t want to have, I now have it in my arms.

What does it look like today?

“Now I am haggard, my hair is covered with frost, and I am afraid of going out at night.” People today have gray hair and are too lazy to go out at night. Old, indeed old.

The interest I had back then was gone, and now I was just filled with sadness, with no one to talk to, and no one willing to listen. In this way, "It's better to go under the curtain and listen to people's laughter." It seems very reasonable and reasonable. The connection between the two layers is natural and smooth, and at the same time, you turn over one layer and get deeper and deeper. The image in the last sentence expresses the lonely and sad mood very vividly. It's sad.

Who understands the lyricist’s heart? Who understands the poet’s grief? Is it the poet himself? Or do poets use their works to communicate with readers? The poet finally talks to himself and to readers thousands of years later. With her calm mood, serene tone, and popular language, she cleared away all obstacles in the long history, so that today's readers can still enter the Lantern Festival night of the "Zhongzhou Festival" through her descriptions, and understand that she only The difficulty of being able to "hear people laughing and talking under the curtain".

This poem contains the author's strong thoughts about his motherland, so it can touch the homeless people who had a similar fate to Li Qingzhao, and it also broke the hearts of the patriots before the collapse of the Southern Song Dynasty. One hundred years after this poem, the patriotic poet Liu Chenweng composed two poems. The preface to one of the poems reads: "I recited Li Yian's "Yong Yu Le" since the Yuan Dynasty in Yihai, and cried for it. For the past three years, every time I hear this poem, I often feel uncomfortable, so I rely on its sound and support it. Yi An's self-explanation, although the words are not as emotional as the poem, is more tragic." This shows the strong appeal of Yi An's poem. The era Liu Chenweng lived in was already the shaky era of the Southern Song Dynasty, so he said that it was "more miserable than ever".

So far, Li Qingzhao has revealed her spiritual world in her later years in front of our eyes. You can see from her extremely complex mentality the extent of the damage she suffered during the war, you can also see the horror of her later life from her description of her early life, you can read a woman's misfortune, you can see the fate of her fate. Ruthless, and all of this is real, there is no false element. Therefore, we can see the real Li Qingzhao in her lyrics, a poet without disguise. This is her pursuit that has never changed in her literary creation. This is also a factor in her success!

In fact, most people have long forgotten the shame of being trampled in the Northern Song Dynasty. They should be busy with life. I have forgotten that this is a good thing and the only way to do it. It's important that I live a comfortable life. What does the suffering of the masses have to do with me? I really admire Li Qingzhao, why she always remembers everything in the past so clearly. Why not forget it? He had to write something like "Ode to Beat Horses", "Privy Councilor Han Gong, Ministry of Industry Minister Hu Gong" and even said, "If you are born as a hero, you will die as a ghost hero" and so on. Future generations can only lament for you that "the temple only has peace and military affairs, and I am ashamed to be a boudoir fighting horses." I thought it wasn't worth it.

The conception of this poem is different from that of many Shangyuan poems. Among the Shangyuan poems that can be called masterpieces, only Li Qingzhao's "Yong Yu Le" uses its prosperity to contrast loneliness and joy. A pen to write down the sad feelings. I wrote about its prosperity and intensity.

Li Qingzhao adopted a contrasting approach in this poem. First start with the beautiful scenery in front of you and then move on to declining invitations from friends. After finishing the narration, I immediately returned to the Shangyuan Festival in Bianjing. After writing all the joyful thoughts and gorgeous gestures, I returned to the present day and described it in detail, and finally ended the whole article with a very ordinary and sad spoken sentence. Emotions and scenes are constantly contrasted, which makes it possible to clearly see the differences between the two lives and moods before and after. It allows readers to see how serious the disaster an incompetent ruler has brought to the people, which makes people eye-catching, aware, and awakening. Of course, incompetent rulers can only welcome the emergence of a new social order with the decline of the entire dynasty. This is a fact that no one can change. Not even 120 years after Li Qingzhao passed away, the Southern Song Dynasty fell.

This word also has a major feature, that is, the refined written language and spoken language complement each other, reaching the height of seeing elegance in vulgarity, not avoiding vulgarity in elegance, and blending elegance and vulgarity. The predecessors commented: "It is easy to adapt the old to the new," which is extremely true.

The unconventional "Yong Yu Le" is still one of the best works among the Shangyuan CI group that has formed a Jialin group.

I dare not say that Li Qingzhao’s Yuanxiao poem is the best work in the history of chanting the Lantern Festival, but this poem can be said to be a wonderful work among the works of chanting the Lantern Festival in the past. When someone writes a poem about the Lantern Festival, they should think of Su Shi's open-mindedness and not forget Xin Jiqi's cry, let alone Li Qingzhao's immediate emotion of sadness, so they dare to repeat the poem. When Li Qingzhao composed this song "Yong Yu Yue" into music, he had the capital to be passed down through the ages.