It shows the author's strong will to not give up his ideals despite being persecuted. It is also an encouragement and comfort to his demoted comrades. "The Story of Yueyang Tower" is famous because of its lofty ideological realm. Another writer at the same time, Ouyang Xiu, said in an inscription written for him that he had been determined to be in the world since he was a child, and often recited to himself: "A scholar should worry about the world's worries first, and rejoice in the world's happiness later."
It can be seen that what is said at the end of "Yueyang Tower", "Be worried about the world's worries first, and be happy after the world's happiness" is the criterion for Fan Zhongyan's life behavior. Mencius said: "If you are powerful, you can benefit the world; if you are poor, you can only benefit yourself." This has become the creed of many scholar-officials in the feudal era.
When Fan Zhongyan wrote this article, he was demoted from the official position and was "far away from the world." He could have adopted a self-isolated attitude and ended up in leisure and happiness. However, he proposed the principle that upright scholar-bureaucrats should stand up for themselves and act in a unified manner. Personal honor, disgrace, and promotion should be ignored. "Don't be happy with things, don't be sad with yourself." You should "worry about the worries of the world first, and be happy after the happiness of the world." It is commendable to encourage yourself and your friends.
The spirit embodied in these two sentences, the quality of enduring hardship first and enjoying pleasure last, undoubtedly still has educational significance.
Extended information:
As far as art is concerned, "The Story of Yueyang Tower" is also an excellent article.
First, predecessors have already said everything about the grand view of Yueyang Tower, and there is no point in repeating those old sayings. Fan Zhongyan just took a new angle, found a new topic, and said his own thing. The title of the article is "Yueyang Tower", but it cleverly avoids writing about the tower and writes about Dongting Lake. It writes about the different emotions that the poets who moved to the tower had when they saw the different scenery of Dongting Lake to set off the last paragraph of the so-called "ancient story". A humane heart.” Fan Zhongyan's originality is admirable.
Second, narration, scene description, lyricism and discussion are integrated into one article. The narration is concise, the scene description is extravagant, the lyricism is sincere, and the discussion is incisive. The argumentative part does not have many words, but it has the function of commanding the whole text, so some people say that this is a unique argumentative essay. The argumentative skills in "The Story of Yueyang Tower" are indeed worth learning from.
Third, the language of this article is very distinctive. Although it is a piece of prose, it is interspersed with many four-character couplets, such as "the sun and stars are hidden, and the mountains are hidden." "The sand gulls gather together and the golden scales swim." "The long smoke is gone, and the bright moon is thousands of miles away; the floating light leaps into the gold, and the silent shadow sinks into the jade." These parallel sentences add color to the article.
The author has also made great efforts in refining the words and sentences. For example, the words "title" and "swallow" in the two sentences of "holding the distant mountains and swallowing the Yangtze River" accurately express the vast momentum of Dongting Lake. "Don't be happy with things, don't be sad with yourself." These eight concise words are as enlightening as a motto. "Be worried about the world's worries first, and be happy after the world's happiness." The rich meaning is melted into two short sentences, each word is powerful.
The full text integrates narration, scene description, lyricism, and discussion, with movement and stillness, light and dark contrasting, simple words, harmonious syllables, and the use of parallelism to contrast scenes, which has become an innovation in miscellaneous notes.
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Reference source: Baidu Encyclopedia-Yueyang Tower