"Magpie Bridge Immortal Xianyun Nongqiao" is a work by Qin Guan, a poet in the Song Dynasty. This is an ode to pure love. The first part is about the gathering of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and the second part is about their parting. The whole poem is intertwined with sorrow and joy, integrating lyricism and discussion, integrating heaven and earth. The beautiful image and deep emotions are combined to sing the praises of beautiful love with ups and downs. The discussion in this poem is free and fluent, easy to understand, but it is also graceful and subtle, with endless aftertaste, especially the last two sentences, which elevate the ideological realm of the poem to a new level and become an aphorism in the poem.
Qin Guan (1049-September 17, 1100) was a native of Gaoyou, Jiangsu Province. He is revered as the first generation poet of Wanyue School, also known as Hangou Jushi, and scholars call him Huaihai Jushi. Su Shi once jokingly called him "Shanmo Weiyunjun".
Qin Guan is an important writer in the literary history of the Northern Song Dynasty. However, among all the existing works of Qin Guan, there are only three volumes with more than 100 poems, while there are more than 430 poems in fourteen volumes. There are more than 250 chapters in thirty volumes. When the poems and essays are added together, the length is far more than the words.
Main achievements
Ciography
Portraits of Qin Guan
Qin Guan has demonstrated uniqueness in the artistic expression of graceful and sentimental lyrics. aesthetic realm.
First of all, in terms of artistic conception creation, Qin Guan's lyrics are good at describing the quiet and lonely natural scenery, expressing the resentment and helplessness of the immigrants and poets, and creating a bleak and solemn "state of self".
The representative work is "Tasha Xing" written when he was demoted to Chenzhou:
This poem expresses the poet's exile, bleak future and loneliness very deeply. , the sadness of missing my hometown. Especially the last two sentences, which are set in context and asked, painfully express the helplessness and grief of being far away from the imperial court and banished to the end of the world. After Qin Guan died of illness, Su Shi specially wrote these two lines of poetry on a fan, and wrote the inscription: "I have traveled so little, how can I redeem myself if I have ten thousand people!". It means that Qin Shaoyou died, and even ten thousand people could not redeem his life. This sentence is actually an adaptation of the sentence "If it can be redeemed, everyone will be saved" in "Guo Feng·Qin Feng·Yellow Bird".
Secondly, in terms of grammatical structure, Qin Guan was influenced by Liu Yong and created a large number of slow Ci poems. However, he can bring the implicit and meticulous charm of the poems into the long tone of the slow poems, thus making up for the shortcomings of Liu Yong's eloquent writing, which is superficial and monotonous.
For example, "Looking at the Sea Tide"
Again, in terms of the use of calligraphy, Qin Guan's poems have the characteristics of implicit beauty. They use images to pursue the exquisite beauty of the image and depict nature. The scenery is mostly flying swallows, jackdaws, weeping poplars, fragrant grass, setting sun, waning moon, distant villages, Yanzhu, etc.; the architectural objects are imitation pavilions, solitary pavilions, painted screens, silver candles and the like. He used soft and graceful brushwork to elaborate and modify the words in his poems, and used exquisite and concise diction to convey a melancholy and hazy artistic conception.
Just as Zhao Zunyue commented on the wonderful use of words in Qin Guan's Ci in the volume of "Ci Ci Cong Hua": "Huaihai is a beautiful word, which is dazzling to the eye, such as 'in the east wind, the red doors reflect the willows, low press "Xiao Qin Zheng", a "ying", a "low press", a "small" character, has driven the quality to be sparse and beautiful, and people can see his grace."
Qin Guan's life was full of ups and downs. The poems written are ancient and heavy, reflecting one's life experience, and are deeply touching. Su Shi passed through Yangzhou and visited Qin Guan in person. It happened that Sun Jue and Wang Gong were also in Gaoyou, so they made an appointment to visit Dongyue Temple, where they drank wine, recited poems and composed poems, which became a good story.
There are many relics wherever Qin Guan traveled during his lifetime.
For example, Qin Guan Temple in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Qin Guan Statue, Mr. Huaihai Temple, and Yinghua Pavilion in Lishui; Qin Scholar Temple in Qingtian; Sanjue Monument in Chenzhou, Hunan; Haitang Pavilion and Zuixiang Pavilion in Hengxian County, Guangxi , Huaihai Hall, Huaihai Academy, etc. Qin Guan's tomb is located on Canshan Mountain in the north of Huishan in Wuxi. The tombstone has the characters "Qin Long Tu Tomb" written on it. There are Qinjia Village, Qinjia Courtyard and Ancient Literature Tour Platform, a provincial cultural relic protection unit.
In the first year of Xining (1068), Qin Guan was 21 years old. After witnessing the tragic situation of the people suffering from floods, he wrote "Fushan Weir Fu" and "Guo Ziyi Riding Alone to See the Capture Fu".
Poetry
Qin Guan's poetry is also a master of poetry in the Northern Song Dynasty. Hu Yinglin of the Ming Dynasty wrote in the fifth volume of "Shisou Zabian": "Qin Guan considered himself to be a poet at that time. Now he is promoted by the Yuefu family to be the commander of the canal, and he is rarely known in the world." From the Song Dynasty blockbuster, the collection of "Huaihai Collection" before and after* There are forty-nine volumes, of which only three are poems. The rest are one volume of poems, fourteen volumes of poems, and one volume of elegies ("the above are rhymes"). The text is the most numerous, with thirty volumes.
Qin Guan's poetry has deep emotions, far-reaching artistic conception and unique style, which makes him unique in the poetry world of the Song Dynasty. The most outstanding essays are political commentaries, philosophical essays, travel notes, and short essays. His policy papers are sharp in writing, thorough in reasoning, referencing the past and present, and are persuasive and infectious.
The third type of poems written by Qin Guan in certain specific environmental situations, such as "Huaihai Qinlang and the world's scholars, embrace all kinds of worries throughout their lives", such as recalling the past and relocation, have made It turns out that the traditional values ??of drinking, entertainment and singing along to the beat have been relegated to a secondary or even irrelevant behind-the-scenes position.
On the other hand, he was ordered to shoulder the emotional function of poetry in classical poetic theory, and thus became a specific materialized form of the self-subject mentality and mood, so as to satisfy his lamentation about the tragedy of fate and catharsis. The realistic spiritual needs of life's worries.
Yuan Haowen commented on Qin Guan's poems as "girl poems", and there were many misunderstandings in later generations. However, there are more than 400 extant poems by Qin Guan, among which the ones that really have the flavor of "girl poems" are just that. accounting for a quarter of the total number of works.
Policy Theory
Qin Shaoyou is an important writer in the literary history of the Northern Song Dynasty. However, for a long time, when people talk about Qin Shaoyou, they have always been accustomed to associate him with Wanyue Ci. , but rarely mentions his poems, and even less discusses his writings. Of course, when commenting on a writer's artistic achievements, we cannot only look at the quantity of works without looking at the quality. Although some writers only have one (piece) work in existence, their influence is huge and their status in literary history is unshakable. Nonetheless, in order to evaluate Qin Shaoyou's contribution and status in literary history historically and objectively, if we only discuss his lyrics and ignore his poems and prose, especially his strategies, it will not only be biased, but also fail to give a complete evaluation. Qin Shaoyou.
Qin Shaoyou's policies are lofty and far-sighted, thorough in reasoning, strict in organization, and sharp in writing. They have a unique artistic tension, "the words are Chinese but they are ancient, and the things are well prepared but the meaning is high."
Close to reality, not empty talk
Qin Shaoyou has 50 policy essays, including 30 advanced strategies and 20 advanced essays. A careful analysis of the content of these policy papers shows that most of these articles were closely related to the social reality at that time and were less empty talk by scholars. On the one hand, this is related to the requirements of the academic writing at that time, and on the other hand, it is also related to the encouragement and guidance of his master Su Dongpo. Su Dongpo was one of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, and his prose writing achievements were quite high. His encouragement and advice were of course based on experience.
Quoting the past to prove the present, and reasoning thoroughly
Policy theory is a unique literary style in ancient times, equivalent to modern political essays. It is the opinions and opinions on state affairs and government affairs proposed by ministers to the king. suggestion. It is mainly intended to be read by emperors, so the writing should not be long and general. The length should be short, the arguments should be clear, the arguments should be sufficient, and the reasoning should be thorough. We should not only pay attention to discussing one thing at a time, explaining things in simple terms, but also pay attention to speaking in a reasonable, well-founded and orderly manner. Looking at the policies written by Qin Shaoyou, we basically meet the above requirements, especially in terms of citing the past to prove the present and making thorough reasoning.
Tightly structured and well-organized
In the fourth year of Xining, Song Shenzong adopted Wang Anshi’s suggestion and reformed the imperial examination law. Discuss strategies and test scholars." In order to be selected, Qin Shaoyou put a lot of effort into the writing of policy theory, and he even paid more attention to the writing of policy theory than poetry. He once said, "There is no need to write a good article when writing a poem. It only relies on intelligence and cleverness. If it is an essay, it cannot be the same as Japanese." Because of this, Qin Shaoyou pays great attention to the layout of his essays, no matter how long or short they are. Pay attention to changes in structure and organization.
Presentation and parallelism are full of vitality
The prose of hundreds of scholars in the pre-Qin Dynasty and the prose of the eight great masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties mostly paid attention to the use of "whole sentences" to develop and parallelize, making people read I felt a surge of momentum coming towards my face, which was very shocking. In the process of reading a large number of classic prose, Qin Shaoyou had a deep understanding of how to use arrangement and parallelism in prose. In addition, when he was a teenager, he also wrote "Fushanyan Fu", "Huanglou Fu", "Tangquan Fu", "Guo Ziyi Riding Alone to Meet the Captives" and " "He Yuanming's Return" and so on, especially the "Huang Lou Fu" written to commemorate Su Dongpo's success in fighting floods in Xuzhou, was highly appreciated by Su Dongpo, who believed that this poem "is a mixture of modern and ancient poems, with Qu Song's gestures in it" ". He applied the familiar layout and comparison used in the poem to the policy analysis, which made the article more vivid and complete.
Original text of the work
The Immortal of Magpie Bridge
The clouds are clever, the flying stars are spreading hatred, and the distance between silver and white is dark. Once the golden wind and jade dew meet, they will win over countless others in the world.
Tenderness is like water, good times are like dreams, and I can’t bear to look at the magpie bridge on the way home⑸. If the love lasts for a long time, how can it last day and night?
Annotation and translation
Word and sentence annotation
⑴Xianyun: light clouds. Niaoqiao: Refers to the clouds turning into various clever patterns in the sky.
⑵Flying Star: Meteor. One theory refers to the two stars Morning Glory and Weaver Girl.
⑶ Yinhan: Milky Way. Far away: far away. Darkness: Pass quietly.
⑷Golden Wind and Jade Dew: refers to the white dew in the autumn wind. Li Shangyin's "Xinwei Qixi Festival": "I'm afraid it's a good time to say goodbye to the immortal family, so I'll teach you to send it to the best time. The origin is that the blue sky is falling beside the Milky Way, but it's the golden breeze and jade dew."
⑸Can't bear to look back: How can I bear to look back? .
⑹ Chaochaomumu: refers to gathering together day and night. The words come from Song Yu's "Gaotang Fu".
Vernacular translation
The thin clouds are changing in the sky, the shooting stars in the sky convey the sadness of lovesickness, and I quietly pass through the distant and endless Milky Way tonight. Meeting on the Chinese Valentine's Day in the autumn wind and white dew is better than those couples in the world who stay together forever but seem to be inseparable.
*** tells of lovesickness, tenderness is like water, the brief meeting is like a dream, and when parting, I can't bear to look at the Magpie Bridge Road. As long as the love lasts until death, there is no need to covet the happiness of each other.