Calligraphy, painting, music, chess, poetry, and hops were all inseparable back then, but now the seven strings have changed, including firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea. ——Zhang Can
During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, Cha Weiren, a Juren named "Lianpo", wrote "Lianpo Poems", which recorded a poem by Zhang Can, a native of Xiangtan, Hunan:
p>Calligraphy, painting, music, chess, poetry and flowers were all inseparable from him back then.
Now seven things have changed, firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea.
"Calligraphy, painting, music, chess, poetry, and wine" were originally elegant things. I enjoyed them in those days, so elegant and unrestrained. But now the good times are no longer, everything has been declared "subverted" and turned into "firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea" It’s a vulgar thing. However, the contrast and transformation between "elegant" and "vulgar" in the poem describes the actual living conditions of all living beings in real life. The use of "firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea" to correspond to "calligraphy, painting, music, chess, poetry and wine" shows the author's Ingenuity and innovation, due to the repeated use of this proverb and poetic phrase that have been blunted, are given new brilliance in this poem, just like the end of the mountain and the sudden light of the willows.
Hope to adopt it~