A man can use copper as a mirror to straighten his clothes and crown; Using history as a mirror, we can understand the rise and fall; Using people as mirrors can reveal gains and losses. What kind of story does our protagonist Lu You have?
Lu You has two major hobbies, one is drinking well, and the other is enjoying flowers, especially after drinking. Lu Fangweng once wrote dozens of poems titled “On Wine”, one of which reflects Lu You’s love for fine wine and flower appreciation. As the poem goes, “Good flowers are like old friends, a cup of laughter is empty.” However, it turns out that Lu You’s good wine is meant to relieve worries; Lu You’s love for appreciating flowers is to think of his old friends. As the saying goes, ‘Under the sad bridge, the spring waves are green, once shining in the shadow of a startled flood.’ Only those who know Lu You can understand the pain and sorrow in his heart.
However, as Lu You said, idle sorrow dissolves like wine, and life must continue, so drunkenness is essential. Once slightly intoxicated, even drunk, one gains relative and temporary freedom. When Lu You was in Chengdu, he also wrote a somewhat proud poem, “The fragrance lingers for twenty miles, from Qingyang Palace to Huanhua Creek.
But what can be certain is that Lu You loves plum blossoms with integrity and character, not flowers of great wealth and status. His drunkenness is intoxication, not self loss. Until one time, he was admiring crabapples at a friend’s house, and this time he was really drunk. After getting really drunk, Lu You’s poetry flourished and he wrote a wonderful poem:
On the third day of staying at Fanting, Wang Juemin inspected the details and brought wine to drink and compare with the crabapple. “Author: Lu You, who stayed in Luoluo, was still able to appreciate the beauty of things, and the famous garden became a drunken life. Why not admire the wealth and prosperity of the world together among the accomplished scholars at home.
In this poem, Lu You, who wrote ‘How can one become a hundred billion, a plum blossom on a tree and a blooming Weng’, seems to have fallen in love with the flower of wealth and prosperity. This really confuses those who love Lu You. Let’s first appreciate this poem.
The title of the poem is very long, which means to enjoy the crabapple with friends, drink fine wine, and show off one’s poetic talent when drunk. That’s why this poem is written. The first and second sentences are narrative, ‘Famous gardens also create a drunken life’, indicating that during this period, Lu You often got drunk in famous gardens. It seems that his life is nothing but a life of drinking to drown his sorrows. Three or four sentences are a proposal from Lu You: Why not let the renowned scholars at home and abroad appreciate the wealth and prosperity of the world together. Famous scholars from all over the world come to drink and appreciate the flowers of wealth and prosperity.
The whole poem seems to be a drunken dream, as well as a heartfelt complaint and irony. In fact, the poem by Lu You should be read as an irony. The author appears to be depressed and admiring the flowers of wealth and prosperity, but in reality, it is the helplessness of life. This poem is actually a different kind of rebellion by Lu You.
More than 500 years after the publication of Lu You’s poem, Nalan Xingde wrote a poem that unintentionally refuted Lu You. This poem is also classic enough. The most essence sentence in this poem is a tit for tat with Lu You. Lu You said, ‘Let’s enjoy the rich and precious flowers of the world together,’ while Nalan Xingde said, ‘It’s not the rich and precious flowers of the world.’. Unexpectedly, the sharpness of this contrarian poem surpasses that of Lu You’s poetry. It must be said that talent is capriciousness.
The author of “Picking Mulberry Seeds: Ode to Snowflakes on the Frontier” is Nalan Xingde, who is not obsessed with light appearance and prefers cold places. Don’t have any roots or buds, it’s not a flower of wealth and luxury in the world. After bidding farewell to Xie Niang, who can cherish it? Wandering to the ends of the earth. The cold moon mourns, the west wind winds thousands of miles away, the Han sea sand.
How did Nalan Xingde’s rebellious lyrics impress the literary world? The fundamental reason is that Nalan Ci is based on his true nature and expresses his profound life experiences.
We all know that Nalan Xingde is a young master who grew up with a golden key. His father was a powerful and influential figure. However, just as Li Yu hated being born into an imperial family, Nalan Xingde also hated growing up in a wealthy family. His poem is about hoping to break free from the shackles of wealth and pursue the human emotions and poetic experiences in a broader world.
The beginning of the poem is clear, expressing one’s own feelings: I am like snow stuffed on top, not born to look down on everything, because I have always liked “cold places” because “cold places are better”. My roots should have grown elsewhere, in a broader world free from the constraints of wealth and status, in the human world with a human touch. So what should Nalan Xingde’s desired world look like?
The next part of the word provides the answer. After bidding farewell to Xie Niang, who can cherish it? “However, it turns out that this world has nothing to do with wealth and status, as long as there is a close and intimate lover by your side. This person is Xie Niang. However, Xie Niang has left, drifting alone to the ends of the earth, leaving behind only “the cold moon lamenting, the west wind stretching thousands of miles, the sea and sand”, which makes people feel infinitely desolate.
In fact, Lu You is no exception. He has lived his entire life in longing for Tang Wan. In this sense, Su Ran Nalan Xingde is against Lu You, but in reality, they are spiritual brothers. They have reached the same destination through different paths, dedicating truth and beauty to Chinese literature and the emotional world!
