This is the poem "Yu Qian Monk Luyunxuan" by Su Shi, a writer of the Song Dynasty. The original text of the poem is as follows:

It is better to eat without meat than to live without bamboo.

No meat makes you thin, and no bamboo makes you vulgar.

Those who are thin can still gain weight, but scholars and common people cannot cure it.

Others laugh at this statement, as if it is high and foolish.

If you still chew on this, are there any Yangzhou cranes in the world?

Vernacular interpretation: It is better to have no meat to eat than to live without bamboo. Without meat, people will lose weight, but without bamboo, people will become vulgar. The reason is that people can become fat even if they are thin, and it is difficult to cure it due to human customs.

If others are puzzled by this, they may ask with a smile: "Does it seem noble or foolish?" Then I would like to ask, if you face this king (bamboo) and still chew, you want to gain the reputation of being noble. , and if you want to get the pleasure of sweetness, where in the world can you find such a good thing as "Yangzhou Crane" that has your cake and eat it too?

Note: Yuqian is the name of an old county. In today's Lin'an City, Zhejiang Province, there is Jizhao Temple in the south of the county. There is a green Junxuan in the temple. The environment is decorated with bamboo, which is very elegant. This poem borrows the title " "Yu Qianseng Luyunxuan" praises elegance and high moral integrity and criticizes materialistic desires and vulgarity. Monk: His name is Zi, and his courtesy name is Huijue. He became a monk in Jizhao Temple, Fengguo Township, Yuqian County.

This king is an allusion to the emblem of the King of Jin. Wang Huizhi loved bamboo very much. Once he stayed at a friend's house and immediately ordered someone to plant bamboo. When someone asked him why, Huizhi said: "How can one day be without this king?" This king is bamboo.

Yangzhou Heyu published "Yin Yun's Novel". The main idea of ??the story is that there are guests who follow each other and have their own ambitions. Some want to be the governor of Yangzhou, some want to spend more money, and some want to ride a crane to the sky. Become a god. One of them said: He wanted to "go to Yangzhou on a crane with a hundred thousand guan in his pocket" and gain promotion, wealth and immortality at the same time.

Extended information

Creative background: In the spring of 1073 (the sixth year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty), when Su Dongpo was appointed as the general magistrate of Hangzhou, he traveled from Fuyang and Xindeng via Fuyunling and entered Yuqian. The county "depends on politics". At that time, Diao Zhu, the magistrate of Yuqian County, was a Jinshi scholar in the same ranking as Su Dongpo, and they had a close friendship. Diao Zhu warmly received this boss and went down to the "Green Junxuan" on the top of Jin'e Mountain in the southeast of the town.

Zen Master Yu Qianseng Huijue, who became a monk in Jizhao Temple, paid a visit to Su Dongpo and discussed Buddhism with him. Su Dongpo was erudite and talented, and he also claimed to be a Buddhist layman. He was familiar with Buddhism, which made Huijue admire him very much. The two of them looked out the window of the "Green Junxuan" and saw lush forests and bamboos everywhere. They were green and the scenery was pleasant. So I wrote the song "Yu Qian Monk Luyunxuan". ?

The first sentence of the poem uses an allusion to praise the monk. "You can eat without meat, but you can't live without bamboo." Because there is such an outstanding image in the allusion, the poem also uses the affirmative tone of "can" and "cannot", a transcendent and extraordinary person. The image of the eminent monk immediately appeared on the page.

The latter sentence is a further development of "You can't live without bamboo". It is rich in philosophy and sentiment, and writes about the comparative value of material and spiritual, virtue and food; food without sweetness is just "making people thin" at best; if people do not have the integrity of pine and bamboo, and do not have the elegance and admiration of good things, then It will "make people vulgar". This is not only a compliment to Qian Monk's moral integrity, but also a warning to those who lack moral integrity.

Then, "A thin person can still gain weight, but a layman cannot be cured" is used to complete this meaning, and the whip goes further. The most important thing for a person is his ideological character and spiritual state. As long as you have noble sentiments, you will be aloof like pines and cypresses, walk straight, and be outstanding; on the contrary, you will be obsessed with fame and fortune, care about gains and losses, look down upon power, and be vulgar and obsequious. Such people often think of themselves as wise, cannot listen to advice, and cannot change their nature. Therefore, the poet said that such "common people cannot be cured" - medical treatment is ineffective.

The previous article is all discussion, and the next paragraph reopens the story with new ideas. That kind of "incurable" "layman" stands up and performs for himself. This is the "show" in rhetoric: "Others laugh at this saying: 'It seems high but it seems stupid.'" This "other" is the person in front of him. The kind of "layman" mentioned.

He listened to the poet's argument and disagreed with it. Although he thought that "you can't live without bamboo" was a completely pedantic and corrupt scholar's opinion, he verbally described it as "like a high-ranking scholar". , seems to be crazy." This ambiguous tone shows the characteristics of this worldly and smooth person; he will never make decisive remarks in the debate and make enemies.

The last two sentences are the poet's ridicule and rebuttal to the vulgar people. He also wants to grow bamboo to gain a noble reputation, and he also wants to chew the sweetness in front of bamboo. Where in the world can there be "a man with a hundred thousand strings around his waist"? , Riding a crane up to Yangzhou" and other beautiful things. It is rare for a person with high reputation to be rich, and it is rare for a person with great wealth to have high reputation. Officials have no time to imitate immortals, and people with Taoism have no time to be officials. People who eat meat do not have high moral integrity, and people with high moral integrity do not eat meat. Two benefits You can’t have both, let alone multiple benefits.

This poem is mainly composed of five characters and mainly discusses. However, due to the appropriate use of prose sentence patterns (such as "You can't live without bamboo", "If you still chew on this", etc.) and some expression techniques of Fu (such as making comments in dialogue, etc.), it can be used in There is style in the discussion, waves in the discussion, and image in the discussion. Su Shi was very good at borrowing topics and had rich associative power. He could come up with new ideas in ordinary topics and speak extraordinary words. This poem is an example.