Zhang Dai (1597--1689), also known as Zongzi, also known as Shigong, named Tao'an, also known as Die'an layman, was born in Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang) and was a famous essayist, poet, and historian in the late Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Dai's literary achievements are mainly in prose, especially his essays.

He absorbed the strengths of Xu Wei's leisurely and elegant taste, Gong'an Sanyuan's "unconventional and independent expression of spirit", and the "solitude and deepness" of Zhong Xing and Tan Yuanchun of the Jingling School. He demanded to "open up the channels" and lift all kinds of restraints on the spirit.

The shackles made "the nature of things take care of itself" [1] ("Mengxun of the West Lake·Release Pond", p. 314), thus creating plain, strange, fresh and elegant essays, and became a master of essays in the late Ming Dynasty.

Wang Yuqian once praised it as "the black harvest in literature" and "the fighting piao later"[2]308.

His "Memories of Dreams in Tao'an" and "Dreams in West Lake" were the main representative works of sketches at that time.

1. Plain yet extraordinary The style of Zhang Dai’s sketches is generally plain yet extraordinary.

Regardless of whether he describes scenes, people or customs, his sketches are written from ordinary places, and the content is plain and natural.

But in terms of expression techniques, it is surprising and interesting.

The form is short and unique, and the language is pure and plain, almost colloquial. It is not good at external rational speculation or passionate passion, and it has washed away the graceful and decorative atmosphere of ordinary lyric prose.

(1) Landscape sketches are not decorated with flowery words, nor do they use strange words and dangerous words to make them strange, but there is also wonder in the ordinary.

"Watching Snow at the Pavilion in the Heart of the Lake" only contains more than 160 words, but it describes the night snow scene in the Pavilion in the Lake Pavilion in a confusing and confusing way, and conveys the author's aloof character and lonely feelings of sitting around the stove and watching the snow late at night.

Appears lifelike.

Moreover, from the author's endless reminiscences of the wonderful events in the lake and mountains, we can also feel his deep thoughts about his hometown and his depressed feeling of vicissitudes of life.

He can contain such a vast world and profound emotions in a short piece of more than 100 words, and leave people with endless aftertaste and reverie.

"The rime is foggy, and the sky, clouds, mountains, and water are white above and below; the shadows in the lake are only a trace of the long embankment, a pavilion in the center of the lake, a mustard of Yu Zhou, and two or three grains of people in the boat!" ("Tao")

"An Mengyi·Watching Snow at the Pavilion in the Heart of the Lake", page 81) This sentence combines the silence of the snow-covered ground with the up and down of water vapor, clouds and mist, achieving the continuity of movement and stillness, which not only writes the spirit of snow but also expresses

Snow weather.

Then, the author overlapping the words "and" vividly expresses the vast and indistinguishable snow scene between the sky, clouds and lake.

This is an overall depiction of the snow scene in Huxinting.

Then the author chooses four shots to carefully depict the scenery in the snow, which are "a trace of the long embankment", "a point of the pavilion in the center of the lake", "a mustard in the boat" and "two or three grains of people in the boat".

When the sky and the earth are vast, the shadows on the lake are transcribed, and the snow scene of West Lake is vividly portrayed with expressive and vivid quantifiers, touching the pulse of life of the landscape.

The author uses these highly accurate and vivid quantifiers to implicitly describe the movement of sight and changes in scenery, making people aware that the boat is slowly moving forward in the night and the space is constantly shifting, thus creating a dreamlike hazy artistic conception.

, and makes people feel that in this chaotic world of ice and snow, people are just as insignificant as a drop in the sky. This is exactly the emotion of life that the author is trying to express.

These simple words convey infinite meaning and create a unique artistic conception.

Zhang Xiaoqian believes that "Zhang Dai is good at creating novelties and innovations in ordinary and simple words, and integrating magic into the plain and simple, making the articles both simple and vivid, and both elegant and popular." [3] It is fully reflected here.

The reason why the author chose to watch the snow alone after the change was because he did not want to see or be seen by others, and also because the snow scene was more wonderful at this time.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, there were two people spread out on blankets and sitting opposite each other, and "the boy's wine stove was boiling", which showed that they had been watching the snow for a long time.

This was beyond the author's expectation and also surprised the readers.

However, the author does not write about his own surprise, but instead writes that the two guests were "overjoyed to see me"; he does not say that he is extraordinary, but allows the guests to express this emotion, which is a strange perspective.

So the author and the "Jinling man" forced themselves to drink "Three Dabai". During the drinking, the two parties said nothing except an exclamation when they first met, and they didn't even know their names.

This also reflects the author's style and character, which is different from popular customs, but takes pleasure in getting things done.

The wonders of the snowy night on the lake are certainly worth recalling in dreams, but the otherworldly emotions behind the wonders and the adventure of meeting a close friend at night are even more worthy of joy.

At the end of the article, the people viewing the scenery and their feelings are written, and the finishing touch is often here.

Finally, Zhouzi expressed his views on this night trip: "After getting off the boat, Zhouzi murmured: 'Don't say that your husband is an idiot, there are even more idiots who are as idiotic as your husband!'" It was snowing and cold, and the author went to the Huxin Pavilion late at night.

Appreciating the snow, in the eyes of boatmen, is a "crazy" and incomprehensible "strange act".

But the "strange move" is even more surprising: the two guests cooked wine and enjoyed the snow in the pavilion in the middle of the lake early in the morning. This was even more "strange move" in Zhouzi's opinion.

Through his mutterings, he vividly expresses the emotional distance between people and the author, as well as the author's alienated, aloof and lonely character.

From this point of view, the so-called "madness" is exactly the noble and transcendent emotion that ordinary "common people" cannot understand.

"Looking at the Snow in the Pavilion in the Heart of the Lake" has plain text, but the meaning is beyond the words. It conveys the strange scenery, strange actions and strange emotions in one song and three sighs.

There is something extraordinary in the ordinary.

The wonder of Zhang Dai's description of scenery is also reflected in the fact that the natural scenery he describes are all well-known and well-known to every household.