"Two Evening Scenes on the Spring River by Hui Chong" were written by Su Shi in the eighth year of Yuanfeng (1085), the eighth year of Emperor Shenzong's reign, in Bianjing (today's Kaifeng, Henan Province) for the two paintings of "Evening Scenes on the Spring River" painted by Hui Chong. Inscribe poems on paintings. It is said that this poem was written in Jiangyin. Now I will bring you about Su Shi's "Evening Scene on the Spring River in Huichong", I hope you like it!

"Evening Scene on the Spring River in Huichong"

Author: Su Shi Song Dynasty

A few branches of peach blossoms outside the bamboo are a prophet of the warmth of the spring river.

The ground is covered with wormwood and reed buds, which is when the pufferfish is about to come.

Translation

Two or three peach blossoms are blooming outside the bamboo forest. Ducks are playing in the water. They are the first to notice the warming of the river in early spring.

The river beach is already full of mugwort, asparagus has begun to sprout, and the pufferfish are about to swim upstream from the sea to the river.

Introduction to the poet

Su Shi (1037-1101) was a writer, calligrapher, painter and gourmet in the Northern Song Dynasty. His courtesy name is Zizhan and his nickname is Dongpo Jushi. Han nationality, Sichuan native, buried in Yingchang (now Jiaxian County, Pingdingshan City, Henan Province). He had a bumpy official career throughout his life, but he was knowledgeable and talented. He was excellent in poetry, calligraphy and painting. His writing is unbridled, clear and fluent, and together with Ouyang Xiu, he is called Ou Su, and he is one of the "Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties"; his poetry is fresh and bold, good at using exaggeration and metaphor, and his artistic expression is unique. He is also called Su Huang together with Huang Tingjian; He started a bold and unrestrained school and had a huge influence on later generations. Together with Xin Qiji, he was called Su Xin. His calligraphy was good at running script and regular script. He was able to create his own ideas. His pen was rich and ups and downs, and he had an innocent taste. He was called Song Dynasty together with Huang Tingjian, Mi Fu and Cai Xiang. The four schools have the same painting studies and literature, advocate spiritual similarity in painting, and advocate "scholar painting". He is the author of "The Complete Works of Su Dongpo" and "Su Dongpo Yuefu".

Life of the Poet

On January 8, 1037 AD, Su Shi was born in Meishan, Meizhou. Su Shi's father, Su Xun, is the "Su Laoquan" mentioned in the "Three Character Classic" who "starts to work hard at the age of twenty-seven". Although Su Xun worked hard late, he worked very hard. In his later years, Su Shi recalled studying with his father when he was young, and felt that he was deeply influenced by his father. Of course, without Su Xun's strenuous study, it would have been impossible for Su Shi to receive a good tutoring at a young age, let alone "study the classics and history, and write thousands of words a day" before he was in his prime, nor would he have achieved literary achievements in the future. .

In 1056 (the first year of Jiayou), Su Shi, who was twenty-one years old, left Sichuan for the first time in Beijing to take part in the imperial examination. The following year, he took part in the examination of the Ministry of Rites and won the appreciation of the examiner Ouyang Xiu with his essay "On the Perfection of Honesty in Punishments and Rewards". However, because Ouyang Xiu mistakenly believed that it was written by his disciple Zeng Gong, in order to avoid suspicion, he had to take second place.

In 1061 (the sixth year of Jiayou), Su Shi took the high school examination, which is commonly known as the "Three Years of Beijing Examination", entered the third class, became the "No. 1 in a century", and was awarded the Dali Judgment Award. , signed the letter to the judge of Fengxiang Mansion. His mother died of illness in her hometown. In 1069 (the second year of Xining), she returned to the court after completing her service and was still granted her duties. Many of Su Shi's mentors, including Ouyang Xiu, his mentor who admired him at the beginning, were forced to leave Beijing because they opposed the new law and had political disagreements with the new prime minister Wang Anshi. The old rain in the government and the fields has withered, and what Su Shi sees in his eyes is no longer the "peaceful world" he saw when he was twenty.

In 1079 (the second year of Yuanfeng), less than three months after Su Shi arrived in Huzhou, he was imprisoned for writing poems that satirized the new law and for "slandering the emperor and prime minister in writing". "Taiwan Poetry Case".

Su Shi spent 103 days in jail and was on the verge of being beheaded several times. Fortunately, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the national policy of not killing scholar-bureaucrats was established during the reign of Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, so Su Shi was able to escape the disaster.

In the seventh year of Yuanfeng (1084), Su Shi left Huangzhou and went to Ruzhou to take office. Due to the long journey and exhaustion from the journey, Su Shi's infant died unfortunately. The road to Ruzhou was far away, and the travel expenses had been exhausted. Coupled with the pain of losing his son, Su Shi wrote to the court, requesting not to go to Ruzhou for the time being, but to live in Changzhou first, which was later approved. When he was about to return south to Changzhou, Shenzong died. The area of ??Changzhou is intertwined with water networks and has beautiful scenery. Living in Changzhou, he had no worries about hunger and cold, and could enjoy the beautiful scenery. Moreover, he was far away from the political disputes in the capital, and could get along with his family and many friends day and night. So Su Dongpo finally chose Changzhou as his final place.

When Zhezong ascended the throne, Empress Dowager Gao took charge of the government in the name of Zhezong's young age. Sima Guang was re-appointed as prime minister, and the new party headed by Wang Anshi was suppressed. Su Shi returned to the imperial court and became the official of Zhidengzhou (Penglai). Four months later, the doctor of the Ministry of Rites was summoned back to the court. In the first half of the morning, he was promoted to Jusheren, and three months later, he was promoted to Zhongshusheren. Soon after, he was promoted to Hanlin scholar Zhizhigao (a secretary who drafted edicts for the emperor, third grade), and was informed of the tributes of the Ministry of Rites.

When Su Shi saw that the emerging forces were desperately suppressing the figures in Wang Anshi's group and abolishing the new law, he believed that the so-called old party and the new party were just the same, and once again made suggestions to the emperor.

Appreciation 1

The first line of the poem is "Three or two peach blossoms outside the bamboo". Looking across the sparse green bamboo, a few peach blossoms are swaying. The peach and bamboo contrast with each other, and the red and green set off the scenery. The spring atmosphere is particularly lovely. Although this is just a simple sentence, it reveals a lot of information. First of all, it shows the sparseness of the bamboo forest. If it were dense, the peach blossoms would not be visible. Secondly, it indicates the season and highlights the word "early".

The spring cold has just passed, and it is not the time for the peach blossoms to bloom yet, but the infinite vitality and potential of spring have already been revealed.

The second sentence of the poem, "The duck prophet sees the water warm in the spring river", looks from far to near, that is, from the river bank to the surface of the river. The spring water on the river is rippling, and the restless ducks are playing in the river. The "Duck Prophet" side explains that the spring river water is still slightly chilly, so other animals are not yet sensitive to the coming of spring. This echoes the "three or two branches" of peach blossoms in the first sentence, indicating the early spring season. This poem is adapted from a Tang Dynasty poem: Meng Jiao "What is the most prophetic thing? The Xuxucao fights for it" ("After the Spring Rain"), Du Mu (a work by Xu Hun) "The water under the Pu root is warm and the wild geese are beginning to fall, the plum path is fragrant and the bees are unknown." "("Early Spring Funici"). Su Shi learned from the past but not from the past. He combined the creative ideas of his predecessors' poems with his own accumulation of observations to form this fine sentence. "The duck knows the water is warm" is something that appeals to feelings and imagination. It is difficult to convey it in pictures, but the poet expresses it in his poems through his experience of putting himself in his shoes. The ducks playing freely in the river are the first to feel the rising temperature of the spring water, and use the tactile impression of "warmth" to supplement the visual impression of the spring water in the painting. The reason why ducks can "predict the warmth of the spring river" is because they live in the water all year round. As long as the river is not frozen, they will always jump into the water to play. Therefore, the first people to know about the changes in the water temperature of the Spring River are naturally these ducks, which are closely related to the water. This means that everything must be experienced personally to have a true feeling. This poem not only reflects the poet's meticulous observation of nature, but also embodies the poet's philosophical thinking about life. A duck can tell when a river is warm in spring when it goes into the water, which is comparable to the saying that "a fallen leaf can tell the world is in autumn".

The three or four lines of the poem: "The ground is full of wormwood and the reed buds are short, it is the time when the pufferfish is about to come up." These two lines of the poem still closely refer to "early spring" to describe, the ground is full of wormwood and wormwood. , short reed buds, yellow and green, gorgeous and charming, presenting a scene of spring and prosperity. "Pufferfish Wants to Go Up" borrows the characteristic that pufferfish only go upstream when the water in the Spring River is warm, further highlighting the word "spring", which is originally missing in the picture and difficult to reach with a brush, but the poet successfully "describes the scene that is difficult to describe". In the present", injecting the breath of spring and vitality of life into the whole picture. Zhang Lei, a student of Su Shi, also recorded in "Mingdao Magazine" that the natives in the Yangtze River area eat pufferfish, "but they cook it with artemisia and bamboo shoots, that is, reed sprouts and water spinach", believing that these three items are the most suitable combination with pufferfish. It can be seen that Su Shi's association is well-founded and natural. The beauty of poetry also depends on this. Although the picture does not describe the movement of the puffer fish, the poet inferred from the thick grass and reed sprouts that "the puffer fish is about to come up", so he painted the image of the puffer fish moving up the river when the spring water was rising, and supplemented it with imaginary virtual scenes. Reality. Su Shi used this kind of pen and ink to transform silent and static pictures into a sound and moving poetic realm. In Su Shi's eyes, this painting is no longer a flat, static picture on paper within the frame, but gives people a sense of ecology with its deep inner experience and subtle and delicate observation. The former is picturesque and the latter is realistic. The two are confused and I don’t know which is the painting and which is the real scene. The poet's artistic association broadens the world beyond the visual expression of painting, and perfectly combines poetry and painting.

This poem successfully describes the scenery of the Spring River in early spring. Su Shi used his meticulous and keen feelings to capture the characteristics of the scenery during the change of seasons and express his joy and praise for early spring. The whole poem is full of spring and full of vitality, giving people a feeling of freshness and comfort. The poet Su Shi proposed that "the poems and paintings are consistent, both natural and fresh" ("Two Broken Branches Painted by the Master of Book Yanling"), "There are paintings in poems, and there are poems in paintings" (Volume 5 of "Dongpo Inscriptions and Postscripts") "Mojie Lantian Misty Rain Picture") has been well verified in his painting poem "Huichong Spring River Evening Scene".

Appreciation 2

A good painting poem must not only fit the theme of the painting, but also not be limited to the content of the painting. It must be able to reproduce the scene of the painting and at the same time be able to jump out of the painting and be unique. , leaving painting without losing its independent artistic life. This poem can be said to do just that. The first three lines of the poem chant about the scenery in the picture, and the last line is an association caused by the scenery in the picture. The whole poem is like a poet expressing his feelings at the scene. The images he gets at the moment are wonderful and natural. The first three sentences represent the painting scene, but in fact the two are not completely equivalent. In the second sentence, "water warmth" (temperature), "duck prophet" (perception) and so on cannot be drawn directly. Poems can describe picturesque things, but poems that praise the physical properties of things are too picturesque. This is because painting is a visual art, while poetry is a language art, with absolute freedom of expression. The last sentence further develops association and makes a judgment about the season of the scenery in the painting based on the objective description of the scenery in the first three sentences, thus adding a rich feeling of the beauty of southern scenery, which is something that paintings cannot do. Regarding the seasonal flavor of puffer fish, the poem "Fan Raozhou sits in Zhongguo and talks about eating puffer fish" begins with: "Spring buds grow on spring islands, and poplar flowers bloom on spring banks. When puffer fish is in season, it is more expensive than fish and shrimp." "June 1st" "Poetry" said: "Pufferfish often come out in the late spring, swim in groups on the water, and eat catkins to get fat. People in the south often make soup with Di buds, and the clouds are the most beautiful." Su Shi's students also recorded in the "Mingdao Magazine" that the natives in the Yangtze River area eat food Puffer fish is cooked "with three ingredients: artemisia, bamboo shoots (i.e. reed sprouts), and water spinach". It is believed that these three items are the most suitable combination with puffer fish. It can be seen that Su Shi's association is well-founded and natural. The beauty of poetry also depends on this.

About the author

Su Shi (1037-1101), a writer, calligrapher and painter. His courtesy name was Zizhan, also known as Hezhong, and he was known as the lay scholar of Dongpo. Han nationality, from Meishan, Meizhou (now part of Sichuan). Together with his father Su Xun and his younger brother Su Zhe, they are collectively known as Sansu. He is an all-rounder in literature and art. His writing is unbridled, clear and fluent. Together with Ouyang Xiu, he is called Ou Su, and he is one of the eight great masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. His poems are fresh and vigorous, good at using exaggerated metaphors, and has a unique style in artistic expression. Together with Huang Tingjian, he is called Su Huang. He was a bold and unrestrained school and had great influence on future generations. Together with Xin Qiji, he was called Su Xin. He was good at calligraphy in running script and regular script. He was able to create his own ideas. His brushwork was rich and ups and downs, and he had an innocent taste. Together with Huang Tingjian, Mi Fu and Cai Xiang, he was called the Fourth Song Dynasty. He is a scholar of painting and literature, he likes to paint dead trees and strange rocks, and he advocates spiritual resemblance in painting. His poems include "Seven Collections of Dongpo" and his poems include "Dongpo Yuefu". He is also a gourmet and has created the gourmet Dongpo Pork.