Tang Poetry Idioms 74 Bai Juyi's "Sima Qingshan": Fallen people at the end of the world, we know each other when we meet

Before becoming a Jinshi, Bai Juyi had traveled to many places: from Xinzheng to Fuli, from Fuli to Yuezhong, from Yuezhong to Fuliang, from Fuliang to Luoyang, from Luoyang to Xuanzhou. He also fell in love with a peasant girl like Xiang Ling, so he knew the hardships of life for the lower class and deeply sympathized with their plight.

While traveling from north to south, Bai Juyi also saw various bad phenomena and shortcomings in the current society. The powerful and grassroots rulers created injustice everywhere, causing contradictions to arise in the seemingly peaceful situation. There are many hidden dangers.

In the 19th year of Zhenyuan (803), Bai Juyi began to enter officialdom. First, he worked as a secretary in the Secretarial Department for three years, which was relatively leisurely. In the first year of Yuanhe (806), after he resigned from the post of Xiao Shulang, he began to focus on current policies and current affairs, and he wanted to speak out for the times.

That year, Bai Juyi and his good friend Yuan Zhen spent several months behind closed doors at Huayang Temple in Yongchongli, Chang'an, analyzing the situation and developing countermeasures, and together they completed seventy-five articles on current affairs. Thesis, collectively called "Celin".

I wrote "Celin" firstly to prepare for the next imperial examination, and secondly to help the emperor find and solve problems. Bai Juyi was awarded the post of Zhouzhi County Lieutenant after passing the examination of "talent and knowledge combined with physical skills".

From the time when he was a county captain, to later serving as Hanlin scholar, Zuo Shiyi, and Jingzhaofu Hu Cao, Bai Juyi continued to speak out with poems, articles and memorials. He wanted to realize "asking for orders", The promise of "benefiting the world".

"Articles are written to suit the occasion, and songs and poems are written to suit the occasion." This is what he said, and this is how he wrote.

Within five or six years, Bai Juyi successively composed allegorical poems such as "Ten Songs from Qinzhong" and "Fifty Poems from New Yuefu". The first poem faced reality directly and hit the point every sentence. If you want to summarize the central idea of ??these poems, it would be "I can't stand it" or "I can't stand it".

Those who can’t stand it include:

“The pitiful charcoal seller who only wears the same clothes, worried about the price of charcoal and wishing the weather was cold”;

“I tried my best The wheat mower who "doesn't know the heat, but cherishes the long summer";

The bitter cold villagers who "only burn the wormwood and thorn fire, sitting at night waiting for the morning";

"The end of Xuanzong's year and the beginning of Selected, the white-haired man from Shangyang who was sixteen and sixty today;

Du Lingsou, who said "Diansang sells land to pay official rent, what will be the food and clothing next year";

……

Those who can’t stand it include:

Lixu, who “holds rulers to visit the countryside”;

Gong, who “holds documents and pronounces imperial orders” Envoy;

The minister who "is overflowing with bottles and treasures, and eight treasures from water and land";

The violent death of "who is said to be a collector of materials, but who belongs to the army of divine strategy";

...

Especially during his tenure as Zuo Shiyi, Bai Juyi actually fulfilled the duties of an admonisher, providing opinions and suggestions to the emperor day after day, one after another. The burden of local taxes has been reduced or reduced, some palace maids have been released, human trafficking has been strictly prohibited, Pei Bian has illegally provided silverware, the eunuch has complained that Tu Chengcui is not suitable to be the leader of the army, etc., etc., etc., from the palace to the local affairs , Bai Juyi was able to mention it, but Emperor Xianzong was very patient. Not only did he not resent Bai Juyi's meddlesomeness, but he also adopted many of his suggestions.

From the sixth year of Yuanhe (811) to the eighth year of Yuanhe (813), Bai Juyi stayed away for three years because he was worried about his mother Dingyou in the countryside. The following year, he began to serve as the crown prince Zuo Zanshan's doctor.

The duty of Dr. Zuo Zanshan is also to advise and satirize, and he is an official of the Prince of the East Palace. Bai Juyi only needs to be responsible to the prince, but it seems that he has not yet come out of his role as Zuo Shiyi.

Early in the morning on June 3, the tenth year of Yuanhe (815), a murder occurred in the capital: Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng was assassinated on the way from his home to the Daming Palace to attend court. Deputy Pei Du was also stabbed.

The murder shocked the whole day and night. Because of the complexity of the case and the delicate relationship between it, officials from both the DPRK and China did not dare to ask about it. Bai Juyi, who dared to speak out, could not control so much. He stood up boldly and asked Shu Xianzong to investigate the case thoroughly and arrest the assassin as soon as possible.

Bai Juyi's performance was originally normal, but those ministers who had always been dissatisfied with him took the opportunity to attack him: You are no longer an admonisher, why don't you stay in Dongguan and talk too much in the court? What to do? Whether you catch the assassin or not is none of your business?

There are also dignitaries who were "pricked" by Bai Juyi's allegorical poems. They privately pick out the pricks in Bai Juyi's poems - some people say that Bai Juyi's mother accidentally fell into a well and died while looking at flowers, but he still Writing poems like "Hanami" and "Arai", what's the humanity in doing this? Where is filial piety?

Under the joint siege and exclusion of the powerful, Bai Juyi was eventually demoted and moved from the capital to Jiangzhou in the south, becoming a Sima in name only.

This setback made Bai Juyi truly realize the cruelty of court struggle, and also made his heart of "contributing to the world" slowly cool down.

If you’re not allowed to talk, then just don’t talk. You can’t afford to offend, you can afford to hide, and you can just “keep to yourself”, right?

When he came to Jiangzhou, Bai Juyi sometimes felt lonely, but he had something to care for, a place to return to, and he had no worries about food and clothing, and he was far away from the turmoil of official circles. He had plenty of time to go to Lushan, He visited Dongxilin Temple, Tao Yuanming's former residence and other places, so his life was quite leisurely.

In the autumn of this year, a friend came to visit Bai Juyi. In the evening, he saw the guests off to the head of the Xunyang River and held a farewell banquet on the passenger ship. While drinking, he suddenly heard someone playing the pipa on a neighboring ship. The pipa music was very familiar, and Bai Juyi felt that he had heard it before in Chang'an.

Attracted by the pipa music, Bai Juyi asked the boatman to pull the boat over and invite the pipa girl into the boat.

At Bai Juyi's request, Pipa Girl played two pieces of music, first "Nancy Clothes and Feather Clothes Song" and then "Six Mysteries". The level of playing was quite high, and everyone in the boat was intoxicated.

In the subsequent exchanges, Bai Juyi learned that this pipa girl was originally a popular singer in Chang'an. Her superb piano playing skills and charming style had attracted countless wealthy children and spent huge sums of money on her.

Now, times have changed and the scenery is no longer the same. The old and beautiful Pipa girl had to marry a tea businessman. During the year, the two of them were often together and away from each other. Now the tea merchant has gone to another place and has not come back for more than a month. The Pipa girl can only pass the long and lonely time on the boat by playing the pipa.

Bai Juyi was deeply touched by what happened to the Pipa Girl. He thought of the path he had traveled in the past forty-five years, and how he was inexplicably demoted this time, and had to be the Jiangzhou Sima and the Pipa Girl alone. What difference does a boat make?

Finally, Bai Juyi asked the woman to play a piece of music. In the sad music, Bai Juyi couldn't help himself, and his clothes were wet with tears.

After sending away the guests, Bai Juyi wrote a 616-word poem "Pipa Xing" that night. The next day, he gave the poem to the pipa girl.

"We are both fallen people at the end of the world, so why should we have known each other before we meet"? We pity each other because of the same fate.

"Who among us cried the most, Jiangzhou Sima's green shirt was wet." He was sad because he felt the same.

People fall to the end of the world, but don’t let your heart fall with it. If you are not close to officialdom, then get close to nature, friends and those beautiful things.

The beauty of April in the world is gone, and the peach blossoms in the mountain temple are beginning to bloom.

I always regret that there is no place to return to in spring, and I don’t know where to turn.

Bai Juyi figured it out: As long as you search carefully, spring is just around the corner.