Don Li Shen

At noon in summer, the sun is very hot, farmers are still working, and beads are dripping into the soil.

Who would have thought that our bowl of rice and grain are full of the blood and sweat of farmers?

translate

Farmers are weeding in the midday sun, and sweat drips from them on the land where seedlings grow.

Who knows that every meal on the plate is bought by farmers with hard work?

To annotate ...

Grass: a general term for cereal plants.

Rice: a "rice". A generic term for cooked food.

Introduction of works

The poem "Compassion for Peasants (Part II)" depicts the scene of working in peasants' fields at noon in the scorching sun, and generally shows the hard life of peasants all year round. Finally, with the motto "Who knows that every meal is hard", the poet expressed his sincere sympathy for the farmers.

works appreciation

This poem depicts the scene of working in farmers' fields at noon under the scorching sun.

The first two sentences "It was noon when weeding, and sweat dripped down the soil." Depicted in the hot noon sun, farmers are still working in the fields, dripping sweat on the scorching land. Generally, it shows the hard life of farmers who don't avoid cold, summer, rain, snow, wind and frost all year round.

The last two sentences, "Who knows that every Chinese food is hard", are not empty preaching, nor are they moaning without illness. They are similar to far-reaching aphorisms, but they not only win by their persuasiveness, but also condense the poet's infinite resentment and sincere sympathy in this deep sigh.

When the poet expounds the above contents, he is not vague and abstract, but exposes the problems and explains the reasons with vivid images and profound contrast, which makes people easy to accept and understand.

Creation background

According to Fan Gang's Yunxi Friendship in the Tang Dynasty and Lu Shu's Biography of Wei in the old Tang Dynasty, it can be roughly inferred that this group of poems was written by Shen Li in the fifteenth year of Zhenyuan in Tang Dezong (AD 799).

Brief introduction of the author

Li Shen (772-846) was born in Qiaoxian County, Bozhou (now Qiaoqu, Bozhou City, Anhui Province), and later moved to Wuxi (now Jiangsu Province). Tang dynasty prime minister, poet, Li's great-grandson, secretary of the Central Secretariat. He participated in the dispute between Niu and Li all his life and was an important figure in Li's party.

Li Shen made close friends with Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi, and was an advocate and participant of the New Yuefu Movement. Twenty new poems about Yuefu have been lost. When I was young, I witnessed farmers working all day, with no food and clothing. With grief and indignation, I wrote "Two Poems of Compassion for Peasants", which have been widely circulated and passed down through the ages, and are known as poets of Compassion for Peasants. The Whole Tang Poetry recorded three volumes of Poems for Remembrance and one volume of Miscellaneous Poems, which are now compiled into four volumes. There is also a song of Yingying, which is kept in the west wing.