Have five drinks. Building a house is a human matter.
Tao Yuanming
Building a house is under human conditions, but there are no chariots and horses.
Ask what you can do, your heart is far from self-prejudice.
Picking chrysanthemums under the east fence, leisurely see Nanshan ④.
The weather is getting better every day, and the birds are back.
There is truth in it, and I forgot to say it if I wanted to distinguish it.
translate
My home is built on a busy road, and people live together, but I never bother to entertain people and make noise.
Ask me how I can be so extraordinary, free and easy, and my mind is naturally quiet and far away from the world.
Picking chrysanthemums under the east wall, I was in a trance, and suddenly I looked up at the scenery of Nanshan.
In the twilight, colorful fog fills the air, and flocks of birds return to the embrace of Xiangyuan Mountain.
Nanzhi, this is the true meaning of life, how can I express its profundity!
To annotate ...
① Building a house: Building a house. Human habitat: the human world, where human beings live.
② No noise of vehicles and horses: No noise of vehicles and horses.
Jun 3: The author calls himself. Joel: Mm-hmm. This sentence and the next sentence are set as questions and answers, indicating that the heart is far away from the world, and although it is in a noisy environment, it is like living in a remote place.
4 carefree: self-satisfaction. Nanshan: refers to Lushan Mountain.
⑤ Evening: Evening. Stage: intersection, companionship. In the evening, the mountains are beautiful and the birds come back together.
⑥ Among them: the feelings and conditions here and now, that is, seclusion. True meaning: the true meaning of life, that is, the meaning of the sentence "lost" and the next sentence contains the true meaning of life. I want to identify it, but I forget how to express it in words. Explain that you understand the true meaning of this, disdain to say it, and don't have to say it.
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Roughly before the Wei and Jin Dynasties, with Confucianism as the core, people in China always thought that man and nature were under the control of the will of heaven. This kind of authority, which lies outside and is higher than people's individual life, did not begin to be strongly doubted in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Thus ushered in the era of personality awakening; In literary creation, the so-called "human theme" appeared correspondingly. But the awakening of personality is not only the end of the old dilemma and absurdity, but also the discovery and beginning of the new dilemma and absurdity. The first and most important thing is the opposition between the limited individual life and the eternal universe. Poets constantly sigh: "Life between heaven and earth is like a passer-by" (19 ancient poems); "Self-care is not a stone, and it is sad to sigh" (Cao Zhi's "Giving a White Horse to Wang Biao"); "If life is dust, heaven is graceful and leisurely" (Ruan Ji's Love Poems). What people feel in nature is the oppression of infinite existence on limited life.
However, even if difficulties and paradoxes are destined to accompany the whole process of human beings (this is an existential concept), people still have to find different ways of liberation at different stages. Even if it is conceptual or poetic, people should find a perfect life form. So at the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, under the background of metaphysics, Tao Yuanming's poems began to present a new outlook on life and nature. This is against the opposite attitude towards the relationship between man and nature, but instead emphasizes the unity of man and nature and pursues the harmony between man and nature. This is the most plump and beautiful novel in his fifth novel, Drinking. With its simple language, exquisite structure, lofty artistic conception and profound philosophy, this poem has almost become the most familiar poem in China.
The purpose of the poem is to return to nature. The first step to return to nature is to deny secular values. From ancient times to the present, power, status, wealth and honor are generally the basic objects that people pursue, which is also a socially recognized measure of value. Although Zhuangzi has long said that all these things are "things", that is, the opposite of the spiritual subject (in modern words, "alienation"), for most people, they can't get rid of them after all. Tao Yuanming seems different. He just retired from the officialdom, and he knew that in order to get all this, people had to cut corners, put on airs and shamelessly lose all their dignity. He vowed to throw away these "objects" and return to the "truth" of human beings.
So there are the first four sentences of this poem. At the beginning, I said that although my residence was built in an environment where people came and went, I couldn't hear the noise of cars and horses. "Cars and horses are flying in the sky" is the communication of the upper class, and the so-called "crown belt is self-seeking". Because Tao Yuanming likes to complain about poverty, and people often forget that the "poverty" of aristocratic families and the "poverty" of ordinary people are not the same thing, the meaning of these two poems is ignored. In fact, Taoists are descendants of Tao Kan, the founding father of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and are the most powerful clan in Xunyang. Therefore, although Tao Yuanming's branch has declined, it is unusual to be cold and lonely. Then there is a question: how can you do this? Then there is the answer, which naturally comes down to the core of the first four sentences-"the heart is far from being biased." "Far" is the most commonly used concept in metaphysics, which refers to a state of mind that transcends secular interests, takes it lightly and stays at home. The "faraway mind" here is to adopt an isolated and indifferent attitude towards the world of fame and fortune, naturally alienating the cars and horses running towards the secular world, and the place where you live becomes secluded. Furthermore, "the sound of horses and chariots" is not only a real thing, but also a symbol. It represents the whole bureaucratic society's struggle for power and profit, fame and fortune.
These four sentences are as easy to understand as spoken English, but they are actually very closely structured. The first sentence is plain, the second sentence is a turning point, the third sentence is a question, and the fourth sentence is an answer. Gao Ming has no hard artificial trace in this structure, and the reader's thoughts are unconsciously guided to the fourth sentence by the author. No wonder even Wang Anshi, whose words are sharp, is filled with emotion: since there was a poet, there have been no such four sentences!
Rejecting the socially recognized value scale, where does the author base his life? . This involves Tao Yuanming's philosophical thought. This kind of philosophy can be called "natural philosophy", which not only includes a self-cultivation and family-oriented lifestyle, but also deepens the unity and harmony between human life and nature. In Tao Yuanming's view, man not only exists in society and the relationship between people, but more importantly, every individual life, as an independent spiritual subject, directly faces the whole nature and universe. From the origin, human life is a part of nature and a manifestation of "maximization". It's just that people separate themselves from nature, throw themselves into the struggle for power and fame without real value, and even lose their authenticity, which makes life full of anxiety and contradictions. Therefore, the perfect life form can only be obtained by returning to nature.
If these principles are written directly, poetry will become a paper. So the author just puts philosophy in the image. The poet (entitled "Drinking", of course, is a tipsy and high-spirited poet) picks chrysanthemums at will in his garden, and occasionally looks up to see Nanshan (Lushan Mountain, south of Tao Mansion). According to the law of the ancients in China, "leisurely seeing Nanshan" can be interpreted as "leisurely seeing Nanshan" or "leisurely seeing Nanshan". Therefore, this kind of "leisure" belongs not only to people, but also to mountains. People are leisurely and comfortable, and the mountains are quiet and lofty. At that moment, it seemed that there was a melody emanating from people's hearts and mountains, which had the same meaning and merged into a light music.
In another version, the word "look" in "Looking at Nanshan" is "hope". Su Dongpo, who worships Tao Yuanming most, criticized that if it is the word "Wang", this poem will become dull. Mr. Dongpo is very clever and knows the beauty of drinking. What he said is right. Why can't you "look"? Because "looking" is a conscious gaze, it lacks the feeling of "carefree". It can be further said that in Tao Yuanming's philosophy, nature is self-sufficient and has no external demand, so it can be full and free; Life is flawed because people have external pursuits. External pursuit will inevitably bring surprises and worries, and fundamentally destroy the harmony of life. Therefore, in this image showing the unity of man and nature, we can only use "look" instead of belonging, and we can't use "look" with fixed eyes.
What did you see in Nanshan? Sunset clouds, if not, float around the peak; Flocks of birds flew together and returned to the mountains. All this is of course beautiful. But this is not a simple description of the scenery. In Tao Yuanming's poems, we can often see similar sentences: "The clouds come out of the hole unintentionally, and the birds are tired and fly to know" ("Restored Words"); "Flowers and trees are flourishing, but the wind is quiet" ("Encouraging Agriculture") and so on. These are natural movements, because there is no will and no external requirements, so they are calm, full and perfect. Since man is a part of nature, he should also have the nature of nature and complete his individual life in the whole natural movement. This is the harmonious unity of man and nature.
The last two sentences are the summary of the whole poem: here you can feel the true meaning of life, but you just want to say it, but you can't find the right language. Practical meaning means that this real meaning is a vivid feeling of life, and logical language is not enough to reflect its exquisiteness and completeness. The flavor of the Zen family in later generations has already appeared here.
These two sentences are very important in the structure of this poem. It implies the deep meaning of the poetic image, and at the same time leads the reader's thoughts back to the image to realize and chew.
This poem, especially the sentence "Picking chrysanthemums under the east fence and seeing Nanshan leisurely", has been rated as "quiet" and "indifferent" and has been highly praised. However, it is biased to simply summarize all of Tao Yuanming's creations in this aesthetic realm. Because in fact, there are many emotions expressing anxiety and even anger in Tao Yuanming's poems, which are stronger than almost all poets of his time. But also because of anxiety, he sought silence. I said at the beginning that this is an ideal and poetic perfect life form found in new dilemmas and paradoxes. Perhaps, at a certain moment, we can actually appreciate the beauty it conveys, enter a state of pure peace and forget all the troubles in life, but this can never be the whole life of anyone (including Tao Yuanming).
That makes sense. I forgot what I wanted to say. These two sentences were translated from the ancient philosopher Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi's Theory of Everything: "Sages cherish it, and people argue with it to show their feelings. ..... Cardiff Avenue is not called and there is no argument. " The sage realizes everything silently, while others argue endlessly and compete to show off. ..... The avenue is nameless, and the debate is hard to say. ) and "Zhuangzi Foreign Things": "The speaker worries too much and forgets to speak with pride." Language is used to express meaning. If you grasp the meaning, you will forget the language. Tao Yuanming's two sentences poetically borrowed these sentences from Zhuangzi, meaning: because the scenery is highly compatible with people's hearts, he grasped the true meaning of life, which is unspeakable because of "no argument"; There is no need to say it, because "I am so proud that I forgot to say it." (Note: The word "bian" in the poem is the same as "bian", and one is called "bian". )
This way of expressing oneself with sentences in ancient books is called "quotation", also called "allusions". Recording the original text is an "explicit quotation", and using the meaning of the original text in your own sentence is an "implicit quotation". These two poems belong to dark quotation.