In the 9th year of Yonghe, in early March, we will gather in Lanting, Yin Shan, Huiji County, for the ceremony. There are many wise men and capable people gathered here, old and young. Lanting is a place with towering peaks, dense forests and bamboo forests. There is also clear and swift water around the pavilion. We sucked the water into the round canal water as a floating wine glass and put it next to Qushui. Although there is no grand occasion of orchestral ensemble, drinking wine and writing poems is enough to express deep and secret feelings.
On this day, it was sunny and breezy. Looking up at the vast sky, overlooking all kinds of things on the earth, broadening our horizons and mind, is really very happy.
People associate with each other and spend their lives quickly. Someone talks about ambition indoors; Stick to what you love, trust your feelings, and live a free and unfettered life. Although they have their own hobbies, quietness and restlessness are different. When they are happy with what they touch, they will be complacent, happy and satisfied for a while, and they don't even know that aging is coming. When I am tired of what I love, my mood changes with the status quo, and my feelings come into being. What I used to like, in an instant, has become an old trace, but I can't help feeling because of it. Besides, the length of my life depends on nature, and finally it comes down to extinction. The ancients said, "Life and death are important things after all." How can it not make people sad?
Every time I see the reasons why my predecessors are so excited, they are consistent with my sigh. There is nothing I can't make clear in my mind without sighing their articles. It turns out that it is wrong to equate life and death, and it is wrong to equate longevity and short life. Future generations look at today's people just as today's people look at their predecessors. How pathetic! So write down the people who attended the meeting one by one and record the poems they made. Even though times have changed, things have changed, but the reasons for people's feelings are the same. Future readers will also be deeply touched by the poems of this gathering.
The Preface to the Orchid Pavilion depicts the scenery of Orchid Pavilion and the interesting gathering of Wang Xizhi and others, and expresses the author's sigh that the events are not frequent and that "short and short follow, end and end". The author is extremely happy and sad when he is happy and sad. The article also changed with his feelings, from calm to calm, to ups and downs, ups and downs, so Preface to Lanting Collection became a famous masterpiece. Full text * * * three paragraphs.
The first paragraph of the article describes the grand occasion of the Lanting party and writes the deep affection of the participants. First point out the time, place and reason of the party, and then introduce the number and scope of participants. "A group of sages arrive, and a few grow salty." Then write about the beautiful environment around Lanting. Write in the distance first: "Mountains and rivers, Maolin xiuzhu"; Then write "clean flow and turbulence" near the low place; Then always write a note: "Play around". Simple language. Poetic and picturesque. Based on the description of the scenery, the poems on the stream are introduced, and it is pointed out that the content of the grand ceremony is "one poem and one chant", "talking about bosom friends" and "although it is not as prosperous as a string", which is a pen set off by the opposite side and expresses the pleasing feelings with additional pictures. Finally, it is pointed out that the day of the event coincides with the weather, and "Clear Sky Wan Li" provides favorable conditions for the following "looking up" and "looking down"; Hui Feng He Chang echoes with The Beginning of Late Spring. The beautiful scenery here and now enables "looking up", "overlooking", "enjoying the scenery" and "audio-visual entertainment" to get rid of secular troubles, enjoy the beauty of nature to the fullest and express their thoughts. At this point, the author summed up the feelings of the participants as "music". The brushwork is concise and neat, and there is no trace of axe chisel.
In the second paragraph of the article, I expounded my view on life, feeling that life is short and full of philosophy, and events are not frequent, followed by the word "le" mentioned earlier, which triggered various feelings. First of all, use the word "or" to comment on the two different concrete manifestations of "people are facing each other and throwing their lives" from the positive and negative comparison. One is "let's talk in one room, each taking what he needs", and the other is "leaving the wave because of entrustment". Then it is pointed out that although their performances are different, their mood is the same. That is, when they are happy with what they have encountered, they will be "quick and self-sufficient", but the feeling of "I don't know that old age is coming" is aimed at the pleasure of the party full of audio-visual entertainment in the text, focusing on joy and forgetting sadness. Then, the joy of "meeting happiness" leads to the worry that "feelings move with the times", writing happiness leads to worry, and exclaiming that "with the times, there will be an end". At this point, the article advances to the big question of life and death. Finally, Confucius' sentence "Death is great, life is great" is quoted to sum up the whole passage, and the "pain" in the author's heart is completely revealed.
The last paragraph explains the reason for the preface. Following the discussion on the feeling of "it's good to come back from the dead" in the above article, starting from personal experience, the article points out that every time I find that "the reason why the old people were excited at that time" is exactly the same as my own, I can't help but mourn, but I can't tell you why. Then he turned to criticize Laozi and Zhuangzi's views on "a person's life and death" and "Peng Qizhi's sadness", thinking that this is completely "fake birth" and "fake works". Scholars in the Eastern Jin Dynasty praised Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi and liked empty talk of nihilism. Zhuangzi thought that all natural things "died after the gentleman" (Zhuangzi's theory of everything), and put Peng Zu, who lived a long life, on an equal footing with his children who died young, and thought that "Peng Zu died after he died". The author can go against the trend of the times. It is commendable to boldly deny this idea of Laozi and Zhuangzi, and then the author made a further inference from the facts of ancient times: "Look at the present in the future and look at the past now." Based on this understanding, it just "lists the people and records their descriptions" for future generations to read. Although "things are different" in the future, "so I got pregnant. "Its consistency is also." This explains theoretically why the Preface to Lanting Collection was compiled. The last sentence explains the purpose of the preface, which aroused the feelings of future generations. The words are straightforward, but the feelings of development are endless.
This preface is concise, elegant and meaningful, which represents Wang Xizhi's prose style. And its words are exquisite and catchy. It is a masterpiece of ancient parallel prose. Preface to Lanting Collection has its own merits in several aspects of parallel prose. Syntactically, the antithesis is neat and the meaning of the sentence is juxtaposed, such as "a group of sages are all, and a few are long and salty" and "the temple is big." Look down on the prosperity of the category ","or talk arm in arm; Or because of entrustment, let the waves go beyond the skeleton. "antithesis is relative, the rhyme is harmonious, there is no trace of axe chisel, the language is fresh, simple and natural. The words that belong to the discussion part are also very simple and expressive, and only simple and memorable allusions such as "Peng Qi's sorrow" and "mending the wedge" are used in the allusions. This simple style of writing is in sharp contrast with the gaudy style of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
This article embodies Wang Xizhi's positive outlook on life, which is in sharp contrast with the inaction advocated by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi.