Along the lotus pond, there is a winding little cinder road. This is a secluded road; Few people walk during the day, and it is lonely at night. The lotus pond is surrounded by trees, which is very gloomy. On one side of the road, there are some willows and some trees with unknown names. On a moonless night, the road is gloomy and a little scary. It's fine tonight, although the moonlight is still very weak.
I was the only one on the road, walking around with my hands behind my back. This world seems to be mine; I also like to go beyond my usual self and go to another world. I love excitement and peace; Like to live in groups, like to be alone. Just like tonight, under this boundless moon, a person thinks about everything and thinks nothing, and feels like a free person. What must be done and said during the day can be ignored now. This is the beauty of being alone, and I will enjoy the boundless moonlight with lotus fragrance.
On the winding lotus pond, I look forward to the leaves of Tian Tian. The leaves are high out of the water, like an elegant dancer's skirt. Among the layers of leaves, some white flowers are scattered, some bloom gracefully, and some bloom shyly; Like a pearl, like a star in the blue sky, like a beauty who just took a bath. The breeze blew, sending wisps of fragrance, like a faint song on a tall building in the distance. At this time, the leaves and flowers also trembled slightly, like lightning, passing through the lotus pond in an instant. The leaves are close side by side, so there are clear wave marks. Below the leaves is the running water of the pulse (mi), which is covered and can't see some colors; Leaves are more exposed to the wind.
Moonlight, like running water, falls quietly on this leaf and flower. A thin layer of blue mist floats in the lotus pond. Leaves and flowers seem to have been washed in milk; Like a dream in a sarong. Although it is a full moon, there are faint clouds in the sky, so it can't shine; But I think this is just a benefit-deep sleep is indispensable, and nap is unique. Moonlight shines through the trees, and the bushes at the height cast uneven and mottled shadows, which are as steep as ghosts; The sparse shadows of curved willows seem to be painted on lotus leaves. The moonlight in the pond is uneven; Light and shadow have a harmonious melody, such as a famous song played by Van Gogh Ling.
Around the lotus pond, there are trees far and near, and willows are the most. These trees surround a lotus pond; Only on one side of the path, there are some gaps, which seem to be reserved for moonlight. An example of the color of trees is cloudy, which at first glance looks like a cloud of smoke; But the abundance of willows can be recognized in the smoke. There are distant mountains on the treetops, just a little careless. There are still one or two lamps leaking through the cracks in the tree. What is listless is the eyes of those who are sleepy. At this time, the most lively are cicadas in the tree and frogs in the water; But the excitement is theirs. I have nothing.
I suddenly remembered the matter of picking lotus. Lotus picking is an ancient custom in the south of the Yangtze River. It seems to have a long history, but it flourished in the Six Dynasties. You can get a rough idea from this poem. Lotus pickers are teenage girls, swinging boats and singing bright songs. Needless to say, there are many lotus pickers. It was a lively season and a romantic season. Emperor Liang Yuan put it well in "Lotus Picking Fu":
Therefore, the demon Yuan (yuán) is female, and she is willing to row; The snipe (y √) makes the first Xu Hui and passes the feather cup; Zhào can move, but algae can hang, and the ship can move and sail. Erqi slim waist bundle element, Yan Gubu; After the spring in long summer, the young leaves blossom early, and they are afraid to touch the petticoats when laughing, but afraid to tilt the boat when picking (jū).
It can be seen that there were wandering scenes at that time. This is really interesting, but unfortunately we are not happy now.
Then I remembered the words in Song of Xizhou:
Lotus is picked in autumn in Nantang, and the lotus is over the head; With his head down, he fiddled with the lotus seeds in the water, which were as green as the lake. If there are lotus pickers tonight, the lotus here will be considered "over the top"; You can't just see some shadows of running water. This makes me really miss Jiangnan.
Thinking like this, I suddenly looked up and felt that it was my own door; Gently pushed the door in, there was no sound, and my wife had slept for a long time.
The characteristic of the scenery description in this paper lies in the ingenious combination of lotus pond and moonlight description. The lotus pond is the lotus pond under the moon; Moonlight is the moonlight on the lotus pond, which highlights the beauty of elegance, obscurity and quietness. The fourth and fifth paragraphs can best reflect this beauty. Such as: "among the layers of leaves, some white flowers are dotted sporadically, some are blooming gracefully, and some are blooming shyly;" Like a pearl, like a star in the blue sky, like a beauty who just took a bath. The breeze blew, bringing a faint fragrance, like a faint song on a distant high building. "This paragraph is not about the moon, but there are moons everywhere. Lotus leaves and lotus flowers all have strange brilliance in the dim moonlight. Compare the blooming and budding white flowers to "pearls" and "stars", and write the beauty of lotus from two aspects: color and brilliance. Write the continuous fragrance of lotus flowers, conveyed by the breeze, as if it were a song floating in the distance, intermittent and unpredictable. This feeling of elegance and remoteness can only be felt when you are alone on a moonlit night. For example, in noisy days, you will never feel this way. Lotus fragrance was originally an olfactory image, but the author compared it to "the faint singing on the far floor" and transformed it into an auditory image. This writing method of transforming one sensory image into another is called "synaesthesia" or "synaesthesia" in rhetoric. Using this rhetorical method, readers can be inspired to have a broader and deeper imagination and association, so as to understand the ideological content and artistic realm of the works from their own life experience and cultural accomplishment. Another example: "Moonlight is like running water, quietly pouring on this leaf and flower. A thin layer of blue mist floats in the lotus pond. Leaves and flowers seem to have been washed in milk; It's like a dream covered with gauze. "Put lotus leaves and lotus flowers in the moonlight, and the word' diarrhea' gives people a vivid feeling of milky white; A word "gone with the wind" shows the ethereal and gentle appearance of lotus leaves and lotus flowers in the moonlight. By describing the tranquility of leaves and flowers, the author sets off the hazy softness of moonlight. Another example is: "The moonlight passes through the treetops, and the bushes in the heights cast jagged shadows, and the waiting for a while is like ghosts; The sparse shadows of curved willows are like paintings on lotus leaves. "Write' shadow' and' beautiful shadow' here, or write moonlight, because the shadow is produced by the moonlight on the object. The shadows of the trees are bright and dark, and the moonlight is faint. Moonlight is difficult to describe, but the author writes moonlight from different angles through different scenery, so that the difficult scenery is in front of him.
2. Grasp the thoughts and feelings of the article
The article begins with "I'm very uneasy these days", and the following is related to this restless mood everywhere: the road is lonely; The moonlight on the ground is faint, and the clouds in the sky are also faint; "An example of tree color is cloudy"; Hearing the lively cicadas and frogs, I thought, "Liveliness is theirs, I have nothing"; Thinking of the grand occasion of ancient lotus picking, I expressed the feeling that "this made me miss Jiangnan at last", and I was dissatisfied with the reality and had to return. A faint sadness enveloped the full text.
However, the author's feelings are complicated, accompanied by "faint sadness" and "faint joy". At the beginning of the text, "It suddenly occurred to me that the lotus pond I walked through every day should look different under the light of this full moon", indicating that the author wanted to get rid of his melancholy mood and went to the lotus pond happily; Along the path of the lotus pond, the past is gloomy, "it's sunny tonight", so I calm down and think that I am a "free man"; When he arrived in the lotus pond, he was truly free for the time being, his heart was tied to the beautiful scenery, and the feeling of happiness was sudden; From enjoying the scenery to thousands of years, I think of the "lively season" and "romantic season" when the ancients picked lotus. It can be seen that "light joy" also enveloped the full text.
The most direct and concentrated expression of the author's thoughts and feelings is the inner monologue in the third paragraph. This long monologue is a transition from fidgeting to enjoying the moonlight in the lotus pond, expressing the conflict between the author's spiritual world and the outside world and his desire to get rid of this conflict. The author's state of mind, in such a beautiful environment as the lotus pond under the moon, shows an aesthetic feeling of mixed sadness and joy.
In a word, sadness and joy go hand in hand: I long for happiness in sadness and am dragged by sadness in happiness. They are two aspects of the author's contradictory mentality changes when watching the scenery. But the inner fluctuation is not ups and downs, but restraint, and the expression of emotions is mild (he claims to be a "neutral"), which is the expression of the so-called "neutrality" of "not being angry and self-defeating, mourning but not hurting". Therefore, both sadness and joy are "faint".
There have always been many different understandings about the theme of this article and the author's writing intention.
Some people think that this article is the author's sentimental landscape work, expressing a cold and profound realm and expressing a bleak state of mind; Some people think that this article is a lyric work by borrowing scenery to express the author's melancholy mood; Some people think that it shows the author's appreciation of the natural beauty of the lotus pond under the moon, his restraint and leisure mood in his personal world; Some people think that it is not the author's escape from reality, but the author's anger at reality; Some people think that it shows dissatisfaction with the realization of darkness and yearning for a better life. These are too numerous to mention.
3. Taste exquisite language
The language in this article is simple and elegant, accurate, vivid and poetic.
Zhu Ziqing's prose language has always had the beauty of simplicity. He strives for "truth", "truth is nature" (on realism and picturesque) and "returning to simplicity" (modern poetry), and thinks that "it is not advisable to exaggerate the truth". He doesn't use beautiful, old and uncommon words to carve and describe things, but expresses various emotions in an understatement. However, it is not simple, but a clever, dexterous, agile and ingenious combination. It is often based on the feeling of sudden trigger, coupled with rich imagination, things flash by and bring readers into a picturesque realm. As far as this article is concerned, the author does not need heavy ink, but draws light ink. Appropriate use of some colorful words, but more metaphors, to stimulate readers' association and imagination, so that the picture color is light and thick. If you write a static lotus, you can use three metaphors: "like a pearl", which means that the flower is crystal clear in the faint moonlight; Like Stars in the Blue Sky is about flowers swaying against the green leaves. "Like a Beauty Just Showing Bath" is to write about the beauty of lotus flowers without touching dust. There is nothing strange about these words, but they have special artistic charm when used in the context of this article, which accurately and vividly shows the aesthetic characteristics of this place, this scene and this thing. Moreover, the word "moonlight pours quietly on this leaf and flower like running water" is also very common, but the modifier "quietly" is used to accurately and vividly write that moonlight pours like running water, but it is silent and quiet. Another example is "running water with pulse under the leaves", which means to express affection silently with eyes or actions, and to write running water here, but it seems to have affection silently. They are embedded in sentences, not as painstaking as they are, but they are very expressive. Others, such as writing lotus leaves with "de" and writing lights with "leakage", are all language skills that the author is very familiar with.
This paper uses more than 30 overlapping words, which not only vividly depicts the scene before us, but also has a kind of phonological beauty. Lush, far and near, high and low green trees, faint distant mountains, winding lotus ponds, slender lotus flowers, lingering fragrance, quiet flowers and leaves, and thin blue fog not only strengthen the semantics, but also make the language stretch and the rhyme harmonious.
[Edit this paragraph] Appreciation of works
First of all, it explains the change of the author's thought: uneasiness → seeking quietness → getting quietness → leaving quietness, returning to reality and being higher than reality.
Walking out of the house with a touch of sadness, taking advantage of the moonlight to relax, along a quiet path, it is natural to come to the lotus pond that passes by every day to see the lotus pond under Na Yue. The lotus pond in the moonlight is so beautiful that it has a different wind from that in the daytime. Lotus leaf is a graceful skirt, like a dancer. You can imagine its graceful posture when dancing with the wind. And Bai Lianhua, who adorns it, can't help but remind people of her trait of "getting out of the mud and not getting stained". Lotus flowers have different shapes: "Some bloom gracefully, while others bloom shyly;" Like a pearl, like a star in the blue sky, like a beauty who just took a bath. "With the word" graceful and shy ",lotus seems to be a fairy in the author's eyes. With meticulous brushwork and wonderful metaphor, the author has made a fascinating description of the shape, spirit and style of the lotus leaf, and the beautiful image of the lotus leaf seems to have been displayed before our eyes.
This is not the most beautiful, a wisp of "breeze" makes this beautiful lotus picture move: "The breeze blows, bringing wisps of fragrance, as if it were a faint song on the far floor. At this time, the leaves and flowers also trembled slightly, like lightning, passing through the lotus pond in an instant. The leaves are close side by side, so there are clear wave marks. Under the leaves is flowing water, which is covered and can't see some colors: but the leaves are more windy. " In an instant, the lotus fragrance is like a song, as if it were something, the branches and leaves are trembling, the water waves are surging, and the leaves, flowers, shapes, colors and tastes are integrated into one. People also indulge in the beautiful scenery of the lotus pond in the breeze.
And this seems to be not extreme enough! Look at the moonlight on the pond again: "The moonlight is like running water, pouring quietly on this leaf and flower. A thin layer of blue mist floats in the lotus pond. Leaves and flowers seem to have been washed in milk; It's like a dream, with a layer of gauze inside. " The flowing water under the leaves is hidden by the dense leaves, but the moonlight on the leaves is "quietly pouring down", and the word "pouring down" turns static into dynamic, making people see the flowing feeling of moonlight; "Thin blue fog floats in the lotus pond", and the word "floating" highlights the light and hazy fog. Leaves and flowers are shrouded in mist, hazy, as if washed by milk, dreamlike. The moonlight is hazy and soft, and the mist is light. The lotus pond under the moon is really like a fairyland! The light full moon gives people the feeling of "taking a nap", just like the author's mood at this time, but just right. The author inadvertently reveals a faint joy here. "The sparse shadow of the curved willow is like a painting on the lotus leaf." The beautiful shadow of the willow is not "cast" on the lotus leaf, but the author just uses a "painting", as if a master painter were splashing ink and painting attentively, so that the shadow cast on the lotus leaf is appropriate, natural, beautiful and realistic, and full of interest. "Light and shadow have a harmonious melody, like a famous song played by the Vatican." The moonlight is faint, black and white light and shadow are like a harmonious melody, and the lotus fragrance is continuous and harmonious. The author's subtle feelings are really fascinating!
This beautiful scenery can make the author forget the sorrow, right? But "the excitement is theirs, and I have nothing." The author still can't get rid of that melancholy. Light sadness and light joy are intertwined, and the lotus pond under the beautiful moonlight is covered with a hazy veil, which is quiet and elegant, quiet and soft, hazy and harmonious, and the lotus pond and moonlight are integrated!
Reading Mr. Zhu Lao's Moonlight on the Lotus Pond, I feel that I am in the lotus pond, as if I were walking on a secluded path. Graceful green lotus leaves, graceful lotus flowers, hazy moonlight and foggy lotus ponds are displayed in front of us.
One is to write a true story.
What scenery is described in Moonlight on the Lotus Pond? The goal is clear: one is the lotus pond and the other is the moonlight. There are many poems about the lotus pond in the past dynasties, and more about moonlight. But the lotus pond moonlight in this paper is absolutely different from other lotus pond moonlight. The lotus pond here will not be "the lotus leaf is infinitely bright, and the lotus flower reflects the sun shadow in a different color"; The moonlight here can't be "Yumen curtain can't be rolled up, but it can be brushed back on the anvil." The lotus pond here is "the lotus pond under the moon" and the moonlight here is "the moonlight of the lotus pond". It is precisely because the works clearly highlight the characteristics of the scenery and vividly reproduce the specific scenery in a specific environment that the sincere feelings expressed in the article have a reliable sustenance and make readers feel true and cordial.
Look at the description of the lotus leaf first: "The leaves are high above the water, like the skirts of slim dancers." If we put aside the specific environment, can we use the "green jade plate" to compare the lotus leaf? Of course, it is very expressive. This description not only depicts the color of the lotus leaf, but also shows its quality and shape. However, this metaphor must be in the morning glow, sunset or drizzle, and never in the moonlight. I can't tell the color at night, let alone the quality. The lotus leaf seen in the moonlight is mainly its naturally stretched shape, much like a skirt.
When writing lotus flowers, the original text used three metaphors: "among the leaves, there are some white flowers scattered, some are blooming gracefully, and some are blooming shyly;" Like a pearl, like a star in the blue sky, like a beauty who just took a bath. "Lotus is beautiful and luxurious, comparable to beauty. There is a line in the poem "Lotus" by Yang, a poet in the Song Dynasty, "It's like three thousand women in a Han temple, with half heavy makeup and half light makeup". In the hazy moonlight, lotus is a beauty, just out of the bath, and the hazy feeling is just right. On the contrary, it would be far-fetched to compare lotus flowers to "pearls" and "stars" if it were not in the dim moonlight.
The article describes the lotus fragrance like this: "The breeze blows, with a faint fragrance, as if it were a faint song on a distant building." This intermittent and seemingly absent feeling will never be produced in the early morning when books are loud, nor in the harsh noon when the sun shines, but only in the silent moonlit night when children's laughter can no longer be heard on the road outside the wall. Let's look at another sentence about flowers: "In addition to brilliance, there is a faint fragrance here, which seems to be lavender, and it covers me gently like a dream." (wisteria falls) This is the fragrance of flowers in the bright sunshine. Purple flowers are "teasing each other with the sunshine". The dazzling purple stimulates the author to think that the fragrance is lavender, which is natural.
Only one sentence directly describes the moonlight. In this paper, the moon is mostly written by innuendo, which is also the expression technique respected by scholars in previous dynasties. "Tall bushes, falling jagged mottled shadows; The beautiful image of curved willows seems to be painted on lotus leaves. The moonlight in the pond is uneven; But light and shadow have a harmonious melody, such as a famous song played by Van Aling. " The shadows here are jagged and mottled, giving people a sense of relief. Why? Just because it fell in the lotus pond. In the lotus pond, "the breeze blows ... the leaves and flowers tremble slightly, like lightning, and suddenly pass over the other side of the lotus pond." The leaves are side by side, so there is a clear wave mark. " The shadow falls on this wave mark, and of course it is more jagged and mottled. It is precisely because the lotus pond is in this dynamic state that the beautiful image of willow is like "painting" rather than "printing" on the lotus leaf. It is precisely because of that blue ripple that the light and shadow show a curve like a staff, which reminds people of "the famous song played on the Van Aling".
Second, express the truth with the truth.
In order to write immortal works, many writers in the literary world deliberately pursue that their works can reflect their true feelings, but when they write articles, they often give people the suspicion of affectation. Of course, there are many reasons for this situation, one of which is the lack of profound language skills, which leads to the resentment of unstable speech and the loss of true feelings. The article "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond" can use accurate and appropriate language to express the author's "faint joy" caused by being in its beautiful scenery and the "faint sadness" brought by society that is hard to get rid of after all.
The moonlight in the lotus pond is wonderful and warm, and this kind of scenery can certainly give people joy. There are few direct lyric sentences in the text, but it is not difficult to understand the author's happy mood at that time by describing the scenery. Leaves are like skirts, and skirts are "graceful dancers"; Flowers bloom gracefully and shyly. Flowers are like "songs" and light and shadow are like "famous songs". Which of these words is not full of joy? But this joy is "weak" after all, without excitement and ecstasy. The deleted metaphor of "beauty who just came out of the bath" mentioned in the last section is not only contrary to the specific environment, but also incompatible with the specific emotion of "light joy". Imagine, can the joy of standing in front of a group of "beautiful women who just came out of the water" be "dizzy"?
This kind of "faint joy" has been pervading the whole process of landscape writing, but the original text has a sentence "like a ghost" after "falling a mottled shadow"; This sentence alone is enough to disturb the warmth and happiness and destroy the happy mood. The gloomy ghost brings people only horror, no joy, and even "faint sadness" will not arise from it, let alone such wonderful associations as "the famous song played on the Van Aling".
Although I am in beautiful scenery, I can't send away the "faint sadness". "In the boundless moonlight, a person wants everything, can't think of anything, and feels like a free person." Putting a word "Jue" in the language adds infinite meaning to the article; The word "less" really became a free man, and then there was only joy and no sorrow. There are also two "musts" that "what must be done during the day and what must be said can be ignored now", which can better show the author's unspeakable difficulties.
In the process of describing beautiful scenery, it should be full of joy, right? Really not. Look at this sentence: "there are still one or two street lamps leaking through the cracks in the tree." Listlessness is the eyes of a sleepy head. " When describing street lamps, choose negative words and things, with a soothing sentence and a low tone. Readers seem to hear the author's helpless sigh between the lines. As a writer of lamps, my "Castle in the Air" is written in such a language: "The lamp at the foot of the mountain illuminates the darkness, and the lamp on the mountain illuminates the darkness, as light as smoke and as light as fog, and the shadows in the mountains are ethereal." The sentence pattern is neat and the rhythm is lively. In this cantabile, the author is full of irrepressible joy. Of course, the words described in the above two paragraphs are not interchangeable, and even sentence patterns can never be intermodulated.
Moonlight on the Lotus Pond was written in July 1927. At this time, it was the time when Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the revolution in the "April 12" movement. Zhu Ziqing, a patriotic intellectual who once participated in the May 4th Movement, was filled with indignation and dissatisfaction in the face of this dark reality, and fell into the anguish and hesitation that he could not understand the reality. With this lonely and depressed mood, Mr. Zhu Ziqing wrote the article "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond".
The structure of Moonlight on the Lotus Pond is round, and so are the external and internal structures. From the external structure, this work depicts a summer night trip from the author to the lotus pond and back according to spatial order. From the perspective of internal structure, emotional thoughts are never static, and they are round when they are quiet and quiet. The consistency of internal and external structure just meets the author's need to show a psychological course. He knows that as a social person, he can't get rid of the harassment of reality anyway. How can he get rid of his troubles when he is depressed? In his view, "it's best to be detached temporarily" and "happy to forget temporarily" ("Go there"), and calm or detachment can only be short-lived. So, go out and come back, get a moment of peace, and finally return to the noise. The close connection between structure and content makes Moonlight on the Lotus Pond sound natural.
Teacher Zhu's language has always been "new without losing nature", deliberately creating new words on the basis of oral English. There are plain words with no sense of carving, and there are also words that have been carefully "selected and practiced". The words "diarrhea" and "floating" enliven the moonlight and fog; The flexible use of quantifiers as adjectives, such as "a trace", "a zone", "a line" and "one or two points", has played a vivid role in enriching, polishing and strengthening the image. The use of reduplication is particularly good for Mr. Zhu. For example, using "Tian Tian" to describe the density of lotus leaves, using "hierarchy" to describe its depth, using "twists and turns" to represent the width of the lotus pond, and using "lush" to describe the lush trees, all of these have produced distinct practical effects. At the same time, it reads clearly and harmoniously.
The transfer between the three parts of the article is very appropriate. The first part (1 to 3 paragraphs) narrates the reason of night viewing, and with the phrase "I'll enjoy the boundless moonlight of lotus fragrance", it naturally transitions to the second part (paragraphs 4 to 6) to make cicadas croak and frogs break the silence, thus moving to the last part to write about the excitement of lotus picking in the Six Dynasties and the situation and mood of lotus picking in Jiangnan's hometown.