Ma Zhiyuan's "Qiu Si" expanded the expression range of Sanqu from the ideological content; And make full use of the characteristics of vulgar and lively language and free rhythm of sentence patterns in Yuanqu, and improve the realm of Sanqu from the artistic expression. This set of songs consists of seven songs. The first song leads the whole article with the feeling that life should be carpe diem. The title is "Qiu Si". I don't write about autumn scenery, but the sadness at the end of my life and the feeling of recalling the past are all related to the word "autumn", which is actually a false description of natural autumn from the late scene of my life. On the other hand, "this spring, the bright flowers are dying" describes the feeling that the young flowers have passed, and the natural spring reflects the autumn of life. The exaggeration of "today" and "Ming" strengthens the fast rhythm of time passing, and Spring Flowers literally take care of "Dream Butterfly". "Dream Butterfly" uses the allusions in Zhuangzi and The Theory of Everything, which not only sets off the lost feeling of a dream for a hundred years, but also embellishes the spring with the decorative beauty of words. Life is like a dream, which has become a cliche. Zhuang Zhoumeng Butterfly is also a well-known Canon. However, it is still unconventional to write the thoughts of mourning for autumn with the feelings of cherishing spring. The last sentence "Urgent punishment for turning off the lights at night" uses the omission of function words to obscure the meaning, and digs out a new meaning from the old saying "Eat, drink and be merry": the word "Urgent punishment for turning off the lights at night" is short of breath, and together with the impatient tone conveys the meaning of urging people to punish the wine quickly. There is a pause between these three words and "turning off the lights at night", which has two meanings: First, punish the wine as soon as possible until the lights stop at night. One is to punish the wine quickly-but the lights have gone out in the middle of the night, even if you are in a hurry, you may not be able to eat, drink and be merry in time. This piece of music starts slowly and ends quickly, with a flat tone. The tone is smooth, corresponding to the expression of deep sigh and short sigh, the more urgent and abrupt it is, which leaves room for the next six songs to talk about the past and the present.
The second, third and fourth songs talk about the greed of money from the sadness of rise and fall, and lament the illusion of being famous in history, immortal in achievements and long-lasting wealth, in order to prove the reality of eating, drinking and having fun in time. Qin Gong Hanfu has become rotten grass, and Yuan Ye, which grazes cattle and sheep. The prosperity of the past has become a thing of the past, leaving only a few gossips of Yu Qiao. Such sadness turned into bitter sarcasm: if it were not for such ups and downs, Yuqiao would have nothing to say. This unexpected cynicism should have infinite emotion, but it makes the rise and fall of the times so irrelevant. At this point, the significance is not enough, but we must make up for it: even if we leave a few barren graves and a few broken monuments opposite, we can't recognize the vague handwriting on them because of their age. The ancients regarded carving stones and erecting monuments as a symbol of immortal fame. The word "dragon snake" here originally refers to the writing of Long Xing's snake dance, but this word is also often used as a metaphor for ancient emperors, so the meaning of "not distinguishing the dragon snake" is a pun: since even the inscriptions on the history of fame and fortune are difficult to distinguish, how can future generations distinguish those who fought for the dragon snake in history? Qin Gong Han Que focuses on the emperor's wealth before his death, while Waste Grave and Broken Monument focus on his fame after his death, which completely denies the life ideal of the literati who eulogize the history of Qing Dynasty and remain famous.
The third song directly uses arguments and rhetorical questions to question the significance of heroic achievements. In fact, the phrase "How many heroes cast their shadows on foxes and rabbits' nests" is reversed because of the rhyme and the limitation of words: How many heroes and heroines didn't even have a broken tomb in the end, and their burial place became a haunt of foxes and rabbits. This inverted sentence only uses the word "throw to" to mean "harmony to", which is connected with the second song in tone, and the tone and sentence meaning are also connected. The three points of fixing ancestors refer to the struggle between Wei, Shu and Wu, and also refer to the era of all heroic struggles. Just like Han Que in Qin Gong is not limited to Qin and Han Dynasties, it also represents all powerful and unified dynasties. Although this is a common practice of recalling the past in poetry and songs, it is also of typical significance, and it is only arranged in the order of dynasties, which makes the two songs connected: Dingzu's three-point achievement died halfway, and now where to go in Wei and Jin Dynasties? How should future generations comment on the crime of Millennium merits and demerits? Therefore, this blank question is in line with the meaning of "regardless of dragons and snakes", erasing how many heroes compete for the success or failure of the world. Looking back at those foxes and rabbit holes, the heroic struggle that was forgotten by history from the beginning is as meaningless as rabbits chasing foxes. There are two overlapping problems at the end of this song, which makes the Wei, Jin, Qin and Han dynasties echo each other from beginning to end, with flexible words and meticulous composition.
The fourth song has changed from lamenting the past to satirizing the present, and its content is juxtaposed with the first two songs, which is more profound: the achievements of emperors have gone up in smoke, not to mention the wealth of money slaves. The funny thing is that these people are as hard as iron, blindly love money and can't see through the good times of life. They make the Jintang vain for the sake of joy, and they don't know how to enjoy things at all. "Jintang" refers to the first residence of a wealthy family. The story is that Han Qi of the Song Dynasty established a daily Jintang in his hometown of Xiangzhou. The whole song consists of four sentences and is divided into two layers. Look at the contrast between the vulgar stupidity of thousands of women and the beautiful scenery of Zhou Jintang. Vulgar vernacular and elegant rhetoric are in their proper places. Another dramatist in the Yuan Dynasty wrote "Seeing Money Slave" based on the novel "Searching for God" by a supernatural evil spirit, describing a poor man named Zhou who was blessed by heaven and became a millionaire who was unkind to the rich and extremely stingy, which helps to understand the meaning of "teaching the rich by heaven, but not too extravagant". To ridicule the greed and vulgarity of Qiannu here is actually to change the old tune of "How can you stay here when you are happy" (Nineteen Ancient Poems: You can't have a hundred children) and "Love money but cherish expenses, but be despised by future generations" (Ximenxing, Han Yuefu) into a new tune.
The above three songs have broken fame and fortune, and the fifth and sixth songs turn to state their own philosophy of life. "The sun shines in front of me and sets in the west" describes the passage of a day, which comes from "centenarians". The metaphor of "getting sick like a downhill car" breaks away from the common allusion of how to drive a Japanese car, and turns elegance into vulgarity, which is vivid and interesting. The phrase "adding snow to the mirror in the Ming and Qing Dynasties" is Li Bai's meaning "Look how lovely the mirror in Highgarden is locked, and the dusk turns into snow", which leads to the joke that "going to bed is different from shoes and socks", as if the old saying "Take off your shoes and socks tonight, I don't know if you will wear them tomorrow" has been refined and developed a little, and it has become a wise saying. However, there is a sense of cynicism in this seemingly life-and-death quip, so it is just a foolish act to persuade people not to laugh at themselves as clumsy as turtledoves who can't build nests. Claiming that you are not good at making a living is actually the best way to get rid of fame and fortune, saying that you always play the fool and point out the necessity of muddling along. The next song said, "fame and fortune are the best." It's a hint at the end of the last song. The three words "the world of mortals doesn't mess with doors, the green trees cover the corners, and the green hills fill the cracks in the walls" are right. They depict their secluded places outside the dust with bright contrasting colors, and their compositions are unique: the green trees and green mountains are near and far, but when they cover the corner and fill the cracks in the wall, they are like a circle of barriers to cover the red dust and are tightly closed in the "bamboo fence hut", resulting in the final song being completely composed of prose sentences, with neither antithesis nor identical syntax. This song is completely composed of antithesis, scattered and orderly, overall but not rigid, elegant words alternate with vulgar tones, allusions and slang, vivid and harmonious, full of fun.
At the end of the last song, there is a positive topic: alas, life is alive, only sleep can get peace, and everything will be disturbed at dawn. When a cricket croakes, the autumn scenery stays here. Everything in the world boils down to one point, which is nothing more than striving for fame and profit. Therefore, let's compare all the disputes in the world from ancient times to the present with a set of tripod pairs, which are "ants lining up, bees making honey, and flies fighting for blood." Although the saying that "ants are in droves" and "floating like ants in a hole" is common in Yuan Qu, these three sentences are particularly impressive because of their accurate overlapping words. The author's skill is not only to describe the ugliness of the feudal society to such a disgusting degree, but more importantly, to compare it with the elegant taste different from the secular, showing a detached look of fine universe, small things and overlooking the world.