Appreciation of Yueyang Tower
Along the Xiangjiang River, through Changsha, and then forward, a piece of Wang Yang comes into view, that is, Dongting Lake, which is "full of water and sky, boundless romance". Meng Haoran, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Dui Dong Ting": "Clouds and smoke make Meng Gu sleepy in Yueyang." Vividly displayed the vast momentum of Dongting Lake, and became the swan song of the ages. Yueyang mentioned in the poem, with Dongting in the west and the Yangtze River in the north, has been the throat of north-south traffic since ancient times. Looking from Dongting Lake to Yueyang, the most striking thing is a three-story building standing by the lake, which is spectacular against the blue sky and white clouds. That is the famous Yueyang Tower.
Yueyang Tower was formerly the military parade platform of Lu Su, the governor of the State of Wu during the Three Kingdoms period. In the fourth year of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Shuling, secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, called Yueyang Tower, built a pavilion in the former site of the parade platform. Famous poets such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Zhang Xiaoxiang and Lu You. They all left their well-known poems here. In the spring of A.D. 1044, Teng was demoted to Baling County, Yuezhou as the magistrate, and the Yueyang Tower was rebuilt in the following spring. In June, he wrote a photo of Dongting in late autumn to Fan Zhongyan, a good friend of Dengzhou's demotion, and asked him to write an article about Dongting. In September of the sixth year of Li Qing, Fan Zhongyan wrote this famous "Yueyang Tower". The full text of Yueyang Tower is only 368 words, divided into five paragraphs.
The first paragraph explains the reasons for taking notes.
This account is necessary, because Fan Zhongyan is neither a Yueyang native nor an Yueyang official, and may have never been to Yueyang at all. A person who has nothing to do with Yueyang suddenly made notes for Yueyang Tower, which must be explained. The author first put forward his good friend Teng, saying that after he was demoted to Yueyang, after a year's time, he achieved "harmony between the government and the people, and everything went smoothly". The Yueyang Tower was rebuilt and expanded, and the poems of the sages and modern people in the Tang Dynasty were engraved upstairs. Let me write an article on this matter. This passage is concise, the background that must be explained is explained at the beginning of the article, and then you can be free to imagine.
The second paragraph describes not the Yueyang Tower itself, but the transition from the grand view of Yueyang Tower to the artistic conception of viewing things.
The content of this passage is about scenery, and the tone is about discussion. As soon as I came up, I put forward my own view: the beautiful scenery of Baling is concentrated on Dongting Lake, which is a distant mountain, engulfing the Yangtze River, surging and endless. These words describe the vastness of lakes and the vastness of water potential in space. The next two sentences, "sunny in the morning and cloudy at night", show the changes of Dongting Lake from different scenery at different times. In the early morning, the sun shines brightly, making Dongting Lake look like a mirror, just as Zhang Bi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said in his poem, "Endless is paved with glass". At night, the fog is low, and Dongting Lake is shrouded in darkness, just as Li Qi, a poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote: "Fog and rain sink clouds and dreams, and smoke and waves are misty." The above sentence captures the different scenery of Dongting Lake in different periods, vividly renders its myriad weather, and then concludes: "This is the grand view of Yueyang Tower, which was prepared by predecessors." Since the previous description is complete and there are poems engraved on Yueyang Tower, Fan Zhongyan won't go into details. People know me slightly, and people know me slightly, so they write about the feeling of going upstairs to see things: "But the northern martial arts, the Antarctic Xiaoxiang, and the poets who moved away from home will all be here. Isn't it strange to see things?" Relocation refers to officials who have been demoted to other places. Qu Yuan once wrote Li Sao, so later generations also called poets poets. Because Dongting Lake is connected to Wuxia in Hubei and Xiaoxiang in the south, Yueyang Tower by the lake is a place where immigrants and poets often gather. Can they feel different when they go upstairs to see the scenery of Dongting Lake? These sentences are the hub of the full text, which naturally leads to the following two paragraphs. The above description of Dongting Lake is objective, and the following are the subjective feelings of imaginative emigrant poets when they view Dongting Lake; The words above are simple, and the words below are eloquent and incisive.
The third paragraph, people who are sad when writing things.
The general idea of this paragraph is: if it is rainy season, it will not clear up for several months in a row; The evil wind roared in the sky, and the turbid waves on the lake vacated; The sun, the moon and the stars cover their brilliance, and the mountains also cover their bodies; Business travelers are afraid to travel, and all ships are damaged; When everything is shrouded in darkness at dusk, only the sound of tigers whistling and apes crying keeps coming into our ears. At this time, when I boarded Yueyang Tower, I felt sad and sad, and I felt even more sad to leave the capital and miss my hometown. I am very worried, afraid of the slander and ridicule of the villain, and I am extremely sad.
The fourth paragraph is happy to write things.
On a mild day in spring, the bright sunshine shines on the calm lake without a ripple. The sky is lined with lake light, which reflects the sky and is green from top to bottom. Sha Ou in the sky flew and stopped, and the fish in the water swam around. The flowers and plants on the shore exude a strong fragrance, which is refreshing. At night, you can also see the smoke on the lake swept away, and the bright moonlight shines thousands of miles; The moonlight is rippling with water waves and shining with golden light. The reflection of the moon is immersed in the water, just like a piece of jade. The fisherman's song duet is full of infinite joy. When you board Yueyang Tower, you will feel relaxed and forget all the honors and disgraces. Raise a glass and drink, laugh at the breeze, and you will only feel extremely gratified and happy.
These two paragraphs are written in sharp contrast. One cloudy and one sunny, one sad and one happy, two contrasts. Emotion moves with the scene, blends with the scene, and has a poetic artistic conception. From these two paragraphs, the last fifth paragraph leads to the main idea of the article. This paragraph denies the two feelings about things written in the first two paragraphs, showing a higher ideological realm.
"Hey, husband!" , is an interjection. The author said with great emotion that I have discovered the inner feelings of ancient people with high morality, which is different from the above two kinds of moods. Their joys and sorrows are not affected by the objective environment and scenery, nor are they changed by personal gains and losses. When you are an official above the temple, you care about the people, lest they be hungry and cold; Retreat from the rivers and lakes and stay away from state affairs is to worry about you, for fear of your loss. Therefore, they are worried about whether they are advancing or retreating, so when will they be happy? They must answer this way: the world is not worried, worry first; The world is happy, and it is happy afterwards; The author said with emotion: Without this person, who would I go with? Expressed his yearning and admiration for this kind of person. The last sentence of the article, "1September 199615th", explains the writing time of this article.
Fan Zhongyan, the author of Yueyang Tower, was born in 989 and died in 1052. The word Wen Xi is from Wuxian, and Wuxian is Suzhou today. He was born in poverty and his father died when he was two years old. When I was young, I stayed in a temple to study. I often do not have enough to eat. I still insist on studying hard day and night, and I have never undressed and slept for five years. Later, China scholars wrote to the emperor many times and put forward many suggestions to get rid of the disadvantages, which were repeatedly relegated by conservative forces. Later, he was responsible for the northwest frontier defense and made great contributions in resisting the invasion of Xixia. He was once transferred back to the imperial court, served as the deputy envoy of the Tang Dynasty, and participated in the discussion of state affairs. However, under the attack and exclusion of conservative forces, he was forced to leave the Song Renzong court for five years. When I wrote Yueyang Tower, I was a magistrate in Dengzhou.
Yueyang Tower is famous first because of its lofty ideological realm. Ouyang Xiu, another famous contemporary writer, said in his inscription that he was interested in the world since he was a child. He often recited to himself: "A scholar worries about the world first, and then enjoys the world." It can be seen that Fan Zhongyan's life code of conduct is "worrying about the world first, and enjoying the world later" mentioned at the end of Yueyang Tower. Mencius said, "Being rich is good for the world, and being poor is good for the world." This has become the creed of many literati in feudal times. When Fan Zhongyan wrote this article, he was demoted to an official and "stayed away from the rivers and lakes". He could have taken an independent attitude and lived a leisurely and happy life. However, he refused to do so, and still took the world as his own responsibility, encouraging himself and his friends with the words "Worry about the world first, and enjoy the world later", which is commendable.
It is not easy for a person to worry first, but he must be courageous, knowledgeable and ambitious. For a person who worries first and then rejoices, it is even more valuable to enjoy himself after making achievements. The spirit embodied in these two sentences, the quality of suffering first and pleasure second, undoubtedly still has educational significance today.
As far as art is concerned, The Story of Yueyang Tower is also a wonderful work. Here are a few points to talk about:
First, the grand view of Yueyang Tower has been exhausted by predecessors. What's the point of repeating those old sayings? There are two ways to meet this situation. One way is to write conviction, and others say yes, but I won't write it. Another way is to avoid familiarity and find another way. I won't say what others say is bad. I will find a new topic from a new angle and tell my own story. Fan Zhongyan adopted the latter method. The title of the article is "The Story of Yueyang Tower", but it cleverly avoids writing about the building, but writes about Dongting Lake, and writes about the different feelings of the relocated poets who boarded the building when they saw the different scenery of Dongting Lake, so as to set off the so-called "heart of the ancients" in the last paragraph. Fan Zhongyan's ingenuity cannot but be admired.
Second, notes, scenery writing, lyricism and discussion are integrated into one article. Notes are concise, scenery writing is extravagant, lyrical and incisive. There are not many words in the discussion part, but it plays a leading role in the full text, so some people say that this is a unique argumentative paper. The discussion skills in Yueyang Tower are really worth learning.
Third, the language of this article is also very distinctive. Although it is prose, it is interspersed with many four-character antitheses, such as "the sun, the moon and the stars are hidden, and the mountains are hidden." "Swimming in Jinli, Ji Xiang, Sha Ou." "The long smoke is exhausted, and the moon is thousands of miles away; Glimpses, still shadows. " These compound sentence added color to the article. The author is also deeply honed in the use of words, such as the word "title" and "swallow" in two sentences, which just shows the vast momentum of Dongting Lake. "Don't be happy with things, don't be sad for yourself", and the concise eight words are as inspiring as the motto. "Worry about the world first, and be happy about the world later", which has a rich meaning in just two sentences, and every word has vitality.
In a letter asking Fan Zhongyan to write "The Story of Yueyang Tower", Teng said: "Those who watch the landscape will not see the balcony, but journalists will not see the balcony for a long time." Indeed, Yueyang Tower has become a scenic spot that people yearn for because of this wonderful sketch. The story of Yueyang Tower, like the landscape of Dongting, will always give people good memories.