Three minutes to talk about culture
The pillow has been cold, and the window is bright again.
I know that the snow is heavy at night, and I hear the sound of breaking bamboo.
Bai Juyi's "Night Snow" adheres to his consistent clear and easy-to-understand poetic characteristics. Reading through the whole poem, that is, the word "衾" in the first sentence is not commonly used by us modern people. "衾" is a quilt.
The poem is about a very ordinary little thing. On a sleepless night, the poet first felt the coldness of the quilt and pillow, then found the light outside the window, and then heard the sound of bamboo breaking from time to time. So the psalmist knew that it was snowing, and it was not small.
The poet is describing the night snow, but not a single sentence of the poem is written about the snow in a positive way. The first sentence "has been surprised that the pillow is cold" is written about the feeling, the second sentence "see the window again" is written visually, the fourth sentence "when I hear the sound of folding bamboo" is written about hearing, and the third sentence "I know the snow is heavy at night" is written about the judgment in my heart, and it is also pointed out that the time is late at night. This is the so-called "side accent method".
The poet was in office in Jiangzhou when he wrote this poem, and he was already 45 years old. He was demoted to Jiangzhou by the imperial court.
What's going on? This brings us to the assassination incident that occurred in the DPRK and China. The targets of the assassination were Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng and Cheng Pei Du in the Imperial History. Wu Yuanheng was killed, and Pei Du was seriously injured.
Bai Juyi angrily wrote to Tang Xianzong, strongly advocating the arrest and punishment, and strictly enforcing the law and discipline of the court.
As for Tang Xianzong, he thought that Bai Juyi's doing this exceeded the scope of his duties and was a kind of transgression. Because there are counselors in the imperial court, it is the duty of the counselors to discuss the government affairs, so you have to let the counselors say it first.
In fact, this ** is Bai Juyi's "trespassing", it is really a group of eunuchs who were in power at the time who let this matter go and did not deal with it for a long time. Bai Juyi, who has always been frank and outspoken, was angry, so he angrily wrote to Tang Xianzong.
At this time, there was a ** in the court who took the opportunity to fall into the well for Bai Juyi and framed him. Tang Xianzong was also a proper Ming monarch in the early stage of his accession to the throne, but in the later period, he began to listen to and believe in eunuchs. He didn't say a word and demoted Bai Juyi to the history of Jiangzhou.
Bai Juyi was not afraid of the powerful and spoke up, but he was demoted to Jiangzhou, but he seemed to be able to deal with it calmly, but perhaps his heart was depressed.
You see that snowy night, the sleepless poet listened quietly, watched silently, he heard the heavy snow falling bamboo, saw the snow reflecting the window, felt the cold of the snowy night, but what he did not tell us was his inner feelings.
Perhaps his heart is as calm as it seems on the surface, and even if he has insomnia, he is carefree, focused on enjoying this silent night of falling snow. Perhaps he hid all his loneliness and resentment in the depths of his heart, just giving us an appearance of openness and openness. Who knows!
Later generations commented on this poem: novel and chic, dignified and simple, fresh and elegant, with twists and turns. At first glance, it's unremarkable, but it's worth savoring.