In the tenth year of Chunxi in the Southern Song Dynasty (1186), Lu You was 62 years old, and he had been living in his hometown of Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang) for five years.
In the spring of that year, Lu You was reinstated as the prefect of Yanzhou (now Jiande, Zhejiang). According to custom, before taking up his post, he first went to Lin'an, Kyoto (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang) to meet Xiaozong.
When Lu You arrived in Lin'an on horseback, there was a continuous spring rain. He stayed in an inn on the edge of the West Lake, waiting for the emperor's summons.
Living in Jinghua, in a small building, listening to the gentle spring rain, Lu You could not sleep for a long time.
The spring rain is the prelude to the apricot blossoms, he thinks of the spring rain overnight, the apricot blossoms will bloom again on the rainy night, and the next morning, there will be a crisp cry of the flower girl in the deep alley.
The night was raining, but Lu You was in no mood to go out, he had been waiting here for several days, and he didn't know when he would be summoned by the emperor.
Bored, he took a short piece of paper and practiced cursive crookedly. The sunlight slipped into the pane, and he played a game of dividing tea by the window alone, looking at the small white foam floating on the water surface when making tea, and playfully identifying the grade of tea.
Lu You's inner emotions are really complicated, so he can only persuade himself not to sigh at the dust of Jinghua and not to be overwhelmed by the troubles in front of him.
So instead of spending time in Lin'an, it is better to rush back to the hometown of Shanyin by the mirror lake before the Qingming Festival when the pear blossoms are rising.
The melancholy thoughts had an eruption outlet, so the poem "Lin'an Spring Rain and Early Ji" was born:
The taste of the world is as thin as a veil for many years, who makes the horseback rider Jinghua.
Xiaolou listened to the spring rain overnight, and sold apricot blossoms in the Ming Dynasty in the deep alleys.
The dwarf paper is oblique and idle, and the fine milk plays tea in the sunny window.
Plain clothes don't sigh in the dust, and you can go home as if you are Qingming.
The first time I read "Lin'an Spring Rain and First Mist", I only felt that this poem was graceful and beautiful, revealing unique and beautiful feelings.
If you don't look at the author, it's hard to imagine that such a fresh and elegant poem would come from the impassioned and golden iron horse Lu Fangweng.
Because in our impression, the image of Lu You's patriotic poet has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and many of his poems are also based on the theme of expressing the ambition to serve the country.
For example, "the remnants are in tears and dust, and the king is looking south for another year"; "Lying in a lonely village does not mourn, Shang Si is the national military luntai" such a pride work; "Who would have expected in this life, the heart is in the Tianshan Mountains, and the body is old in Cangzhou", such a late and depressing work.
In addition, of course, there are simple works like "Traveling to Shanxi Village", and there are sad memorial works like "Shen Yuan". However, the poem "Lin'an Spring Rain and First Mist" is written in a relaxed and meticulous tone, which is very different from Lu You's consistent poetic style.
Xiaolou listened to the spring rain overnight, and sold apricot blossoms in the Ming Dynasty in the deep alleys. "This is the most appreciated couplet by critics in all time. The picture of "small building, spring rain, deep alley, apricot blossom" is so beautiful and soft, and the artistic conception is so deep and beautiful, giving people infinite reverie.
When a spring rain falls, Jiangnan has a charm. The apricot blossom is the most poetic picture of this charm, she is not too strong, not too plain, just beautiful.
When the silky drizzle of "sneaking into the night with the wind" and the delicate red apricots of spring on the branches walked into the poet's pen, the beauty of spring in the south of the Yangtze River was spread.
For example, Dai Shulun's "The swallow does not return to the late spring, and the smoke and rain are cold in the apricot blossoms"; Chen Youyi's "Hakka Time Poetry Volume, Apricot Blossom News in the Rain"; The poet monk Zhinan's "wet clothes want to wet the apricot blossom rain, blowing the face is not cold willow wind", these poems are extremely beautiful, all write the fresh and natural "apricot blossom spring rain Jiangnan", but it seems that they are not as timeless and romantic as Lu You's poem.
His poems are intoxicating and heart-wrenching. There is not a word written by anyone, but the people who listen to the rain and the people who sell flowers have all jumped on the paper. It is no wonder that this poem can be praised as "the spirit of Jiangnan Spring is depicted by these fourteen words".
This seemingly plain poem, the more you taste the poetry, the farther the poetry becomes, as Su Shi said, it is "the hair is in the simple and ancient, and the taste is indifferent." ”
Legend has it that this poem was later introduced to the palace, and Song Gaozong praised it, which shows that it was widely recited for a while.
After reading this poem carefully, a delicate and vivid scene instantly emerges in front of me.
We seem to see that spring rainy night in Lin'an more than 800 years ago, Lu You, who was over the age of six, lay lonely on the couch, tossing and turning, listening to the sound of the dripping rain and unconsciously listening to it all night.
The spring rain hit the eaves and windows, and the sound of the rain in the still night had a special rhythm, blending into his boundless loneliness and sad sighs.
When the sky was slightly bright, the spring rain stopped. In the early morning, Lu You leaned abruptly on the side of the small building on the street, looking in the direction of his hometown. At this time, in the long and lonely alley not far away, the shouting of selling apricot blossoms came.
The wind blew through the windowsill and ruffled his gray hair. He stood by the window, looking at the bustling market, and the deep sorrow in his heart had also opened.
Lu You's wise gaze has glimpsed the prosperity of singing and dancing behind the prosperity of singing and dancing, faintly revealing the crisis of the country.
Even though the current Lin'an is drunk with a warm breeze, it is greedy for comfort and surrenders to power, and the partial court has no intention of recovering the Central Plains.
The thousand-year-old annals are nameless, and a piece of Dan is repaying the Son of Heaven. Lu You has always had the ambition to do a vigorous career for the country, and he has always buried the unrealized ideal of serving the country in his heart, and how can the position of the prefect of Yanzhou meet his expectations.
The country is in an eventful season, and now in order to meet the emperor, he can only be locked in a small building to make books and tea to kill the time, it is really anxious and sad to think about!
Lu You was born in the seventh year of Emperor Xuanhe of Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty (1125), which was an era of melee between Song and Jin. Two years later, the Jin soldiers marched south to conquer Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan).
Then, the humiliating "Jingkang Difficulty" occurred, and the two emperors of Hui and Qin were captured and went north, and the dragons were leaderless for a while. The Song family moved all the way south in the rush of the emperor for the Southern Song Dynasty.
In the midst of the war and chaos, my father led the family all the way south to flee and returned to his hometown of Sanin. The experience of fleeing from exile and the influence of the family environment have allowed Lu You to cultivate the idea of worrying about the country and the people since he was a child. When he was young, he set up the ambition of "getting on the horse to fight the thieves and getting off the horse to write the military book".
In the twenty-third year of Song Gaozong Shaoxing (1153), Lu You participated in the scientific expedition for the third time, and he was already 29 years old at this time. He was widely known for his poetry, but he was unexpectedly removed from the name of Qin Hui, the prime minister of the dynasty.
It was not until he was 34 years old that he entered the official career under the sponsorship of his teacher Zeng Ji and served as the chief bookkeeper of Fuzhou. Soon, he was transferred to the Beijing Division, and although the official was not big, he finally had the opportunity to realize his ambitions.
However, the Southern Song Dynasty, where Lu You lived, was always an era when the capitulation faction was in power, and he was often degraded and dismissed because of the main battle, and his ideal of serving the country was repeatedly stifled by cold reality.
It wasn't until he was 48 years old that Wang Yan, the envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi, invited him to manage military affairs in the scene, and his dream was ignited. With the opportunity to serve the country and be loyal, Lu You's spirit was excited.
He adhered to the frontier in military uniform, gave advice to Wang Yan, and fought happily with the soldiers. He came into contact with the majestic and magnificent landscapes, and also felt the iron horse autumn wind of the horse career.
However, in September of the eighth year of Gandao (1172), Sichuan Xuanfu made Wang Yan be transferred back to the capital. On a rainy day in November, Lu You also left the front line and rode a donkey on the rugged Shu road to Chengdu to accept a new post. When passing through the Jianmen Pass, he left a well-known poem "Encountering Light Rain in the Jianmen Road":
The clothes are covered with dust and wine marks, and the soul is lost everywhere when traveling.
Is this fit a poet? Drizzle rides a donkey into the sword gate.
During his tenure as magistrate, he was often resentful and often subjected to **. So, in the eighth year of Chunxi (1181), Lu You once again asked to be dismissed and returned to his hometown, and he stayed idle for five years.
This time, the imperial court used Lu Youquan to know Yanzhou. But he is already 62 years old, the vigor of his youth has long since faded, and the recklessness of Qiu Ma in his prime has also gone away.
He has always attached great importance to state affairs and his ambition to recover the Central Plains, and the position of prefect of Yanzhou is far from his long-cherished wish, and it is difficult to make great achievements in the end.
Even if an old man in his old age still has a fierce dream, it is a pity that the ** years of his life are gone.
Lu You was forced by the "holy order" and had to accept it. Sure enough, above the court, Song Xiaozong said to Lu You, who was leaving: "Yanling's mountains and rivers are beautiful, and the time for ministry can be endowed with self-comfort." ”
The implication is that he can only do his job well, and he doesn't have to worry about fighting money. It turned out that Xiaozong only wanted to regard him as a literati who was indulged in the wind and snow, and turned a blind eye to his enthusiasm for serving the country. It turned out that Xiaozong had no intention of restoring the Central Plains, and he could not be reused at all.
The good expectations were shattered in an instant, and the dark status quo still needs to be faced. The remaining trace of expectation in Lu You's heart fell short in the face of reality, and the last ripples were also buried in the mud with the spring rain.
Ren is the spring of Lin'an is full of vitality again, and the poet's unspeakable bitterness and sigh are difficult to hide after all.
The emperor's summons left him with only melancholy, although he had long had a helpless wait and see the reality, but he really felt that it was another empty time, and Lu You's heart was indeed a little colder.
Over the years, running around the world, he has been accustomed to seeing the hot and cold world, the corruption of officialdom, and the warmth and coldness of the world, which is bitter.
The sea was up and down, his humble position was humble but he was good at talking about strategy, and he liked to talk about restoration, which was long disliked by the authorities and the capitulation faction, and he was repeatedly attacked and squeezed out.
The taste of the world is weak, life is absurd, and I just feel that I have had a long dream. When I woke up from the dream, the court situation was still the same, the officialdom was still the same, and I had entered the twilight of my life. Therefore, this time he was used again and recruited to Beijing, and Lu You was not very happy.
Jinghua smoke and rain, willow as new, the drunken dream of death in the song and laughter, clearly shrouded in a layer of invisible fog, indicating the future ending. Lu You didn't want to be depressed anymore, don't be outdated, he waved his sleeves and didn't take away a trace of spring rain in Lin'an.
In Lu You's later years, he still loved to listen to the rain, and he had heard many rains. In the lonely and sleepless night, the sound of the rain is his closest confidant, responding to his sad or fierce sighs. In the sound of rain, he did not stop paying attention to the major affairs of his family and country for a moment, and was still thinking about the current situation in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Lying down at night and listening to the wind and rain, the iron horse glacier fell into a dream. This is a desolate and sad rain that Lu You listened to when he was 68 years old.
Alfalfa flowers urge spring to go, and sycamore leaves send the sound of rain. This is a lonely and desolate rain that Lu You listened to when he was 73 years old.
Outside the dream of Jiangting Mountain Station, the poem becomes the sound of lights and shadows and rain. This is a rain of nostalgia and contemplation that Lu You listened to when he was 81 years old.
Time passes for a hundred generations, and life must be fleeting. Lu You reminisced about half of his life in the sound of rain year after year, and the night rain washed away the poet's long-accumulated pain and resentment.
Pity thousands of miles of flat Rongzhi, pay for Xiao Xiao in the twilight rain. "Time passes, nature is eternal. Lu You was in the sound of rain again and again, comprehending the fragility of life and the dilemma of survival.
At the end of his life, he cherished the resentment of "Wang Shi set the Central Plains Day in the north, and the family sacrifice did not forget to tell Naiweng", and counted every rain he had heard.
Perhaps, what he misses most should be the apricot blossom spring rain ...... Lin'an that yearBecause at that time, he had a short period of joy and a melancholy poetry.
What he didn't know was that the sound of rain and selling flowers spread to future generations, washing away the worries of many people's hearts. How many ** are not even in the beautiful artistic conception of listening to the rain in his small building and selling flowers in the deep alley, and he is unwilling to return.