Back to the title of Xilin wall (No.14)

Su Shi [Song Dynasty]

Looking at Lushan Mountain from the front and side of peaks and valleys, from far, near, high and low places, Lushan Mountain presents various faces.

I can't recognize the true face of Lushan Mountain because I am there.

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From the front and side, Lushan Mountain is undulating and peaks stand tall, and it is different from a distance, a close look, a high look and a low look.

The reason why I can't tell the true face of Lushan Mountain is because I am in Lushan Mountain.

To annotate ...

The title Xilin wall: written on the wall of sairinji. Sairinji is at the west foot of Lushan Mountain. Title: Writing, Inscription. Xilin: sairinji, in Lushan, Jiangxi.

Horizontal view: viewed from the front. Lushan always runs from north to south, horizontally, but from east to west.

Side: side.

Different: different.

Ignorance: inability to recognize or distinguish.

True face: refers to the true scenery and shape of Lushan Mountain.

Fate: because; Due to.

This mountain: This mountain refers to Lushan Mountain.

Xilin: Sai Linzhi, on Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi Province. This poem is engraved on the wall of the temple.

Creation background

On 1084 (the seventh year of Zongshen Yuanfeng), Su Shi was transferred from Huangzhou to Ruzhou as an assistant of Yong ying. When he arrived in Ruzhou, he passed through Jiujiang and toured Lushan Mountain with friends and ginseng. The magnificent landscape triggered a vigorous and magnificent idea, so I wrote several poems about Lushan Mountain.

The title tells us that this poem is not written on paper, but on the wall of sairinji, and sairinji is at the west foot of Lushan Mountain. This writing habit was very common in the Tang and Song Dynasties: climbing the walls of temples and towers, climbing the stone walls of famous mountains and rivers, and writing beautiful literary works.

If you write a poem on the wall, others may write a poem corresponding to you when they see it. Someone behind will see these two poems and think, the first one is well written, and the second one is poorly written! So he wrote the third song and added a small comment at the bottom: the first song was well written, the second was poorly written, and the third song was written by me. This is a bit like the post bar we are playing now, posting a theme, and then netizens follow it one by one, which is very interesting.

Like today's Internet, many wall poems and literature in Song Dynasty can be said endlessly. When the wall is full, it is wiped with gray powder, so someone writes a new one on it.

Since it is such a vivid scene, we should try to make it vivid when reading this poem. What do you mean, look alive? Let's restore how Su Shi wrote this poem.

The poem itself is not difficult to understand at all. "From the side of the mountain, there are different heights", and then we talked about philosophy. "I don't know the true face of Lushan Mountain" because you are in it. What philosophy is this? Some people say that "the authorities are fascinated and the bystanders are clear"; Some people say that you should look at things from different angles, and you will find different things from different angles. It is possible to grasp the truth by combining these angles. So this poem will arouse many people's association. It is really well written, and it abstracts a very profound and enlightening philosophy from the beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers.

Not only is there a lack of eyes to discover beauty, but there is also a lack of brains to master wisdom.

Then let's see how such a philosophy came into being. Su Dongpo is a great genius, a liar and a great writer. He has written many poems and articles, and likes to remember things when he is free. What he wrote in his notes was treasured by later generations, so there was a book called Dongpo Zhi Lin, which collected a bunch of small articles written by Su Dongpo and compiled it into a book.

Dongpo Zhi Lin has a short essay called "Traveling to Lushan Mountain", which is a key for us to interpret "Topic Xilin Wall". How to write a trip to Lushan Mountain? It is said that "when I first entered Lushan Mountain, the valley was wonderful". When I first arrived in Lushan Mountain, I felt that Lushan Mountain was beautiful, strange and beautiful. "I have never seen it in my life", I have never seen such a beautiful place, and I can't see it. "I don't want to write poetry," Su Dongpo said. "I just look at the mountains and the water." What else can I write? But there is no way! And you all lied to me to write, so I wrote, and I wrote several poems in succession.

Yes, there are several episodes in the middle. He said that someone showed him an article called Lushan Mountain, which mentioned that Li Bai, a great poet in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, wrote a famous poem related to Lushan Mountain. What kind of poem do you think it is? It is "Looking at Lushan Waterfall": "Rizhao incense burner produces purple smoke, and the waterfall hangs in front of Sichuan. Flying down three thousands of feet, it is suspected that the Milky Way has fallen for nine days. "

After Li Bai, Xu Ning, a poet in the middle Tang Dynasty, also wrote a poem called Lushan Waterfall. How is this poem written? "Void waterfall is like a spring", that is, the waterfall reaches as high as thousands of feet and pours down the river below, so the second sentence is called "thundering into the river without rest", which is also very imposing. The last two sentences say, "As long as the white lotus flies through the ages, a boundary breaks the color of the castle peak", which means that the waterfall flies between the castle peaks like a white lotus, splitting the color of the castle peak in two. This metaphor can be compared to "it is suspected that the Milky Way has set for nine days". Li Bai said that waterfalls, waterfalls, are like the Milky Way in the sky falling to the ground! How beautiful! What a weather How imaginative! But Xu Ning said, Waterfall, Waterfall, you are a piece of white cloth! White practice is white cloth. Imagine that the difference is less than a millimeter.

Su Shi saw that both Li Bai and Xu Ning had written poems of Lushan Mountain. When compared, they laughed and said that Xu Ning is your shame. So he commented on the two poets with a stroke of a pen. He is sarcastic and vicious. He said, "The Emperor sent the Milky Way down", and God sent the Milky Way down to earth. This sentence was written by Li Bai's famous sentence "Doubt is that the Milky Way has set for nine days". So he praised that "there was an ancient poem about dying immortals", which was the best written by Li Bai since ancient times. Then what do you think of Xu Ning's poems? Su Shi said, "What do you know about splash? Don't wash bad poems with Xu Ning ",which means that the waterfall has flowed for so many years, and it can't wash away Xu Ning's shame and your bad poems!

To tell the truth, Xu Ning's poems are not so bad. Some people appreciate the phrase "a broken castle peak". Then we got curious. Su Shi said that Li Bai wrote well and Xu Ning wrote so badly. You can do it! So, did Su Shi write the Lushan Waterfall?

We then read the essay in Dongpo Zhi Lin. Su Dongpo continued to visit Lushan Mountain and continued to write. He didn't write about Lushan Waterfall. Finally, I went to sairinji with a monk and wrote a seven-character quatrain, which is "From the side of a ridge, it becomes a mountain peak". After writing, Su Shi said, "The poem of Lushan Mountain ends here."

Now we have to ask, why not write it here? Take this song "Title Xilin Wall" as a summary? We always thought you were going to compete with Li Bai and Xu Ning! We might as well compare Li Bai's "Looking at Lushan Waterfall" with Su Shi's "Topic Xilin Wall". I wonder if you have found any mystery?

Li Bai wrote about how beautiful the waterfall is and the "true face" of the waterfall. But what about Su Shi? He doesn't write about waterfalls or even Lushan Mountain. What did he write? He wrote how we should discover the true face of Lushan Mountain. Lushan Mountain is beautiful everywhere, horizontal, horizontal, far and low. Why do I write so much? No matter how you write it, you can't write Li Bai's Looking at Lushan Waterfall! then what I scolded Xu Ning again. What if I write a metaphor? Wouldn't it be a pity? So Su Shi was cunning at this time: you describe the scenery, then I will discuss the truth; When you click on the photo, I will tell you that it is better to observe with your own eyes and explore with your own heart.

If Li Bai tells you directly how beautiful the Lushan Waterfall is, then Su Shi is telling you how to discover the beauty of Lushan. We often say that there is no shortage of beauty in the world, what is lacking is the eyes that find beauty. Now Su Shi tells you that you may not be able to see the true face of Lushan Mountain, because you didn't jump out, didn't look at it as a whole, and didn't read everything. Therefore, we might as well say that there is not only a lack of eyes to discover beauty, but also a lack of eyes to discover truth and a lack of brains to master wisdom.

Su Shi used one of his short travel notes "A Passage to Lushan Mountain" to reveal to us how the historical masterpiece "Tixilinbi" was written step by step, which is a leap and innovation process, including creative thinking. Facing Lushan Mountain, everyone wrote about how beautiful it was, but Su Shi came to tell the world how to discover beauty, so he mastered wisdom.