I don't want to quote those who are vague about the subject of this word. As for those who are biased, what I want to say is, for example, in the classic recitation of ancient poems by senior high school students (Future Publishing House, 2008), "I lament my political frustration and express my heroic tragic feelings by singing praises to ancient heroes." For example, Mr. Chen Zuzhuo said: "In content, this word shows the ideological contradiction between the author's use of the world and avoiding the world, or his entry into the world and his birth. This is a common contradiction among intellectuals in feudal society. Since there is no chance to make a career for the country and the people, you can only pretend to be very philosophical in a helpless mood. Therefore, while appreciating the figures in the mountains and rivers, they tend to be negative in the end. " (See Appreciation of Song Ci, Shanghai Ancient Books Edition, 1980) Vaguely speaking, this summary seems understandable. However, I thought they only saw the appearance of the work, but failed to find its inner meaning. Although this word was written about Su Shi's admiration for Zhou Yu's success in the Three Kingdoms period, it also expressed his regret that he had accomplished nothing at that time. But after revealing these emotional information, Su Shi also conveyed his deeper life discovery and sentiment. In other words, he deeply felt that nature is eternal, while life is short and illusory. Therefore, he gave birth to a concept of life that transcends the secular world, that is, in the fleeting life, people can not pursue the matter of being an official in politics as the highest or even the only goal of life, but should devote their eyes and interests to the pleasant appreciation of the beauty of nature in this limited life, or put their energy and enthusiasm into literary creation that can better reflect people's life dignity, independent personality and free spirit.
In this poem, we often admire Su Shi's heroic and magnificent sentence of "one river does not return", but we often ignore Su Shi's concern about the natural law of the elimination of so-called "eternal romantic figures". In Su Shi's view, from ancient times to the present, according to secular standards, many heroic and romantic figures have indeed emerged in this world; However, in the face of eternal nature, all heroes and romantic figures will die, and their outstanding achievements in the secular world will become the past or even disappear with the passage of time. For example, Su Shi said in "Red Cliff Fu" that when Cao Cao was in Battle of Red Cliffs, "Fang Qi broke Jingzhou, went down Jiangling, went downstream and went east. He traveled thousands of miles, covered the sky with banners, drank on the river and wrote poems horizontally, making him a great man in the world. Is he safe now? " For example, when Zhou Yu was in Battle of Red Cliffs, she was young and heroic. As the commander-in-chief of the Wu-Shu allied forces' crusade against Cao Cao's army, "the feather fan was covered with a black silk scarf, and when it was laughing and laughing, it was all gone." Compared with the proud heroes of this era, Su Shi is brilliant but ill-fated. He went to Huangzhou because of Wutai poetry case. In those years, he almost knew his destiny. If we only follow the traditional Confucian view of secular achievements, it goes without saying that Su Shi should be a defeatist. But Su Shi's high standard is that he finally realized here that in a limited life, in a country of political autocracy, people should dare to transcend the secular value orientation of Confucianism, or when people look at the world and life from the standpoint of Buddhism and Taoism, they will see another blue sky, thus re-establishing the meaning of life.
Here, I want to discuss Su Shi's concept of "life is like a dream", which is often lamented by ancient China poets in his poems, because almost all critics are saying that it reveals the author's negative and pessimistic thoughts when commenting on this concept, especially after the founding of New China. We believe that the meaning of "life is like a dream" can at least be understood as follows: first, life is beautiful, second, life is impermanent, third, life is short, and fourth, life is illusory. On these four points, we generally agree with the first and third points, but will not accept the second and fourth points. Our recognition is because we always stand in the position of the real world and think that people live in the middle of this world, which is limited but beautiful. Su Shi and other keen and profound poets say this because they look at the world not only from the perspective of Confucianism, but also from the perspective of Buddhism and Taoism. Mr. Zhang Guofeng said in the article "Two Most Famous Dreams in China's Ancient Novels" (see Knowledge of Literature and History 20 1004) that China people's dream-like life is deeply influenced by Buddhism and Taoism. According to the understanding of Buddhism, life always bears the impermanent pain of birth, illness and death, and everything in front of us will eventually come to an end and be meaningless. If people want to get rid of the restriction of reincarnation, they have to give up their desire, enthusiasm and pursuit of reality. In other words, only by living without me can people realize a kind of nirvana of life. The uniqueness of Taoism is that Laozi and Zhuangzi appreciate that human existence belongs not only to this world society, but also to the natural universe. Therefore, when they want people to evaluate the design self, they should go beyond the secular world imprisoned by Confucianism and put themselves into the vast state of the infinite universe. In other words, just as Hebo walked out of the Yellow River and went to the seaside to re-examine himself, we should take the vast universe as a reference, weigh the family and society, and examine the self of life. In this way, both Buddhism and Taoism are reminding people that as human beings, at least it is not necessary to regard the pursuit of social customs as the highest and only motivation and goal in life. For us in China, at least it is no different from always taking the amount of power and money as the highest or even the only criterion of whether our life is valuable, happy or meaningful. We believe that it is precisely because of Su Shi's frustrated experience in officialdom in reality, and more importantly, because of Su Shi's thoughtful study of Buddhism and Taoism in his years of relegation to Huangzhou, that he has always cultivated his transcendental and broad-minded life spirit with Buddhism and Taoism concepts different from those of Confucianism at that time and even later generations, and also revealed the absolute influence of Buddhism and Taoism concepts on his free and easy life in his attitude towards life at that time and later literary creation.
In short, from Huangzhou, or from the description of Chibi, we will find that Su Shi readjusted his life coordinates, or that he really realized whether his future career was good or bad. As he said in "Red Cliff Fu", "Besides, between heaven and earth, everything has its own owner, not me, and it costs a dime. However, the breeze on the river and the bright moon in the mountains are empty to the ear and beautiful when they meet. They are inexhaustible and inexhaustible treasures of the creator. My son and I are suitable. " As he said in Niannujiao Chibi Nostalgia, "Life is like a dream, and a statue is still a bright moon." Here, Su Shi's passion and interest in "Jiangyue" in nature is not necessarily "seeking comfort from Jiangyue" as Mr. Yuan Xingpei said, but more like Mr. Ye Jiaying's "combining life with Jiangyue", or, as I think, Su Shi's admiration, reverence and yearning for the natural beauty symbolized by "Jiangyue". In other words, from then on, what surprised Su Shi most was not how to enter politics, but all the beauty in the infinite nature that he encountered at any time during his exile. At the end of his life, what made him most proud was not what kind of leading cadres he had been, but all the literary works he had painstakingly created.