Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 107 "Partridge Sky - A Timeless Tale" [Seeking Monthly Tickets!]

Before we knew it, it was already late.

The five people from Hejiang County and the three people from Meishan County were meeting for the first time, but they were all ambitious young people with a strong sense of justice. After a deep conversation, they felt as if they had known each other for a long time.

The distant sound of the drum signaled that everyone in the school dormitory needed to turn off their lights and rest.

Usually, a little while later, state school teaching assistants would come to check each room, mainly to prevent anyone from secretly studying at night. It wasn't that the state school didn't want students to be diligent, but rather that a student had previously fallen asleep while studying late into the night and accidentally knocked over the lamp, almost causing a major disaster.

Therefore, the state school established this rule primarily for safety reasons.

However, state school teaching assistants often use this opportunity to reprimand students, and state students are unwilling to cause trouble. Even if someone visits, they should go back to their own rooms and get some sleep at this time, and should not stay in other people's dormitories any longer.

Although everyone was still somewhat reluctant to leave, they knew it was time to rest.

At this moment, the thin Zhu Zhen suddenly suggested, "Brother Lu, you are the most talented writer here. Today's events should be recorded in a poem."

“Not bad,” Su Zhe said in agreement. “If I weren’t so bad at writing poetry, I would also like to write one.”

Seeing Lu Beigu hesitate, Cheng Jianyong urged, "Brother Lu, write a poem. That way, if we meet again in the future, you can recall this scene when you read this poem."

Seeing that his friends were so eager to invite him, Lu Beigu stopped refusing.

So he went to his desk, ground the ink, picked up his brush, took a piece of paper, and prepared to write a short poem. If it were a long poem, it would take too long, and they didn't have the time for that now.

After a brief consideration, Lu Beigu wrote down the title and preface of the poem.

Partridge Sky - A Tale of a Thousand Years

(I was discussing the rise and fall of dynasties with several classmates in our school dormitory when we heard the night watchman's drum. I was moved to write this.)

Then, he thought about it for a moment.

There are many famous works of "Partridge Sky", but they all come from this era and later. For example, Yan Jidao's "The song ends with the wind under the peach blossom fan", Song Dunru's "I am a man of the mountains and rivers of Qingdu", Xin Qiji's "In my prime, I commanded ten thousand men with banners", and Jiang Kui's "Long separation in the human world does not become a sorrow".

The Yan Jidao style should be considered the standard form. Its format is a double-tone poem of fifty-five characters, with four lines and three rhyming lines in the first half and five lines and three rhyming lines in the second half.

However, Yan Jidao is only eighteen years old this year, one year older than Lu Beigu and Su Zhe. His father, Yan Shu, had just passed away last year, so there is no real reason for him to be formally married at this time.

But if you fill it in according to this meter, you're sure to get it right.

Generally speaking, the third and fourth lines of the first half of "Partridge Sky" (鹧鸪天), which are two seven-character lines, are required to be antithetical, either in strict or flowing parallelism. The first two three-character lines of the second half are also usually required to be antithetical, but the requirements are much more lenient than those for the seven-character lines; as long as they are roughly in parallel, it is acceptable.

"Perhaps my poem will become the standard form in the future."

Shaking his head, Lu Beigu picked up his pen and wrote out the first half of the poem.

"The song of Yushu fades, the imperial aura wanes; the golden powder of Taicheng turns to dust. The king lies drunk in the Rouge Well, while his concubines' fragrance dissipates on the Jade Embankment."

Su Zhe, who was closest to him, watched from the side and quickly figured out what was going on.

The first line alludes to the line "The jade tree's song fades, the royal aura ends" from the poem "Remembering Jinling" by Xu Hun, a poet of the Former Tang Dynasty. Taicheng was the imperial palace of the Southern Dynasties. As for the extremely well-matched third and fourth lines, the "Rouge Well" refers to the "Jingyang Well," which is the well of the Jingyang Palace of the Southern Chen Dynasty. According to the "Annals of the Last Emperor" in the Book of Chen, in the third year of Zhenming, the Sui army marched south across the river and captured Taicheng. When the last emperor of Chen heard that the army was coming, he and his concubine Zhang Lihua threw themselves into this well. They were captured by the Sui soldiers that night.

Starting from the Tang Dynasty, "Jingyang Well" gradually became a literary allusion. For example, Wen Tingyun's poem "Written at Wangyuan Post Station" says, "The cold well of Jingyang is hard for people to reach, but the morning bell of Changle is known to me at dawn." Li Shangyin's poem "Jingyang Well" says, "The well of Jingyang Palace is still sad, and the vow of the dragon and phoenix to die together is endless."

Therefore, Lu Beigu's line "The king lies drunk in the Rouge Well" is certainly not a compliment; it is entirely a sarcastic and ironic expression. However, the subsequent development of Lu Beigu's "Partridge Sky" is completely different from the sentiment of Xu Hun's "Remembering Jinling" which reads, "Heroes are gone, and all the splendor is gone; only the green mountains remain, like those in Luoyang."

"How many know the events of a thousand years? The rivers and mountains are battered by wind and rain, and crows cry at night. What has become of the Southern Dynasties in retrospect? Nothing more than private schemes within the inner court."

Lu Beigu paused on the last character.

He originally intended to use the character "靡" (mi), but after careful consideration, he felt it was inappropriate.

The previous rhymes "微、泥、堤、知、啼" all belong to the level tone and the rhyme "微".

The character “靡” has two main pronunciations in the Guangyun dictionary. The most common pronunciation is “文彼切” in the rising tone of the Zhi rhyme group, which means “bad” and indicates “extravagance and waste”. The pronunciation “靡为切” in the level tone of the Zhi rhyme group is relatively rare and means “to divide”, as in the “靡萍九衢” in the Chu Ci.

However, when expressing "extravagance", "靡" must be pronounced as a rising tone, which belongs to the oblique tone. It cannot be used as the level tone rhyme of "靡为切", so it does not meet the requirement that the rhyme of the concluding line of "鹧鸪天" must be a level tone character.

In the instant of refining his words, Lu Beigu wrote down the character "欺" (qī), which is a level tone and rhymes with "微" (wēi).

In this way, the entire poem can be described as perfect in terms of tone and rhyme.

The word "欺" (qī) is more direct than "靡" (mǐ) in that it refers to the fact that the Southern Dynasties were full of powerful clans and their own selfish interests, yet they still had to deceive the people on the surface. It is far more profound than the extravagance and corruption referred to by "靡" (mǐ). It also echoes the disillusionment of the first half of the poem, "The gold powder of the Six Dynasties turned to dust and mud".

The ink had dried, and several people gathered around to read it.

The night was deep, and the distant cawing of crows seemed to echo the mood of the poem.

"What a fine 'merely a private scheme'! The word 'scam' leaves a chilling aftertaste!"

Huang Jingji slammed his fist on the table: "This poem perfectly captures the hypocrisy of the powerful clans of the Southern Dynasties! What talk of national righteousness? In the end, it's nothing more than a struggle for power and profit, and deceiving the world to steal a reputation!"

Cheng Jianyong remained silent for a long time, then suddenly smiled bitterly: "Brother Lu's poem is not only about the Southern Dynasty, but also about the ills of today. 'How many people know about the affairs of the past?' - The rise and fall of the nation, the suffering of the people, how many people in the court truly care?"

"Emperor Chen Houzhu of the Southern Dynasties was obsessed with the 'Yushu Hou Ting Hua' (a famous Chinese opera), which ultimately led to the downfall of his kingdom."

Su Zhe also sighed heavily: "Although the Song Dynasty is not in danger of falling, if there are still people who are trapped in their own private affairs and do not think about making progress, I'm afraid..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but everyone understood what he meant.

The sound of the drumbeats rose again outside the window, and the teaching assistant's footsteps grew closer.

After a moment of silence, Lu Beigu spoke with emotion.

"Since you all share this ambition, why don't we make a vow—that whoever enters the court as an official in the future will take 'enriching the people and strengthening the country' as their responsibility and will never associate with those who hold positions without doing their jobs!"

"it is good!"

Everyone was taken aback for a moment, then responded in unison.

The evening breeze swept through the hall, illuminating the resolute faces of these young people, their eyes seemingly burning with a flame.

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(End of this chapter)