Li Yu’s “Pounding the Nunzi
The deep courtyard is quiet and the small garden is empty. The cold anvil is intermittent and the wind is intermittent.
The night is so long that no one can sleep, and the moon comes to the curtain.
Unlike the many masterpieces he wrote after he was sentenced to prison, Li Yu’s “Pounding the Practice” depicts a common emotion: longing in the dead of night. This lyric is attributed to Feng Yansi in the Zun Qian Ji. Both of them are masters of writing about love. Now we read this lyric, and do not care who wrote it, and do not care when and where it was written, just follow the title and read on – “Pounding Practice This is the theme of the song, which is about the sound of pounding clothes, which sets the tone of the whole song.
Li Bai said, “A piece of moon in Chang’an, the sound of pounding clothes in ten thousand households. “In ancient China, whenever the autumn night is cold and the moon is crisp, there will be this busy and beautiful “autumn sound “. A city, resounding with a common voice: every household is rushing to make cold clothes, ready for winter. In ancient times, there were no electric irons, so women would beat silk cloth with a wooden pestle and mortar to make it flat and soft so that it could be easily cut into clothes. If someone in the family was away, they also needed to make it as soon as possible and send it to their relatives. The sound of pounding concentrated the care and concern of women for their families, and also concentrated the picture of a family’s life. When the “sound of pounding clothes in ten thousand households” is heard, what would a woman feel if her beloved one is not with her? So Li Bai would go on to write: “The autumn breeze cannot be blown to an end, it is always the love of the Jade Pass. When will the Hu Hu be pacified, and the good man will stop his expedition? When will the good man return home from the border?
In Li Yu’s “Pounding the Train”, the heroine is also a “pining woman” whose husband is far away and who lives alone in an empty house. She lives in a “deep courtyard” with no one in it, and it is especially quiet at night. At this time, the autumn breeze sends the intermittent sound of pounding clothes. The two “intermittent” sounds seem to be about the faintness of the sound, but in fact they are about the clarity of the sound: for a person who is alone in an empty house, who is concentrating on her thoughts, every sound is clear. The sound of the voice is so clear that it can be heard in the ears, and it is a tear-jerker. On this night, while other families are busy, noisy and reunited, this woman is feeling the torment and pain in the quietest environment. She could not sleep, so she felt the night was especially long. And the sound of pounding clothes still kept coming. Maybe it has stopped for a while, but it still came again a few times. As Qin Guan’s “Eight Sixth Son” says, “The oriole cried several more times when it was in the middle of the night. “
The “several cries” in the last line of Li Yu’s lyrics are not only The “several sounds” in the last line of Li Yu’s lyric is not only an auditory symbol of “interruption” but also a visual symbol: it comes together with the moonlight in front of the woman’s window. The “curtain bar” is a latticed window with bamboo curtains. We can imagine: the moonlight coming through the lattice window is broken; and the “sound of counting” is also intermittent and broken. In an instant, the broken sound, the broken moonlight, and the broken heart are all in harmony. The author does not say another word, and the woman does not shed any tears, but the boundless longing and sadness have filled the reader’s heart. The most difficult emotion in the world to describe is the faint sorrow. Li Yu has never been known for writing about the pain of his fallen country, but he is always able to write about grief with a lighter weight and a more touching effect. It is often a farce to cry to the sky, but a light sorrow is the “common feeling” of human beings. In “Pounding the Trainer”, Li Yu demonstrates his ability to portray the “common emotion”, which is his nature as a great lyric poet.
I remember the first time I listened to the Christmas song “Silent Night”, I was attracted by the beautiful melody, but at the same time I had some doubts: why is the melody a bit sad when it is obviously Christmas Eve? Is it the pity in the peace? Is it the longing in the quiet? Is it the sadness in the blessing? It seems that the melody and lyrics of “We three kings” are more in line with the cheerful atmosphere of Christmas, right? However, the most famous Christmas song is “silent night”. Every Christmas Eve, families all over the world sing this song, just like “the moon in Chang’an, the sound of mending clothes in ten thousand households”. If you walk alone in the street on Christmas Eve, you will probably have the feeling of “intermittent cold anvil intermittent wind”. If we have to look for the commonality between “Silent Night” and “Pounding the Clothes”, perhaps it is that they both express the longing of the late night, and the faint sorrow that rises from the longing, which eventually evokes the resonance of all human beings. When human beings resonate, “Ode to Joy” will come out, right? Merry Christmas to everyone!
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