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梅花 – Méi Huā
王安石 – Wáng ānshí (1021 – 1086)
宋 – Sòng (960 - 1279)
墙角数枝梅 - Qiángjiǎo shùzhī méi，
凌寒独自开- Líng hán dúzì kāi。
遥知不是雪- Yáo zhī búshì xuě，
为有暗香来- Wèi yǒu àn xiāng lái。
为有暗香来- Wèi yǒu àn xiāng lái。
墙角数枝梅 - Qiángjiǎo shùzhī méi，
凌寒独自开- Líng hán dúzì kāi。
遥知不是雪- Yáo zhī búshì xuě，
为有暗香来- Wèi yǒu àn xiāng lái。
为有暗香来- Wèi yǒu àn xiāng lái。
墙角数枝梅 - Qiángjiǎo shùzhī méi，
凌寒独自开- Líng hán dúzì kāi。
遥知不是雪- Yáo zhī búshì xuě，
为有暗香来- Wèi yǒu àn xiāng lái。
为有暗香来- Wèi yǒu àn xiāng lái。
墙角数枝梅 - Qiángjiǎo shùzhī méi，
凌寒独自开- Líng hán dúzì kāi。
遥知不是雪- Yáo zhī búshì xuě，
为有暗香来- Wèi yǒu ànxiāng lái。
为有暗香来- Wèi yǒu ànxiāng lái。
为有暗香来- Wèi yǒu ànxiāng lái。
|#|Plum Blossom
By Wang Anshi (1021 – 1086)
Song Dynasty (960 - 1279)
A few plum blossoms at the corner of the wall，
Bloom alone in the cold spring.
I know they are not snow from far way,
For their sweet scent has come with the breeze.
For their sweet scent has come with the breeze.
A few plum blossoms at the corner of the wall，
Bloom alone in the cold spring.
I know they are not snow from far way,
For their sweet scent has come with the breeze.
For their sweet scent has come with the breeze.
A few plum blossoms at the corner of the wall，
Bloom alone in the cold spring.
I know they are not snow from far way,
For their sweet scent has come with the breeze.
For their sweet scent has come with the breeze.
A few plum blossoms at the corner of the wall，
Bloom alone in the cold spring.
I know they are not snow from far way,
For their sweet scent has come with the breeze.
For their sweet scent has come with the breeze.
For their sweet scent has come with the breeze.
|#|Wang Anshi(1021 - 1086) was a great politician, ideologist, litterateur and a great prime minister in the Song Dynasty and in Chinese history.
Wang Anshi was from a family of minor officials and had a good education. So, he was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations in 1042 when he was 21 years old.
Since then, he was an officer on many different positions and made a series achievements so that he became a prime minister twice. The first time in 1070 to 1074, the second time was in 1075 to 1076.
As an official, Wang Anshi kept his political dream -- he wanted to remove the country's weaknesses through reforms and innovation.
In his opinion, the country’s weakness and privation was because the government did not understand and follow the laws or moral standards, so, he wished to resolve these issues by following the ancient wise saints and those successful dynasties to introduce some reforms by following ancient wisdom.
As a prime minister, he led major innovations in politics, economy, finance and limitary systems in the nation, and boosted the development of the irrigation and water conservancy, improved the national finance and the limitary.
Wang Anshi was admired as "The reformer of China in the 11th century " by Mr. Lenin (1870 - 1924).
As with most innovations and reforms throughout history, his innovations and reforms affected and hurt some officers' interests and so he was opposed not only by conservatives, but also by many officers and as a result he was dismissed as prime minister twice. Although he was used by the emperor several times later, he couldn't continue with his innovations and then his earlier ones were abolished. In 1086, ten years after he was last dismissed from the prime minister's office he died of grief.
As a philosopher, Wang Anshi was involved in researching the study of Confucian classics and was admired “Tong Ru – Belearned Confucianist ” and he created his “Jinggong Xinxue ” which was the biggest school of thought in his time. Meanwhile, he used the the traditional “Wu Xing ” five elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth), to explain the form of everything and its change, he developed Chinese ancient native materialism. His proposition “ Xin gu xiang chu -- because of the interaction between Yin and Yan, old things constantly change to be new and new things constantly. with time, everything changes, people’s thoughts and work methods should also be change with time… ” The latter was the foundation of the theory of reform and innovation of Mang Anshi. This philosophic view has been succeeded by the thoughts of later ages.
Wang Anshi’s biggest literary achievement was his essays. He was one of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties. The other seven people are Hai Yu and Lui Songyuan of Tang Dynasty, and Su Shi, Shu Xun, Su Che, Ou Yangxiu and Zeng Gong of the Song Dynasty.
His poetry was learned from Du Fu, and was good at reason, rhetoric and allusion.
His Lyrics were unique, he completely washes away the cosmetics of the Wu Dynasties, opening the first signs of the bold and unconstrained school of the lyrics of the Song Dynasty.
There are about four books worth of his essays, poems and lyrics still in existence.
|#||#|Plum blossom is the number one of the “Four Gentlemen of Flowers” (plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum)in Chinese culture.
Because it is the first flower which blossoms in the cold and early spring with its sweet smell, beautiful features and bright colors, just like a brave gentleman who keeps a positive and optimistic attitude to life while living and working in harsh environment, the plum blossom has been chanted and extolled by the poets throughout history. It symbolizes of the qualities of one who is strong and indomitable, noble and graceful, loyal and stable; while Chinese people believe the five petals of a plum blossom symbolize five lucks: delight, happiness, longevity, smooth going and peace.
In the numerous poems chanting plum of blossoms, Mei Hua – Plum Blossom by Wang Anshi is a popular and unique one.
It was written after Wang Anshi’s reforms failed and he was dismissed second time from the position of prime minister so that he had to retire from the capital and stayed in Jiangning (in today’s Nanjing).
By praising the strong vitality of the plum blossoms which bloom alone at the corner of the wall in the cold early spring, this little poem compares Wang Anshi himself to the plum blossoms to illustrate his own distingue quality and strong individual character.
Let us imagine, as a former premier minister, Wang Anshi had made great efforts to develop his reform in the theory and practice of politics, economics, finance and limitary with a beautiful dream to help his country to go forward rich, strong and prosperous. This had been his whole career for so many years, however, with the failure of his reforms, his dream was broken, he himself was dismissed and squeezed out from the capital. His circumstance was isolated and hard, his heart was alone. This situation was just like that of the plum blossoms at the corner of the wall in the cold early spring – although he was pushed out of the centre of the country and was forced to be in a corner, instead of surrendering, he still wanted to distribute the refreshing fragrance to the human world, and kept his strong, noble and unsullied qualities.
This is the typical of the thoughts and feelings of Confucians and Chinese intellectuals “ Da ze jiang ji tian xia， qiong ze du shan qi shen -- When we are successful, we should try to let others benefit, when we fail, we should still maintain our integrity and kindness alone in the world.”
Anyway, from this little poem, we can still see even though Wang Anshi was living in a corner of the country, he did not forget politics or his country.
Now let us share the poem line by line:
The first line: “墙角数枝梅 -- Qiángjiǎo shùzhī méi” means there are a few branches of plum blossoms at the corner of the wall.
“墙qiáng” n. means wall; “墙角Qiángjiǎo” phrase, means at the corner of the wall; 数shù, numeral. means a few, several. “枝zhī ” n. means branch. “数枝 shùzhī” phrase, means a few /several branches. “梅 méi” n. plum blossom.
The second line: “凌寒独自开 líng hán dúzì kāi”-- blooming alone defiantly in the cold early spring.
“凌líng” adv. defiantly; vi. approach. “ 寒hán” a. means cold. “独自dúzì” adv. alone. “开 kāi” v. means open, blossom, bloom, flower.
Instead of writing about plum blossoms’ features directly, the first two lines express their spirit: In a cold, silent and maybe desolate early spring, none of the other plants have budded yet, there are just a few of branches of brave plum blossoms blooming alone defiantly at the corner of the wall in the cold spring.
The phrase“墙角Qiángjiǎo”—corner of a wall, points out where the plum blossom are flowering. This is a place out of the way, a place no one is paying attention to and no one recognizes their worth or looks after them. This hints that the environment of the plum blossoms is quite bad and that they are not be appreciated at all. However, just in this low position, in this simple and crude place, the plum blossoms are blooming by themselves. It is not only highlighting the plum blossoms’ features and spirit, but also expresses the character of Wang Anshi himself: Even though I am far away from the capital and live out of the way, I would still keep my own beautiful dream and to be alive, positive and sunny like the beautiful plum blossoms, no matter where I am and how low a social position I am in.
Then, the phrase “独自dúzì” - alone is used. On surface, it shows us the information “early”-- it is very early so that they are the only flowers and the number one flowers which are the messengers of the spring, to bloom/show their beautiful flowers to the world. In fact, it is writing how the poet Wang Anshi would like to keep his own dream and beliefs while alone in the bad environment. Then he uses the words“凌寒línghán”—to challenge the cold and to defiantly blossom earliest -- to write about the time once more and to emphasize how early it is while expressing the character of the plum blossoms, how they are brave, strong and have the courage to challenge the harsh environment.
While taken literally it describes the plum blossoms and praises their golden quality; it is, in fact, writing about the qualities of the poet himself. It is comparing the strong and noble quality of the plum blossoms to Wang Anshi himself and those who keep their moral principles and righteous opinions and defy being ostracized for helping their country, to the strong and noble qualities of the plum blossoms.
Because, since becoming an official, Wang Anshi had kept pushing his reforms for the country despite being under great pressure. Instead of getting the necessary support from the emperor and his colleagues, he was aggressively opposed by the conservatives, and was dismissed from the position of primer minister twice and was forced to stay in a place far away from the capital. In this situation, when he looked at the plum blossoms at the corner of the wall in the cold early spring, he could feel him itself so much similar to the lonely plum blossoms.
However, no matter what has happened, instead of choosing their place, lowering their heads to the cold, or bending their waist to the wind and snow; with their firm and tenacious, unyielding, noble and unsullied character, they keep budding and flowering in any hard environment.
The third line: “遥知不是雪 -- Yáo zhī búshì xuě” means I know they are not snow from a far away place.
“遥 yáo” a. means distant, remote, far, far away. “知zhī” v. means know, realize.“不” adv. means do not, no. “是shì” help v. means be, is, are. “雪xuě” n. snow.
The last line: “为有暗香来 -- wèi yǒu àn xiāng lái” means because some delicate fragrance has come (with the breeze).
“为wèi” conj. because, for. “有yǒu” v. have, there is/are. “ 暗 àn” a.dark, dim.“香xiāng” a. fragrant, sweet-smelling. “来lái” v. come, arrive.
The last two lines describe the smell and color of the plum blossom with a quite novel and unique style.
“遥知不是雪 -- Yáo zhī búshì xuě” I know they are not snow from a far away place, hints at how the plum blossoms pure, clean and white. With their color, to interact the vision of the readers. In ancient China, people usually compared the plum blossoms to snow and we can find the similar expression in the poem Plum Blossoms in the Early Spring “不知近水花先发,疑是经冬雪未消 Bùzhī jìnshuǐ huā xiān fā, yí shì jīng dōng xuě wèi xiāo -- I did not know the flowers blossom earlier by the water, I thought it was the winter snow that had not melted yet” by Zhang Wei (? - 777) during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) . You can check this poem in the first volume of this series.
This line shows us that the first two lines were written from far away and leaves room to write about the smell of the flowers.
“为有暗香来 -- wèi yǒu àn xiāng lái” For the fragrance / sweet scent has come (with the breeze). How did I know it is not snow but plum blossoms? Because I have already smelled the fragrance from the faraway place. If it were not for the sweet smell, even though the poet had seen the several branches of the plum blossom in the distance, he would maybe still mistake the flowers for snow. The words “遥知 -- Yáo zhī” know something from far away, 暗香 --àn xiāng – some delicate fragrance / sweet scent, describe the color and smell of the plum blossoms, and give a very good artistic result.
The two words were from another very famous line by Lin Pu(967一1028): “疏影横斜水清浅，暗香浮动月黄昏Shūyǐng hēngxié shuǐ qīngqǐan, ànxiāng fúdòng yuè huánghūn – Sparse shadows (of branches of plum blossom) are slanting across the shallow water, some delicate fragrance (of the flowers) is floating at dusk in the moonlight.”
Skilful use of metaphor or simile, to express the firm belief, beautiful dream and strong and noble personal qualities of the poet by praising the plum which blooming in the blossoms is the outstanding character of this little poem; to learn from predecessors, but be able to bring forth the new through the old is the second character of this poem; language is natural and easy to read, but implication is profound and lasting is the third character.
|#|1. In many times, reform and innovation is one of the methods to push the society forward and make progress. However, most of time, the reformers and the innovators don't get very far. Why? Because no matter whether a big reform in a country or a small innovation in a company it will certainly touch and “hurt ”some people, especially the interests of some officials and conservatives.
Therefore, if someone would like to start, or to lead a reform or an innovation, he or she must have the courage to prepare to lose his or her current position or interest. Because any reform and innovation can fail as well as succeed.
With this in mind I do respect all reformers and innovators who have worked for the social progress and the human civilization, no matter they were the leaders of a country or some little potatoes in an organization. It is only because of their efforts over the generations that our world has developed to today’s advanced level.
2. Any reform and innovation should be founded on respect for the work of predecessors, to keep the good part of a system and to remove or improve the backward part, instead of throwing out all of the current system and facts.
3. To learn the arts is same. We must learn something from the tradition at first, to inherit something great and excellent, to remove things that are out-of-date and to improve others according to the requirement of the times. The latter may be just the reform or innovation of arts. Right?
To help you to learn this poem, I created a piece of music in March, 2006 in Shenzhen, China and painted a picture at the Chinese National Academy of Arts in Beijing in 2014; then in my travel in Springfield, MO, USA in 2015, I re-composed the music and recorded it in Chinese and in English, re-written the comment and re-translated the poem during the Christmas Vacation. After I went back to China in 2016, under the good direction and piano accompanying of my music coach professor Meng Weiye, I re-record this poem in a professional sounding record studio. My English tutor Mr. Mike Joyce, Mrs. Zhang Xiaogang corrected my writing and my engineer Mr. Charlie Quan Zhang fix the vocabulary.
I do hope our efforts will be some help with your study of Chinese culture, language and arts.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you are welcome to write to shirley@ebridge.cn or to publish your opinions on the Message Boardas as well.
Shirley Yiping Zhang
Nov 30, 2017 in China
Nov 11, 2016 in the USA
Dec 28, 2015 in the USA
Dec 31, 2014 in China
March 5, 2006 in China
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