□Rui Ma

  "Looking at the Moon After the Rain" is a five-character verse written by Li Bai, a poet of the Tang Dynasty.

This poem describes the landscape when the moon rises after the rain, closely linked to the word "Wang", when the mountains and seas become bright and brilliant under the moon when the moon rises, it vaguely reveals the love that sprouts in the heart of the young poet.

The author uses anthropomorphic and exaggerated techniques to bring fantasy to the poem. The poems are not many words but vivid, and the antithesis is neat.

In the poem, Li Bai said: When the dark clouds in the surrounding fields dissipated, I opened the window and saw half a bright moon rising in the night sky.

There is a frost and fog in the thousands of miles of wilderness, and the vast river is like a white horse lying across the land.

When the moon rises, the springs in the mountains reflect silvery white light.

As it rose, a bright light appeared in the center of the sea.

It's a pity that I, like the tuanfan in autumn, stayed up all night and chanted until the early morning.

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love germination express emotion with poetry

  Li Bai was married late.

In the fifteenth year of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty (727), the 27-year-old "older" youth Li Bai married Xu, the granddaughter of the former Prime Minister Xu Yushi, in Anzhou (now Anlu, Hubei).

(Zhu Yuqi's "Xu Yushi's Family's Residence in Luoyang and Li Bai'an Lu Jianzhao——Research on Issues Related to "Xu Suzhi's Epitaph" Collected by the Western Market Museum of the Tang Dynasty") The age of marriage in ancient times was earlier than now, and those who are still unmarried in their 30s are Bibi both.

In ancient times, people often got married in their teens.

  According to Wang Pu's "Tang Huiyao" Volume 83 "Marriage", there were two regulations on the age of marriage in the Tang Dynasty law. After the age of 20 for men, 15 years for women, and the death of wives, the widow's service discipline has been removed and a marriage must be applied for." Li Bai was not yet born at this time; the second time was in the 22nd year of Kaiyuan ( In February of 735, it was stipulated: "Men are 15 years old, and women are 13 years old and above are allowed to marry." Li Bai was 35 years old this year.

  Li Bai got married at the age of 27, which is considered a late marriage.

Although it is a late marriage, it does not mean that they have not experienced love.

  When he was a teenager, 15-year-old Li Bai worked as a small official in the county government of Changlong (in today's Jiangyou City). Later, because he offended the county magistrate, he resigned from the public office and went to Dakuang Mountain (in Xiazhuangba Village, Dakang Town, Jiangyou City) to study and practice Taoism.

It was in Dakuang Mountain that he wrote the song "Looking at the Moon After the Rain".

  At first glance, there seems to be nothing wrong with this poem, it is all about how beautiful the moon is and how beautiful the scenery is.

But if you analyze it carefully, you will find that it may contain Li Bai's first love story.

  Why do you say that?

Don't you see, the end of the poem is "for pity like a round fan, chant until the fifth watch".

Here comes the question, what is this "tuanfan"?

This is a round fan.

It's nothing at all, in summer, everyone needs to use it to fan the wind.

  In nations with a relatively long history and culture, some language symbols will form certain fixed associations after long-term use.

And only those who are familiar with this cultural tradition are familiar with this association.

Western linguistic semioticians refer to this type of vocabulary as codes, which are similar to the allusions that Chinese people often say.

Tuanfan is a cultural language code.

  The great poet Ban Jieyu of the Han Dynasty (the concubine of Emperor Liu Ao of the Han Dynasty) was favored by Zhao Feiyan, so she wrote a song "Tuan Fan Song", also known as "Songs of Complaint".

The poem said: "The new split is pure, bright and clean (one is fresh and clean) like frost and snow. It is cut into acacia fan, which looks like a bright moon. It goes in and out of the sleeves of the king, shaking the breeze. I often fear that the autumn festival will come, and the coolness will take away the heat. Abandoned In the box of donating, kindness is boundless.” Since then, poets of all dynasties have often used round fans as a metaphor for love, especially for those who have lost love.

  Ban Jieyu's poem is very famous, and Zhong Rong, a literary critic of the Southern Dynasties, praised this poem in "Poetry" as "clear in purpose, and deep in complaint".

During the Liang Dynasty, the poem was compiled into "Zhaoming Wenxuan" by Xiao Tong, Prince Zhaoming.

Li Bai has been proficient in "Selected Works of Zhaoming" since he was a child, so he must have read this poem, and he must know the implied meaning of the allusion of Tuanfan.

  From a physiological point of view, boys generally enter puberty around the age of 10-13, and the secretion of male hormones will increase significantly.

Therefore, it is quite normal for Li Bai to express his love and longing for the opposite sex in his heart, and then express this emotion through poetry.

Therefore, Li Bai's poem is not an ordinary poem, but a love poem written by him when he was 15 years old.

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Can't sleep at night Li Bai is full of emotions

  As the saying goes: "You can't sleep in the first 30 years, and you can't sleep in the next 30 years." Li Bai is a 15-year-old young man. It stands to reason that he should be in the age group of "sleep and wake up".

But he didn't sleep, and stared blankly at the moon in the sky, "chanting until five o'clock".

"Five Watches" is equivalent to the current 3:00 am to 5:00 am.

In other words, it was almost dawn and he still couldn't sleep. I'm afraid it wasn't just for watching the moon, right?

If it's just to watch the moon, it's impossible to watch it all night without sleeping.

It is very likely that when Li Bai saw the moon, he thought of the girl in his heart, missed her, recalled her, and loved her.

Tossing and turning, unable to sleep at night.

  Huang Jingren, a poet in the Qing Dynasty, once said: "It seems that this star is not from last night. For whom is the wind and dew standing in the middle of the night?"

There must be a reason why Li Bai couldn't sleep at night. It was probably because he was thinking about someone or something.

  Why didn't Li Bai point out the cause of insomnia in his poem?

There must be unspeakable difficulties.

Due to the lack of historical data, it is impossible to verify who Li Bai's first love was, but we can know that Li Bai is a person with rich feelings.

  Nowadays, the first love object of adolescence is generally in the majority of middle school classmates.

The ancients were different, and they often had more neighbors.

  Bai Juyi's "Who is the one who gave me the gift in the past, the beautiful girl next door" in "Emotions" is a memory of the girl next door whom he admired in his first love.

Therefore, the author speculates that Li Bai's first love girl probably lived in the villages of Xiazhuangba, Guandu, Xinghuo, Yinming, Jianxing and Hongguang around Dakuang Mountain.

  First love is the purest and most sincere emotion in life, without any interests or distracting thoughts.

Although this kind of love is unconscious, it is sincere and has the most emotional color.

It does not consider various social factors such as family, wealth, and status, and is the most natural love between the sexes.

At the same time, it is rather hazy, driven by curiosity.

  The secret in my heart, I am afraid that you know it, and I am afraid that you don't know it, and I am even more afraid that you know it but pretend not to know it.

I don't say it, and you don't say it, it's both far and near, and it's close.

This natural outpouring of love is never seen again after puberty.

Just because both men and women do not consider social factors such as family, wealth, and status when they fall in love, the success rate of first love is very low, and it often ends in tragedy.

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Unforgettable first love did not get married until the age of 27

  During the Tang Xuanzong period, men generally got married around the age of 15, but Li Bai married Xu in Anlu at the age of 27. From this point of view, Li Bai's first love ended in failure.

  As for the reason why the two broke up, it is probably related to Li Bai's trip to Chengdu.

According to the author's speculation, Li Bai met Su Ting after arriving in Chengdu, and Su Ting said to him: "If you continue to work hard, you will be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Sima Xiangru in the future." From then on, Li Bai took Sima Xiangru as his goal of chasing.

And Sima Xiangru's wife is Zhuo Wenjun, the daughter of the rich merchant Zhuo Wangsun in Linqiong (now Qionglai City, Chengdu).

Although Zhuo Wenjun has literary talents, she is the daughter of a merchant after all.

Businessmen had a very low social status in ancient times.

Li Bai's two official marriages were both the granddaughters of the prime minister (Xu Yushi, Zong Chuke).

Therefore, the possible result is that after Li Bai returned from Chengdu, he secretly made up his mind: "I, Li Bai, will not marry the daughter of the prime minister in this life." Then he became increasingly indifferent to his first love girlfriend, and then cut off contact with each other. Finally broke up... However, the above is purely speculation, and there is no historical evidence to support it.

  Li Bai is a person who loves love, he can never forget his first love, and he has always refused to accept new feelings. Therefore, from the age of 15 to the age of 27, it took a full 12 years before he had to accept the cruel reality of "breaking up". Xu married.

  As the saying goes: "What you can't get is the best." This is called the Chicconi effect in psychology.

In fact, no matter how much a person is loved, he will always miss the love he did not get.

What affects a person is not what he has, but what he wants.

The biggest regret in life is not "not getting it", but "almost getting it".

  At this point in the writing, people can't help but think of another line of Li Bai's poem "Two Poems of Long Lovesickness (The Sun's lust is exhausted, flowers and smoke)": "I recall you from a distance across the blue sky. In the past, the eyes of the waves are now a fountain of tears."

full moon after rain

  The surrounding suburbs are cloudy and misty, and half of the toads are born.

Thousands of miles of Shushuanghe, a river of practice.

When you go out, the eyes of the mountain are white, and when you are high, the heart of the sea is bright.

In order to cherish like a round fan, I chanted until the fifth watch.

  ("West China Metropolis Daily", January 16, 2023 A16)