Couplet Story 37, Su Xiaomei has extraordinary talents

The original text of the story is as follows:

Su Xiaomei is the younger sister of Su Shi, one of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. She is of Han nationality and is from Meizhou, Sichuan (now Meishan, Sichuan). She has been reading poetry since she was a child. A proficient manager and a talented woman. Su Xiaomei is dignified and beautiful, neither fat nor thin. She has thin lips, round face, big black eyes, high forehead and protruding jaws. She looks smart at first glance. . Since she was a child, she has loved competing with her two brothers in verbal and intellectual competitions. There are many stories about her spread among the people.

(1) Su Xiaomei doesn’t let her husband show off her eyebrows

Among the eight major literary families of the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Su family accounted for three. In fact, the Su family also has a girl named Su who doesn't want to be a man.

Cheng Jun, Su Xiaomei’s uncle and the richest man in Meishan, built a new garden modeled on Suzhou gardens in the eighth year of Qingli reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty (1048), named "Yuxin Garden". When the new garden was completed, the Cheng family invited local dignitaries and scholars to write couplets and plaques for the scenery in the garden. Cheng Jun's son Cheng Zhicai was familiar with the "Four Books" and "Five Classics", and also had certain attainments in poetry and poetry. He was a leader among the younger generation in the Cheng family. He also had an inscription in the garden and was praised by guests.

On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, Cheng Zhicai invited his aunt Mrs. Cheng and brother and sister Su Shi to the garden to enjoy the scenery. Mrs. Cheng and her party came to Cheng's Mansion and saw that the gate had been renovated and the stone lions had been replaced with new ones, which were larger and more powerful than the original ones. There is a door on the right side of the gate with the inscription "Yu Xin Yuan". In order to show off his proud work, Cheng Zhicai led his aunt and cousins ??into the Yuxin Garden. When you walk into the garden gate, you will see a rockery that imitates the most beautiful scenery in Mount Emei - Qingyin Pavilion and Yixiantian. There is a couplet embedded on both sides of the rockery, which reads:

The Milky Way sent Shuangjianghui;

Emei gave several peaks of green.

"Cousin, I wrote this couplet, what do you think?" Cheng Zhicai asked Su Shi quite proudly, thinking that his cousins ??would also praise it like the literati invited by his father. Unexpectedly, Su Shi smiled slightly and said: "The writing seems to be displeased when looking at mountains, and the poetry is like a dragon afraid of shallow water. The word "plain" is missing from this couplet."

Cheng Zhicai's smiling face suddenly turned into a cold face, I was very dissatisfied. I thought to myself, don’t be arrogant, just give it a try.

Mrs. Cheng didn't like her son to expose other people's shortcomings in person, and scolded her: "Don't be picky, you can't write so well!"

"That's not necessarily true." Just after ten Four-year-old Su Xiaomei spoke quickly and said: "Brother, just write a couplet."

Su Shi chanted:

Eshan's flying peaks and beautiful scenery;

< p>Su Xiaomei continued the following line:

Meizhou has added Miaodi Qingyin.

"Wonderful, wonderful!" Su Che clapped his hands and continued: "Qingyin Miaozhen is a pun, which makes people seem to hear the monks of Qingyin Pavilion in Mount Emei reciting sutras, and also refers to the newly added philosophical treatises in Meizhou. ."

Cheng Zhicai couldn't help but blush. He chatted up and said, "My cousin is indeed right. Shame on you, stupid brother!"

"My cousin is humble." Su Xiaomei comforted and encouraged her and said, "The couplet belongs to the rest of the poem, so what's the point?" I heard that my cousin’s article was very good.” Mrs. Cheng felt that her daughter’s words were very appropriate and nodded: “Yes, a real man should focus on running the country and ensuring peace. The most important thing is that the article is well done!” "

After walking around the rockery, I saw sparkling blue waves, but it was a lotus pond covering an area of ??dozens of acres, surrounded by weeping willows and a pavilion with water. There was a plaque on the pavilion with two words: "Watch the fish. "This Guanyu Pavilion is magnificent. Looking from the railing, you can see that Da'e Mountain, Er'e Mountain, San'e Mountain and Si'e Mountain are connected in the distance. Looking down at your feet, the water is as clear as jade and there are countless fish swimming around. The couplets of Guanyu Pavilion are:

Facing the mountain is like looking at the Emei moon;

Looking at the picture of fish playing near the water.

Su Xiaomei smiled, pointed at the distant mountain shadow and said jokingly: "Emei Yue, was it stolen by some literati?" Su Shi said: "We are all ordinary people, we can't see it, we are afraid Only my cousin has this kind of insight." Su Zhe asked, "Cousin, is this the question you asked?"

Cheng Zhicai said, "This is the question asked by Master Ma, the county magistrate. It's really not a good question." Can you write a couplet?"

Su Xiaomei glanced at Su Shi and said, "Brother, you should do it." "I'll do the first couplet, and you will do the second couplet." Su Shi finished. Couplet:

Looking at hundreds of brocades while facing the mountain;

Su Xiaomei lowered her head and thought about it for a moment, then wrote the following couplet:

Looking at thousands of plays while facing the water.

Su Che deliberately looked around, then stared at Cheng Zhicai and asked: "Qianchu Opera? Where is there anyone acting?"

Cheng Zhicai smiled and said: "Little cousin, you come to entertain me too. I, the fish are acting. Hundreds of brocades, thousands of plays, really intriguing and fascinating." Suddenly a shadow flashed, and a bird landed on the budding lotus stalk.

"Ha! Kingfisher!" Su Che shouted in a low voice, for fear of scaring the kingfisher away.

Su Xiaomei said: "The emperor used kingfisher feathers to decorate the honor guard when he was on tour. This living kingfisher is so beautiful! Cousin, this place should be called 'Laicui Pavilion'."

The group of people walked along the lotus pond, through the bamboo forest, around the flower bed, and came to a small courtyard. There are three words "Dianshizhai" written on the courtyard door, but there are various bonsais in the courtyard, and there are stone tables and benches indoors. There is a chessboard carved on the stone table, and the couplets carved on both sides are:

One stone points out many interesting things;

One hundred scenes are chanted into poems.

"Cousin, how do you like this couplet?" Cheng Zhicai looked at Su Shi and asked.

Su Shi asked his sister: "What do you think?"

Su Xiaomei nodded, shook her head and said: "This couplet is neatly contrasted, enlightening people's minds and helpful." Because of my appreciation of bonsai, my vision is not high, my thinking is not broad, and I forget about this." She pointed to the chessboard on the stone table.

Su Shi nodded and said, after your reminder, I came up with a couplet:

Famous mountains in Kyushu gather together, everything depends on human effort;

"Okay! "Su Xiaomei applauded and said:

With one chess piece, you can defend eight frontiers and retreat with success."

"Okay, high!" Cheng Zhicai called and then continued: "This is a question written by Liu Weizhi, our teacher from Shouchang Academy. We think it is very good. But when we compared it, we felt that the cousin's The couplet is of a higher level. After the chess game is played, it is natural to retire after success, but there is another meaning here. It is a double meaning that is worth keeping in mind. "< /p>

After leaving the "Dianshizhai" and passing through the peach trees, I saw a winding corridor, green tiles and red walls, and a plaque hanging on the door with the three characters "Jie Yi Tang" on it. There are famous calligraphy and paintings hanging in the hall, and the tables, chairs, and tea sets are in order, as if waiting for the arrival of some dignitary. The couplets on both sides are two famous quotes from Liu Yuxi's "Inscription on the Humble Room" of the Tang Dynasty:

There are great scholars who talk and laugh;

There are no white people who come and go.

Su Xiaomei looked at this couplet, sneered and said, "Mom, we are not allowed to enter here, let's go!"

Cheng Zhicai asked in surprise: "What's wrong with my cousin?" You said that?"

Su Xiaomei pointed to the couplet and said: "There are no white people in the world, but we are all white people!"

Su Shi snorted and said, "This kind of couplet, It’s used everywhere, and it’s become vulgar. It seems like you can’t write a couplet except copying other people’s sentences!”

Su Xiaomei looked at the calligraphy and painting on the walls and said, “Brother, I’ll write the first couplet!” You're right." Then he chanted the first couplet, and Su Shi responded to the second couplet. The couplet says:

Talk about bamboos, plums, pine and cypresses; (Su Xiaomei)

Friends are straight, friends are forgiving, friends are knowledgeable. (Su Shi)

Not long after Su Shi left the couplet, his aunt Mrs. Shi sent someone to find Su Xiaomei, saying that her uncle wanted her to paint two paintings.

The little girl said humbly: "I draw graffiti to make people laugh."

"Just laugh, it's okay to make your uncle laugh." Mrs. Cheng explain.

Su Xiaomei came to her uncle's study, where her uncle and several cousins ??were watching her elder brother Su Shi paint. Su Shi painted two branches of green bamboo, a crescent moon, the moon cages the cold smoke, and the shadow of the bamboo dances. The inscription on the painting is "Sitting through the moon leads to poetry, and I hope that the birds will convey my friends."

My uncle praised her repeatedly, turned to Su Xiaomei and said, "Come on, it's your turn to draw."

Su Xiaomei saluted and took the pen. What she painted was a tree of red plum blossoms that were blooming and pleasing to the eye. The old tree was sprouting new branches, and the branches contained the spirit of spring. The title was "The snow disappears because of the blooming flowers, and the fragrance attracts butterflies."

[Note] Confucius said: "Three friends benefit and harm three friends. Friends who are straight, friends who are forgiving, and friends who are knowledgeable are beneficial. Friends who are friendly are open, friends who are gentle, friends who are sycophantic, and those who are harmed." Friends who are straight will be harmed. Friendship, forbearance, and knowledge means making friends with upright people, friends with honest people, and friends with knowledgeable people.

(2) A clever couplet about the deep love between mother and daughter

Legend has it that Su Xiaomei has a daughter who is also very smart, talented and ambitious.

She is also very assertive on marriage issues. Neither her father's arrangement nor her mother's "advice" worked. She made her own decision and married a very talented young man who came from a very poor family. Su Xiaomei was worried that her daughter would not be able to bear the pain. On a stormy day, she was worried that her daughter's house would leak, so she rushed to her daughter's house despite the wind and rain. As soon as I entered the courtyard, I heard the sound of my daughter and son-in-law reading. Su Xiaomei saw that her daughter lived in a two-room house with half tiles and half grass, and the windows were in disrepair. Probably to protect against wind and rain, pots of crabapple flowers on the windowsill covered most of the windows. As soon as Su Xiaomei reached the window, the sound of reading in the room suddenly stopped. Her daughter rushed out of the house with a smile and let her mother in. Su Xiaomei looked around the room. Although the furnishings were simple, they were orderly. She pointed to the crabapple on the window sill and asked her daughter:

Is the red flower on the half window to protect against wind and rain?

The daughter was about to nod her head and say "yes" when she thought something was wrong. Wasn't this the first couplet written by her mother? So he immediately changed his mind and said:

After a burst of frankincense, the mother-in-law will come.

Su Xiaomei used the two Chinese medicine names "safflower" and "fangfeng" in the first couplet. Her daughter is really smart. Not only did she cleverly use the two Chinese medicines "frankincense" and "anemarrhena", she also He also explained the reason why he stopped reading just now. It seems that my daughter has really grown up since she got married.

The daughter brought tea and asked her mother why she came in the rain. Su Xiaomei said: "There is nothing urgent, I just came to confront you." After that, she added another couplet:

I am so lovesick on the high balcony, thinking about the fairy in my mother's heart;

The daughter heard that her mother came because she was worried. But she knew that her mother used three words in the first couplet: "High Balcony", "Cool Lovesickness" and "Heaven Fairy", which was not easy to match. She threw herself into her mother's arms and acted coquettishly, and then combed her mother's hair that was messed up by the wind. During the delay, I conceived the second couplet, and then I said to my mother:

It is rare for little girls to see each other happily when the courtyard is filled with sincere expressions of love.

She also used three word brand names in the second line: "Man Ting Fang", "Reporting Heartfelt Love" and "Meeting Happily". Su Xiaomei felt relieved when she saw that although her daughter lived a poor life, the husband and wife loved each other and shared the same goals.