What do you mean, "pear trees are better than begonia"?

"A pear flower on a begonia" is a poem in folk stories, which comes from the last sentence of Yuan Zhen's poem "White Clothes" and is used to tease an old husband to marry a young wife.

original work

There are many versions of this poem, the most popular of which is as follows:

Eighteen brides are eighty lang, with gray hair and red makeup.

Two nights of mandarin duck quilt, pear tree pressing begonia.

Source of works

"A pear covered with a begonia" is a folk story that has been widely circulated in the note novels of the Ming Dynasty. At present, the earliest version found comes from the collection outside Yaoshan Hall written by Jiang Yikui in Ming Dynasty. Later, Beihua Monthly, Luji Teahouse and Shi Hui all included similar jokes. The protagonist of the story is different from the poem, but they didn't say that the author was Su Shi, only that it was written by a folk person, Xu from Dinghai, Zhejiang, or Weng from Shanghai.

It was not until 1980s that Su Shi wrote "a pear flower hits a begonia" to mock Zhang Xian. This statement confuses folk stories with historical facts. Su Shi did write poems for Zhang Xi 'an's concubinage. Su Shi wrote, "Zhang Ziye was eighty-five, and he still heard about buying concubines and telling ancient poems.". Zhang Xian's poems have not been handed down. There are two incomplete sentences in Ye Mengde's Shi Lin Shi Hua in Song Dynasty: Worrying is like a fish forever knowing the night, and being lazy to make spring for butterflies.

Because they are all writing poems to tease elderly husbands to get married, in the process of circulation, elegant original poems are replaced by more popular and straightforward folk jokes, which leads many people to mistake them for truth.

Works, legends and stories

Su Dongpo and Zhang Xian were both poets in the Northern Song Dynasty. Su Dongpo is famous and well known. In contrast, Zhang Xian's popularity is almost the same. However, Zhang Xian is a lovely old man. He has a romantic life, healthy and full of vitality. His ci mainly reflects the life of literati in Song Dynasty and the love between men and women. He is a representative figure of Huajian Ci School in the Northern Song Dynasty. The word "agriculture" in the sentence "clouds break through the moon to make a shadow" can be described as a wonderful pen, while the sentence "the sky is not old, and the feelings are hard to get rid of". Heart like a double screen, Qian Qian knot in it, spread through the ages.

Zhang Xian is more than 40 years older than Su Dongpo, but because they both love poetry, they become poetry friends and often sing poetry together.

Zhang Xian leads a very chic life. At the age of 80, I married Huanghua's eldest daughter, who was 18 years old, as my concubine. At this time, Su Dongpo is working in the National Museum of Literature and History in Beijing, doing some leisure work in compiling national history. When he is bored, he always gets together with like-minded literary friends to pass the lonely time. This time, when I learned that I was in my eighties, I found an excellent reason to invite a group of ci friends to Zhang's elder's house to congratulate him and have fun.

When we arrived in Zhangfu, everyone saw the new charming mother as beautiful as flowers and pure as jade, envious and jealous, and they shouted about what it was like to be a groom at the age of 80. Lao Zhang, who is good at writing colourful poems, came at this moment and said cheerfully, "I am eighty and eighteen, and your beauty is my white hair." The same age as Qing, only separated by a flower. "

Alas, Lao Zhang's head deserves to be old and strong. At this age, he is not confused at all. His mind is full of his own "things" and his pride is beyond words. Looking at Lao Zhang's smug appearance, Su Dongpo was really upset, so he blurted out a ridiculous jingle: "Eighteen brides and eighty lang, white hair and red makeup. Two nights in the quilt, a pear tree pressed Haitang. "

Su Dongpo's doggerel is full of humor and ridicule, especially the ending sentence "A pear tree hits a begonia", which is the finishing touch, vivid and appropriate. Pear is white, which is suitable for Zhang Xian, a white-haired old man. Begonia is red, which describes the delicate and charming young woman. In a word, the scene of an old man marrying several wives is vividly described.