Nalan Xingde's "Shanhuazi"

I want to talk about my feelings, but the dream is already over. You can still vaguely see your eyebrows in the bronze mirror. I really regret my carelessness in the past, not taking you to heart, and taking everything for granted, including your love for me. Now you are like a person in the middle of the moon. The hairpin you wear is not a human thing. You can't even think about it, and you can't see it... The red candle that lights up the dark night is lit up one by one, just like leaving red tears. It's like leaving red tears... when will they all run out?

Understanding the meaning of this poem, it is generally believed that it was not written to Nalan’s wife, Lu, but to his childhood sweetheart who was later sent to the palace. The reason is: "Huanpei" and "Dianchai" use allusions to Wang Zhaojun and Yang Guifei, and both Wang Zhaojun and Yang Guifei were members of the palace. I beg to differ. Although Nalan Ci has many traces of Yuxi in expressing emotions and artistic techniques, and also likes to use more obscure language to hint at complex inner feelings, but if it can be understood in ordinary language, there is no need to force the ancients to talk about things. Son. Therefore, I prefer to read this poem as a sequel to "Only Dao Is Ordinary at That Time".

If the focus of the poem "Huanxisha" is at the end, then the title of this poem is already revealed at the beginning. "My desire to speak has come to an end," brings out the main tone of the entire poem, which is about not wanting to speak yet. There are many things and emotions in life that cannot be explained. Because of the inability to explain clearly, the poet turns to "dreaming", trying to get the answer with the help of illusory dreams, or in other words, using dreams to meet the person he misses day and night. This is also a method often used by ancient people to express their remembrance of those who have passed away or those who are out of reach. Su Dongpo's "Jiangchengzi" "Ten years of life and death are boundless", doesn't it use "a small window, dressing up, looking at each other without words, only a thousand lines of tears" to express his own miserable mood of "not thinking about it, but never forgetting it"? In Yan Xiaoshan's "Linjiang Fairy", it is also in the "dream queen" of "the tower is high and locked" that you can see "Xiao Ping" with the "double heart character Luo Yi". "Dream", like "wine", can be a means for poets to escape the pain of reality, and they can also temporarily satisfy the poet's unsatisfied desires in reality. Therefore, when Rong Ruo "wants to express her feelings", she feels unable to express them, so she has no choice but to seek them in her dreams.

In the dream, I saw my lover tracing his eyebrows in the mirror, but it was a "dream", so it was "vague", in a trance, and could not be distinguished clearly. "Spring Mountain" refers to the beauty's eyebrows. "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes" talked about Zhuo Wenjun's beauty: "Wenjun is beautiful, his eyebrows are as beautiful as looking into the distance, his face is often like hibiscus, and his skin is as smooth as fat." Later generations of literati gave full play to their imaginations and described her. It is said that "the eyebrows are like distant mountains", "the eyebrows are like spring mountains", "spring mountains are green", "spring mountains are far away" and so on. Since then, "Spring Mountain" has become a symbol of beauty.

What follows "Fang regrets" is the inexhaustible pain that comes from waking up from a dream and worrying about it. Due to the isolation of time and space, the lover's appearance is looming; or because he woke up too early from the dream, the poet has not been able to elaborate on the lovesickness after parting with his lover, so he attributed the reasons to "I was really careless in the past" and "I just took my time to look at it". Among them, The profound meaning contained in it comes out easily. The only consolation is that there is still a red candle accompanying me. It seems that the red candle in front of the stage, dripping red tears, can understand my meaning.

Nalan’s lyrics are touching with emotion. What makes it so moving is that I am deeply intoxicated and cannot escape. After reading his words, I want to see him as a human being and want to have a relationship with him as a god. This is probably what makes Nalan so touching today.