BaiJuyi’smasterpiecetheSongofPipaPlayerrelatedto realism
2018-05-15余嘉信
【Abstract】China is called the Country of Poetries. Throughout the long history of China, many famous poetries and their writers were remembered by us. One of the most famous poet is Bai Juyi , who is called the King of poets. To let more people understand his personal genius, I want to simply analysis his famous works, which is called the Song of a Pipa Player. It tells us the poets dead dream, which is conflicted with the cruel reality, making us feel profound and memorable.
【Key words】Bai Juyi; Pipa player; dream; realism; sadness
【作者简介】余嘉信,青岛市第十九中学。
In literary and art history, realism and romanticism are two important ways to create literary works. Bai Juyi is one of greatest realistic poet. The writing techniques are shown in his works all the time. From the macro point of view, the poem is talking about a Pipa players life experience, which made the poet thought of himself, and tells us the eye of the whole poem:Both of us being strangers here, both of us stranded, does it matter that weve just met, if our hearts being understood?(同是天涯沦落人, 相逢何必曾相识。) He described the life experience of themselves to allude to the reality of Tang dynasty.
At the first part, Bai Juyi explained how he met the Pipa player. When he was sending his guests away, they heard a sound of elegant music which was played by Pipa from a little boat in a sudden moment. Then they invited the player to play for them. The words he used is very vivid, such as “In maple leaves and rushes autumn seemed to sigh.”(楓叶荻花秋瑟瑟), which made us feel the upset atmosphere. Also, it is the preparation to introduce the leading lady in the next part.
At the second and third part, Bai Juyi worked very hard to show us how excellent she was, the inside of her music. Compared the players early life with her hard lonely married life, we felt sorry for her. She was a very famous player when she was young. She was not only beautiful enough, but also talented in playing skills as well. Thats why everyone loved her. At that time, she felt very happy to be an artist. She has her trusted friends, they were more than friends in her mind. The audiences were crazy for her. Everyone wanted to see her performances. Bai Juyi used a lot of ways to show us about it, like visual sense and auditory sense. “Suddenly we heard water burst a silver jar, the clash of spears and sabres coming from afar.”(银瓶乍破水浆迸, 铁骑突出刀枪鸣) is one of the examples.
When she was young, she used her superb playing skills winning everyones respect. But when she got older, what she could only do was marrying someone, and became a normal housewife to waste the rest of her lifetime. It is a pity for such a talented artist. Bai Juyi used his skillful writing skills to show the character to us, making us feel sorry for her and her sufferings. Thats why everyone cried for her performance, they all understood the emotions which she wanted to let them know. This is the artists life experience, which made Bai Juyi think of himself. Thats the theme of the final part.
At the final part, what Bai Juyi talked about was his own deep feelings. In a way, he is similiar with the Pipa player. He was also talented and ambitious, who wanted to realize his political aspiration when he was young. Able as he was, he had no chance to carry out his ideals, his dream was disillusioned in the end. Thats why he felt he could understood the pain as well as the Pipa player, and then the famous final line:Both of us being strangers here, both of us stranded, does it matter that weve just met, if our hearts being understood?(同是天涯沦落人, 相逢何必曾相识。) As old Chinese saying goes, dream is perfect, but reality is cruel. As we get older, young dreams are the only evidence to prove that we were young. Most of us may changed by the cruel reality, which made dream chasers valuable throughout times. Thats the beauty of realism, which is easy for us to understand the writers thoughts, and making us lost in thoughts.
Song of a Pipa player is a lasting masterpiece, which exhibits an almost perfect unity of narrative technique and lyrical artistry in classical poetry. the words he used not only is easily understood, but also expressive as well. A good work always comes from life and brings us the enlightenment. Thats why his work is called masterpiece.
References:
[1]楊云惠.探究《琵琶行》音乐性反射的现实主义内涵[J].承德民族师专学报,2011,31(2):108-110.