A brief description of the historical and cultural implications of sadness in autumn

In classical Chinese poetry, sadness and autumn are inseparable. Ancient poets often linked sadness and sorrow with the fall of grass and trees and the withering of all things in the fall, and conveyed the sadness of life and the sorrow of life with the gloomy imagery of autumn, which is known as the "sad autumn" works.

The term "sad autumn" began with Song Yu: "Sadness! Autumn is the gas is also, depression Ruoxi, grass and trees shaking down and become weak big chestnut Ruoxi, if in the far away, mountain climbing in the water to send will return ...... " (" Nine defense "). In the work, the poet will climb the mountain water send-off feelings, detained travel lonely lonely heart, the poor man disillusioned grief, as well as the time is in a hurry, life will be the end of the fear and other sadness of life through the leaves fall grass withered, mountains and rivers, lonely, geese fly south, crickets weeping sadly in the autumn imagery. Conveyed in a divine way, creating a "sad autumn" precedent. Ming Hu Yinglin called the "nine debate" as "the ancestor of all the ancient words of autumn, six generations. The Japanese scholar Ogao Jiaoichi also pointed out that "the concept of sadness in autumn actually began with the Jiuwang. And from the Nine Arguments onwards, the seasonal sense of sadness in autumn began to be frequently utilized. Since Song Yu, the "archetype" of autumn sorrow has been widely accepted and sung by poets throughout the ages. From Han Wudi's "Autumn Wind Remarks", lamenting the shortness of life, to Du Fu's "Misery in Autumn", writing about the sadness of old age and illness, and the difficulty of returning to one's homeland; from Cao Pi's "Autumn winds and cool weather, the grasses and trees are shaken and dewy," expressing the grievances of women who miss their husbands and wives, to Ma Zhiyuan's "Heavenly Jingsha. From Cao Pi's "Autumn Thoughts" to Ma Zhiyuan's "Tianjingsha. Autumn Thoughts", which expresses the pain of travelers and wanderers, there are countless works of sadness in autumn. Throughout the ages, poets have always characterized their own feelings of life's sorrows as the autumn imagery of "the grass and trees fall and decay", linking and ironing together two kinds of sadness and autumn that are different in nature and far apart in form, forming a poetic model that autumn must contain sadness and sadness must be expressed in autumn, which became a unique "sadness in autumn" in the history of ancient literature. The "sad autumn" landscape is unique in the history of ancient literature.

The answer to the question of "sadness in autumn" is that, as a climatic phenomenon, what makes autumn sad? How can the sadness of autumn touch the hearts of people and be sung through the ages? Interpretation of sadness, is to explore the reasons contained in the cultural poetics. Thus, to appreciate the ancient poets and even the nation's cultural spirit and sentimental feelings.

One, the shock of autumn: the passing of the life of the surprise

"Witnessing things to know the time change, Gu Zhi known as the change of the season" (Zhang Zai "Autumn") Ancient Chinese poets on the perception of life, accustomed to the change of seasons from the natural time to interpret the time, from the change of mountains and rivers, grasses and trees to the taste of life. Seasonal changes in nature and the rhythm of life has always caused their strong life touched; spring and autumn, blossom and leaf fall, swallow and bird resignation Xiang for sentimental Chinese poets are a kind of life hints, Xiao Zixian said, "if it is high up the eye pole, the water to send home, the wind moving spring, the moon is bright in the autumn night, the early geese and early warblers, blossom and leaf fall, there are Sai should be, and each can not be also! ". ③ However, in the nature of the sunrise and moonrise, spring and autumn in the change of seasons, the end of the year in the autumn season can best trigger the ancient poets of the time alarm, evoking the "geometry of life" feelings.

Since ancient times, the Chinese people have taken farming as their basic way of life. In this agricultural society, human life for thousands of years is mainly based on two main lines to unfold and complete: one is based on the need for survival, according to the natural seasons of the crops in the spring sowing, summer breeding, harvest in the fall, the winter storage of agricultural activities; the second is based on the need for reproduction, according to the rhythms of life from the birth, grow up, get married, aging, and death to complete the life. The two activities are closely linked, and both are carried out simultaneously according to the agricultural time. Therefore, Fei Zhengqing points out that in traditional Chinese agricultural society, "the life cycle of the members is closely intertwined with the seasonal cycle of intensive farming. Human life and death are harmonized with the melodies that run through the planting and harvesting of crops. ...... villages, families, and individuals carry out their activities according to the rhythms of the seasons and the harvesting of crops, and according to the rhythms of births, marriages, and deaths. ④ In the long process of farming life the ancients experienced that crops and plants change according to the seasons in time, showing spring birth, summer glory, autumn withering, winter residue and completing a life cycle. "Time, the period is also, the life and death of things, each should be the period and stop". ⑤ The life and death of human beings is also like natural life, according to the order of spring and autumn, there are vigorous youth, energetic middle age, there are also old and decrepit twilight and the end of life. Autumn is the twilight of the year, a season of coldness and depression. The Moon Order states that in autumn, "the cool wind arrives, the white dew descends, the cicadas chirp, heaven and earth begin to be clean. ...... Frost begins to fall, and the grasses and trees turn yellow and fall. (6) when the arrival of autumn, the life of all things by the summer of the prosperity of the decline, the green grass withered and turned yellow, the leaves fall; autumn winds at first, the weather turned cool, the autumn air is bitterly cold, frost began to fall, acupuncture people's muscles and bones; the arrival of autumn, Yan Xiang resigned to go back to the cicadas, the sound of mournful, the crickets sadly weeping, the original noisy world of life has become depressed; the autumn faye cloud convergence, the day is short and the night is long, the mountains withered and the water is thin, the color of the bleak, the world has become a chilly and vibrant. Ju Gyun said, "There is nothing more bleak and clear than autumn in all seasons. (7) In the face of this season, which shows the change of time, full of coldness, and the end of the life cycle of all things, people will naturally touch the scene of sadness, and push things to their own, thus associating themselves with the shortness of life, the end of life will be close to give birth to a "dead" of feelings.

Ancient people's sense of time and life in the fall was not only learned from the long-term experience of farming life, but also infiltrated the cultural concept of "heaven and man are not the same" formed on the basis of the experience of farming life. Han culture believes that man and nature have an intrinsic connection of life integration. All things in heaven and earth, natural living beings, including human beings are born from the gas polymerization: "birds get and gossamer, fish get and flow, the beasts get and go, all things get to be born, everything gets to be, people are all in order. (8) Zhuangzi also said: "the birth of man, the gas of the gathering also" (9) Conversely, natural living beings also due to gas scattered and dead "gathered for life, scattered for death". (10) Visible, gas is the basis of life, and gas and the yin and yang of the points, "rise is called Yang, down is called Yin". (11) Therefore, the vitality of life corresponds to the rise and fall of qi: qi rises, everything is born, life is strong; qi falls, everything declines, life is atrophied; qi disperses, everything dies, life is cut off; man is the son of the earth, is an organic part of the natural life of the life of the natural qi number of the changes in the natural life of the life of all things in synchronization with the rhythm of the life of all things. In this way, as a grasp of the "autumn", in the Chinese cultural tradition, the autumn season of the year, the natural qi from yang to yin, the rhythm of life from strong to weak, and therefore is the time of the withering of all things, the life of the decline of the "autumn, yin qi began to go down, so all the things to collect". (12) Human life is driven by the natural qi, so autumn is also the time when the rhythm of human life changes from strength to weakness, and the life cycle of human beings is coming to an end. The Chinese folk saying that "life is one life, grass and trees one autumn" compares the rhythm of human life to the change of grass and trees that flourish in spring and decline in autumn. In this way, the natural autumn contains the life of the autumn; leaves fall grass withered metaphor for the twilight of life.

This shows that, in the ancient cultural concepts formed in the agricultural life, "autumn" is not a purely objective phenomenon and agricultural season, but contains a rich sense of time, is given a heavy meaning of life and death of cultural archetypes and symbols of life, and become the end of time. It is a symbol of the end of time and the end of life. In this cultural psychology, autumn as a sentimental world with the tendency to go against life, the most sentimental ancient poets can be converged on the feelings of life, triggering their strong life touched, so that they touch the autumn sadness. Falling leaves hurt feelings. Ancient China has a long time ago, "the sadness of the fall, and know the materialization". (13). Ruan Yu lamented: "Linchuan is full of sad winds, and autumn is bitterly cool". In Miscellaneous Poems, Liu Zhen lamented: "Autumn is full of sadness, and I sigh with emotion". （Cen Sen (岑参) lamented: "Thousands of thoughts are gathered in the twilight season, and ten thousand rustles are sad in the Xiaochen" ("赠五官中郎将"). ("Walking on the Mountain in Twilight Autumn"). With the advent of autumn, the scenery changes from spring and summer lushness to withering, meaning that a life cycle is coming to an end. The change of color from flourishing to decaying is the easiest way to mark the end of life's journey, thus highlighting the transient nature of life, and giving rise to a sense of astonishment at the time of "life's geometry". The emotional logic of the autumn surprise, as analyzed by Japanese scholars, is that "when the poet sees the autumn scenery, he feels the speed of the end of the year, that is, he feels the passage of time. To feel the passage of time is to know the passage of human life; for human beings, this is a heavy sorrow. (14)

Ancient poets can be divided into two categories: one is the feeling of autumn and sadness. Song Yu felt that "the year is coming to an end, and I am afraid that I will not live long enough" in "The Grass Falls and Declines" (The Nine Arguments). ("Nine Arguments"). As the leaves fall and the grass withers, Shi Chong sighs, "Time passes and the year ends easily; I feel the end of the year and I feel depressed and counseled" ("Sighs of a Thoughtful Woman"). ("Sighs of a Thoughtful Woman"), while Chen Lin, in the midst of the "wilting of the green leaves of the trees and the red glory of the grass," realized that "the days and months are passing away, and my life is about to fall in the west" ("Excursions"). ("Excursions"). The other category is the feeling of autumn and sighing for the old. In "Li Sao", there is the phrase "But the grass and trees are falling, and I fear that the beauty will be late". Qu Yuan associates the cold autumn scenery with the beauty's twilight. Facing the yellow flowers and leaves in the fall, Qian Qi lamented, "Spring has gone and the heads of people are white, and the leaves of trees are yellow in the fall. He scratches his head at the yellow leaves, and is sad with his ****" ("Sad Autumn"). Su You lamented, "The falling trees are shocked by the wind, and I am inundated with the feeling of the years. The cloudy sky is even the purple stuff, and the tears are clear to the yellow flowers" ("The Ninth Day"). ("Nine Days"). Li He, on the other hand, was saddened by the "white autumn posture, and the leaves of the trees cry out in the wind and rain" ("Sad Walk"). ("Sadness") In short, "sadness for the fallen leaves in the strong fall, like the soft stripes in the fragrant spring". (15) became a common psychological situation and emotional response of ancient poets.