Where did the theme of sad autumn originate?

Sad Autumn Theme and Literati Mentality

Liu Ning is a professor at the College of Literature, Beijing Normal University.

China traditional literati who grew up in the same cultural background unconsciously inherited some philosophical ideals and aesthetic tastes. If we look at the historical field from today in the 20th century, people will feel that thousands of years of history in China is shrouded in a persistent and tenacious cultural temperament. Although on this stage, there was an active contention of a hundred schools of thought in the Warring States, a free and easy transition in Wei and Jin Dynasties, a prosperous Tang and Song Dynasties, and a cramped decline in Ming and Qing Dynasties, the change in the ethos of the times did not seem to change the spiritual pursuits handed down from generation to generation by some ancient people, nor did it change the contradictory mentality accompanying such spiritual pursuits. On the contrary, these spiritual pursuits have been enriched and developed in inheritance.

Some traditional themes in classical literature can reflect this spiritual inheritance. Wounded Spring and Autumn is the most abundant emotion in classical literature, and scholars seem to prefer this emotion. In Song Yu's Nine Arguments, "Autumn sorrow is the spirit, and the grass is bleak and decaying", which makes this sentimental mood bring the literati's unique anxiety and loss as soon as it enters the poem, and it also shows amazing precocity in art. Strangely, this artistic precocity does not seem to have any creative pressure on later literati. They took pains to copy calligraphy, risking copying, and wrote Song Yu-style sadness over and over again. This phenomenon reflects the same mentality of ancient intellectuals in China.

"Heaven and man divide the four seasons equally, and I am sad this autumn" ("Nine Debates"). Autumn in nature is a season of blooming flowers and colorful flowers. In literature, bleak autumn can be regarded as a metaphorical image. It symbolizes the disappearance of prosperity and a more cruel future, which is in natural agreement with the general and profound lost mentality of ancient intellectuals in China. In the poems describing autumn, we see all kinds of sadness. Song Yu's Nine Arguments shows this complex emotion. The complex feelings described in this paper, such as friends leaving, hard life and early death in their prime, seem to be difficult to be summarized by simple "poor people dereliction of duty and frustration" Behind the chaotic sadness is the uncertain sadness that the prosperity is drifting away. This "prosperity" does not need a hard explanation. It is a summary of all kinds of ideals and prosperity on the journey of life. It can be a smooth career, a display of life ambition, or all the warmth and affection in the world. All this is bound to pass away, just as the blooming spring is bound to be replaced by the cold autumn. Therefore, Wounded Autumn reflects the general and profound lost mentality of traditional intellectuals in China.

The sense of loss is a generalized state of mind. In different times, different people have different factors to cause this sense of loss. At the end of the Han Dynasty, the literati lamented the passage of time in the bleak mood of "the wind is blowing and the grass is green in autumn". Du Fu, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, spent his twilight years in the Laka tree in this courtyard. I heard the lonely notes of the horn ringing in the dark, and the moon was in the middle of the sky, but no one shared with me "Autumn night, I feel deeply guilty" Gan Kun is in danger, when will it end? " And "I don't sleep and worry about fighting, but I can't." "Su Dongpo, who is full of philosophy, feels inescapable loneliness under the red cliff in autumn night and in the empty silence of' the mountains are high and the moon is small, and the water comes out'. How many heroes who have the ambition to cast pens, in this season when soldiers go to the battlefield, because there is no way to serve the country, they caress their swords thoughtfully. All these can be attributed to the profound contradiction between ideal and reality. After the Han Dynasty, any intellectual was more or less consciously or unconsciously influenced by Confucian culture. Although the color of Confucianism's entry into the WTO is extremely strong, as an academic system, it is still gentle and gentle under the cruel reflection of reality, even with a scholar-like naive philosophy. By advocating benevolence, people can gain a sense of historical mission from heaven, thus promoting the initiative and independence of individual personality; On the one hand, through the promotion of etiquette, strictly implement the hierarchical order from top to bottom. These two aspects are full of ideals, and even the Spring and Autumn society that produced this theory has never operated according to its description of society. Later generations will hang Confucianism on the sun and moon, but in reality, betrayal will inevitably occur. In ancient China, all their eager pursuit of life and belief in ideals were almost based on Confucian creed, so their philosophy of life was not always in line with reality and could not be fully realized. They tend to be happy for others and worry about others, so they are inevitably overwhelmed by each other's indifference. The loss of ideals has caused their doubts and sadness about many things, and this sadness will penetrate into many events and many details. Although the feeling of mourning for autumn is a bit constant and chaotic, it can always be traced back to the loss of the above ideals.

However, although generations of intellectuals always wander in the loss of their ideals, they never give up their ideals and bow to the vulgarity of reality. Their general and profound sense of loss is often intertwined with more tenacious self-confidence. Even though he is haggard, he still has the self-esteem of "being able to observe what he receives". This is another reason why ancient China literati preferred autumn.

These two sentences in Nine Arguments are often ignored: the sky is lonely and the water is lonely and clear. This lonely but clear artistic conception conforms to the aesthetic taste of luxury, true bone and first frost, and also conforms to the aesthetic ideal of simplicity, no carving, loud voice and plain color that China literati yearn for. This fragrant season just symbolizes the noble character of China literati who are so proud. Tao Yuanming is a model of this kind of personality beauty. Tao's poems have greatly developed a clear artistic conception: "the air is clear, the sky is high and the clouds are light", "the sky is high and the clouds are clear without dew" and "the night wind rises and the night scene is clear". Zhao Zhao has a vast sky, and Jingjing wears a flat ". This is by no means a sad lament, a deep sigh, a perfect unity of natural clarity and noble personality. Autumn seems to belong to the traditional intellectuals in China. This season represents their pain, their true personality ideal and moral pursuit, and their temperament. No matter how they describe spring, they never seem to belong to that colorful season. Although Su Shi's masterpiece Dingfengbo was written in early spring, it hung over the autumn of Ling Ran. Autumn, as a literary image, seems to be more suitable for conveying the natural purpose of Taoism and the empty talk of Zen. As a philosophical symbol, it entered the field of literary expression and became a specific spiritual carrier.

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