Double-winged

Author: Wang Meng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: "Recalling" and "At That Time," the author read this poem without much academic research. In my youth, my first encounter with "Jin Se" (The Brocade Zither) stirred me deeply. I found the poem so sorrowful, so graceful, and so elegant. Though I couldn’t fully understand it (such as not knowing the legend of the king of Chu transforming into a cuckoo, or realizing the literal meanings of words like "brocade zither," "jade mist," and "pearl tears"), I couldn’t call it "obscure" (a summary of Yin Fu’s poetic style by the Ming Dynasty poet critic Gao Zhen). Yet I could appreciate it and even recite it easily. Its imagery, emotion, and the exquisite beauty of its form and musicality all seemed to resonate with the ordinary heart of a modern, ordinary person, and they were fully acceptable. As I grew older, especially during my illness, I read some books and articles related to Yin Fu’s poetry and "Jin Se," only to realize how complex, profound, and multifaceted the poem truly is.
In the Song Dynasty, Liu Ban mentioned that "brocade zither" was the name of a maid in the household of Li Huo Chu. In the Song Dynasty, Huang Chao Ying, under the pseudonym of Su Shi, claimed the poem was about the sound of the zither—"suitable, resentful, clear, and harmonious." In the Qing Dynasty, scholars such as Zhu He Ling, Zhu Yi Zun, Feng Xian, He Zhao, Qian Liang Ze, and the modern scholar Liu Kai Yang believed it to be an elegy. He Zhao, Wang Shi Han, and modern scholars like Ye Chong Qi, Wu, Chen Yong Zheng, Dong Nai Bin, and the Classical Literature Teaching and Research Group of the Chinese Department at Anhui Normal University also considered it a reflection on the poet’s life experiences, with some emphasizing its political implications. Professor Wu explicitly classified the poem as a "political poem," distinguishing it from love poems like many of the "Untitled" works. Professor Ye Chong Qi believed the poem was "clearly a work of longing for home while traveling." Cheng Xiang Heng thought that Yin Fu himself titled the poem to open the collection, meaning it served as a preface to summarize and reflect on his life’s poetry. Professor Zhou Zhen Fu and Qian Zhong Shu also supported this view. In his Art and Literature Notes, Qian Zhong Shu further analyzed how the brocade zither is metaphorically compared to a "jade zither," with the first two lines stating "Though the scenery has passed, the verses remain," the next two lines discussing the method of writing poetry, the next two lines describing the style or realm of the poem, and the last two lines reflecting on past experiences with a sense of nostalgia, etc.
With my limited knowledge, I dare not repeat what has already been said without adding anything meaningful. Here, I simply wish to explore a question: What does it mean to understand a poem? What does it mean for a poem to be understood? What does it mean to understand a person? How can we distinguish between the right and wrong ways of interpreting a poem? How can we explain the admiration of ordinary people for this difficult-to-decipher poem? The saying "There is no definitive interpretation of poetry" highlights the difficulty of interpretation, but it doesn’t say that poetry is "undecipherable." Poetry still needs to be interpreted and can be interpreted. It is neither beneficial nor feasible to prohibit interpretation. So, what exactly does the interpretation of poetry we commonly speak of entail?