Spring in the Hall Notes

Author: Yu Yue (Qing Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-02-01
Features: A comprehensive miscellany that includes academic research, literary and poetic records, as well as accounts of folk customs and political discussions. It consists of ten essays, drawing from everyday incidents, depicting immediate scenes, and expressing inner thoughts, covering everything without exception. It can be described as a "natural and unadorned presentation," filled with the vitality of life and the wisdom of human existence. In the excerpts, the asterisk () indicates the composition: (upper structure; grass radical; sun radical; table radical; grass radical). The Spring in the Hall Miscellany is a comprehensive miscellany that includes academic research, literary and poetic records, as well as accounts of folk customs and political discussions. When Yu Yue was taking the imperial examination for the jinshi degree, the essay question was "Faint smoke, sparse rain, a day of falling flowers." He responded with the poem "The flower falls, but spring remains," which was appreciated by the examiner Zeng Guofan at the time, leading to his admission into the Hanlin Academy. From then on, Yu Yue named his study "Spring in the Hall," and his works were also named after it. This book includes ten essays, drawing from everyday incidents, depicting immediate scenes, and expressing inner thoughts, covering everything without exception. It can be described as a "natural and unadorned presentation," filled with the vitality of life and the wisdom of human existence. For example, the author praises the Jiuxi River highly in the book, writing: "The beauty of West Lake lies not in the lake but in the mountains. Bai Juyi once said that the Cold Spring Pavilion is the best among the Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, but I believe that the Jiuxi River and the Eighteen Creeks are the most beautiful places in West Lake, even surpassing Cold Spring." Regarding the historically significant Yunqi Bamboo Path, there is the following account: "Monks said that in the past, everything was green, and the sky could not be seen above. Now it has become bare, so the bamboo of Yunqi has suffered from the axes of woodcutters, not just recently." The author also pays attention to recording the politics of the time, such as in Volume Nine, where he recounts encountering the Opium War in his youth and composing poems to praise the generals who defended Zhejiang Dinghai and died in British bombardments. Such perspectives were quite rare at the time. This book is part of the Traditional Culture Series, consisting of ten volumes, with content that is extremely broad, including academic research, literary and poetic records, as well as accounts of folk customs and political discussions.