Cui Hu

Cui Hu

Cui Hu (772-846), a poet of the Tang Dynasty, was born in Boling (now Dingzhou, Hebei Province) of the Tang Dynasty. Ad 796 (Zhenyuan 12 years) ascended (Jinshi and). In 829 ad (the third year of Taihe), he was Jing Zhaoyin. In the same year, he was the imperial historian and Guangnan Jiedushi. His poetry style is concise and graceful, and his language is very fresh. There are six poems in Quan Tang Shi, all of which are excellent works. Among them, the title of Nanzhuang, the capital, is the most popular. With such a seemingly simple life experience as "peach blossom on human face, right and wrong on human beings", the poem reveals the common life experience that millions of people seem to have, and wins the immortal poem name for the poet.

The so-called "one poem determines the name of a poem", and Cui Hu also made his poem famous in history.

Character story

The peach blossom relationship between Jiang Niang and Cui Hu

Last year and today, in this gate, people's faces and peach blossoms were red;

Where are you going? Peach blossom still smile spring breeze.

This poem about Nanzhuang, the capital city, written by Cui Hu is very popular and still can be recited by many people. However, those who know the poem do not know that there is a moving love story hidden in the poem. The story is full of pure feelings of gifted scholars and beautiful ladies, and the plot is tortuous and magical, which is called "peach blossom fate". Cui Hu was a scholar in Boling county (now Anping County, Hebei Province) during the reign of emperor Dezong Zhen of Tang Dynasty. He was born in a scholarly family. He was pure in talent, handsome in talent and proud in temperament. He was usually buried in the cold and seldom interacted with others. Even if he occasionally went on a leisure trip, he liked to be alone. During the Qingming Festival of this year, Cui Hu went to Chang'an to take the exam. After that, he went to the southern suburbs of the capital. Along the way, willow flowers fly, warblers chirp, warm sun and wind, auspicious atmosphere is pleasant. After studying hard, he suddenly felt fresh. All the way, endless red flowers and green grass, spring mountain and spring water, he wantonly enjoyed the gift of nature to human beings, unaware of the distance of the road. Before he knew it, he was far away from the city. Suddenly, he felt a little sore and thirsty. He was thinking about finding a rural family to have a rest and ask for some water, so that he could go back to the city before sunset. It was a remote place, and the farmhouse was very scattered. He looked around and saw that not far away from the mountain, there was a corner hut hidden by peach blossoms, so he quickened his pace and walked towards the mountain. Near the foot of the mountain, the thatched cottage that can be seen in the distance is completely covered by peach trees, and there is only a beautiful peach forest in front of us: peach blossom is burning, full of branches, breeze blows, fragrance around people, which makes people suspect that we have strayed into the peach garden. Walking along the winding path between peach trees, there is a small courtyard surrounded by bamboo fence in a small space. The courtyard is simple and elegant. In the courtyard, there are three thatched cottages, all made of bamboo and thatch, simple but neat. Cui Hu thought to himself, "where is the master? He lives in seclusion in such a unique place."

A five character quatrain of "Yongmei" is written on the ink stained poem;

Plain bright snow, fragrance Ren Xiaofeng.

Poor Hun like me, scattered in this mountain.

The poem must have been written by the master here. It seems that he is lamenting his rough life experience, desolate and helpless mood with plum blossom. What kind of people live in seclusion? What kind of mood and experience derived such helpless words? A series of question marks floated in Cui Hu's mind, which made him interested in the cottage surrounded by peach blossom and the owner of the cottage, and he wanted to find out. At this time, the girl came out of the kitchen with a tea tray. She walked to Cui Hu gracefully, and saw that the opposite founder was gazing at the couplet on the wall. She seemed to be tasting it. With a knowing smile, she called out gently: "my husband, please have tea." Cui Hu turned his mind from thinking, and saw that the girl was coming to him. Her pink face was full of autumn waves, and her plain clothes set off the girl's innocence and intelligence, just like a peach blossom in the spring breeze, showing people the charm of life. For a moment, Cui Hu was stunned. The girl seemed to be aware of his intention, and immediately dropped her eyes. Her coquettishness made her more attractive. Cui Hu could not help but tremble and almost could not help herself. But after all, Cui Hu is a scholar who is full of poems and books, and is sympathetic and polite. He tries his best to keep his mood in order not to lose his manners in front of the girl. He took the teacup politely, took a sip of the tea, calmly declared his family name and hometown, and then politely inquired about the girl's family name and family. The girl seemed unwilling to mention more of these, but said faintly: "the little character Jiang Niang lives here with her father." Without mentioning the surname and family background, it seems that there is something hard to say. Naturally, Cui Hu is inconvenient to ask more.

However, the couplets on the wall, the poems on the table and the characters in front of us all strongly suggest that the owner of the cottage must have an extraordinary origin. There was a fog in Cui Hu's mind, but since people didn't want to talk more, he had to put it aside. They were silent in the room for a while. Cui Hu turned the topic to the scenery. He praised the beautiful scenery here as a fairyland, which is a rare place for spring outing. The girl just listened to him talking, smiling and nodding as if she agreed, but she didn't speak. When it comes to spring, Cui Hu's poetry is very strong. He also commented on the famous poems about spring outing in ancient and modern times. Finally, he said, "when the flowers bloom, you must pick them. Don't wait for the flowers to break.". With that, he looked at Jiang Niang meaningfully, waiting for her reaction. Of course, the intelligent Jiang Niang knew what he meant. In the spring season, facing such a young man who was in full bloom, dignified and talented, how could she not make her heart full of spring? But how dare the girl who knows the book and etiquette open her heart in front of a strange man? She sits there in shame. Two pieces of rosy clouds dye her cheeks. Occasionally, she looks at Cui Hu with affectionate eyes. As soon as she meets Cui Hu, her eyes quickly retract. He looked at his toes more shyly, showing a charming appearance. Faced with the girl's helplessness, Cui Hu didn't know what to do. He couldn't make a more enthusiastic and frivolous move after reading the books of sages. Cui Hu, who seldom touches girls, naturally doesn't understand the girl's mind. Seeing that the girl has been silent for a long time, he thinks he has offended her. So secretly alert to their own, unknowingly there will be some convergence in the language.

At that time, attention was paid to the "incompatibility between men and women". It was an exceptional move for a pair of unmarried men and women to be able to serve tea and water and be alone in a room. It's fair to say in the countryside, but it's treacherous in the city. The two young and warm hearts are surging in the warm sun on a spring afternoon, and they are deeply attracted by each other. However, the two young people, who are deeply educated in etiquette, do not commit any further deviant behaviors. Seeing that the sun had turned to the west side of the mountain, Cui Hu had to get up and express his sincere thanks to the girl. The girl sent him to the discharge door, leaned on the Chai leaf and silently watched Cui Hu walk away. Cui Hu also looked back from time to time, only to see a girl like peach blossom waving in the spring breeze, reflecting the gorgeous peach blossom in front of the door, sighing in his heart: what a wonderful picture of spring! But in the girl's eyes, he couldn't see clearly. In spring, a chance encounter aroused ripples of love in Cui Hu's and Jiang Niang's hearts. However, the love between men and women, for men, is some embellishment in life, but for women, it is the whole of life.

Since Cui Hu left, Jiang Niang has been thinking about him all the time. The shadow of the elegant young man lingers in her mind day and night, which makes her think about it all the time. But she can't mention it to anyone. When Cui Hu came back home, he immediately buried himself in the heavy homework, studying hard day and night, and his mind was no longer cared by him. Xunchun's encounter with Jiang Niang could only be put on the back of his mind for a while, so as not to stir it up again, so as not to neglect his studies.

Time is flowing. In the next spring, it's a sunny day with warm spring and blooming flowers. Cui Hu looks at the peach blossoms in the city and can't help feeling the scenery. He recalls the old events in the south of the city last spring. The flame of emotion rises in his heart. In the irrepressible impulse, Cui Hu holds an excited and eager mood and goes all the way to the outside of the city to find the old dream of the past. Along the way, the flowers were blooming as before, and the auspicious atmosphere was still pleasant, but these scenery could not arouse Cui Hu's interest. In his heart, there was only Yi Ren in the bright peach blossom. After searching, he finally found the cottage, but everything remained the same, as if the spring affair happened yesterday. Approaching the courtyard, there was silence. He exclaimed across the bamboo fence, "Xiao Sheng is passing by in spring. He wants to ask for some water to drink!" He repeated the language of the previous year, looking forward to the scene of last year. For a long time, the girl did not come out to open the door. He called several times: "Jiang Niang! Jiang Niang There was no response except a slight echo. A closer look reveals that the owner is no longer here. All of a sudden, Cui Hu felt like a ladle of cold water, hot heart cool most. He opened the gate of firewood and sat in the courtyard under the peach tree. The colorful petals fell from his skirt, but the girl still did not come back. It's time for the setting sun to set in the west again. He took out his pen and ink from the window lattice and wrote a poem on the door. This is the poem "capital Nanzhuang" mentioned at the beginning.

After that, he still felt that his meaning was not enough. He pondered twice and wanted to change the third sentence to "where are we going now?" Then I thought that it was not appropriate to use two "Jin" words in a seven character quatrain, so I still followed the original sentence. When we look at the two mentions of the word "peach blossom" in the poem, we can see that it is not repetitive. On the contrary, it highlights the theme and exaggerates the atmosphere.

Cui Hucheng visited the old town in the south, but he didn't see Jiang Niang. After he went home, he couldn't put her down. He kept asking in his mind: where has Yi Ren gone? ——Grave sweeping?

Chinese PinYin : Cui Hu