Su Shi's "Poetry on the Qin" contains a strong philosophical rationality and is rich in Zen ideas. Buddhism regards existence as non-being, life as destruction, and pursues silence, intangibility, neither birth nor decrease.
The reality of music is nothingness, so it doesn’t matter whether the music is real or not. It should be based on "harmonizing silent music, taking self-satisfaction as harmony", "reflecting on listening to one's own nature, and one's nature becomes the supreme way", through the inner heart Feelings of self-satisfaction and enlightenment of Zen.
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Appreciation:
The poetic meaning is obvious. The harp and the fingers, that is, the harp and the twelve harps mentioned in the preface, complement each other. Dependence, one is indispensable, without the other, there will be no "sound of nature". It seems that this poem by Su Shi does not describe scenery, is not lyrical, and is not a chant of objects. Instead, it uses the piano to elaborate a philosophy. This philosophy is: the piano and the fingers are the objective and subjective conditions for playing beautiful music. The two are interdependent and the opposites are unified.
If you look closely, everything in the world relies on the unity of opposites to achieve fame and success: if there is a thousand-mile horse but no bole, it is difficult for a thousand-mile horse to stand out; if there is a talented person but no holy master, the talented person will also die young.
Reading Su Dongpo's "Qin Poems", we have a refreshing feeling, both in content and form. In terms of content, the poem uses things to express logic, and the words are close and the meaning is far.
In terms of form, the poem adopts the method of only asking but not answering, only refuting but not arguing, and the reply is free, giving people a fresh flavor. By the Song Dynasty, poetry had a great flavor of change, and Su Shi was a pioneering figure who advocated "change". The innovation shown in "Qin Shi" is undoubtedly a spring breeze in the poetry world of the Song Dynasty.