On a pure morning, near the ancient temple, the early sunshine points to the treetops.

A secluded place with bamboo paths, branches and flowers, to a Buddhist retreat.

Here, birds live in the mountain light, and people's hearts feel quiet in the pond.

A thousand voices were quiet, but the bell rang.

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I entered this ancient temple in the morning, and the rising sun shone on the mountain forest.

The winding path leads to a secluded place, and the meditation room is hidden among lush flowers and trees.

Beautiful scenery in the mountains, birds singing more happily, the water in the pool is empty, and taking pictures of the beach makes people's thoughts disappear.

At this moment, everything was silent, except the sound of ringing the bell.

To annotate ...

Broken Mountain Temple: A temporary temple named Fushi, located on Yushan Mountain in the northwest of Changshu City, Jiangsu Province. It was built by Ni Deguang, the secretariat of Chenzhou.

Morning: Good morning.

Enter: Enter.

Ancient temple: refers to the broken mountain temple.

Day 1: Chaoyang.

Figure: Shining.

Gao Lin: A forest of tall trees.

Labyrinth: a "bamboo path" and a "path". Tong: Have a "chance encounter". Quiet: Quiet.

Zen room: a place where monks live and practice.

Yue: Here, it is used to create … happiness.

Pool shadow: the reflection in the clear pool water.

This is causative usage, making ... empty. The meaning of this sentence is that the water in the pool is empty and the beach is photographed, which makes people's thoughts disappear.

L: Various voices.

Lai, sound coming from the hole, generally refers to sound.

This: here, that is, in the Houchan Temple.

All: one is "all".

But Yu: Just stay. One is "only surplus" and the other is "only smell".

Zhongqing: refers to the sound of chimes. Qing, a curved percussion instrument made of jade or metal in ancient times.

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The title of this poem is "Buddhism and Zen retreat after the broken mountain temple", which is undoubtedly a poem with a title. The so-called poem on the wall is the poem written on the wall, which is also a major category of ancient poetry. The writing and publishing conditions of the ancients were relatively simple. Poets have a strong desire to express and communicate. What shall we do? As for poets, once they have great interest in poetry, they often write wherever they find it. For example, "The title is Chengnan Village" and "Today last year, in this door, people's faces and peach blossoms set each other off" that we talked about before were written by Cui Hu at the gate of someone else's grange. There are still many people who like to say that "the sea is wide and the fish jumps, and the sky is high and the birds fly." The earliest writing of this sentence is "the sea is wide and the fish jumps, and there are birds in the sky", which was written on bamboo leaves by a monk during the Dali period of the Tang Dynasty. Poets can write poems anywhere, but hotels and monasteries are the places where they write the most poems. Why? On the one hand, hotels can easily lead to the poet's sense of wandering, while monasteries can easily lead to the poet's sense of being born. Both places are very poetic. On the other hand, hotels and monasteries are public spaces where people come and go. Writing poems in this place will soon spread, similar to the effect of sending friends circle today, so more people write poems. There are more people who write poems, and many hotels and monasteries hang poetry boards, which are boards for poets to write poems. Chang Jian's Zen after the Broken Mountain Temple is such a poem written in a temple. The "Broken Mountain Temple" in the poem title, also known as Guangfu Temple, was built in the Southern Dynasties and is located on Yushan Mountain in the northwest of Changshu City, Jiangsu Province. By the time Chang Jian lived, it had a history of two or three hundred years, and it was a quite famous ancient temple. However, although Chang Jian's poems are about broken mountain temples, they are not quite the same as those about temples in general. What's the difference? He is not a broken mountain temple, but a Buddhist retreat behind the broken mountain temple, where the monks of the broken mountain temple stay to practice. What does this mean? Just like when you visit Peking University, you don't write about the library, the teaching building, the Boya Tower, the unnamed lake, but only the student dormitory. Or go to the Beijing Hotel and go straight to the kitchen without entering the lobby. This kind of attention is unusual. How to write such an unusual concern?

This couplet is particularly interesting. What's the fun? It's not just the antithesis of two poems, "early morning" versus "early morning", "ancient temple" versus "Gao Lin" and "entering" versus "taking photos". What is more important? In a word, two nouns also correspond to each other. Do you think the first sentence "in the pure morning, near the old temple" corresponds to the old temple in the early morning? Of course it is. "Morning" is fresh, and "ancient temple" is ancient. This is the contrast between the old and the new. The second sentence "the morning light points to the treetops", or the noun corresponds. The first day is the rising sun. It just climbed to the top of the mountain. It looks low. What about "Gao Lin"? "Gaolin" is a tall forest, which seems to be higher than the sun. This is the contrast between high and low. The problem is that we also know that morning is a concept of time, and how many mornings have appeared repeatedly since ancient times. Therefore, the freshest morning is always older than a temple. Similarly, no matter how low the sun is, it is higher than the tallest tree. So this contrast itself is unreasonable, but although it is unreasonable, we can all understand it, as if we saw the scene at that time. Early in the morning, the poet entered the ancient Broken Mountain Temple. The sun rises, and the golden red sun shines on the temples and the mountains around them. The whole mountain temple is fresh and bright. "In the pure morning, near the old temple, the early sunshine there lit the treetops", two sentences not only reflected the poet's happy mood, but also implicitly praised the ancient, solemn and brilliant Broken Mountain Temple, which was natural and quite beautiful. This is the first couplet.

Passing through the main hall, I saw a bamboo forest and a path winding to the depths of the bamboo forest. Then go straight along this road. Suddenly, when a corner turned, a row of meditation rooms appeared in front of the poet. Surrounded by lush flowers and trees, this meditation room is full of vitality. This poem has always been well written. What's so good about it? Look at the bamboo forest vertically, the meditation room horizontally, and the bamboo path is secluded. How mysterious and dark it is! When I arrived at the place where the flowers and trees spread in the meditation room, I was suddenly enlightened, bright and fragrant. What is this talking about? This is not only about the path and meditation room, but also about the twists and turns of the road to learning Buddhism and the light after learning Buddhism! The two poems look natural and even not contradictory at all. However, if you taste them carefully, you will find them beautiful. Ouyang Xiu, a great writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, likes these two sentences best. He tried to copy it every time, but he couldn't write it. Why? He also knows that "it is difficult to know people and be good"! The best thing about such a poem is that it is natural and effortless. Once you deliberately do it, you have to imitate it, but you can't write well. Of course, there is another way to write it, which is called "My road has been curved, through a sheltered hollow, branches and flowers, to a Buddhist retreat", which is also good, but it is different from Zhu Jing. "Bamboo trails lead to secluded places", focusing on bamboo forests, which are relatively secluded. And "winding path leading to a secluded place", the key point is to write winding path leading to a secluded place, which is more tortuous. In fact, no matter which word is used, it is euphemistic and deep, so that the monk's room will not be exposed to tourists at once. This image itself is very good, in line with the concept of China people advocating implicature. So later this poem simply evolved into an idiom called "a winding path leads to a secluded place". The first couplet is about the ancient temple, the couplet is about the meditation room, and the necklace is actually about going further and seeing deeper.

This couplet has always been regarded as an epigram. So what's so good about it? First of all, of course, the antithesis is neat and quiet. The so-called "birds live here with the light of the mountains, and people's hearts touch a pool of peace", naturally, the light of the mountains makes birds happy and the shadow of the pool makes people empty. But if you put a verb between two nouns, the rhythm of the sentence will come out at once, and it will jump. The mountain is full of magical colors, even the birds are moved and give a cry of joy; The pool shadow is clear, which makes people's distractions disappear completely, as if there is nothing. Is this artistic conception very light and beautiful? The question is, why can mountain light make birds happy and pool shadow make people empty? Because birds and people are actually sensitive Buddhists! When birds feel the interest of Shan Ye, they will naturally echo Shan Ye and sing tactfully; Similarly, people will naturally have an illusory feeling when they see the clear water bottom and the reflection of the mountain light figure. Since life is illusory, what can't be eliminated? So natural, you will feel empty inside. Everyone must pay attention to this emptiness, which is not disillusionment, but transparency. Therefore, it reveals a sense of joy and freedom that is awakened, which is not integrated with the joy of birds in Mountain Light. In this way, you will feel that bird nature, human nature and Buddha nature are in harmony. Once we realize this, we can truly feel that this couplet is not only neat and beautiful, but also meaningful. The epigram came out, how to end it next?

In fact, this is a direct use of the last sentence. Since the human heart has entered the ethereal realm, it will naturally feel that all the sounds of nature and the world are silent, leaving only melodious bells, as if guiding people into a pure and pleasant paradise. In the last issue, I said that Wang Wei's "leaning alone on dense bamboo, I play the piano and hum songs" is based on sound and silence; "There seems to be no one on the empty mountain, but I think I hear a voice" is still a silent voice; Here, "and a thousand voices are quiet, but the bell rings" is still a silent voice as a contrast. In the morning, the bells are melodious, which makes the temple more quiet and comfortable. This is not only the appeal of nature, but also the appeal of Buddhism and the appeal of the broken mountain temple! Here, it is not only a description of the natural situation, but also a praise for the broken mountain temple. However, this kind of praise is intangible and ethereal, so when this sentence comes out, another idiom is born. What idiom? All is silent. A poem created two idioms. It is conceivable how concise and meaningful this poem is!

After reading the complete poem, a school of Zen floated to me, which made people feel quiet and suddenly gave birth to the feeling of dust. This is the greatness of Chang Jian's Zen after Broken Mountain Temple. In fact, Chang Jian was not an important poet in the Tang Dynasty. He lived in Kaiyuan and Tianbao, but he was not keen on fame and fortune. He spent most of his life traveling. The style of writing poetry is a little close to that of Wang Wei and Meng Haoran, but on the same subject, Wang Wei is more brilliant, Meng Haoran is lighter and Chang Jian is more elegant. Only in this way can we see that the sky in Datang is really starry, and even small stars can shine.