When the moon rises, the world is quiet. In the old days, there were many trees and lush grass. Many trees become forests, one by one, the moon is shining, and the shadows of the trees are like splashes of ink, and there are vividly changing contour curves from a distance. In the old days there was also a lot of water, pools, streams, lakes, and many places were shining. The moon is shining on the surface of the water, and there is a moon on each surface, and the moonlight in the old days is more. In the past, people called the moon “Yue Po” and “Yue Sister”, and people and the moon are in a secular relationship.
In the Chinese lyrical tradition, the moonlight is also the background color of the Chinese people’s soul, and the human soul is integrated with the heaven and the earth. Moonlight is a kind of reconciliation, but also a kind of soothing. This kind of background color is exactly what Lao Tzu called “light but not shining”, which gave rise to a misty and ethereal ink art.
Many years ago, I planned to write a biography of Li Qingzhao. I wrote a beginning, it started from a moonlit night, there is still a green bamboo in the moonlight, and the bamboo shadows whirling in the breeze. Later, he didn’t have enough enthusiasm, so he gave up. Li Qingzhao, there is a moon inlaid in this name.
The bright moon shone on the snow, cold and bright. The bright moon illuminates the desert, empty and vast. The moonlight can also be awe-inspiring, but this is not the main thing. Su Dongpo’s poem “I want to take the wind to return, and I am afraid of Qionglou Yuyu, the heights are too cold”, this should be a common cultural psychology of ours. Our spiritual realm pursues warmth, not high cold. The snow will soon melt and turn into the sound of dripping water in front of the eaves, while the desert is just a sentiment, a frontier fortress in the world, and the cold outside the fortress is just to set off the prosperity of the pass. The traditional Chinese aesthetic image is mainly “Chun Jiang Hua Yue Ye”. In the moonlight, there is the transmission of emotion and constant concern, “Thinking of the monarch is like a full moon, and the brightness is reduced every night.” Sunlight is love, moonlight is thought. Thinking is a kind of strong but not strong feeling. Only in this way can it be endless and long.
