後來唐朝的詩人李白也寫過一首題目就叫作「梁甫吟」的詩。他開頭就說：「長嘯梁甫吟，何時見陽春。」「嘯」在古代與「吟」同稱，即「吟嘯」。中國古人吟詩很像念佛經，有一個固定的調子，好像唱歌一樣地，依調吟誦，也就是說吟誦都是有字的。可是有的時候你心裡有一種感情，不管是悲哀，是感慨，或是別的什麼感情，這時候你還沒有做出一首詩來，還沒有字，可是你卻情不自禁地發出一種聲音來表達你的情感，這就叫作「嘯」。不過古人常常把「吟、嘯」結合起來，不管你是有聲，還是有字，都可以稱吟嘯。李白說的「長嘯梁甫吟」，是說我大聲地吟嘯「梁甫吟」這首詩，在我念「梁甫吟」時我所想的是「何時見陽春」。

李白他自己覺得他很有才能，他說：「天生我才必有用。」他說像我這樣有才能的人，什麼時候才能遇到一個溫暖的季節，就是指一個好的機遇，被明君賢主所發現任用的機會？這些就都是「梁甫」二字，所包涵的意思。接下來，我們再看龔自珍所說陶淵明的詩：「莫信詩人竟平淡，二分『梁甫』一分『騷』」就自然會體會到陶淵明內心中的那一份「我所思兮在泰山，欲往從之梁甫艱」以及「長嘯梁甫吟，何時見陽春」等詩裡所深涵的悲慨與感歎了。要知道陶淵明在年輕的時候也是「游好在六經」的。他讀過孔子的書，也曾經希望有所作為。當他看到世界的敗壞與醜惡，也曾經憤慨不平：怎麼沒有一個機會，施展他的才能與抱負呢？這就是「二分梁甫」的意思。「騷」是指屈原的〈離騷〉。屈原是戰國時候的楚國人，與楚國王族同宗同姓。當時楚國的的楚王是楚懷王，那時的國家中有兩派在爭論，有的人說應該跟齊國結交；有的人說要跟秦國結交。秦國是有野心的，跟秦國結交，最後有可能被秦國滅亡。屈原主張跟齊國結盟，但是楚懷王不聽他的話，結果楚懷王被騙到秦國去了。最後果然就死在秦國，此後楚國就一步一步走向了滅亡的道路。屈原是楚國的宗室，他親眼看到自己的國家走向滅亡，而他那些出自肺腑的忠心勸告卻沒有一個人肯聽從接納，而且他還被後來的頃襄王給放逐出去了。他為此寫出了〈離騷〉來抒發內心悲憤憂鬱的感情。陶淵明雖與屈原的時代不同，但他眼睜睜地看著國家的政治一天天敗壞下去，他自己雖然欲有所作為，卻無從施展，因而內心之中也充滿了〈離騷〉中的悲憤感慨，所以龔自珍說他是「莫信詩人竟平淡，二分梁甫一分騷」。

因為要介紹陶淵明的生平，我就引了他的詩篇來說明。我本來是說陶淵明的詩篇中寫過「形」、「影」、「神」這幾首詩，他對人生曾經有過很仔細地反省與考慮。一般人不是追求名就是追求利，而陶淵明能夠超脫名利的韁索在精神上得到解放和自由。可是我們要知道，他這種精神上的自由和超脫，是經過一段矛盾、一段掙扎以後才得到的。今天我們先簡單地介紹到這裡，其他的內容留在下一次介紹。

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Later on, Li Bai, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem by the same name, "Song of Liangfu." It starts out:

Loudly I sing the Song of Liangfu.
When will I see the springtime sun?

In the old days, the word xiao [which means to make loud sounds—whistling, hollering, moaning, etc.], was used interchangeably with the word yin, meaning "to sing, to intone." In ancient times when people recited poetry, it sounded similar to Buddhist Sutras being chanted to a certain tune. They would recite the verses as if singing the lyrics of a song. Sometimes, when one is stirred by emotion, whether it is sadness or excitement or something else, before one has put one's feelings into words or composed a poem, one may not be able to help but voice a kind of sound to express one's emotions. That is what is meant by xiao—singing loudly.

In the old days people usually used yin and xiao as a compound, so that whether there was merely sound or also words, it could be called "singing loudly."

Li Bai said, "I loudly sing the lyrics of the Liangfu Song, and while doing so, I thought, 'When will I see the springtime sun?" Li Bai believed that he was a man of great capacity. He said:

Having given birth to a man of my talent,
Heaven must have a use for me.

His meaning was, "When will a person like me, who is endowed with such great abilities, encounter a 'warm season' that is, a good opportunity of being discovered and assigned duties by a wise king?"

Those are the meanings contained in the name 'Liangfu.' Next, let us look at what Gong Zizhen said about Tao Yuanming's poems:

Don't believe that poets are content with the simple life.
They are two parts Liangfu and one part Sao.

We now can comprehend the sorrow and lamentation buried deep within Tao Yuanming, as expressed in the lines: "The person I am thinking of is at Mount Tai. I want to follow her, but Mount Liangfu is dangerous," and "Loudly I sing the Liangfu Song. When will I see the springtime sun?"

We should know that when Tao Yuanming was young, he liked to study the Six Books of Chinese Classics. He had studied the books of Confucius and had hoped to apply what he learned to society. However, upon seeing the corruption and evil of the world, he felt resentful and frustrated: 'How come there is no chance for me to exercise my talents and realize my ideals?' That is the meaning of "two parts Liangfu."

'Sao' refers to Qu Yuan's work entitled "Li Sao." Qu Yuan lived in the State of Chu during the Warring States Period. He was from the same clan and had the same last name as the King of Chu, who at that time was King Huai. There were two parties debating whether the State of Chu should ally itself with the State of Qi or the State of Qin. The State of Qin was very ambitious, and a state that became her ally might very well be taken over by her in the end.

Qu Yuan advocated forming an alliance with the State of Qi, but King Huai did not listen to him. Instead, King Huai was tricked into going to the State of Qin and eventually died there. From that point on, the State of Chu approached its doom step by step. Qu Yuan was a member of the ruling family in Chu, and he was personally witnessing the gradual death of his own state. His earnest advice was totally ignored; no one listened to him. Furthermore, he was exiled by the next king, King Qin Xiang. Thus, he wrote "Li Sao" to express his anxiety, sorrow, and frustration.

Although Tao Yuanming lived in a different time period from Qu Yuan, upon witnessing the daily decline of his country's government and being helpless to do anything about it, his mind was full of the same sorrow and lamentation expressed in "Li Sao." Therefore Gong Zizhen described him, saying: "Don't believe that poets are content with the simple life. They bear two parts Liangfu and one part Sao."

To be continued

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