The source of this sentence is Liu Yuxi's Humble Room Inscription in the Tang Dynasty.
I found the original sentence for you, you can refer to it:
The mountain is not high, and the fairy is famous. The water is not deep, and the dragon is the spirit. I am a humble room, but I am virtuous. The moss on the stage is green, and the curtain grass is green. There is no Ding Bai who laughs and has a university. You can tune the pipa and read Jin Dian. There is no confusion, and there is no complicated form. Zhuge Lu in Nanyang and Ting Yun Pavilion in West Shu. Kong Ziyun: What's wrong?
This article is translated into vernacular as follows:
The mountain is not high, but the immortal will be famous. If the water is not deep, the dragon will have aura. This is a humble house, but I don't feel humble because of my good character. The moss is green and grows on the stage, and the grass is green, which is reflected in the curtain. People who come here to talk and laugh are knowledgeable people. People who come and go are knowledgeable and can play the unpretentious piano and read Buddhist scriptures. No orchestral music disturbs the ears, and no official documents make the body tired. There is Zhuge Liang Caotang in Nanyang and Yangzi Yunting in West Shu. Confucius said: What's so simple about this?
Here are some words that I think are more important. Let me explain to you separately:
A humble room: a humble room. Inscription: ancient words carved on objects to warn themselves or state their achievements, called "inscriptions", later became a style. This style generally uses compound sentence, which is neat and catchy.
Be: Yes, the verb.
Name: Names and nouns are used as verbs.
Líng: magical, supernatural.
This is a humble room. Demonstrative pronoun, this, this. Yes: affirmative judgment verb. Humble room: Humble room refers to the author's own room.
Wei Wu Dexin (xρn): Just because I have a high moral character, I don't feel humble. Only: only. Wu: I, this is the inscription. Xin: It means nobility to spread the fragrance far away. Shang Chen Shujun: "Millet is not fragrant, but virtue is fragrant." .
The moss marks on the steps are green, and the grass color enters the curtain: the moss marks spread to the steps, making the steps green; The color of grass is reflected on the bamboo curtain, which makes the room look blue. On: grow to; Enter: reflect.
Hongru: A great scholar means a learned person. Hong: As big as Hong. Confucianism used to refer to scholars.
Ding Bai: Civilians. This refers to people with little knowledge.
Play a simple piano. Tone: violin, here refers to playing (piano). Simple piano: A simple piano.
Jin Jing: There is still controversy in academic circles today. Some scholars think it refers to the Buddhist sutra (Diamond Sutra), while others think it is a beautifully bound classic (Four Books and Five Classics). However, the Chinese books of Jiangsu Education Publishing House refer to Buddhist scriptures (Diamond Sutra), while the investigation in Anhui is the latter. Kim: Baby. Gold is precious, which means precious. All the classics of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism can be said to be golden classics.
Sishu: Harp, flute and other musical instruments. Silk fingered stringed instruments, bamboo fingered wind instruments. This refers to the sound of playing music.
One: Use structural auxiliary words between subject and predicate to cancel sentence independence.
Ear disorder: disturbing both ears. Confusion: The causative use of adjectives makes ... confused and disturbed.
Case (dú): official document or document.
Fatigue: To make the body tired (verb usage). Old: the use of adjectives is ... tired. Form: form, body.
Nanyang: Place name, now Nanyang City, Henan Province. Before coming out of the mountain, Zhuge Liang lived in seclusion in Wollongong, Nanyang.
Zhuge Liang, also known as Kong Ming, was the prime minister of Shu and Han Dynasties, a famous politician and strategist, and lived in seclusion in Wollongong, Nanyang before leaving office. Yang Xiong: Zi Ziyun, a writer in the Western Han Dynasty, was born in Chengdu, Shu County. Lu: A humble little house.
Confucius said that classical Chinese generally refers to clouds.
What's wrong with it? That is, "what's the matter" belongs to the prepositional object. Auxiliary words, strong rhetorical questions, signs of preposition objects, not translated.
There is a university question in Talking and Laughing: People who talk and laugh are learned. H: it's very big.
It may be difficult to understand the meaning only by reading the article, so it is better to understand it in combination with the creative background of the article at that time:
The inscription on the humble abode was written in Hezhou (824-826). Record of Liyang: "The humble room, in Zhangzhou, was built by Liu Yuxi, the secretariat of the Tang and Zhou Dynasties, and was inscribed by Liu Gongquan."
The author participated in Wang's "Yongzhen Innovation" and opposed the separatist forces of eunuchs and buffer regions. After the failure of innovation, he was demoted to Anhui and Zhou Xian as general. According to the regulations, Tongguan will live in three three-bedroom rooms in the county government. But when I saw the author demoted, I deliberately made things difficult for him. Hezhou county magistrate arranged for him to live in Chengnan River. Instead of complaining, the author is very happy. He also casually wrote two sentences and posted them on the door: "Face the river, look at the white sails, and compete with the state." The magistrate of a county was very angry when he learned that he ordered the staff in the office to move the author's residence from the south gate of the county to the north gate of the county, and the area was reduced from three to one and a half. The new house is by the Desheng River, with weeping willows nearby, and the environment is OK. The author still didn't care, but looked at the scenery and wrote two sentences on the door: "weeping willows are beside the Qinghe River, and people are in Liyang and their hearts are in Beijing."
The magistrate of a county saw that he was still carefree and indifferent, and sent someone to transfer him to the county center, giving him only a hut with only one bed, one table and one chair. In half a year, the magistrate of a county forced the author to move three times, each time the area was small, and finally it was just a room. The author then angrily wrote this "Humble Room Inscription" and had a stone tablet carved and stood in front of the door.
Having said that, let's appreciate and comment on this article together:
Inscription is a rhyming style carved on stones in ancient times, which is often used to praise and warn oneself. Understand the meaning of the inscription and then understand the meaning of the question. Through the description of the living room, the author tries to describe the ugliness of the humble room. The center of "I am a humble room, but I am virtuous and fragrant" is actually to praise moral quality in the name of humble room and express moral conduct and the interest of the owner.
The humble room inscription begins with mountains and rivers, which are not high and the water is not deep. As long as there is a dragon, you can become famous. Although the residence is simple, it is "fragrant" because of the owner's "virtue". That is to say, a simple room can of course be famous because of the existence of people with high moral quality, and its reputation will spread far and wide, and it will be engraved on a stone. Ordinary landscapes give birth to dragons, and humble rooms can of course spread incense through people with high moral quality. This hard technique is really wonderful, and it can also be described as the author's original creation. In particular, the fairy dragon is the crowning touch of the landscape, and the conception is wonderful. "I am a humble room, but I am virtuous and fragrant", from the landscape fairy dragon to the topic, the author directly turned to the topic, laying the foundation for the introduction. It also points out the reason why the humble room is not humble, which is the word "good faith"
From this point of view, the author wrote this essay after repeated thinking, which is definitely not a temporary inspiration. A quatrain can be an epiphany, but the seamless connection is the accumulation and repeated deliberation of usual skills. Four to seven sentences of sacrifice This article, carved in stone, has a strong tit-for-tat nature. Judging from the writing technique of the whole article, the whole article is done in one go by means of "comparison", not comparison. So what are the words "moss mark" and "smile" saying? The moss on the stone steps is (still) full of green, and the weeds on the wasteland are (still) green. What is the implication? I, Liu Yuxi, don't change my true colors anywhere. I associate with well-educated people, and there are no uneducated people. The author compares his independent personality to moss and weeds, which is a portrayal of integrity and an unyielding declaration.
If one to three sentences in this article are a kind of foreshadowing, then four to seven sentences enter a real confrontation. The author showed his dignity in poetic language, and at the same time mercilessly lashed the snobs.
The author of Zhuge Lu in Nanyang and Ziyun Pavilion in Xishu draws an analogy between Zhuge Liang's thatched cottage and the Xuanting in Yangzi Cloud in Xishu, which leads to his humble room, both of which are his own examples. I hope I can have noble moral conduct like them, embody my thought of taking the ancient as the sacred, and imply that the humble room is not humble. In fact, Liu Yuxi wrote another meaning, that is, Zhuge Liang was living in Wolong, waiting for the wise Lord of SHEN WOO to come out. What about Yang Xiong? But he is a scholar with fame and fortune and devoted himself to reading. Although he is a top official, his indifference to the ups and downs of official positions and money is a model for future generations. The author quotes the meaning of these two people, trying to express: don't be surprised by honor and disgrace, be prepared for danger in times of peace, and stick to moral integrity. I don't want to go with the flow, but I want to show my ambition when I meet a wise Lord. If I don't have a wise Lord, I would like to be plain. This combination with the ups and downs of the author's officialdom is more in line with the actual situation.
The last sentence quoted "Confucius: What's wrong?" Quote the words of the ancients, wrap up the whole article, and explain that the humble room is "not ugly" Expressed his pursuit of the highest moral quality of feudal ethics at that time. Perhaps Liu Yuxi's highest requirement for his moral quality is to use the ethical norms affirmed by saints and demand himself. This conclusion, no matter what the content means, combined with the meaning of the question, is ingenious. Because feudal ethics takes Confucian moral standards as the highest moral standards, the affirmation of Confucius saints also gives the best conclusion for his moral quality theory. The thesis should have arguments, and quoting Confucius' sacred words as arguments is undoubtedly the best argument at that time, which is sufficient and irrefutable.
Finally, I think it is necessary to introduce the author of this article:
Liu Yuxi (772 ~842) was born in Luoyang, Henan, and Xingyang, Zhengzhou, Henan. He claimed to be a descendant of Wang Jing in Hanzhong. Ministers, writers and philosophers in the Tang Dynasty were called "poets".
His family is a scholarly family handed down from generation to generation by Confucianism. Advocating political innovation is one of the core figures of the Wang school's political innovation activities. Later, Yongzhen failed in innovation and was demoted to Sima Langzhou (now Changde, Hunan). According to the textual research of Mr. Zhou, a historian and collector in Changde, Hunan Province, Liu Yuxi was demoted to Sima Langzhou, during which he wrote the famous "Han Shou Chun Wang".