「正氣歌」詳釋

Copious Notes on 〈Zheng Qi Ge(正氣歌)〉

Some people say that a hero is born in times of trouble, that is, an age makes a hero. Some people say that a hero creates an age. Confucius said in his ‘The Analects of Confucius’ “When the year becomes cold, then we know how the pine and the cypress are the last to lose their leaves.” This means that a man cannot show his distinguished figure until he suffers from hard experience. Such a distinguished figure of a hero helps us overcome a sense of futility in our lives. We think about ourselves. The hero did overcome such severe trouble, but I……. Such a deliberation makes us reestablish the milestone of our lives. That is, it enlivens Qi(氣) in our lives. How can we enliven Qi in our daily lives? The answer is that we can enliven it rightly through honesty based on moral justice. Confucius said, “Man is born for uprightness. If a man lose his uprightness, and yet live, his escape from death is the effect of mere good fortune.” Mencius said in his ‘Hao Ran Zhi Qi’ chapter(浩然之氣章). “Being nourished by rectitude, and sustaining no injury, it (氣) fills up all between heaven and earth.” We can realize that Wen Tian Xiang(文天祥) lived for the sake of honesty and justice all his life through his achievements of lifetime and his literary works. The reason why he wrote his ‘Zheng Qi Ge(正氣歌)’ was to reveal uprighteousness of Chinese people in history and to tell what he thought in his heart in order to make it a pennanent textbook tor the Chinese pelple.