折腰

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In his recent e-mail with a title "不談政治，只談歷史", DJL, a classmate of mine from my NTUMC1968 class, referred to the subject "不為五斗米折腰 ".

He said that he would like to look the subject of this thread "不為五斗米折腰 " from a poet's perspective.

He wrote:

"What 陶淵明 said was '不為五斗米折腰 ', but now we are saying that we are all, more or less, doing 折腰 for making a living."

So, he further stated that "為五斗米折腰 ", instead  "不為五斗米折腰 ", makes sense because this is what we all do.


按,  "折腰" means "屈身事奉"

《晉書•陶潛傳》 :

"吾不能為五斗米折腰，拳拳事鄉里小人邪。"

or  "摧眉折腰事權貴"

《夢遊天姥吟留彆》李白 :

"安能摧眉折腰事權貴, 使我不得開心顏。"


"折腰" 乃彎腰行禮, and later it was also 引申作 "傾倒" 之意 .

《沁園春•雪》毛澤東 :

"江山如此多嬌, 引無數英雄競折腰。"


During a recent “routine” phone chatting with my another NTUMC1968 classmate "老古", I asked him how he was doing and when he planned to retire, he replied that he was still "為五斗米折腰".

A couple of years ago, I experienced a different kind of  "折腰". I accidently (basically carelessly) fell off the top of a 8 ft ladder and landed on my butt. I sustained a 腰椎壓破性骨折. In my case, I "為庭院剪枝竟折腰".

Now, since I have retired, I don’t need to "為五斗米折腰 ".  I have never "摧眉折腰事權貴", or even "江山多嬌競折腰"。

And more importantly, due to my own "折腰" experience, I no more climb any ladder over 4 feet, a recommendation given to me from my orthopedic surgeon, who knew me well that I would still climb the ladder.



Yeh Tze