Beyond the bamboo, three or two peach blossoms appear; the ducks are first to know the spring river's warmth.

This line comes from Su Shi's "Two Poems on Spring River Evening Scene by Hui Chong, No. 1," written as an inscription for Northern Song painter Hui Chong's painting "Spring River Evening Scene." Hui Chong was a renowned early Song dynasty painter specializing in Jiangnan (South of Yangtze) landscapes. This painting depicted early spring scenes in Jiangnan. After viewing the painting, Su Shi spontaneously composed poems, transforming static painted elements into dynamic poetic expression. "Beyond the bamboo, several peach blossoms appear" describes actual elements in the painting, while "the ducks are first to know the spring river's warmth" represents Su Shi's imaginative detail based on the visual image, demonstrating the poet's keen observation and rich imagination. This "unity of poetry and painting" became a classic paradigm in Chinese literati art, embodying the Song dynasty literati aesthetic pursuit of "poetry within painting, painting within poetry."

The exquisite subtlety of this line lies in capturing spring's essence through minute natural phenomena. The sparse "several branches" of peach blossoms suggest early spring - not the full bloom of mid-spring, but the delicate moment when spring first appears. The phrase "ducks are first to know" is particularly vivid, personifying ducks with acute sensitivity to natural changes, actually using duck behavior (entering water to play) to indirectly express rising water temperatures. Instead of directly stating "spring has arrived," the poet uses these two details - peach blossoms and duck activity - allowing readers to sense spring's approach themselves. This technique of "writing stillness through motion" and "writing seasons through natural phenomena" embodies the Chinese classical poetry aesthetic of "implicit richness," demonstrating the poet's profound observation of natural laws and masterful artistic expression.

According to "Su Shi's Collected Poems," in the first month of 1085, Su Shi was pardoned from Huangzhou exile, passing through Jinling and visiting Wang Anshi. During this time, at Qingliang Temple he encountered Hui Chong's painting "Spring River Evening Scene." Hui Chong had died years earlier, and this painting was among the temple's treasures. After viewing the painting, Su Shi was moved by its early Jiangnan spring atmosphere and spontaneously inscribed two poems on it. Legend holds that several ducks in the painting were rendered particularly vividly, inspiring Su Shi to associate ducks' sensitivity to water temperature changes, thus creating the inspired line "the ducks are first to know the spring river's warmth." Temple monks considered Su Shi's inscription invaluable, treasuring the painting like a precious gem. Later, the poems and painting circulated together as an eternal model of poetry-painting integration. Qing dynasty Wang Shizhen's "Miscellaneous Talks from Chibei" records that the painting still existed during Ming dynasty but was later lost, with only Su Shi's inscribed poems surviving to this day.

This line has profoundly influenced later generations, becoming an eternal masterpiece for describing early spring in Chinese poetic history. Southern Song poet Yang Wanli's "The small lotus just shows its sharp tip; already dragonflies perch atop" clearly shows influence from this observational approach. During Ming-Qing periods, "the ducks are first to know the spring river's warmth" was widely quoted, becoming a common literary allusion for literati in painting inscriptions and poetic recitations. In painting, this line inspired countless artists to create spring river duck-play paintings, forming an important subject in Chinese flower-and-bird painting. Qing dynasty Zheng Banqiao and modern Qi Baishi both created paintings on this theme. In modern education, this line appears in primary and secondary school Chinese textbooks, becoming a classic text for Chinese people to understand nature and poetic feeling. In contemporary ecological protection movements, this line is also used to emphasize harmonious human-nature relationships, demonstrating traditional culture's vitality in modern society.

To apply the wisdom of these lines to modern life: 1. Develop observation habits: spend a few minutes daily observing environmental changes like plant growth or weather variations; 2. Enhance perception skills: learn to distinguish subtle differences between seasons and times; 3. Build ecological awareness: strengthen environmental consciousness through observing various life activities in nature; 4. Apply to education: parents can take children on nature observation activities to develop scientific literacy; 5. Guide decision-making: learn the poet's method of grasping patterns from details to make more accurate judgments in work and life.