The image of the moon in Tang poems
Contemporary Chen Zhi'e once pointed out in "The Theory of Poetry Imagery" that "the artistic quality of a poem depends on the degree of language imagery." As one of the most important components of poetic art, imagery is undoubtedly crucial to poetry, and the language image as the material shell of imagery is also undoubtedly crucial. The famous French writer Hugo once pointed out that "poets should choose "characteristic" things", and only "characteristic" things can give readers a deep and distinct impression, and quickly and truly arouse readers' imagination and associations. As a visual and sensory natural scene with connotations, the moon can enrich and deepen a specific idea for the shaping of the image, thereby interpreting and realizing the deep connotation of the "implication". Precisely because the moon has such a distinctive and rich language image, the moon plays a very prominent role in Chinese history, culture, literature and art. There is a legend of "Chang'e flying to the moon" in the pre-Qin Dynasty. An old friend of the pre-Qin Dynasty once expressed the sigh of "the moon rises brightly, the moon rises brightly, the moon rises brightly, the moonrise shines" respectively, "the hard work is quiet, the hard work is coquettish, and the hard work is miserable". The story of "The Monk Knocks on the Moon's Door" has become a favorite story through the ages. "How Bright is the Bright Moon" uses the "bright moon" to describe generations of poets and talents who resent their husbands and miss their wives. And "hesitating under the moon", "appreciating the moon", "looking at the moon and meditating", "stroking the moon and dreaming"... These words and idioms derived from ancient books and classics all convey the indescribable life sentiments of the ancient Chinese. . There are all great songs that inspire the love and longing of the ancients. "Three to five bright moonlight nights, four to five toads and rabbits are missing" ("The Cold Air Arrival in Mengdong"). The image of the moon is the fleeting time of life, the mist of beauty, the interpretation of the joys and sorrows of life, and the refuge and bathing of love.
Month reached a new peak of development in the Tang Dynasty, according to statistics from scholars. Li Bai wrote 1,059 poems, 341 of which mentioned the moon. In other words, every three poems Li Bai wrote, his brushwork would incorporate the image of the moon. Li Bai loved the moon most, and Li Bai died trying to catch the moon in the water. "Li Bai wore a palace brocade robe and swam in the Caishi River. He was proud and complacent, as if there was no one around him. He got drunk and fell into the water to catch the moon and died." (Tang Dynasty Wang Dingbao's "Tao Yan"). Although later generations have verified that this theory is not credible, Li Bai is a great man. There is no doubt that the moonlight poet is immortal. The moon is cleaner and the moon is darker. There are times in life, but the moonlight is endless. Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Changling, Li Shangyin, Meng Haoran... often have a scroll in their hands, dining in the wind and drinking in the moonlight, in front of the window under the moonlight, carefully sifting through it, sometimes wondering about it, sometimes sending it, sometimes cherishing it, sometimes thinking about it, or remembering it. Therefore, bathing in the moonlight, absorbing the moonlight in the sky, the purpose will be far-reaching, the turbid energy in the chest can be expressed, the sorrow of heaven and earth can be released, the natural beauty can be achieved, and the spirit of all things can be obtained. As a result, the moon and the poet formed a story that lasted for thousands of years and a landscape that lasted forever. It also created the world-famous reputation of Tang poetry. In the Tang Dynasty, the prominent status of poetry was inseparable from the stimulation, promotion and support of the moon.
First of all, the moon gave birth to and generated Tang poetry to a certain extent. A large number of titles of Tang poems are bathed in the filtering and infiltration of moonlight, such as "Entering the Chaoluo Di and Stepping on the Moon", "Farewell at Night in the Jiangting", "Guanshan Moon", "Looking at the Moon and Huaiyuan", and "Walking on the Ancient Moon" , "Worship the new moon", "Pour wine to ask the moon", "Drink alone under the moon", "Moonlight Night", "Moonlight Night Remembering Brother-in-Law", "Moon on the River Tower", "Frost Moon", "Thoughts on a Quiet Night", "Feeling Old in the River Tower" ", "Mooring at Maple Bridge at Night", "Moonlit Night on Spring River", "Moonlit Night in Spring Mountain", "Watching the Moon on the Fifteenth Night", "Moon Song of Mount Emei", "Night of the Fifteenth Day of the First Month", "Shenglu Pavilion at Night", "Chang'e" 》...It’s hard to count them all. It can be said that it is the moon that gives Tang poetry rich meanings, gives poets wonderful inspiration, creates the artistic themes and artistic life of Tang poetry, and provides Tang poetry with a broad artistic space and cosmic awareness. Without the influence of the moon image, there would be no above-mentioned poem title, and the poets would lose their artistic inspiration and aesthetic space for artistic creation. The poetry world would lose the most beautiful fairy flowers and a large number of immortal poems. Such as Zhang Ruoxu's "Moonlight Night on the Spring River", Li Bai's "Quiet Night Thoughts", "Wine to Ask the Moon", Zhang Ji's "Night Mooring on the Maple Bridge", Zhao Xia's "A Feeling of the Old River", Du Fu's "Moon Night" and other famous works in the history of Chinese literature. There was no chance of it happening.
Secondly, from the content of the poem, the moon becomes an indispensable content in Tang poetry. In the process of pursuing the artistic conception of Tang poetry, Yue realized the deep connotation of "implication between words". The moon plays a broad and diverse role in the structure of the artistic conception of Tang poetry. The main images of the moon in Tang poems include the following:
1. The image of the moon as a frontier fortress. Danner said, "What nature provides is more beautiful than what is created by man" ("Philosophy of Art"). The unique and beautiful environment formed by the moon in literary works is unmatched by artificially created environments. Marx pointed out that "how the object becomes his object for him depends on the nature of the object and the nature of the essential force corresponding to it." For it is the determination of this relationship that forms a special and realistic affirmation. "The uniqueness of every essential force" is precisely "the unique nature of this essential force and therefore the unique way of its objectification" ("The Complete Works of Marx and Engels"). There is an inherent restriction between "border fortress", "border", "bright moon" and "pass", forming an indivisible organism. Therefore, the creation of frontier fortress poems is often inseparable from the shaping of "border fortress" and "pass". "Yuefu Poetry Anthology·Hengchui Quci" contains "Guanshan Yue" and "An Explanation of Ancient Yuefu Inscriptions" say: ""Guanshan Yue" is also sad about separation." No matter whether a man misses his family or his wife is far away, the moon As a kind of sustenance is a common technique used by poets.
As early as before the Tang Dynasty, ancient poets wrote: "Guanshan is in March and May, and guests recall Qinchuan" (Xu Ling's "Guanshan Moon"), "Guanshan is full of moonlight at night, and the autumn colors illuminate the lonely city" (Wang Bao's "Guanshan Moon") With the lingering thoughts of "the mountain is insurmountable for thousands of miles, who can sit facing the beautiful moon" (Lu Sidao's "Army"), Tang poetry is not far behind. In Tang poems, there are sobs and narrations such as "The bright moon in Longtou is approaching the pass, and travelers on Longshang are playing flutes at night" (Wang Wei's "Yin of Longtou"). "Part 2"), there is the misery and loneliness of "The poor moon in the boudoir, growing up in the Han family camp" (Shen Quanqi's "Three Miscellaneous Poems·Part 3"), the deepness of the sadness, and the deepness of "The sand in front of Hui Le Feng is like snow, accepting surrender" The moon outside the city is like frost" (Li Yi's "Listening to the Flute in the City at Night"). Sad. At the same time, Tang poets developed frontier fortress poetry, especially the poets in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, who gave frontier fortress poetry a broader, more comprehensive, rich, and complete artistic conception, giving people an artistic charm of excitement and yearning. There is the majestic and vast atmosphere of "The moon was bright in the Qin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty passed, and the people who marched thousands of miles have not yet returned" (Wang Changling's "Out of the Fortress"). ) is as cheerful and majestic as Li Bai's "The bright moon rises out of the Tianshan Mountains, between the vast sea of ??clouds" ("Guanshan Moon"), the vastness and elegance, and Wang Changling's "The chaos and sorrow can't be heard, the high autumn moon shines on the Great Wall" ("Seven Poems on the Military March") ) ambitions and worries. As a language image, the moon embellishes the environment into a vast and tragic frontier fortress style, and also transforms the characteristic geographical physical space of the frontier fortress into an artistic psychological space.
The bright moon can transcend the isolation of time and space. The moon is a kind of sustenance and fantasy for the husbands who guard the frontier and the wives who are longing for their boudoir. They meet each other thousands of miles away, and they are willing to follow the lonely moon to shine on their loved ones. Poets use this complex to freely create the space beauty of the moon and the frontier fortress accompanying each other and comforting each other. The representative of this aspect is Shen Ruyun's "Girlfriend":
It is difficult to send all the books. , worry about many dreams. I would like to follow the shadow of the lonely moon and shine in Fubo Camp.
Here, the poet describes the deep thoughts of the missing woman and the secret hatred of having no one to talk to. The missing woman is "sorrowful and unable to sleep, wandering around with her clothes in hand" ("How bright is the bright moon"), in "Out of the House" "I am alone and wandering" (ibid.), I looked up and saw only a lonely moon hanging in the sky. "At this time, we look at each other but don't hear each other, and I hope that the moonlight will shine on you" (Zhang Ruoxu's "Moonlight Night on the Spring River"), so the idea of ??"I would like to follow the shadow of the lonely moon and shine on Fubo Camp" naturally arises. The poet's great feeling of the beauty of space, where the moon and the frontier fortress complement each other and comfort each other, is already very outstanding.
The month is material, the month is space, and the month is cultural. Under the infiltration and nourishment of the moon water, the poet met the unique landscape of the frontier fortress unexpectedly and hit it off with the huge and far-reaching sense of cosmic space! Why does the poet "wish to follow the shadow of Gu Yue"? It is the spatial awareness of the spotless frontier that is soothed by the moonlight.
Second, the time image of the month. The moon rises and sets, the moon waxes and wanes, the moonlight passes, and the passage of moonlight unfolds in the time of life, so the moonlight is still of life and of time. Ancient people often used the image of the moon to express their sadness at the passage of life and the passage of time. Li Yu said: "When did the spring flowers and autumn moon come? How much do you know about the past? There was an east wind in the small building last night, and the motherland cannot bear to look back in the moonlight" ("Poppy Poppies"). In Li Yu's eyes, the past is like a dream, and can only be seen "in the moonlight" "It's just a sad memory. The tragedy of his tortuous fate is fully displayed in the flow of time of "Spring Flowers and Autumn Moon". Not only Li Yu, but also Du Mu's "Two Poems on Runzhou (Part 1)" also said:
Most of the Southern Dynasties were broad-minded and pitiful. The Eastern Jin Dynasty was the most popular. Yueming misses Huan Yi's presence even more, and the sound of a flute brings out the sadness.
Whether it is the broad-minded scholars of the Southern Dynasty or the romantic celebrities of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, they are just passers-by on the historical stage. The poet thinks of the ancients from the moon, and reflects reality from the ancients. Rich imagination connects people and events hundreds of years apart, making history and reality, modern people and ancient people, the scenery in front of you and the emotions in your heart seamlessly integrated in time and space. Since moonlight is of life, moonlight is connected with time consciousness through life consciousness. From the drunkenness of "When will the moon come in the blue sky? I'll stop drinking and ask", Li Bai explored the life philosophy of "Today's people don't see the ancient moon, but this month once shined on the ancients", thus uttering "The ancients and the present are like running water, * **It’s like this even when you look at the bright moon.” His emotion about life. Zhang Ruoxu elicited the sentiment of "life is endless from generation to generation, but the moon on the river is only similar every year" from the question "Who first sees the moon by the river? When did the moon on the river first shine on people?" The river moon is ruthless, and the flowing water is ruthless. In the helplessness of "I don't know who the river moon treats, but I see the Yangtze River sending flowing water", the poets have no choice but to sigh. The feudal autocratic society essentially suppresses and imprisons talents, and one's own ambitions, pride, intelligence and talents are helplessly melted into the passing moonlight of history: "Now there is only the moon from the Xijiang River, which once shone on the people in the Palace of Pluto" (Li Bai's "Su Tai Reading the Ancients") 》), their lives and ambitions are often submerged and thrown away in the passage of "moonlight like water". "The old moon on the east side of the Huai River came over the parapet wall late at night." The "old moon" aroused the poet's sigh and recollection of history. Here, the moon once again leads to the eternal, profound and vast consciousness of the universe.
The melancholy image of March and the month of March. In Tang poetry, the moon is also an emotional one. In nature, the moon is bright and the moon is yin, the moon is full and the moon is missing, and things such as perfection and lack are heterogeneous and isomorphic.
When talking about the artistic conception of the poem, Liang Qichao said, "On the same moonlit night, there is a banquet with wine glasses, clear songs and wonderful dances, the embroidered curtains are half opened, and the bare hands are holding each other's hands, and there is more fun; while people are busy thinking about their wives, sitting alone facing the scenery, weaving and singing on the wall, The maple leaves surrounding the boat are full of sadness." Therefore, the moon in the poet's works is often associated with the emotions of joy and sorrow. Although Cao Pi from the Wei Dynasty had already written poems such as "The bright moon shines brightly on my bed, and the stars are flowing westward into the night," and Xie Lingyun in the Southern and Northern Dynasties also wrote sad poems such as "The bright moon shines on the snow, the north wind is strong and sad," but the moon symbolizes sorrow. There was still a lot of opposition to the war in the Tang Dynasty. In addition to the well-known "the moon sets, crows cry and the sky is filled with frost, the river maples and fishing fires are facing melancholy", there is also the sadness in Tang poetry "the wind rumbles the leaves on both sides of the bank, and the moon shines on a lonely boat" (Meng Haoran's "Old Tour to Guangling on the Tonglu River") Loneliness; Wang Jian's "Tonight the moon is bright, everyone looks at it, and I don't know whose home I miss in autumn" is profound; Bai Juyi's "I should shed tears when I look at the bright moon, my heart is in five places in one night"; Qian Qi's "Twenty-five" "On a moonlit night when the strings are played, I can't stand the sadness but fly over"... Among the poets of the Tang Dynasty, the moon was an image of melancholy, which was cleverly conceived. With rich imagination, ethereal brushwork, gentle lyricism, and implicit meaning, it has gained immortal artistic life and a confusing artistic atmosphere.
The love image of April and the moon. The moon is emotional, the entanglement of "the willow branches above the moon", the sadness of "the waning moon in the morning wind", the loneliness of "the moon shines on the tall building". When the love is deep, the moon will naturally be connected with love. Although "nothing in life can be as sentimental" and "nothing can be as affectionate", the moon is still the best expression of affection and blessing: Xie Zhuang "The moon is shining thousands of miles away" ("Fu on the Moon") Meng Jiao "I only think about it after farewell, the moon is shining at the end of the world" ("Ancient Farewell"), Zhang Jiuling "The bright moon is shining on the sea, the moon is shining at the end of the world" ("Looking at the Moon and Huaiyuan"). The deep affection and love are transformed into the poignant wishes of "I hope you will live long and travel thousands of miles to reach the beauty of the moon". Moon represents the zen of love and the testimony of love. Whether it is the wild and free-spirited Li Taibai, the affectionate Li Yishan, or the melancholy Shaoling Yelao, they all cannot refuse the witness of the moonlight, and under the caress of the moonlight, they restore the true nature of people. The loss of a poet, the passion of a talented man, and the worries of a poet are all presented one by one under the spotless moonlight... Listen to the whereabouts and heartbeat of love. In the emotional world of love, the feelings and longings of the Tang people are more magnificent and more ethereal, and their love is also very passionate and intense. The infatuation of "waiting for the moon under the western chamber" is urgent, the emptiness and loneliness of "the moon falling all over the beams of the house", the infatuation of "the moon is setting and the stars are sparse and the sky is bright, and the solitary lamp is not extinguished and dreams are hard to come true". The vast sky under the bright moonlight is also the cause of lovesickness and the huge space. After parting, "I look at each other but don't hear each other at this time, and I hope that the moonlight will shine on you." The emotions caused by the moonlight linger around the melancholy and confusion of love. "The clear moss and mangroves under the steps are solitary and sad in the rain" (Li Shangyin's "Duanju"); on a moonlit night, on a stormy night, lovers are "separately at the end of the sky", and "the wild geese fly away without catching the light, and the fish When "The Dragon Hives and Jumps into the Water" is written, how many more sorrows should be added to it! Therefore, the melancholy moonlight under the vast vast sky becomes the time and space of endless lovesickness: "Upstairs, desire rests at dusk, and the moon is like a hook across the jade staircase" (Li Shangyin's "Two Poems for Generations (Part 1)"), the lovesickness created by the moon Li Shangyin could not finish explaining his thoughts even if he said them a thousand times or ten thousand times. Of course, the moonlight of time may wear away and dilute love. "Where are the people who came to look at the moon together? The scenery is vaguely like last year" (Zhao Xia's "Jianglou Sense of the Old"). Where can I find that beautiful figure under the moon, leaning against each other? Even if I were to call him back, I might not have the same feelings I had at that time. The good dreams are gone, the past is like smoke, leaving traces of the past floating in the sky of lost love. If so, in the eyes of the lover who has passed away, only the desolate and desolate landscape of "seeing the moon in the palace is sad, hearing the sound of broken bells in the night rain" (Bai Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Sorrow") is left. Love is even more sad and heartbreaking under the background of the melancholy moonlight and heart-wrenching ringtones. "Where is the beautiful woman, the smoke and water are endless", "how can I feel so unbearable", all I can do is to express the sadness of "eternal hatred that lasts forever".
At this moment, in the sky under the caress of the moonlight, all that floats is the sad elegy of eternal love!