Joining the Army (Part 4)
Original text: Long clouds cover the snow-capped mountains in Qinghai, and the lonely city looks at Yumen Pass in the distance. Yellow sand can wear golden armor in a hundred battles, and Loulan will never be returned until it is broken. Notes: 1. Joining the Army: An old Yuefu title, mostly about military wars. Wang Changling joined the army
2. Qinghai: refers to Qinghai Lake. 3. Snow Mountain: This refers to the Qilian Mountains in Gansu Province. 4. To wear: to wear out. 5. Golden armor: battle clothes, metal armor. 6. Loulan: The name of the country in the Western Regions during the Han Dynasty. This generally refers to the enemies that harassed the northwest frontier at that time. 7. Gucheng: A city in Qinghai at that time. It is said that the lonely city is Yumenguan. 8. Yumen Pass: Built by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it was named after the jade imported from the Western Regions passed here. The former site is in today's small Fangpan City northwest of Dunhuang, Gansu Province. During the Six Dynasties, the pass site was moved eastward and is now near the Anxi Twin Towers. 9. Taó River: a tributary of the Yellow River, in the southwest of Gansu Province. Translation: The dark clouds over Qinghai have obscured the snow-capped mountains, and I look at Yumen Pass in the distance. The soldiers outside the Great Wall had worn out their helmets and armor after hundreds of battles, and they vowed not to come back unless they could capture the city of Loulan in the west. [Today's translation] The continuous large dark clouds over Qinghai Lake have obscured the snow-covered Qilian Mountains all year round; from a distance, only the lonely city can be seen, which is the Yumen Pass that the spring breeze cannot blow. On the vast battlefield of yellow sand, the soldiers have gone through hundreds of battles and worn out their armored clothes. However, if the invading border bandits are not completely eliminated, they will never return their homeland to the death! Appreciation: The first two sentences mention three place names. Snow Mountain is the Qilian Mountains stretching across the south of the Hexi Corridor. Qinghai and Yuguan are thousands of miles apart from each other, but they appear in the same picture, so there are various interpretations of these two sentences. Some people say that the first sentence is about looking forward, while the second sentence is about looking back at home. This is very strange. With Qinghai and Snow Mountain in front and Yuguan behind, the hometown the lyrical protagonist looks back on should be the Western Regions west of Yumen Pass. Those soldiers were not Han soldiers, but Hu soldiers. Another theory is that the second sentence is the reverse text of "Looking into the distance at Yumen Pass in the lonely city", and the object of looking into the distance is "Qinghai Changyun Dark Snow Mountain". There are two misunderstandings here: one is to interpret "looking into the distance" as "looking into the distance"; It is a misunderstanding of the general description of the northwest border area as what the lyrical protagonist sees, and the former misunderstanding arises from the latter misunderstanding. The first and second sentences can be imagined as a picture of a vast area shown in sequence: over Qinghai Lake, the long clouds are warm; to the north of the lake, there are faint snow-capped mountains stretching thousands of miles; beyond the snow-capped mountains, there is a desert in the Hexi Corridor. An isolated city; further to the west, there is the military fortress - Yumen Pass, which is far opposite to the isolated city. This long scroll, which covers a vast area thousands of miles from east to west, is a typical environment in which soldiers guarding the border in the northwest lived and fought at that time. It is a bird's eye view and a summary of the entire northwest frontier. Why are Qinghai and Yuguan mentioned in particular? This is related to the war situation between ethnic groups at that time. The powerful enemies in the west and north of the Tang Dynasty were Tibet and Turks. The mission of the Hexi Jiedushi is to cut off the communication between Tibet and Turks. One town can take care of the two powerful enemies in the west and the north. It is mainly to defend Tibet and protect the Hexi Corridor. The "Qinghai" area was the site of many battles between the Tubo and Tang armies; and outside the "Yumen Pass" was the sphere of influence of the Turks. Therefore, these two sentences not only describe the scene of the entire northwest frontier, but also point out the extremely important geographical situation of the "isolated city" that resists Tibet in the south and defends against Turks in the west. The powerful enemies in these two directions are exactly what the soldiers guarding the "isolated city" are concerned about, so it is appropriate for Qinghai and Yuguan to appear on the screen. Rather than saying that this is what the officers and men saw, it is better to say that this is the picture that emerged in the minds of the officers and men. These two sentences convey rich and complex emotions while describing the scene: the border guards' concern for the border defense situation, their pride and sense of responsibility for their tasks, as well as the loneliness and hardship of the border guard life, are all integrated into a tragic, open and beautiful poem. In the misty and dim scenery. In the third and fourth sentences, the description of the environment where the scene blends is transformed into a direct lyrical one. "The yellow sand wears golden armor in a hundred battles" is a poem that sums up Huang Donglei's calligraphy "The Military March"
strongly. The long time of guarding the border, the frequency of battles, the arduousness of the battles, the strength of the enemy troops, and the desolation of the border areas are all summarized in these seven words. "Hundred Wars" is relatively abstract. The word "yellow sand" highlights the characteristics of the northwest battlefield and makes people think of the scene of the "ancient battlefield of clouds and sands at dusk": "Hundred Wars" leads to "Wearing Golden Armor" "It is even more conceivable that the battle was arduous and fierce, and that there were a series of heroic sacrifices in the style of "white bones covered with basil" during this long period of time. However, although the golden armor was worn out, the soldiers' ambition to serve the country did not fade away, but became more determined in the tempering of the desert wind and sand.
"Unless Loulan is destroyed, it will never be returned" is the heroic oath of the soldiers who have experienced hundreds of battles. The more difficult and frequent the battles are in the previous sentence, the more sonorous and powerful this sentence becomes. The first two or two sentences have a broad realm, tragic feelings, and rich implications; between the third and fourth sentences, there is obviously a turning point, and the two sentences form a sharp contrast. Although the "yellow sand" sentence describes the hardships of war, the actual feeling of the entire image is majestic and powerful, rather than low and sad. Therefore, the last sentence is not a lament that there will be no day to return home, but a firmer and deeper vow made on the basis of a deep awareness of the hardship and long-term nature of the war. An important ideological feature of the excellent frontier fortress poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty is that it expresses While the soldiers guarding the border are heroic and ambitious, they do not shy away from the hardships of war. This article is a clear example. It can be said that the three or four sentences, which are not empty and superficial expressions of emotion, exactly need the one or two sentences that contain rich and comprehensive description of the environment. The high degree of unity between the typical environment and the emotions of the characters is a prominent advantage of Wang Changling's quatrains, which is also clearly reflected in this article