Han Yu
A letter in the sky, eight thousand in Chaoyang Road at night.
If you want to eliminate disasters for the wise, you are willing to decline and cherish the old!
Where is the home of Yunheng Qinling? The heavy snow hindered the horse's progress.
Knowing that you are far away, it should be intentional. Let me collect the bones by the river!
This poem was written in the first month of the fourteenth year of Yuanhe, Tang Xianzong. Tang Xianzong, a Buddhist, once sent a phalanx of Sakyamuni Buddha to the palace to support him, wasting people and money. Han Yu wrote a letter to dissuade him. Tang Xianzong was furious and wanted to kill him. Because the prime minister and other ministers interceded for him, he was banished to Chaozhou (now Guangdong Province). When he went to Chaozhou, he passed Lantian Pass (now Shaanxi Province) and wrote this poem. In ancient times, the position of the left was lower than that of the right, and "moving to the left" meant demotion. This means that this poem is written for my nephew Han Xiang.
On the surface, it looks very light, which simply explains the fact of being demoted. But on second thought, from the perspective of "playing in the morning and declining at night", I was sent a letter in the morning and was driven out of Chang' an at night. The use of two closely related adverbs of time "Chao" and "Xi" not only shows that the time interval is short, but also shows that the emperor was offended this time. Why offend the emperor? "I want to kill the wise" means that my original intention is to remove something that is not conducive to the country for the wise emperor. So he said, how dare you care about your old age and physical decline for the benefit of the country? Here, feelings are complicated. On the one hand, express yourself, be loyal to the court, and dare not disregard life and death. On the other hand, I feel that I have reached a decadent age and embarked on a long journey of relegation to a distant place, and my heart is filled with emotion. This feeling is subtle, but not ambiguous, which is obvious from the third link below.
"Where is home in Qinling? Where is home?" The center of this couplet is "Where is home". There is no need to ask questions about home, but this question is still raised, which shows that I have been demoted this time and obviously can't go home. Looking back at Chang 'an, I saw the Zhongnan Mountain (that is, the Qinling Mountains) blocked by clouds, so I asked: Where is home? Look at the road ahead. The snow in Lantian Pass was so congested that even the horses hesitated. The horse is unwilling to move forward and go to Chang 'an, which is a reflection of people's long hair. "Clouds pass the Qinling Mountains" and "Snow holds the green pass". These descriptions of natural scenery just set off the sadness and depression of the poet when he left Chang 'an. We know that Han Yu was demoted this time, in the first month of the fourteenth year of Yuanhe. It's early spring, but the chill in the northland is still very strong, and the blue customs are still covered with snow. This is not only the scene in his eyes at that time, but also his cold and desolate mood of being driven out of Chang 'an. This blend of emotion and scenery artistically shows the situation and feelings of the characters, which is very touching. In Youyang Miscellany, it is recorded that Han Xiang showed Han Yu that the peony bloomed in early winter, and there were two poems on the flowers: "Clouds crossed the Qinling Mountains". Han Xiang is one of the legendary Eight Immortals. Later, when Han Yu was exiled to the south, he happened to meet the scene in the poem when passing through Languan. This legend is naturally not credible, but it is only used to show that these two poems are very wonderful.
The fourth part is for Han Xiang, "Knowing that you came all the way should be intentional, so you can come to the river to collect my bones", which means that knowing that you came all the way is not unintentional, you came to the river full of miasma to collect my bones. The last sentence, the tone is very low. In ancient times, people thought that the climate in the south was humid, and summer days gave off toxic gases, which were smoked to death when people touched them. This poisonous gas is called miasma or miasma. When Han Yu said these words, he was very sad and had deep feelings.