Wuyi Alley
There are wild grasses and flowers beside Zhuque Bridge, and the sun sets at the entrance of Wuyi Alley.
In the old days, the king Xietang Qianyan flew into the homes of ordinary people.
Vernacular translation:
The side of Zhuque Bridge is covered with clumps of weeds and dots of wild flowers. The broken walls and ruins at the entrance of Wuyi Lane were just as the sun was setting in the west. The swallows that once built their nests in front of the King's Hall are now flying into the homes of ordinary people.
Creative background:
In the second year of Baoli (826), Emperor Jingzong of Tang Dynasty, Liu Yuxi returned to Luoyang from the post of governor of Hezhou (now Hexian County, Anhui Province), passing by Jinling (now Nanjing) ), wrote this group of poems in praise of historical sites, collectively called "Five Topics of Jinling", the second of which is "Woyi Lane".
"Wo Yi Xiang" is one of the representative works of Liu Yuxi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. This is a poem that evokes the present and pays tribute to the past. It is the second poem in the "Five Questions of Jinling" poems about nostalgic for the past. This poem pays tribute to the prosperity of the Zhuque Bridge on the Qinhuai River in Nanjing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Wuyi Alley on the south bank. Today, it is overgrown with weeds and desolate. It expresses feelings about the vicissitudes of life and the changes in life. The author chooses the common phenomenon that the house where the swallow lives is no longer the original owner, making people realize that wealth and glory are difficult to maintain forever, and those high-ranking officials and nobles who were once famous are like passing smoke and become relics of history. There is not a single line of discussion in the poem, but through the description of weeds and sunset, and the use of swallows as witnesses of the rise and fall, it cleverly connects history and reality and guides people to think about the development of the times and changes in society, which contains profound implications. Although the whole poem is very simple, its flavor is infinite.
Liu Yuxi (772-842), whose courtesy name was Mengde, was a native of Luoyang, Henan. He claimed that he was "originally in Xingshang, and his native place is in Luoyang" and that he was from Zhongshan. The first was Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan. A writer and philosopher of the Tang Dynasty, he was known as the "Poetry Hero".
In the ninth year of Zhenyuan (793), Liu Yuxi became a Jinshi. He first served as the record office in the shogunate of Du You, the military governor of Huainan, and was highly regarded by Du You. Later, he entered the court from Du You and served as the supervisory censor. At the end of Zhenyuan, Liu Zongyuan, Chen Jian, Han Ye and others made friends with Wang Shuwen and formed a political group headed by Wang Shuwen. Later, he successively served as Sima of Langzhou, governor of Lianzhou, governor of Kuizhou, governor of Hezhou, doctor of host and guest, doctor of the Ministry of Rites, and governor of Suzhou. In Huichang, the school's Minister of Etiquette was inspected. When he died at the age of seventy, he presented it to the Minister of Hubu.
Liu Yuxi is excellent in poetry and prose, and covers a wide range of subjects. He is known as "Liu Liu" together with Liu Zongyuan, "Three Heroes" together with Wei Yingwu and Bai Juyi, and "Liu Bai" together with Bai Juyi. He has "The Humble House" Famous works such as "Inscription", "Bamboo Branch Ci", "Yangliu Branch Ci", "Woyi Lane" and so on. Three philosophical works, "On Heaven", discuss the materiality of heaven and analyze the origin of "Destiny Theory", which has materialistic ideas. There is the "Collected Works of Liu Mengde" and the "Collected Works of Liu Mengde" still exist.