This series of poems was written when the author was invited to accompany the imperial supervisors and prostitutes on a night trip to the lake. The metaphor of the first song is very obvious. The "unrest" of the "new moon" is actually a reflection of people's footsteps and uneasy mood. The "wandering" of the moon is a reflection of the traveler's state of mind. The new moon on the fifth and sixth day of the Lunar New Year has already set in the Western Mountains before the second watch. How to continue to "show beauty" on the lake? And "half a jade" is actually a slang term for "breaking a jade". These two so-called "tourists" also want to see "half a jade showing its beauty" during the third watch. What it means is self-evident.
The second poem expresses thoughts on society through landscape imagery, and is full of melancholy about the mystery of life. The poet was fascinated by the moonscape, but he could not forget the world. Thinking of the unpredictable "people and affairs of the Ming Dynasty", the poet was obsessed and confused until dawn. The profound thoughts and philosophical speculations about society and life are all contained in words. The poet examines nature with the eyes of a philosopher, so the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, grass and trees all have profound philosophical content. When they are incorporated into poetry as images, they also contain permanent philosophy: Who am I? What is the world? What is the meaning of life?
The third poem is about fishermen stealing fish from West Lake late at night. Wang Shipeng's "Annotations to Mr. Dongpo's Poetry Collection" quotes: "The black dragon, the place where the horns and horns are, disappeared in the middle of the night." Therefore, "the black dragon has disappeared" indicates that the night is deep. Cao Zhi's "Shanzai Xing" said: "The moon is not horizontal, and the Beidou is in the dark." The dark side is horizontal and slanted. Liu Fangping's poem "Moonlight Night": "Deeper, the moonlight is halfway into the house, and the North Dipper is dipping in the south." It can be seen that "Niu Dou Heng" is also written as "Deeper". Chang Geng's star has awn, Li Zhi's "Reward Ci" says: "Chang Geng has awn when it is cold, and the music is light and lifeless." Therefore, Chang Geng's rise means that the sky will be bright. One or two sentences all use the rising and setting of the stars to write that the night is deep and the sky is about to dawn. Three or four sentences describe fishermen stealing fish before dawn. "The only sound of the boat passing by is the wild cattails" means "there is no sound". The word "wei" means that except for the sound of the boat passing through the wild cattails, there is no sound at all, which further expresses the quietness of the night. Su Shi himself noted: "Fishing is prohibited on the lake, and only those who steal fish are caught." Su Shi, as the general magistrate of Hangzhou and the local deputy governor, went to the West Lake at night and encountered fishermen "stealing fishing" and violating the "fishing ban" regulations, but he He didn't ask anything about it because he was originally opposed to the government competing for profits with the people. This group of poems mainly describes the scenery of the West Lake at night, but the last two sentences reflect the contradiction between the "fisherman" and the government from one side.
The first two sentences of the fourth poem describe a boat passing by wild rice: the wild wild rice is boundless, the lake is vast, the lotus blooms at night, and the fragrance is fragrant. Boating among such lotus flowers on a moonlit night is even more intoxicating. Zhou Mi's "Guixin Miscellaneous Knowledge" records: "There is a lamp floating on the water in front of the Four Saints Temple in the West Lake. Its color is green and red. It goes from the south of the Shishi Pavilion to the Xileng Bridge and back. The light becomes brighter in the wind and rain, and the moonlight becomes slightly lighter. Thunder and lightning "When the light comes on, it flashes with the electric light." This is what is written in the poem "The lights gradually come out of the distant temple". The words "gradually" and "out" imply that the ship is moving. What I wrote above is the scenery of the lake under the moon. "Waiting for the dark moon to see the light of the lake" reminds the later part of the poem to write about the scenery of the lake after the moon sets. The philosophical content contained in the landscape imagery of this poem is extremely unclear. It is true that the poet chooses the "dark moon" to "see the light of the lake". This phenomenon is full of rationality and interest, and provides a philosophical realm for readers to delve into.
The fifth poem describes the light of the lake after the moon sets, giving people a sense of change and mystery. "Lingnan Foreign Objects" says: "When there is darkness in the sea, the waves are like fire and the sea is filled with fire. If you hit it with something, it will burst out like sparks of fire, and the moon will never be seen again. "This means that the sea waves are like fire. Jiangbo also has a similar scene: "There seems to be a torch in the middle of the river, and the flying flames illuminate the mountains and the crows are scared. I go back and lie down with no idea, what is it that is not a ghost or a human being?" (Su Shi's "Visiting Jinshan Temple") These few sentences can almost be said like this. The footnote to one song shows that the same is true for Huguang. The first sentence, "Neither a ghost nor a fairy", always writes about the strangeness of the lake light; the second sentence writes that after "the moon is dark", when the wind is calm, the lake light is clearly visible; the third sentence writes that as the boat sails, the lake light is like They were also moving, and then followed them into the temple; the fourth sentence said that the boat came under the temple, but could not see the light of the lake just like "entering the temple in twos" at all; it created a mysterious atmosphere.
Between each poem in the group of poems, the author adopts the continuous couplet pattern (this poetic pattern was originated from Cao Zhi's "Giving the White Horse to Wang Biao"). The end of each poem is the beginning of the next poem, and There are slight changes: the beginning of the second and fourth poems are the five and six characters at the end of the first and third poems; the first four characters of the third poem are the third to sixth characters of the conclusion of the second poem, but changed to " "西死" means "already gone"; the first two characters of the fifth song are the last two characters of the fourth song. In this way, it is both perfectly connected and well-proportioned, making it a brisk and exciting read. In terms of style, this group of poems is very different from Su Shi's other poems describing the West Lake, such as "Heavy Rain in Youmeitang" and "Drunken Book at Wanghu Tower". Those poems are magnificent and powerful, but this group of poems gives people a fresh, elegant and tranquil beauty.