"The city is full of golden armor" comes from a poem in Huang Chao's "Chrysanthemum"
Chrysanthemum
Huang Chao
To be Autumn comes on September 8th. After my flowers bloom, hundreds of flowers will die.
The towering incense array penetrates Chang'an, and the whole city is covered with golden armor.
There are two versions of the title of this poem: one is the "Chrysanthemum" above, and the other is "Bu Di Hou Fu Ju", which comes from the leader of the peasant uprising in the late Tang Dynasty (also known as "Toking the Sky"). General")'s hand.
Huang Chao was a native of Heze, present-day Shandong Province. He had read books since he was a child and was able to ride a horse and shoot arrows. He once went to Chang'an, the capital, to take the Jinshi examination. I took the exam several times but failed. In 875 AD, he led thousands of people to revolt in Caozhou. In 878, after the death of Wang Xianzhi (the leader of the peasant uprising, who called himself General Tianbujun), he was elected as the leader and was called General Chongtian. In 881, he conquered Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, established a peasant regime, and the country was named Da Qi. However, the enemy was able to counterattack because it failed to establish a more stable base and failed to take advantage of the victory to pursue and annihilate the remaining forces. Later, due to running out of ammunition and food, he was forced to withdraw from Chang'an and fight in Shandong. In 884, he was defeated and committed suicide in the Langhu Valley of Mount Tai.
The following poem explanations are excerpted from the "Dictionary of Appreciation of Tang Poems"
China has had the custom of appreciating chrysanthemums on the Double Ninth Festival (September 9) since ancient times. Even though they are so far apart, this day has also become a symbol of The Chrysanthemum Festival. This chrysanthemum poem is actually not a general chant about chrysanthemums, but a distant celebration of the Chrysanthemum Festival. Why not say "September 9" instead of "September 8"? It is to rhyme with the words "kill" and "A" at the back. The word "wai" is a passionate expectation and a warm yearning. What will happen when that day comes? The author responds to the previous sentence with a ground-breaking sentence - "After I bloom, hundreds of flowers will be killed." When the chrysanthemums bloom, the flowers have withered. This is a natural law and a natural phenomenon that people are accustomed to. Here, the "blooming" of chrysanthemums and the "killing" (withering) of flowers are deliberately juxtaposed to form a sharp contrast to show the inevitable connection between them. The author affectionately calls the chrysanthemum "my flower", obviously taking it as a symbol of the oppressed people. Then, the opposite "hundred flowers" naturally refers to the reactionary and decadent feudal ruling group. "The soaring incense array penetrates Chang'an, and the whole city is covered with golden armor." The entire city of Chang'an is full of chrysanthemums wearing golden armor. The rich fragrance they emit reaches into the sky and permeates the whole city. The unique imagination, the novel metaphor, the majestic diction, and the magnificent artistic conception are all unprecedented. The chrysanthemum, in the writings of feudal literati, is at most the embodiment of strength and praising its proud character; here it is given the fighting style and character of a peasant rebel soldier, and the yellow petals are imagined as the warrior's armor, making it From the flower of a noble scholar to the latest and most beautiful flower of peasant revolutionary warriors. Because of this, the chrysanthemums described by the author have changed from the lonely and elegant static beauty in the past to a dynamic beauty that is bold, rough and full of fighting spirit. It is neither an "isolated mark" nor a "cluster of chrysanthemums", but flowers blooming all over the city, occupying the autumn light, and exuding bursts of rich fighting fragrance, so it is described as a "fragrance array". The two words "Chong" and "Tou" respectively describe the prosperity and depth of its momentum, vividly showing the prospect of victory for the peasant uprising army to capture Chang'an and dominate everything.
It can be seen that "the city is full of golden armor" means that in the autumn when chrysanthemums are in full bloom, there will be a day when peasant rebels wearing golden armor will spread throughout Chang'an City. It shows the author's ambition to turn things upside down and change the world. He is worthy of being an eternal hero who rose up.