You have made great achievements in the Three Kingdoms, created an eight-array map, and achieved permanent fame. Despite the impact of the river, the stone remained intact. The thousand-year regret lies in Liu Bei's blunder in swallowing Wu.
Original poem:
"Eight Arrays" in Tang Dynasty: Du Fu
During the Three Kingdoms period, you made unparalleled achievements, and you gained a permanent reputation by invading. (Ming Cheng Zuo Yi: Gao Ming)
Next to this ever-changing river stands a stone, which is the sadness that he never conquered the state of Wu.
About the author:
Du Fu (7 12-770) was born in Gong County, Henan Province (now gongyi city, Henan Province), Han nationality.
Creative background:
In the summer of 766 AD (the first year of Tang Daizong Dali), Du Fu moved to Kuizhou. There is a temple of Wuhou in Kuizhou, and there is an eight-array map by the river. Legend has it that Zhuge Liang set it on the beach in Kuizhou during the Three Kingdoms period. Du Fu, who has always admired Zhuge Liang, used a lot of pen and ink to record the monument and express his feelings. Eight arrays diagram is one of them.
Extended data:
Nostalgia is a dialogue between man and history. After Du Fu entered Shu, he had a special liking for Zhuge Liang's ability to help the world. This is an ancient poem he wrote about Zhuge Liang's relics shortly after he arrived in Kuizhou (now fengjie county, Chongqing). Eight Arrays on the beach of the Yangtze River in the south of Yong 'an Palace in fengjie county are especially famous for this poem by Du Fu.
In this poem, Zhuge Liang made great contributions to the establishment of Shu in the struggle to divide Wei Shuwu into three parts. Accordingly, his eight-array map on the beach of the Yangtze River made his reputation even more prominent.
Eight-array diagram is a battle array composed of eight formations: sky, earth, wind, cloud, dragon, tiger, bird and snake. On the beach of the Yangtze River, there are sixty-four piles of stones. In summer, when the flood flooded, these stone piles did not move, so there was the sentence "By the changing river, the stone stands as sad as it is (meaning: the river flows eastward, but you can't discharge the stone)", which also symbolizes Zhuge Liang's loyalty and eternal fame.
However, leaving the Eight Arrays here as a rescue measure for Liu Bei's failure to conquer Wu does not conform to Zhuge Liang's strategic thought of resisting Wei with Wu, so it is not only a historical witness of Zhuge Liang's fame, but also a historical regret that he failed to complete the great cause of reunification. The sentence "He never conquered the State of Wu" has different interpretations due to the ambiguity of Chinese characters.
Du Fu thought about Zhuge Liang's fame and grudges with the help of eight arrays, and Su Shi interpreted the mystery in Du Fu's thinking with the help of dreams. Both of them are exploring a "flawed glory" in history.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Eight Arrays (Poems by Du Fu in Tang Dynasty)