"Ten Poems of Jingzhou (Part 1, Part 2, Part 4)"
When tourists leave the Three Gorges, the Chu land ends in Pingchuan.
The travelers from the north followed Nanjia, and the Sichuan ships were transported between Wu Qiang and Wu Qiang.
The river invades the plains and cuts off the plains, and the wind swirls the white sand.
If you want to ask about the rise and fall, the important city has been built since ancient times.
Second
The old Warring States period in the south still has a bleak atmosphere.
Generosity is due to Liu Biao, and desolation is due to Qu Yuan.
The abandoned city still has a well, and the ancient surnames gathered together to form villages①.
It is also understood that the appearance is superior, but it is not worth mentioning.
Third
In the east corner of Zhukan City, King Gao looked at the sand②.
The country is not a country, and the beacon fire is afraid of three countries.
The bones of battle are reduced to autumn grass, and the dangerous building leans against the broken clouds.
After a century of heroes, all the heroes are gone.
[Note]
① Ancient surnames: According to "Taiping Huanyu Ji", the ancient surnames refer to Wu, Wu, Cheng, Shi, Long, Ying (surnames from Wuchang) and Bian, Wu and Gong (surnamed by Wu Ling).
②Wangsha Tower: Gaoji of the Later Liang Dynasty built a building to look at Shajin, so it is named Wangsha Tower. Chen Yaozi of the Northern Song Dynasty changed its name to Zhongxuan Tower.
Appreciation
There are excellent works in all genres of Su Shi. Some people only emphasize the Qigu, Qilu, and Qijue while ignoring the Five Characters, which is incomplete. . "Ten Poems on Jingzhou" is the representative work of five-character verses in Su Shi's youth. Anyone who has read Du Fu's "Miscellaneous Poems on Qinzhou" will understand its origin. In the second year of Jiayou's reign (1057), brother Su Shi was awarded the Jinshi title. Unfortunately, his mother died on April 8 in her hometown in Sichuan. The two brothers went home to bury their mother and observe the mourning. In September of the fourth year of Jiayou (1059), his mother was finally mourned and she returned to the court in October. Several ministers in the imperial court recommended Su Xun to go out of the mountains, so the father and son took the water route out of the Three Gorges to Jingzhou, and then went north by land. Along the way, the three of them wrote a hundred poems and essays, which were compiled into the "Collection of Journey to the South", which was later lost. He arrived at Jianglingyi on December 8th of this year, and left Jiangling on the fifth day of the first lunar month of the following year to go north. "Ten Poems of Jingzhou" were written one after another in these dozens of days.
The beauty of the Three Gorges mountains and rivers and the richness of historical sites and legends are triggering the poetic thoughts of young poets. Before he came to Jingzhou, he wrote an article "Out of the Gorge", which began with: "When I enter the gorge, I like the craggy rocks, and when I leave the gorge, I love the flat open space. My heart is light and not tired, and the situation is peaceful." Combined with these sentences in "Out of the Gorge", You can understand the first two sentences of "Ten Poems about Jingzhou" and briefly describe the feeling of arriving in Jingzhou for the first time. "Tourists leaving the Three Gorges" seems to come from a commonplace, but in connection with the previous articles and looking at the sentence "The land of Chu ends in plains", we can see that this is indeed the poet's special feeling when he leaves the gorge. Pingchuan and the Three Gorges are in sharp contrast, describing the topographic characteristics, and the use of "Chu Land" also implies a sense of rise and fall. The contents of the ten poems are inseparable from this premise. Three or four sentences describe the busy scene of water and land. North Guests and Nanjia are told from the vertical position, and Wu Qiang and Shu Ships are told from the horizontal position, unfolding in front of the reader a picture of the convergence of boats and carriages. In the tenth poem, the author responds to these two sentences with "Going north to connect with Xu and Deng, going south to reach the extreme Hengxiang". From the perspective of poetry, these two sentences are used in the same sentence.
Change the syntax of five or six sentences to write about the natural scenery of Jingzhou. A plain, with rivers flowing through it, originally had no contact with each other, but "the river invaded the plain and cut it off", and once it invaded and cut off, the rigid description came to life. "Pingye" and "平川" in the second sentence emphasize the word "平", which is strictly speaking a minor flaw, but there is no more appropriate word to replace it, so it is repeated. This is not uncommon in Tang poetry. This sentence means looking straight into the distance. "The wind blows and the white sand swirls" is a close-up view. The water is windy, and the wind on the plains and the wind in the gorge feel different. What is written here is the whirlwind that often occurs by the water, "the wind rolls up the white sand," which seems to make people see the scene of the whirlwind rolling up the sand pillars by the water. But this is after all a whirlwind in the plains and fertile fields, which is different from the scenery outside the Great Wall where "yellow sand rises straight up to the white clouds". Jingzhou is a place of great beauty in the late Han Dynasty. Zhuge Liang replied to Liu Bei in Longzhong: "Jingzhou controls Han Mian to the north, takes advantage of the South China Sea, connects Wuhui to the east, and Bashu to the west. This is a country that uses military force." From the Three Kingdoms to the Five Dynasties, it was a strategic military location. The middle two couplets all focus on geography. The last two sentences cannot help but make a historical review. The ending of the first poem in a group of poems should be able to tie the poem to itself, and it should be able to trigger the following poems. This ending is just right. "Want to ask about the rise and fall", thinking about the ancient feelings is the most important thing, and it will stop at the end. "The important city has been strong since ancient times", it seems to be answered but also seems not to be answered. The word "since ancient times" is worth pondering. Saying "it has been strong since ancient times" not only indicates a long history, but also means "the present is different from the past", which foreshadows the following poems.
The second song follows the last couplet of the first song. The first sentence talks about the large scope of Chu Di. The second sentence was received in Jingzhou. From the Three Kingdoms to the Five Dynasties, this place was a battleground for military strategists. But from the beginning of the Song Dynasty to the author's time, more than 130 years have passed. "The important city has been strong since ancient times", and we can also see the intention of Liu Biao's bleak management. Saying "the meaning still exists" is like the above sentence "it has been strong since ancient times". The implication is that today's appearance has changed, and the five sentences "abandoned city" are called in the distance. The separatist regime of Jingzhou began with Liu Biao at the end of Han Dynasty. Liu Biao had a false reputation, and with such a good geographical situation, he did not dare to go north to fight for the Central Plains, and sat on the sidelines until Liu Cong surrendered to Cao. The author was generous and unfair because of this. This also echoes the seven sentences "Yi Jie Guan Sha Sheng Sheng". The fourth sentence comes from the first sentence "Old Warring States Period". Among the seven heroes of the Warring States Period, Chu had the largest territory. However, King Huai scorned Qu Yuan and died in Qin. The country's power suddenly declined and finally fell to Qin. When thinking about the situation of the Warring States Period, one must think of Qu Yuan's life of sorrow and indignation, so a thousand years later, there is still a sense of desolation.
When the author passed by Chungju, he saw the Qu Yuan Tower built by the people in memory of Qu Yuan. He wrote a poem with this as the title: "The people of Chu mourned Qu Yuan for thousands of years and have not stopped. Where does the spirit float? The father Kong choked with sobs. To this day, on the Cangjiang River, people throw rice to relieve hunger and thirst. The legacy of the wind has become a race across the river, and the mournful cry of the Chu Mountains is split. Qu Yuan, an ancient warrior, had a strong desire to die." Only by looking at "Qu Yuan Pagoda" can we understand the weight of the word "bleak". At the same time, this poem closely echoes the ending of the tenth poem: "The state of Chu is all over the world, the king is pregnant and the king is weak", and the feeling of rise and fall is beyond words. The couplet "Abandoned City" corresponds to the end of the first sentence and the first two sentences of this chapter, indicating that Jingzhou has a long history. Although it has been built and destroyed many times, the old wells still exist and the ancient tribes still gather together.
In the last couplet, the author is obviously proud of his economic and military talents. The word "Yi" seems to be fictitious, but in fact it comes from three or four sentences, which reminds people of Qu Yuan's ambition and Zhuge Liang's "Longzhong Dui". The author has a poem called "Eight Formations" in the gorge, which is passionate and generous for Kong Ming. The eighth sentence pays homage to the ancient times, praising the Qingming and Ming Dynasties in the present era, from the Warring States Period to the Gao family in Jingnan during the Five Dynasties. Saying "I don't dare to discuss it" means that I have talent and knowledge in this area, but I don't need it because the world is in peace. The wonder stops as soon as it is revealed, and it is thought-provoking. This poem is mainly about discussion and lyricism. It connects the previous and the following among the ten poems, and introduces the rise and fall of Jingzhou.
The fourth poem in the series uses the scenery of Wangsha Tower to satirize the Gao family in Jingnan. Because it refers to the heroes of the Five Dynasties, the writing method is different from the previous two poems. The first sentence describes the location and scenery of Wangsha Tower, which makes people feel like they can see the scenery of Zhujing facing the wind. The two sentences punctuate the name of Mingwangsha, which leads to the prosperity of the Gao family. Three or four ridiculed him for his fear and incompetence. The Gao family was a vassal of the Later Liang, Later Tang, Southern Han, Fujian, and Shu, and was called "Gao Lai" at that time. During the turmoil of the Five Dynasties, the Gao family took refuge in many parties, so he was said to be "not one country." These three words are vivid and implicit. "Fenghuo fears Sanba" directly accused him of cowardice. Later Tang Dynasty sent Tao Gu as envoy to Jingnan, and Gao Congjie once showed off his military strength and boasted that he would conquer Shu, but in fact he was as afraid of Shu as a tiger. Sanba refers to Bajun, Badong, and Brazil, which refers to the Shu region. Because it is the opposite of "one country", "Sanba" is used. "Battle bones are buried in autumn grass" is an illusion. Seeing autumn grass and imagining how many innocent soldiers' bones are buried under it. It is a secret use of Zhang Ji's poem "Every year there is war and there are many autumn grasses", but the word "fall" is placed heavily. "The dangerous building leans on the broken clouds" is written in real terms to highlight the current foreground and echoes the sentence "Zhu threshold". The red sill and heavy buildings complement the broken clouds. Leaning against the sill and facing the wind, you can have a panoramic view of the scenery. Ranxia has the word "broken" on it, which is not only a natural scenery, but also closely connected with the rise and fall of history, attracting people's imagination. This is the author's rhetorical intention. "The heroes of a century are all gone," he said. The Five Dynasties were in chaos, the heroes were gone, and history ended. "Seeing fish and shrimps in disturbance" is what we see now. This last couplet is related in meaning to the second poem "I dare not talk about peace". Zha Shenxing believes that fish and shrimp are compared to "the monarchs and ministers of the Five Dynasties and the arrogant countries". (Volume 2 of "Supplementary Notes on Su Shi") However, Zhao Keyi disagrees with this theory and believes that the fish and shrimps are seen at the top of the building (Volume 1 of "Commentaries on Su Shi"). Zhao's refutation of Cha's theory is not unreasonable, but it is also too far from the truth. Su's poem contrasts heroes with fish and shrimps, forming an interesting contrast. It not only contrasts the current situation with the past situation, but also has a sense of irony. This technique is commonly used in old poetry. It should be understood in mind and does not need to be too implemented.
Although "Ten Poems from Jingzhou" is not completed in one go, like Du Fu's "Miscellaneous Poems from Qinzhou", it has its beginnings and endings. Some of the songs in the middle are sparse and dense. The three songs chosen here are quite closely related. If there are multiple poems under one title, you should pay attention to the connections between the chapters and the changes in writing methods. Each poem has a different focus and expression method, which cannot be ignored when appreciating.
Word count: 2691
Author: Zhou Benchun