Climbing the Yueyang Tower
Du Fu
In the past I heard about the water in Dongting, now I am going up to the Yueyang Tower.
Southeast of Wu and Chu, the universe floats day and night.
There are no relatives or friends, and there are no old and sick people.
The soldiers and horses pass through the north of the mountain, and Pingxuan Tisi flows.
Appreciation of Du Fu's Poems
In the spring of the third year of the Dali calendar (768), Du Fu wandered from Chengdu to Kuizhou (now Fengjie County, Sichuan Province), then left Shudong and went down to Jiangling, Hubei Province. , police and other places, moved to Hunan in winter, and arrived in Yuezhou (today's Yueyang City).
"Climbing the Yueyang Tower" is the expressive work of climbing the tower in this issue.
This is a five-character poem. The first couplet is a group of well-paired sentences.
Yueyang Tower has long been famous. Du Fu had "heard" its name for a long time but had never seen it. Today, he not only saw it, but also "went up". That kind of joy can't help but pour into the poem. "I heard in the past" shows that he has longed for and yearned for a long time, and "now" points out his joy in getting his wish. Generally speaking, the first couplet of Wulu does not need to be in opposition. The reason why the poet uses dual sentences is because through this strict contrast, he strongly contrasts his past and present moods and emphasizes the joy of climbing the stairs. Structurally speaking, this couplet cuts into the title of the poem and triggers the description and lyricism of the entire poem.
Climbing the Yueyang Tower is to enjoy the magnificent scenery of Dongting. The chin couplet closely follows the "up" in the first couplet and describes what you see after climbing the building. Dongting Lake has a myriad of phenomena and infinite scenery, and the poet captured the most significant and typical feature of Dongting Lake - its majesty and grandeur to describe it. The poet wrote the word "卼" forcefully, as if Dongting's vast expanse of waves and thousands of huge waves had washed away and split the vast areas of Wu and Chu, showing the majestic momentum of Dongting Lake. The word "floating" has a very distinct sense of dynamics. In the poet's writing, Dongting almost contains the entire world and dominates their ups and downs. The sun, moon and stars float up and down with the fluctuations of the lake, creating a magnificent scene. The picture unfolds before the reader's eyes.
These two poems describing the atmosphere of Dongting have become an eternal masterpiece and have been admired by poets and poetry commentators of all ages. Liu Xuxi of the Song Dynasty said: "The pressure of a hundred generations is the most powerful and powerful five-character poem" (Yang Lun's "Du Shi Jingquan"). Wang Sishi of the Ming Dynasty believed that these two sentences "have given us a comprehensive view. How could later poets be caught off guard" (Volume 10 of "Du Sui"). The admiration for these two sentences can be described as extremely high. Meng Haoran once described the magnificence of Dongting Lake with the poem "Steaming clouds and dreamy lakes, waves shaking Yueyang City". Shen Deqian, a poetry critic of the Qing Dynasty, compared these two couplets and said: "Meng Xiangyang (referring to Meng Haoran) wrote about Dongting in three or four words, but this one only uses imaginary words."
(Volume 10 of "Collection of Tang Poems") , pointing out the difference between the two couplets in describing the scenery in terms of "real" and "virtual" techniques. Meng Haoran's poem is that he just used the scenery of Dongting Lake to express his personal feelings of "having no boat to save money" and wanting to be an official but having no one to recommend him. It is always limited to personal gains and losses in officialdom.
Du Fu not only wrote from Dongting to the land south of the Yangtze River, but also from the land south of the Yangtze River to the heaven, earth, sun and moon. Describing Dongting Lake from this extremely broad perspective shows Dongting from a larger spatial range. The magnificent atmosphere. This is of course related to Du Fu's embrace. Throughout his life, he "looked at the people's livelihood, and cared about the kingdom" (Yang Lun, "Preface to Du Shi Jingquan"). He always kept the safety of the people and the fate of the country at heart. Therefore, he saw not just a Dongting, but the entire Wu Chu and even the universe; he has not only himself in his heart, but the people of the world. This makes his two lines of poetry even more impressive and earth-shattering compared to Meng Haoran's two lines of poetry. Therefore, "The Poems of the Western Qing Dynasty" says that these two sentences are "very different from those of other scholars", and the difference is "I don't know how many clouds of dreams Shaoling swallowed in his chest."
Next, the poet changed his style, The scene description in the first four sentences shifts to the lyricism in the last four sentences. There is no news from relatives and friends, and the old and sick are alone in the boat. One "no" and one "have", and "one" means "solitary". The emotional color is particularly strong, and the wording and wording are very precise. Du Fu, who was fifty-seven years old at this time, was old and sick, homeless, and his later life was miserable. In the vast world, the poet feels his loneliness. Thinking of the long road of life and the hardships he has experienced, he feels even more sad and heartbroken. This includes the poet's painful recalling process of the past. Huang Sheng said: "The description of the scene is so vast, the self-narration is so lonely, the poetic realm is broad and narrow, and the mood is different" (Volume 3 of Pu Qilong's "Reading Du Xinjie"), pointing out the ups and downs of the poet's emotions and the ingenuity of the poet's expression techniques. The poet uses this sharp contrast between width and narrowness to describe his ups and downs more prominently. As Pu Qilong said: "If it is not wide, the narrow place will not be bitter. If it is narrow, the wide place will be empty." The effect of contrast. This couplet shifts from description of scenery to lyricism, from what is seen to what is felt, from broad to narrow, from the joy of arrival to the desolation of life experience. The structure is rigorous, layer by layer changes, and step by step deepens, showing Du Fu's skillful poetry. Performance skills.
In the last couplet of the poem, the poet jumps from the narrow to the broad, from the individual to the country. The Anshi Rebellion in the past ten years has caused huge losses to the country and the people. Since then, foreign tribes have invaded, feudal vassal towns have been separated, and the people have been in dire straits. How can the poet not be worried? In August of this year, Tubo invaded, the capital was under martial law, troops were stationed on the border, and wars were frequent. In June of the same year, Youzhou military envoy Zhu Xicai and others caused a rebellion, killed Jiedu envoy Li Huaixian, and claimed to be a queen, forcing the court to recognize it. This is the historical fact of the so-called "army and horse pass through the north of the mountain".
When the poet thought of this, he couldn't help crying. Among these tears, there is nostalgia for relatives and friends, sadness of old age and loneliness, worry about the future of the country, and self-mourning for not being able to serve the country. In the last couplet, the poet expanded from the individual to the country. The five words "Rongmaguan Mountain North" reflect that the poet has the people and the country in his heart, and his mind is extremely broad. It is harmonious and unified with the vast and majestic atmosphere of Dongting Lake, so that the emotion and the scenery complement each other.