Wang Changling (AD 698-757), courtesy name Shaobo, was born in Jinyang, Bingzhou (now Taiyuan, Shanxi), and was a famous frontier poet in the Tang Dynasty. He has many poems that have been handed down to later generations, the famous ones include "Leaving the Fortress", "Joining the Army", "Farewell to Xin Jian at the Furong Tower" and so on. The eternal famous line "A heart of ice is in the Jade Lake" comes from the poem "Farewell to Xin Jian at the Furong Tower".
There are two poems in "Farewell to Xin Jian at the Furong Tower":
The first one
I entered Wu in the cold and rainy night, and I saw off my guest in Chushan in the clear day. . Relatives and friends in Luoyang ask each other like a heart filled with ice in a jade pot.
Second
The south of Danyang City is cloudy in autumn and the sea is dark, and the north of Danyang City is deep in Chu and clouds. Don't get drunk when seeing off guests in a high-rise building. The moonlit heart of the cold river is lonely.
Translated into modern Chinese, it means: Cold rain fell all night long across Wu, and at dawn, we bid farewell to the distinguished guests under the lonely shadow of Chu Mountain. Precious guest, after you arrive in Luoyang, if your relatives and friends ask about me, just say that my heart is still as pure as the ice in the jade pot, and has not been tainted by fame and wealth.
Looking to the south of Danyang City, I saw only cloudy and rainy confusion; looking to the north of Danyang City, I only saw deep clouds in the Chutian sky. When bidding farewell to guests on a high-rise building, you cannot get drunk while drinking. Only the bright moon hanging high on the cold and silent river illuminates my heart.
Notes:
Furong Tower: In the northwest corner of Qianyang County, Hunan Province today, Wang Changling often entertained guests here when he was appointed Long Biaowei.
Wu: Soochow during the Three Kingdoms period. At that time, all of Hunan was the land of Soochow.
Chu: During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Hunan and Hubei belonged to the Chu State, and the latter two provinces were both called Chu.
Danyang: Danyang was the earliest capital of Chu State. Regarding the location of ancient Danyang, modern academic circles have theories such as the Danjiang source water, Dangtu theory, Zigui theory, Zhijiang theory, and Danxi theory. During the reign of King Zhao of Zhou Dynasty, he repeatedly sent troops to conquer the south, forcing the Chu people to migrate down the Danjiang River Valley. Decades before the arrival of King Zhou Yi, the Chu people finally established the new capital Danyang at the "Meeting of Dan and Xichuan" in the lower reaches of the Danjiang River (now in Xichuan, Henan). Chu people missed their homeland and named their new capital based on the theory of "mountains and rivers are yin and yang, and the water north is yang", which is the theoretical basis of Danxi theory. Today we can understand Danyang in the poem as Zhijiang County in Hubei Province along the Yangtze River.
The true story of "Farewell to Xin Jian at Furong Tower" is that in the seventh year of Tianbao (748 AD), Wang Changling was demoted from the prime minister of Jiangning (now Nanjing) to Longbiao (governing today's Huaihua City, Hunan Province). The general area under his jurisdiction, the administrative seat is in today's Qianyang County. Xin Jian, a confidant and friend, learned that Wang Changling, who had been unsatisfactory in his official career, had been demoted again, so he made a special trip from distant Luoyang to Longbiao to comfort him. It was a joy to have friends from far away. During those days, Wang Changling put aside government affairs and accompanied the distinguished guests from afar to visit the mountains and rivers in Longbiao and drink and compose poems at Furong Tower.
There is no such thing as a banquet in the world. It was time for Xin Jian to bid farewell to the poet and return to Luoyang. On a windy and cold rainy morning, Wang Changling bid farewell to his friend at the Qianyang Pier on the bank of the Yuanjiang River. The boat where his friend took the boat When he was about to leave the shore, the poet felt how lonely he was among the Chu Mountains. He shouted and told Xin Jian: If relatives and friends in Luoyang ask about me, just say that my heart is still as pure as the ice in the jade pot. , not tainted by fame and wealth!
A thousand pieces of gold are easy to get, but a confidant is hard to find. The two were inseparable by the river, so Wang Changling also boarded the boat and accompanied his friend all the way down the Yuanjiang River and through the Yangtze River to Danyang City (now Zhijiang County, Hubei Province). Xin Jian wanted to leave the boat and ride back to Luoyang by land. Wang Changling could not send him off again, so that night, the poet held a banquet in a large hotel in Danyang City. The poet was not drunk at the farewell banquet. He stared at the bright moon on the cold Yangtze River with his eyes.
Nowadays, when many people see place names such as "Wu" and "Danyang" in the poem, they take it for granted that the story takes place in Furong Tower, Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province today, and that it took place when he was in Jiangning. Around the year 727 of Cheng. In fact, Hunan was the land of Soochow during the Three Kingdoms period and also belonged to Wu; Jiangning (now Nanjing City) is 80 kilometers away from Zhenjiang. Now it takes more than an hour to drive on a high speed. Wang Changling and his friends who lived in the Tang Dynasty were not Maybe he often goes to Zhenjiang for banquets. Besides, today's Danyang County was not called this name in ancient times. In the Spring and Autumn Period, it was called Zhufang, Yunyang, Fengmei, Lanling, and Qu'a. In the first year of Tang Tianbao's reign, it was renamed "Danyang". In ancient times, only the Zhijiang area in Hubei Province was always called "Danyang". The poem "Chu Yun Shen is in the north of Danyang City" can better explain that Danyang is a territory of Hubei.
These bases, coupled with the local chronicles of Qianyang County, Hunan Province, confirm that the Furong Tower mentioned in the poem is not the Furong Tower in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, but the Furong Tower in Qianyang, Hunan Province.