The poem by Lieutenant General Ao Qiusi, a fisherman, who could not sleep at night, shed tears at the border: The Qiang pipes are long and frosty on the ground, people are sleepless, and the generals are white-haired and their husbands are weeping.
The scenery on the frontier fortress is completely different when autumn comes, and the geese flying towards Hengyang show no nostalgia. The mournful sounds from the borderlands came from all directions as the trumpets sounded. In the overlapping mountain peaks, long smoke rises straight up and the setting sun slants down the closed isolated city.
Drinking a glass of old wine and thinking about my hometown thousands of miles away, but Pinghu’s achievements have not yet been engraved on Yanran Mountain, and it is impossible to predict when he will return to his hometown. The Qiang people's flutes played melodiously, and frost covered the earth. Those on the expedition could not sleep, the hair of the generals and soldiers turned gray, and the soldiers shed tears.
The meaning of this poem is to describe the fishermen's longing for their motherland in autumn and the trouble of the border soldiers who cannot sleep at night. The poem expresses their deep affection for the country and concerns for the country's tranquility. Through tears shed on the border road, it shows the emotional ties between their loyal hearts and their motherland. The theme of the whole poem embodies the love, loyalty and concern for home, which makes people resonate and make people think.
From the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties to the early Northern Song Dynasty, the themes generally include singing and banquets, palace wealthy families, urban customs, and lovesickness. There are very few frontier fortress poems. Dunhuang poems include "Border Fortress Bitterness", "Long Sha Sai", and a few works such as Wei Yingwu and Dai Shulun's "Tiaoxiao Ling", but they have not become popular. Fan Zhongyan used his personal experience to describe the life in the frontier fortress, which opened up the eyes and ears of the world, and made frontier fortress poetry occupy a place in the world of poetry.
Life of Fan Zhongyan
Fan Zhongyan (1018-1097), courtesy name Wenzheng and nickname Qianli Dujuan, was a politician, writer, and military strategist in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was born in Shangqiu, Henan Province, and later became an important official and cultural celebrity in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Fan Zhongyan is famous for his integrity, elegance, talent and political wisdom. He has held official positions at all levels, such as political advisor, deputy envoy to the privy council, prime minister, etc. He strived for reform in the officialdom, advocated clean government, and led by example. He advocated the concept of cultivating oneself, managing one's family, governing the country, and bringing peace to the world, and focused on education, military reform, and agricultural development. His political achievements and contributions were widely recognized by later generations.