Han Dynasty: Cao Cao
Hongyan goes out of the north of Saibei, no man's land.
Raise your wings for thousands of miles, and you can stop and walk alone.
Dieting south rice in winter and returning to the north in spring.
There is a canopy in the field that flies far away with the wind.
Long and old, long live is not equal.
How can this recruiter open the square!
Ma Rong can't untie the saddle, and his armor can't leave his side.
Ran Ran veterans, when will they return to China?
Dragons hide in deep springs, while beasts tread on Gorkon.
The fox died and returned to the first hill, but the hometown can be forgotten!
Translation of Quedong Xi Men Xing
Wild geese live in the northernmost part of Saibei, which is a desolate and uninhabited place.
Spread your wings for more than ten thousand miles, flying and inhabiting go hand in hand.
Eat rice in the south in winter and fly back to the north when spring comes.
There is a kind of grass in the field called Zhuanpeng, which always flies around with the wind.
From then on, I will leave my roots forever and never see each other again.
Poor expeditionary force soldiers, how to leave the square and go home?
A horse will never take off its saddle, and its armor will never leave its side.
As time goes on, people get old. When can we go back to our hometown?
The dragon hides in the abyss and the beast walks on the hill.
How can a person forget his hometown?
Notes on Xi Menxing in Quedong
Zhuanpeng: Erigeron breviscapus, a compositae plant, is often used in ancient poetry to compare the wandering life of husbands and wanderers who have left their homes.
Not quite: not satisfied, referring to erigeron and roots.
what can I do? Anyway, it means "pathetic" and "pitiful"
Andrew: No way. Go: leave, avoid.
Ran Ran (Republican): Gradually.
Deep spring: it should be an abyss. When copying ancient books, the Tang people often changed the word "Shen" to "Chun" to avoid the taboo of Li Yuan.
Beast: It should be "tiger". Li Hu, the father of Li Yuan in Tang Dynasty, often changed the word "tiger" to "beast".
When a fox dies, it will return to the first hill: Qu Yuan's Mourning says, "Birds fly to their hometown, and when a fox dies, it will return to the first hill". Shouqiu, walk to your own cave. It is an old proverb that the fox died on the first mountain. People should not forget their hometown.
The Creative Background of Quedong Xi Men Xing
According to textual research, this poem was written in Cao Cao's later years, that is, in 208 AD (the 13th year of Jian 'an in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty), after the defeat of Cao Cao and Battle of Red Cliffs. At that time, Cao Cao was 53 years old and getting older. Faced with the social reality that the cause of reunifying China has not been completed after repeated wars and defeats, he felt sad and thoughtful. However, he was not discouraged, and he still took it as his duty to unify the world. He is determined to recruit talented people and recruit them to make contributions. This poem is a new word written by Cao Cao based on an old topic.
Appreciation of Xi Menxing in Quedong
This poem is divided into four layers. The first six sentences are the first floor, describing the situation of Hongyan and the characteristics of migratory birds that come in spring and go in winter. The next four sentences are the second layer, which is a wandering sigh about the life experience of myself and my husband. Then six sentences are the third layer, writing that I feel that my great cause is unfinished, I have a long way to go, and I am getting old. The last four sentences are the fourth floor, describing that the dragon, tiger and fox never leave their old places and caves, which is inversely proportional to the displacement of conscripts and cannot go home. This poem begins with two groups of bi xing and ends with bi xing. The whole poem is harmonious and unified.
The first six sentences adopt the technique of comparison. At the beginning, the poet outlined the situation of Hongyan and the characteristics of migratory birds that come in spring and go in winter. Saibei and No Man's Land emphasize its loneliness, while Rain in Wan Li highlights the distance. Hongyan expedition to Wan Li, the peers are all of the same kind, in a lonely and desolate environment; They can only obey the arrangement of the festival. In severe winter, they fly to the south to eat rice, and in spring, they fly to the north and return. Their hardships are self-evident.
The second level is the sentence "There is a canopy in the field". Instead of getting down to business immediately after the competition as usual, the poet wrote that the grass drifted with the wind and could never return to his native land. "Quite" means meeting the old root. The artistic images of "Hongyan" and "Zhuanpeng" are quite different. Hongyan has a letter and returns according to the festival. Turning the tent without knotting, floating in the wind. However, it is essentially the same, and they all have to migrate thousands of miles away. In addition to the poem "Wan Li" in which the swan raises its wings, its sense of space distance is distinct and prominent; "Long live" can't return to its native land when it turns to Peng, and the dragon is extremely timely. But the two are intertextual, with a long journey and time, which is particularly emphasized by the poet.
After completing the continuous preparation, the third-level poem comes straight to the point, only writing a few six sentences about the husband-in-law, but covering all the contents of their difficult and miserable life: First, going to war, going to Wan Li, and defending the four directions; Second, the suffering of the expedition, the horse does not understand the saddle, and the armor does not leave the body; Third, age flies, and old age is coming; Fourth, I miss my hometown and return to life, just yearning. These aspects are closely related, and homesickness is the key. Only when his wish can't come true will his homesickness deepen day by day.
This layer vented the recruiter's deep sadness and hatred in his description of reality. Because in the first two layers, the poet has rendered the complex atmosphere by metaphor, the homesickness expressed in this layer is extremely real and strong. Although there are no subjective words such as sadness and bitterness, natural language can achieve more touching results.
"Long Zang Shen Quan" is the last layer of the poem. After describing the topic, the poet put pen and ink aside and used several metaphors such as dragon, beast and fox. The dragon hides in the deep spring, and the beast roams in Gorkon, each in his place, which makes the husband who has a home to return envious. "The fox died and returned to the first hill" quoted allusions to show that animals will never forget their homeland until they die, especially recruiters who are far away from home. The straight sentence "I can't forget my hometown" has a shocking power in the context of the whole poem.
The repeated use of metaphor in this poem brings artistic beauty to this poem. Although the homesickness complex in poetry creation is full of sadness and sadness, compared with dragons and beasts, sadness will not appear too soft, but will echo the vigorous and bright spirit, which is one of the characteristics of Cao Cao's poetry and the embodiment of the generous and sad characteristics of Jian 'an literature. The whole poem has no flowery words, only its simple language.
A Brief Introduction to the Author of Quedong Xi Men Xing
Cao Cao (155 -220 Gengzi in the first month), whose real name is Meng De, aunt Geely, born in Peiguoqiao (now Bozhou, Anhui), is of Han nationality. An outstanding politician, strategist, writer and calligrapher in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. After Cao Pi, the founder of the Cao Wei regime in the Three Kingdoms, proclaimed himself emperor, he was honored as Emperor Wu, with the temple name Taizu. Cao Cao is good at writing poems, expressing his political ambitions with great boldness of vision, generosity and sadness, and reflecting the miserable life of the people in the late Han Dynasty. Prose is also neat, which opens and prospers Jian 'an literature and leaves precious spiritual wealth to future generations. Historically, it was called Jian 'an Style, and Lu Xun rated it as "the founder of reforming articles". At the same time, Cao Cao is good at calligraphy, especially at carving grass. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Huaiguan named it a "wonderful flower" at the end of Shu.