Liu Kun was a patriotic general and poet in the late Western Jin Dynasty. There are only three extant Liu Kun poems, including "Song of Fufeng" and "Reply to Lu Chen", all of which were written during his later struggle against ethnic minority invaders. They reflect his ambition to serve the country and his grief and indignation that his ambition was unfulfilled. Zhong Rong's "Poems" said that his poems are "good at writing sad and cruel words, and they have a pure and refreshing spirit". Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long" also said that his poems are "elegant, majestic and windy." The strong desire to serve the country and the harsh real environment gave Liu Kun's poems a generous and sad style. In the poetry world at that time, his poems were unique. Jiang Yan's proposed composition attempts to reproduce this style characteristic of Liu Kun.
The title of the poem is "Shangluan", which is a common theme in Liu Kun's later poems. The first four sentences of the poem point out the chaos in the title of the poem: the Jin Dynasty suffered misfortune, foreign invasions, and the world was in chaos. In the north, Qin, Zhao, You, and Bing were in a state of division due to constant disasters and frequent wars. This is a summary of the situation in the Central Plains region at that time. Liu Kun's poem "Reply to Lu Chen" contains this line: "The misfortune has just begun to escape, the Yang Yao is in the sixth year, the Qianxiang tower is tilted, Kunyi's boat is overturned, there are violent disputes, groups of monsters are competing, the country is burning with fire, and the Chinese region is flooded. "This is where the first four sentences of Jiang Yan's composition come from.
The two sentences immediately following "Yi Yu" show Liu Kun's determination to serve the country: after enduring the favor of the Jin Dynasty, when the country suffers misfortune, he will naturally rise up and sacrifice himself for the country. In order to save the country from the war, Liu Kun fought hard and endured hardships. Even before he was killed, he still focused on fighting the invading enemies and ignored his personal safety. For the sake of the country, he did risk his own life.
Liu Kun was regarded as a hero when he was young, and he himself also had lofty ambitions. In his own poem "A Gift to Lu Chen", he listed Jiang Shang, Guan Zhong, Chen Ping, Zhang Liang Those who assisted the kings in establishing their achievements in ancient times expressed their ambition to establish their fame like them. Jiang Yan also chose a similar allusion to express Liu Kun's ambition in this proposed poem: "Six Magical Techniques" refers to Chen Ping's miraculous plan for Liu Bangliu, the founder of the Han Dynasty. Zhang Liang and Han Xin were Liu Bang's important advisers and generals. "Ji and Zhang Hanyu" have the same meaning as Liu Kun himself said "wanting to travel with Shuzi" ("A Gift to Lu Chen"), which shows that he hopes to establish the performance of the ancients. Ning Qi was a member of the Spring and Autumn Guard. Because his family was poor, he was helped to pull a cart. When he arrived at Qi, he buckled the horns of an ox and sang. When Duke Huan of Qi saw him, he thought he was a very good person and immediately appointed him. Using this allusion can show that Liu Kun envied the ancients for having the opportunity to display their talents. Xun Xi was the master of Xi Qi, the son of Duke Xian of Jin Dynasty. He once said that ministers should serve the emperor with loyalty. After the death of Duke Xian, Xi Qi became king. After Xi Qi was killed, Xun Xi committed his own life to fulfill his promise. Jiang Yan used this allusion to embody Liu Kun's dedication, and it was full of tragic colors. The country's turmoil and the deeds of the ancients inspired Liu Kun. The poem up to this point is emotionally impassioned.
However, starting from the second sentence of "empty order", the mood of the poem turns into a deep and sad mood, closely following the word "hurt" in the title. In Liu Kun's poem, the ambition to serve the country is intertwined with the sadness and indignation of the unfulfilled ambition, and the same is true in Jiang Yan's proposed poem. In fact, Liu Kun's failure to realize his ideal was not because he did not have the talents of the ancients, but because the current situation made it difficult for him to display his talents. Seeing the years passing by ruthlessly, the pain and anxiety in my heart are also increasing. Liu Kun's own poems mentioned the achievements of the ancients to express his ambitions, and to contrast the successes and fame of the ancients with his own nothingness to show his inner pain and grief. Jiang Yan had a deep understanding of this, so the allusions in the proposed work are very similar to the allusions in Liu Kun's "A Gift to Lu Chen".
The second half of the poem is about scenery and direct emotion. Liu Kun's "Song of Fufeng" also contains many scenes describing the miserable scenes he saw along the way when he went to Bingzhou to serve as governor, reflecting his heavy mood. Jiang Yan's proposed poem also absorbed this feature of Liu Kun's poems and inserted scenery-describing verses. The city, the desert, the white nothingness, and the cold trees present a desolate and desolate scene. The war made the poet feel heavy, but what made him even more angry was that his anti-enemy actions did not receive strong support from within the Jin Dynasty. Some of the rulers even acted in their own interests and did not want him to succeed, which made him often Fighting alone, he suffered repeated setbacks. The painting depicts the scene when the hero is trapped: he throws his arms and throws away his sleeves. This action reflects Liu Kun's inner strong grief and indignation. "Pushing the pillow" means that he is so worried that he can't sleep at night. "It is a pity that the fame has not yet been established, but the black hair has changed." Seeing the hair turn from black to white, but the fame is still not established, this is extremely painful for people with lofty ambitions. These two sentences are exactly the same as "Before the fame is achieved, the setting sun suddenly flows to the west" in "A Gift to Lu Chen". Finally, it concludes with "Every time has its own meeting, and ordering chaos can only be done by a certain number of times." Maybe we can be lucky and achieve something, but after all, there is not much hope. The order and chaos of the world are controlled by the destiny. The turmoil in the world arouses the ambition to serve the country, and the unfulfilled ambition arouses infinite grief and indignation. With no choice but to attribute it to fate, the last two sentences seem calm, but in fact they imply deeper sadness, and the tragedy becomes stronger.
Comparing this proposed poem with Liu Kun's three existing poems, we can find that the proposed poem is almost a condensation of Liu Kun's later poems. The whole poem is basically consistent with Liu Kun's own poems from the subject matter, thoughts and feelings, allusions, structure and layout to the use of words, and it is integrated without any sense of patchwork. Jiang Yan accurately grasped Liu Kun's psychological characteristics at that time and firmly grasped the pain caused by the conflict between ideal and reality as a clue to the ups and downs of the poetry's emotional development. Therefore, he successfully reproduced the unique thoughts, feelings and generosity of Liu Kun's poetry. Sad style characteristics.