From "Night Mooring on the Maple Bridge" by Zhang Ji of the Tang Dynasty
The moon is setting and the sky is covered with crows and frost, and the rivers, maples and fishing fires are facing melancholy.
At Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City, the bell rang at midnight to reach the passenger ship.
Translation
The moon has set, the crows are crows and the sky is filled with cold air. The maple trees on the riverside and the fishing fires on the boats make it difficult for me to sleep alone in sorrow.
The bells ringing in the middle of the night at the ancient Hanshan Temple outside Suzhou City reached the passenger ship I was traveling on.
The whole poem focuses on the word "sorrow". If "the moon sets, crows cry, and the sky is filled with frost" somewhat reveals desolation and desolation, then doesn't "Jiang Maple Fishing Fire" give the poet a little light and warmth? However, "Dui Chou Mian" stands out in front of people. The loneliness and loneliness of the journey arouse the poet's full melancholy. He also encounters the waning moon holding the mountain, crows crying sadly, and frost all over the river and sky. A confused, desolate and lonely background has been formed, which establishes the theme of "sorrow" in the whole poem. center tone. When people are in adversity (which can be tasted from the lines of the poem), what they hate most is the sadness of the scenery. The poet parked his boat under the maple bridge. He was already in a sad mood, but it happened to be the waning moon. Travelers (perhaps the author is not a traveler) often care about their families endlessly. It can be said that they are eager to return home and hope to reunite with their families. However, they are lonely in the boat and unable to leave. The waning moon may have given the poet an inexplicable foreshadowing, and it is also an ominous sign of the crow's cry! (When people hear the crow of a crow, people will associate it with something unknown) How can the flying frost in the sky not make the poet feel chilled?
"Jiang Feng fishing fire versus Chou Mian". The bright red maple leaves after frost and the dotted lights on the fishing boats present a hazy beauty in the frosty night, adding a bit of pleasing grace to this picture of the moonlit night on the Autumn River, and the scene has reached a state of flawless beauty. ! However, when the author focused on rendering the beautiful scenery of the Autumn River on a moonlit night, he drew the word "sorrow" in one stroke. Why is the author worried? How much sorrow do you have? The more beautiful the scenery, the stronger the emotion (sorrow). The poet faced the beautiful scenery, but he had no joy at all and was tossing and turning in sorrow. Why is this? Let's review the "moonset", "crows" and "frost-filled sky" mentioned above. As the saying goes, you are afraid of ghosts when it's dark. What is the "ghost" in the poet's mind? Is it the success and failure of his official career, the ups and downs of his official career? Or is it family troubles and separation of relatives and friends? It's not said in the poem, so we don't know. But the poet has no intention of enjoying the night scene and is lonely and unable to sleep. It is not difficult for us to imagine his sorrow. The depression is difficult to express, and it is indeed beyond words. From his fear of crows, we can tell that there must be something (or someone) in his heart that worries him, and even the crows of crows upset him. Frost is an integral part of the picture of the moonlit night over the autumn river painted by the poet. The jade-like flying frost gives people a sense of elegance and purity. However, when understood in conjunction with "Wudi" and "Shou Mian", this frost is a bit "bad". Since the poet was confused when he heard the crow of the blackbird, wouldn't the flying frost chill him? Being confused and upset was the reason for his "sleep". "Outside the Hanshan Temple in Gusu City, the bell rang for the passenger ship at midnight." It was eerily quiet at night, so quiet that it was difficult to fall asleep.
The scenery in the first part of the poem is very dense, with fourteen characters describing six scenes, but the second part is particularly sparse. The two lines of the poem only describe one thing: the night bell of Wowenshan Temple. This is because the most vivid, profound and poetic impression that the poet got while staying at Maple Bridge at night was the midnight bell of Hanshan Temple. Scenes such as the setting moon, the crow of the blackbird, the frosty sky and the cold night, the river maple fishing and the fire, the lone boat and the passengers, etc., have shown the characteristics of Maple Bridge Night Mooring in all aspects, but they are not enough to fully convey its charm. In the dark night, human hearing rises to the top of the list of perceptions of external things and scenes. And the sound of bells in the quiet night leaves a particularly strong impression on people. In this way, the "midnight bell" not only brings out the tranquility of the night, but also reveals the depth and loneliness of the night, and the poet's various indescribable feelings while lying listening to the sparse bells are all self-explanatory.