Jiang Shui is a poem written by Li Daoyuan, a poet in the Tang Dynasty. This poem shows the magnificence of the river and people's exploration and yearning for the mysterious unknown. The following is the original text and translation of Jiang Shui:
Original text:
The river is boundless like smoke, and the river boat shakes the world. If you want to ask Jiangchuanzi by boat, you may be an ordinary white deer fairy.
Translation:
The river is endless, just like elegant light smoke, and the river boat sways on the water and disappears into the sky. I want to ask the boatman by boat, but I am worried that he is just an ordinary white deer fairy.
This poem, with typical Tang style, outlines the vastness and grandeur of the river through concise language and profound artistic conception. The river is compared to endless smoke, giving people a mysterious and far-reaching impression. On this vast river, the boat swings forward, as if walking between water and sky, giving people a feeling of detachment from the world.
The poet got on the boat and wanted to ask the boatman everything about the river, but in the end he was worried that maybe the boatman was not an ordinary person, maybe the legendary white deer fairy, who didn't belong to this world and couldn't answer human doubts.
This poem has far-reaching artistic conception, which shows the poet's awe of nature and also expresses human's curiosity and exploration of the unknown world. Through the magnificence and mystery of the river, the poet expressed his reverence for nature, and at the same time, it also reflected the longing and yearning of human beings for the mysterious world. This feeling of exploring the unknown and pursuing miracles is a theme often discussed by ancient poets and an eternal pursuit of mankind.
Knowledge expansion:
Li Daoyuan (about 470-527) is good at writing. Han nationality, Fanyang Zhuozhou (now Zhuozhou, Hebei Province). Northern Wei geographer and essayist. My career was bumpy, but I didn't do my best. He has read many rare books. When I was young, I went to Shandong with my father to seek waterways. Later, he traveled the Qinling Mountains, north of Huaihe River and south of the Great Wall, inspected rivers and ditches, collected relevant customs, historical stories and myths and legends, and wrote 40 volumes of notes about water mirrors.
The writing style is meaningful and vivid, which is not only a colorful geographical work, but also a collection of beautiful landscape prose. It can be regarded as the pioneering work of China's tourism literature, which has a great influence on the development of later tourism prose. In addition 13 local chronicles and 7 appointments have been lost.