Poet Wang Jiangning —— On Wang Changling's Seven-character quatrains
Wang Changling (698-757) was born in Jiangning (now Nanjing). Chang 'an, Shaanxi, a famous poet in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, made great achievements in the seven wonders. At that time, it was called "Wang Jiangning, the sage of poetry", but in the Ming Dynasty, critics called his seven-character quatrains "divine products" and thought they could keep pace with Li Bai's four-line quatrains. Li Panlong, a poet and poetry critic in Ming Dynasty, even "absolutely" Wang Changling's Bunker (Yue Ming in Qin Dynasty and related surname in Han Dynasty) when commenting on the quatrains in Tang Dynasty. Poets and song anthologists have been full of praise for his works, so Wang Changling's works will not fail if he chooses the Seven Wonders instead of the Seven Wonders of the Tang Dynasty.
There are more than 180 poems by Wang Changling. The Complete Poems of Tang Dynasty contains four volumes of his poems, including 80 quatrains in seven words. Nearly half of his poems. Generally speaking, his seven poems can be divided into two categories. One is to sing the homesickness of frontier men, and the other is to describe women's lives from different angles. These two kinds of poems are not only numerous, but also "pressure works" in his poetry collections.
The frontier poems in Tang Dynasty are complex and magnificent. For example, Dai Shulun, a mid-Tang poet, wrote two poems: "If you want to serve your country, why should you be born in Yumenguan?" . He wrote about the loyalty and patriotism of soldiers; There is also a gloomy side, such as: one of Wang Changling's "Joining the Army", "The new sound of pipa dance is always different from the mountains, stirring up sorrow and playing endlessly, and the autumn moon shines on the Great Wall." This poem tells us: under the rule of feudal dynasty, the life of the army was so miserable and the time to give it away was so long; How urgent it is for people to miss home and how sympathetic it is to feel helpless; At the same time, there are also anti-war voices. For example, in Midnight Wu Ge, Li Bai shouted, "Oh, when will the Tatar army be conquered and when will my husband return from the long battle!" These are different reflections of the reality of that era.
Frontier poems in Tang Dynasty not only have rich social content, but also are incomparable in quantity and genre in any dynasty. Because the poets live in different times and environments, their poetry contents and styles are also different. Among the poets who describe frontier fortress life, Cen Can pays more attention to the vivid description of frontier fortress life and scenery beyond the Great Wall. He wrote in "Journey to the West in Sichuan": "Look at the snow rushing to the Mahe River! And sand, from the desert, yellow flies to heaven. In the ninth month, the cold is blowing in the wheel tower and the valley. The valley is full of broken boulders like pecking rice. They go down and forward with the wind ... General of China Army, start your battle! Wear your armor all night. March in the middle of the night, and the sharp wind tip cuts the face like a knife. " It depicts the strange scenery of the northwest battlefield and the fighting life of the soldiers in the army with rough brushstrokes, full of heroic spirit, while the poem of the poet William Wang is full of magnificent words, among which the song "Nocturnal glass of grapes and wine, I want to drink pipa and immediately lie drunk on the battlefield, you don't laugh, and I have fought several times since ancient times" shows his high-spirited mood at that time, which is highly artistic. Wang Changling, a magnificent seven-legged master, is good at depicting the thoughts and feelings of characters and exposing the inner world of pursuers. His frontier poems mostly show soldiers' patriotic contributions and homesickness.
Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods were the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. At this time, the territory, from the west to the west of the jungle, was called the Western Regions in ancient times. The Tang Dynasty set up Anxi Prefecture in this area. Today, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and parts of the Soviet Union are under its jurisdiction. This area was the most hotly contested area between the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo people. In order to resist foreign aggression, the Tang Dynasty sent a large number of troops to defend here, and equipped them with the "Shenwei Army" and Wang Changling's "joining the army" such as:
"Qinghai Yunchang Snow Mountain is dark, and the lonely city looks at Yumenguan.
Huang Sha, dressed in golden armor, fought in hundreds of battles, but Loulan did not break back. "
-"Join the Army"
"The bright moon in the Qin Dynasty, the retreat in the Han Dynasty, and the Long March did not return.
But make Longcheng fly, and don't teach Huma to cross the Yinshan Mountain. "
-"plug"
This is the poet's praise for the warriors at that time. In order to safeguard the unity of the country, when they fought bravely, they were optimistic and energetic, determined to fight bloody battles to the end, and "did not teach Huma to cross the Yinshan Mountain". It shows the heroic spirit of Pentecostal soldiers who swear to the death of the motherland. However, the poet did not write the life of fighting as superficial optimism. But it points out the hardship of the environment. Qinghai, the desert grassland is so dark, and Wangmen Pass is far from here. The environment is so hard, Pentecostal soldiers have a firm belief that they will not return the Loulan until it is broken. In this way, the poem is full of lofty sentiments, thus showing the strong belief and heroism of Pentecostal soldiers.
However, fighting life is more than this. Wang Changling's frontier poems mainly describe the misfortune of soldiers before and after the battle and the frontier worries that soldiers will have for a long time. Appeal for them, appeal for them: "The elm leaves in Guancheng faded early, the ancient battlefield in Shali, the tomb of Japan, please return to the army to hide the dust and bones, and don't teach soldiers to fight against the dragon shortage" (joining the army) is to complain for those soldiers who have fought on the battlefield, and they have ended up in a bad end and naked wilderness. And "Why did the general go as far as xiang yuan when he broke Haimen" (Deputy History of Tao) was complaining about the soldiers who had "many meritorious deeds" (the next Song Dynasty). When he wrote about the homesickness of the recruiter, it was even more warm and touching. It is really "climbing mountains is affectionate, watching the sea is affectionate." These poems often express emotions with scenery, which is extremely euphemistic and moving. In the poem, "The bonfire is 100 feet west of the city, sitting alone in the evening sea breeze, playing the Qiang flute, and there is no Wan Li who is worried about gold" (one of "Joining the Army"), the poet uses the technique of melting scenery into emotion, and the high-rise evening sea breeze sets off the feelings of Wan Li acacia born of music. But the poet did not directly write about his wife's nostalgia for the distance here, but wrote about his wife's conquest and expedition in the golden boudoir in reverse. This kind of "contrast" technique is too expensive to cover and inexhaustible. They are not written on the front, but on the back; Don't write on this side, write on the opposite side, and be sure to be beautiful. In another song, "Pipa Dance's new voice always closes the mountain, stirs autumn colors, and shines on the Great Wall in high autumn", the poet captures a fragment and a shot of the life of the sergeant guarding the frontier fortress, and sets off the parting thought of music with the desolate scenery of the Great Wall on a moonlit night, thus vividly presenting the boring life and ideological boredom of the sergeant guarding the frontier fortress to people. The artistic effect of Wang Guowei's "thorns on earth" is really superb.
Wang Changling's poems describe women's lives from different angles. Most of the girls and young women in his works are gentle and naive. Two famous poems, "Picking Lotus Songs" and "Waving Yarn Girl", vividly describe the touching scene of women gathering by the pool and washing yarn by the stream in the bright spring season. Look, they are wearing beautiful clothes. (Lotus leaves and skirts are cut in the same color) Naively chasing and playing with each other in the pool (you can't see them when you enter the pool), but to the extent of "wetting the lotus boat", they even forgot to go home because of the gorgeous beauty of the lotus and the joy of young women and young women getting together, and they (picked it up and sent it home) went back very late, which was really happy. Wang Changling's poems, just like the innocent girls he described, are unpretentious and elegant, giving people a fresh and beautiful feeling when reading them.
From "in my heart forever", we can see that the poet expressed sympathy for women who were ruled by feudal ethics in feudal times and even dared not express their thoughts and feelings. However, the poet did not express this feeling directly, but skillfully expressed his sympathy for them through the image of this young woman in a boudoir on the Cuilou, and the moment when she "suddenly met a stranger" and "regretted calling her husband to look for prints".
At the same time, Wang Changling also used another color to describe the experience and mood of women in the palace. In feudal society, the experiences and fates of those isolated women in the palace were different. Favored, honorable, exquisite, out of favor, sad and disappointed. It can be described as follows: on the one hand, it is the infinite joy of "Pingyang song and dance is the new favorite and Huangwaichun is the gift" (Spring Palace Song) and "The Fifth Song of Changxinqiu"; On the one hand, it is "the jade pillow in the smoke cage has no color, and the Nangong leaks in autumn" (one of Chang Xin's autumn words) and "the moon hangs in the air and waits for Junshan" ("West Palace Autumn Complaint"). It is from these subtle feelings of daily life that Wang Changling reminds the ladies-in-waiting of their long and profound inner pain. "As soon as the broom was turned on, the round fan drifted temporarily." The Back of Western Western jackdaw in Two Poems (Long Xinqiu's Ci) brings the shadow of sunshine, and the lights of the Western Palace banquet after the dream are intertwined with the hopes and disappointments of the ladies-in-waiting. Here, the poet wrote his sadness and hatred for those women who were deprived of happiness and youth with sad brushstrokes, which profoundly reminded the rulers of their brutal crimes, so we said that his "palace words" tone was sad.
In addition, some of Wang Changling's farewell poems are also excellent, such as Two Farewells to Xin Jian in Furong Inn, and Seeing the Wood off at the Palace Que, which can be said to be his representative works.
Seven-character quatrains originated from folk songs, and there were rhyming seven-character poems as early as the Wei and Jin Dynasties. For example, Traveler Song and Yuzhou Song, however, until the early Tang Dynasty, and even the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the number of poems gradually increased, with occasional excellent works, but the overall achievement was not high. None of the four wonders was the most expert and accomplished Rainbow Changling, and Wang Changling was good at capturing typical scenes; Good at generalization and imagination. His four quatrains are round and subtle, with harmonious syllables and natural style. Can show vivid and poetic pictures in a short form.
From this point of view, Wang Changling's reputation as "the poet king Jiangning" at that time was worthy of the name; It is also well-deserved to be praised as a "seven-legged master" by later poetry critics.