Liu Fangping
Liu Fangping (date of birth and death unknown) was born in Luoyang, Henan Province today. Tianbao once took the Jinshi examination in his early days, but after failing the examination, he lived in seclusion on the banks of Yingshui and Ruhe rivers, and never became an official in his life. He showed talent when he was young. His poems are far-reaching and he is also good at landscape painting. He had good relations with Yuan Dexiu and Huangfu Ran, and often recited poems and composed poems. Most of the poems are about objects and scenery, and they are especially good at quatrains. They mostly write about the themes of love and homesickness. The ideological content is relatively poor, but they have high artistic quality. They make good use of the technique of embodying emotions in scenery and have endless implications. "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" contains one volume of his works.
Moonlight Night
Original text
The moonlight is deeper than half of the house, and the North Dipper is tilted to the south. Tonight, I know that the spring air is warm, and the sound of insects is new through the green window screen.
Translation
Late at night, the slanting moon shines on half of the houses, and the Big Dipper moves across the sky to the south and west. Tonight I feel the warmth of spring, and the sound of insects from outside the courtyard penetrates the window screen for the first time.
Appreciation
Liu Fangping was a less influential poet during the Tang Dynasty, and there are not many extant poems. However, there are several small poems in it that are clear, delicate, novel, meaningful and unique in style, and are worth savoring carefully.
The first two sentences focus on describing the tranquility of the moonlit night, giving people a poetic and picturesque feeling. In the middle of the night, the hazy moonlight shines slantingly on every house. At this time, half of the courtyard is filled with moonlight, and the other half is shrouded in night shadows. The contrast between light and dark here highlights the silence of the moonlit night and the emptiness of the courtyard. The second sentence shifts the reader's attention from "people" to the stars. The tilted Big Dipper and South Dipper make people visually feel the word "deeper". These two words also give the whole poem a special atmosphere and set the tone for the subsequent description of the scenery.
The last two sentences use the sound of insects as the description object, which is a different approach and unique. In the middle of the night, the crisp chirping of insects could be heard in the silence, which sounded so cheerful. Against the backdrop of the quiet moonlit night, the faint sound of insects was so eye-catching. The sensitive poet heard the news of spring: life began to sprout, and everything began to revive. And this reminds us of the scene of spring returning to the earth, which all stems from the poet's profound experience in rural life. The word "new" not only contains the freshness and joy of the poet after "knowing the warmth of spring", but also conveys the poet's deep love for rural life.