The famous sentence "Thousands of mountains and birds have disappeared, and thousands of people have disappeared" is wonderful in that it outlines the picture in just a few strokes, expressing the poet's fisherman-like spiritual sustenance.
Original text
Jiang Xue
Liu Zongyuan? [Tang Dynasty]
Thousands of mountains and birds have disappeared, and thousands of people have disappeared.
A man in a lone boat with a coir raincoat fishing fishing alone in the snow in the cold river.
Translation
On all the mountains, the birds have disappeared, and all the roads are deserted.
On a lone boat on the river, an old man wearing a straw hat was fishing alone in the wind and snow.
Notes
Jue: None, no.
Ten thousand paths: a virtual finger, referring to thousands of roads.
Human traces: human footprints.
Gu: Solitary.
Coir raincoat (suō lì): coir raincoat and bamboo hat Li: a hat made of bamboo strips.
Du: Alone.
Appreciation
Liu Zongyuan's landscape poems have a distinctive feature, that is, the objective realm is relatively secluded, while the poet's subjective mood appears relatively lonely, and sometimes even It can't help but be too lonely, too deserted, without any human atmosphere. This song "Snow on the River" is exactly like this. The poet only used twenty words to describe a quiet and cold picture: On the river covered with heavy snow, there is a small boat and an old fisherman, alone in the middle of the cold river. fishing.
What the poet shows readers is the following: the world between heaven and earth is so pure and silent, spotless and silent; the life of the fisherman is so noble, and the character of the fisherman is so aloof. In fact, this is a fantasy realm created by Liu Zongyuan out of his hatred of the Tang Dynasty society, which was declining day by day. Compared with the characters in Tao Yuanming's "Peach Blossom Spring", it is probably even more illusory and far away from the world. What the poet wants to describe in detail is extremely simple. It is just a small boat and an old fisherman wearing a raincoat and a hat, fishing on the snowy river, that's all. However, in order to highlight the main object of description, the poet did not hesitate to use half of the page to describe its background, and made the background as broad and broad as possible, almost to the extent of being boundless. The broader the background, the more prominent the main subject of description will be.
First of all, the poet uses the words "thousands of mountains" and "ten thousand paths" to set off the images of "lonely boat" and "solitary fishing" in the following two sentences. Without the words "thousand" and "ten thousand", the words "lone" and "lone" below would be bland and have no appeal. Secondly, the birds flying on the mountains and the traces of people on the road are originally very common things and the most general images. However, the poet put them under "thousands of mountains" and "ten thousand paths", and added the words "absolute" and "extinction", which gave the most common and general dynamics at once. It turned into extreme silence, absolute silence, forming an unusual scene. Therefore, the following two sentences were originally static descriptions, but because they were placed against this absolutely quiet and silent background, they appeared exquisite and translucent, animated, floating and active on the screen. It can also be said that the first two sentences are originally a distant view. According to the general understanding, it only needs to outline an outline, and there is no need to spend a lot of effort to carve it carefully. However, the poet happens not to handle it this way. It's like shooting a movie, using a close-up shot that is magnified many times to explain and reflect every corner of the background clearly. The more specific and detailed the writing, the more general and exaggerated it appears. In the last two sentences, the poet originally intended to highlight the object of description, but in the end, he used a long-distance lens to shrink it many times, giving the reader an ethereal, transparent, visible but inaccessible feeling. Only by writing in this way can we express the aloof and aloof thoughts and feelings that the author is eager to show readers, free from the secular and transcendent. As for the formation of this long-distance feeling, it is mainly caused by the author placing the word "snow" at the end of the whole poem and connecting it with the word "jiang".
The word "snow" covers the whole poem. "Thousands of mountains" and "ten thousand paths" are covered with snow, which makes "birds fly away" and "human traces disappear". Even the boat awning and the fisherman's coir raincoat were of course covered with snow. However, the author does not clearly connect these scenery with "snow". On the contrary, in this picture, there is only Jiang, only Jiang Xin. Of course, the river will not store snow or be covered by snow, and even if snow falls into the river, it will immediately turn into water. However, the author chose to use the three words "Hanjiang Snow" to link the two most distant images of "Jiang" and "Snow" together, which gave people a feeling of being relatively empty, distant and relatively distant. The feeling of zooming out, which creates a long-distance shot. This makes the main objects described in the poem more concentrated, clever and prominent. Because even the river seems to be full of snow, and even the places where there is no snow are full of snow, this completely describes the situation of heavy, dense, thick and thick snow, and makes the water and sky irrespective of each other. The vast atmosphere above and below is also completely highlighted. As for the use of the word "cold" above, it is certainly to point out the climate; but the poet's subjective intention is to quietly write about the spiritual world of the fisherman.
Just imagine, in such a cold and silent environment, the old fisherman was not afraid of the cold weather or the heavy snow. He forgot everything and concentrated on fishing. Although his body was lonely, his character seemed aloof and aloof, even a little awe-inspiring and inviolable.
This transformed and beautified image of the fisherman is actually the sustenance and portrayal of Liu Zongyuan's own thoughts and feelings. It can be seen that the three characters "Hanjiang Snow" are the "finishing touch". It organically connects the two parts of the whole poem, not only forming a condensed and summarized picture, but also shaping the fisherman's complete and outstanding character. image. Using specific and meticulous techniques to describe the background and using distant images to describe the main images; meticulous craftsmanship and extreme exaggeration are intricately unified in one poem, which is the unique artistic feature of this landscape poem.
Creative background
This poem was written when Liu Zongyuan was exiled to Yongzhou (805-815 AD). In the first year of Yongzhen reign of Emperor Shunzong of Tang Dynasty (805), Liu Zongyuan participated in the Yongzhen reform movement launched by Wang Shuwen group. The reform soon failed, and Liu Zongyuan was demoted to Yongzhou Sima and exiled for ten years. The oppression of the dangerous environment did not crush him. He showed the value of life and ideals and interests through poetry.
About the author
Liu Zongyuan (773-819), courtesy name Zihou, was a native of Hedong (now Yuncheng, Shanxi) in the Tang Dynasty. He was an outstanding poet, philosopher, and Confucianist with outstanding achievements. Politician, one of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Famous works include "Eight Notes of Yongzhou" and more than 600 articles, which were compiled into thirty volumes by later generations and named "Liuhe East Collection". Because he was from Hedong, he was called Liu Hedong, and because he finally became the governor of Liuzhou, he was also called Liuliuzhou. Liu Zongyuan was born in the Liu family in Hedong. He was called "Liu Liu" with Liu Yuxi, "Han Liu" with Han Yu, and "Wang Meng Wei Liu" with Wang Wei, Meng Haoran and Wei Yingwu. Liu Zongyuan wrote more than 600 poems and essays in his lifetime, and his achievements in writing were greater than those in poetry. There are nearly a hundred parallel prose pieces. The prose is highly argumentative, sharp and satirical.