Don Wang Zhihuan's "In the Lodge of the Heron":
The sun sets slowly near the western hills, and the Yellow River flows into the East China Sea.
By going up one flight of stairs, look further.
Interpretation of vernacular:
The sunset slowly sinks beside the western hills, and the Yellow River rushes to the East China Sea. If you want to see the scenery of Wan Li, you must climb a higher tower.
Extended information article appreciation:
The extraordinary ambition of the poet in this poem reflects the enterprising spirit of the people in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
The first two sentences of the poem are written and seen. "The Mountain Covers the Day" is about the view, the mountain and the scenery seen when climbing the building, and "The River with the Ocean Discharging Gold" is about the close-up view, the water is spectacular and magnificent. Here, the poet used extremely simple and plain language to capture the rivers and mountains of Wan Li in just ten words.
Later, when people read these ten words a thousand years later, they felt like they were underground. If they see the scenery, they will feel that their minds are open. Looking into the distance, a touch of sunset sank to the endless rolling mountains in front of the building and disappeared into Ran Ran at the end of the field of vision. This is the sky view, the distant view and the western view.
The second sentence is about the Yellow River flowing through the front and bottom of the building, roaring south, then turning east in the distance and flowing to the sea. This is from the ground to the horizon, from near to far, from west to east. When these two poems are combined, the scenery of up and down, far and near, and things are all contained under the pen, which makes the picture look particularly broad and distant.
As far as the second poem is concerned, the poet can't see the Yellow River entering the sea from the stork building. The sentence is written in the middle of the poem, which is a way to combine the foreground with the sky. This writing increases the breadth and depth of the picture.
Calling the sun "daytime" is a realistic style. The setting sun holds the mountain, and the clouds cover the fog. At this time, the brightness of the weakened sun is even dimmer, and the poet directly observes the wonders of the sun. As for the "Yellow River". Of course it is also realistic. It flies like a golden ribbon in the mountains.
Write the last two sentences. "But you have broadened your horizons by three hundred miles", a poet's endless desire to explore, wants to see further and see where his eyesight can reach. The only way is to stand higher and "walk up a flight of stairs".
It can be inferred from the second half of the poem that the first half was written on the second floor (not the highest floor), and the poet wanted to see the distant scenery as far as possible, and even climbed to the top floor of the building. The word "Lou" at the end also plays the role of a point, indicating that this is a poem about climbing stairs.
This poem seems to describe the process of climbing stairs straightforwardly, but its significance is far-reaching and people can explore it. "A thousand miles" and "the first floor" are imaginary numbers, which are both vertical and horizontal spaces in the poet's imagination. The words "to be poor" and "to be better" contain many hopes and longings.
These two poems are not only novel and unexpected, but also very natural and close to the first two poems, thus pushing this poem to a higher level and showing readers a broader vision. It is precisely because of this that these two sentences with simple philosophy have become famous sentences that have been passed down through the ages, and this poem has also become a swan song.
This should only mean that poetry should not be blunt, boring and abstract, not that philosophy cannot be revealed and promoted in poetry. Just like this poem, it perfectly dissolves truth, scenery and events, making readers feel comfortable instead of reasoning. This is a mode to express the philosophy of life through thinking in images according to the characteristics of poetry.
The writing of this poem has another feature: it is a quatrain full of antithesis. In the first two sentences, the nouns "daytime" and "Yellow River" are relative, the colors "white" and "yellow" are relative, and the verbs "one" and "ru" are relative. The last two sentences are the same, which constitutes a formal perfection.