From "The Song Under the Fortress" by Lu Lun, a poet of the Tang Dynasty
The grass in the dark forest is frightened by the wind, and the general draws his bow at night.
I looked for the white feather, but it was missing among the stone edges.
Appreciation
Lu Lun's "Songs under the Sai" is a group of six poems, each describing military camp life such as giving orders, hunting and defeating enemies, performing triumphs and celebrating achievements, etc. The words are full of praise. This is the second poem, describing the general's night patrol.
The first sentence writes that the general's night hunting place was a dark deep forest; it was already late at night, strong winds blew, and the vegetation was covered with vegetation. This not only explains the specific time and place, but also creates an atmosphere. Youbeiping is an area with many tigers. The deep mountains and dense forests are the hiding places of tigers, the king of beasts. Tigers often come out of the mountains at dusk and night. The dark grass in the forest is frightened by the wind. The word "scare" is not only natural Thinking of the tiger among them, it is about to emerge, exaggerating an extremely tense atmosphere, and also hinting at how vigilant the general is, paving the way for the next step of "drawing the bow".
The next sentence is the continuation of shooting. But let alone shooting, as far as shooting is concerned, this is not only because
it needs to rhyme, but also because hooking is a preparatory action for shooting. Writing like this can inspire readers to imagine and Understand how calm and calm the general is when faced with danger. After a moment of surprise, the general immediately nocked his arrows and fired his bow. His movements were quick and powerful but not hasty. He was both imposing and his image became more vivid.
The last two sentences describe the miracle of "No Stone Drinking Yu", which postpones the time until the next morning. The general searches for prey and finds that the person hit by the arrow is not a tiger, but a crouching stone. It makes people read and start. Surprised, and then sighed, it turned out that the arrow with a white feather at the end of the arrow shaft was missing from the edge of the stone and penetrated three-thirds of the way into the stone. This way of writing is not only more tortuous, with time and scene changes, but also dramatic. The "stone ridge" is the protruding part of the stone. It is unimaginable to drill the arrow into it. The mythical exaggeration paints the image of the poem with a romantic color. It is very enjoyable to read, and you only feel its wonderfulness without taking it seriously.
This frontier fortress poem tells the story of a general hunting a tiger. It is based on "The Biography of General Li" by Sima Qian, a scholar of the Western Han Dynasty, who recorded the deeds of the famous general Li Guang at that time. The original text is: When I went out hunting, I saw a stone in the grass. I thought it was a tiger and shot it. The stone was hit without the arrowhead (arrow). I saw it as a stone. ?
The first two sentences of the poem describe the occurrence of the incident: late at night, the mountain forest was dark, and suddenly a strong wind blew, and the grass was brushed and undulated; the frogmen were in a trance as they talked about their rising and falling. A white tiger pounced. At this time, the general was galloping past the forest. With his quick eyes and quick hands, he fully drew his bow and shot an arrow? When he arrived at the scene along the same route, he was shocked: in the bright morning light, he clearly saw that the thing he shot was not a tiger, but a huge rock. Squatting there in silence with fear, the white-feathered arrow actually penetrated deeply into the stone edge! Please note that the part where the arrow penetrated was not a stone hole, a crack, or a stone surface, but a narrow sharp protrusion. The stone edge - this requires so much arm strength and high martial arts skills!
Some people may ask, why didn't the general shoot the tiger and see the result immediately, and wait until the next morning? Original story I didn’t say that I didn’t know until the next day that the shot was a stone! This is the poet’s artistic treatment. First, this can show the general's confidence. He has always hit the target with perfect accuracy. Are you still afraid that it will not die this time and run away? Second, it can increase the intuitiveness of the image and allow people to see it more clearly. If you watch it that night, of course It can also be found that it was a misunderstanding, but it is difficult to achieve the vivid effect of the current scene.
Poetry pays the most attention to implication, and the most important thing is the meaning behind the words. When we see the description of the arrow hitting the stone in the poem, we will naturally think about it: What will happen if the tiger is really shot? What if the enemy soldiers and horses are shot on the battlefield? So, a general who is highly skilled in martial arts, brave and good at fighting. The image is like a horse, a horse and a bow, standing majestically in front of us.