-Comparison between Du Fu's Ascending the Mountain and Eight Poems of Autumn Prosperity (Part I): "Dew the withered maple forest"
Yulu withered maple forest, Wushan Wuxia bleak. Between the river and the sky, the waves are rough and the clouds are covered with fog.
Cong Ju shed tears the other day. She was alone in the boat. Cold clothes push knives and rulers everywhere, and Baidicheng is anxious.
-"Eight Poems of Autumn Prosperity" (I)
The wind is fast and high, the ape cries sadly, and the birds are circling in the white sand. The endless trees are rustling leaves, and the Yangtze River is rolling unpredictably.
Li in the sad autumn scenery, a wanderer all the year round, lives alone on the high platform in today's illness. After all the hardships and hatred, the white hair is full, and the wine glasses are damaged.
-"Up the Mountain"
These two seven-character poems are called "masterpieces", both of which were written by Du Fu when he lived in Kuizhou (fengjie county, Sichuan). It is generally believed that they were written in the second year of Tang Daizong Dali (767), when Du Fu was 56 years old.
During the Anshi Rebellion, there was a famine in Shanhaiguan. Du Fu abandoned his official position and went to Sichuan with his family. He worked as an aide under Yanwu's account, and built a thatched cottage beside Huanhuaxi in Chengdu, where he lived a relatively stable and peaceful life for several years. When Yanwu died in 765, Du Fu lost his dependence. He soon left Zhongshu and began his wandering career again. In the spring of the first year of Dali, Du Fu came to Kuizhou. His future was uncertain, and his old illness recurred, so he had to settle down and recuperate with the help of his friends. Kuizhou is located in the western section of the Three Gorges, surrounded by mountains and waters, with magnificent terrain. When the next autumn came, Du Fu was still trapped in the mountain city, and he felt very sad at that time. He wrote this poem "Ascending the Mountain" and created a group of famous poems entitled "Eight Poems of Autumn Prosperity", and we choose it here as the first poem with the nature of initiation (hereinafter referred to as "Autumn Prosperity").
The unique scenery of Kuizhou in September is vividly expressed in these two poems. Sadness for autumn and sorrow for guests constitute the same emotional theme in these two poems. Basically, the first four sentences of the two poems describe the scenery, while the last four sentences are lyrical and similar in structure.
These two poems capture the geographical and seasonal characteristics of Kuizhou. By describing a series of representative scenery such as mountains, Yangtze River, fierce wind and fallen leaves, they highlight the lofty trend and desolate atmosphere, and their artistic conception is bold and broad. Moreover, both poems are written in the scenery of the first sentence, which sets the emotional tone for the whole poem: "Autumn Prosperity" begins with "Dew withers and hurts maple trees", and the word "injury" not only shows the natural phenomenon that maple leaves gradually lose their vitality under the action of autumn cold dew, but also reflects the tourists' inner sadness through the visual impact of maple leaves turning from green to red; "The five Gorges of the Three Gorges in Badong are long, and the apes cry three times, with tears in their skirts." The poem "Up the Mountain" begins with the unique cry of apes in the Three Gorges area, wandering in the wind under the high sky. The "sorrow" of the ape-man also tells the inner sorrow of the listener. Ordinary people will inevitably feel sad when climbing mountains in autumn, not to mention the poet's status as a stranger and his sick and lonely situation! Therefore, the second half of the two poems all boils down to yearning for hometown: "the heart of hometown" and "frequent visitors". The sadness of feelings and artistic conception are almost perfectly expressed in two poems.
The writing background, thoughts and feelings of these two seven laws are very close, and the artistic level is comparable. After careful comparison, we still find that they are different from each other and have their own characteristics.
Generally speaking, Qiu Xing, as the first poem in a group of poems, pays more attention to covering this group of poems with "qi" and deliberately creates a vague and broad trend; Up the Mountain focuses on the description of artistic conception and material state. Therefore, whether it's scenery description or lyricism, the sense of hierarchy is extremely distinct, both delicate and generalized, showing the characteristics of "accommodating Wan Li between square inches". Specific can be compared from the following two aspects:
Description of scenery. "Autumn is Prosperous" takes a wide-angle lens to take a big scene (maple grove, gorge, waves and clouds) and splashes large color blocks (first frost maple dew, sky high and white waves, hanging clouds and high city twilight) to express the overall feeling brought by autumn (Xiao Sen spirit); In this background, a bunch of tearful chrysanthemums and a sad boat are set off by close-ups. "Up the Mountain" first depicts the close-ups of wind, sky, apes, Zhu, sand and birds with meticulous brushstrokes, and its shape, sound, color and state are shaped by words such as urgency, height, sadness, clearness, whiteness and flying. Howling apes and hovering birds don't remind people of poets in difficult situations. Next, we use freehand brushwork to render the vision: boundless yellow leaves rustle from top to bottom, and the Yangtze River rolls in from far and near, which has a great impact on Kuizhou Mountain City and the poet himself.
Judging from the tone of the whole picture, Prosperous Autumn tends to be gorgeous and sad, while Up the Mountain tends to be bleak and cold. From the dynamic and static point of view, Qiu Xing tends to be silent and more thought-provoking; Mountain climbing is more energetic and exciting. From the perspective of scenery description and theme relationship, Qiu Xing, from far to near, from outside to inside, conforms to the characteristics of the topic. As the first chapter of a group of poems, it emphasizes the interest caused by autumn atmosphere; Climbing the mountain, from near to far, from inside to outside, conforms to the order of climbing and watching, and euphemistically conveys the poet's subjective intention of depression and despair, hoping to get rid of it through climbing.
Differences in emotional expression. The emotional content of Qiu Xing is relatively simple, and "hometown heart" can be said to be the crowning touch of the whole poem. With this as the core, the first half of the poem depicts exotic scenery, but the sight and mind are tied to the chrysanthemum and the lonely boat. These two gorgeous and sparse images are not only real images, but also illusory images, which are condensed with deep feelings. In this state of mind, the poet thinks that the cold clothes are in urgent need of mending, and the sound of anvil in the dusk is urgent, which pushes the feelings of missing hometown to the depths and reaches a climax. Although the theme of the poem Ascending the Mountain is also the sorrow of the journey, the emotional expression is extremely complicated. "I came from three thousand miles away. There are eight meanings between the fourteen words: Wan Li exaggerates the depth of grief from a distance; Sadness for autumn, highlighting the sadness from the season; Guest residence shows the poet's wandering life state; Being a guest often pushes the feeling of wandering to the extreme; For a hundred years, write your own old state; Sick, write about the pain of aging; On the stage, ask questions, climb the highlands of the Double Ninth Festival, and look forward to your hometown; A person on the stage, the performance is unaccompanied loneliness. He is in a difficult state, down and out, and has given up drinking because of illness. The poet's sorrow is so hard to see!
Comparing the characteristics of emotional expression between these two poems, we can find that Autumn Xing is more vivid, with a bunch of chrysanthemums swaying with tears and a lonely boat tied to the heart, expressing the poet's urgent mood of returning to a beautiful home; "Ascending the Mountain" is a condensed summary. The poet transcends time and space, and abstracts the worries of home and country and the feeling of life experience into immortal famous sentences. From the ideological level and expression techniques, it is indeed an unprecedented work, and it deserves to be called "the first of the seven laws of ancient and modern times."