The ice has just begun to form under the Tianjin bridge, and the meaning of the pedestrians on the roads in Luoyang is introduced as follows:
Not long after the ice has just formed under the Tianjin bridge, there are almost no pedestrians on the roads in Luoyang.
From "Evening View of Luo Bridge" by Meng Jiao of the Tang Dynasty
Appreciation: This sentence describes the bleak atmosphere in early winter: the ice has just begun to form under the bridge, there are no pedestrians on the road, and the leaves and branches are bare. The elms and willows cover the quiet towers and pavilions, everything is silent and there is no sound.
"Evening View of Luo Bridge"
The ice has just begun to form under the bridge in Tianjin, and no one can walk on the road in Luoyang;
The elms and willows are sparse, the pavilions are idle, and the moon is clearly visible. Snow in Songshan Mountain.
Notes
① Tianjin Bridge: Luo Bridge, located above the Luoshui River in the western suburbs of Luoyang, Henan Province today.
② Xiaoshu: describes the fallen leaves of trees.
③ Songshan Mountain: Located in the west of Henan Province, northwest of Dengfeng City, Henan Province, it is the middle mountain among the Five Mountains.
Translation
Not long after the ice formed under the Tianjin Bridge, there were almost no pedestrians on the road in Luoyang. The leafless elms and willows cover the quiet towers and pavilions. Everything is silent and there is no sound. Under the bright and quiet moonlight, I could see the white snow on Songshan Mountain at a glance.
Extended reading: Meng Jiao’s poetry
In terms of content, Meng Jiao’s poetry goes beyond the narrow subject matter scope of the Dali and Zhenyuan eras. Of course, the main theme of his poems is the resentment of middle- and lower-class scribes against poverty and hardship, which was determined by his life experiences such as repeated failures, hardships in official career, and the loss of a son in middle age; but he can still see it through his personal destiny. Some broader social life, and reflect these lives in poetry. Some of them expose and criticize the ugly phenomena in interpersonal relationships in society, while others sharply reveal the inequality between the rich and the poor.
For example, "The Song of the People in the Cold Land" contrasts "beating the bell in the high hall to drink, and hearing the firecrackers cooking at dawn" and "frost blows through the walls, and the pain is inescapable". "The Weaver Woman's Ci" describes The abnormal phenomenon of the weaver woman "how to weave silk and cloth, and wear blue woven clothes by herself". He often had deep psychological experiences when writing this kind of poems, such as the line "Those who are cold are willing to be moths and burn the flowers to death" in "The Song of the People in the Cold Land", which is indeed not comparable to those who generally record the sufferings of the people.
It should be said that after Du Fu, Meng Jiao once again used poetry to deeply expose the contradictions in society between rich and poor, and the great disparity between happiness and suffering. Meng Jiao also has some poems that describe ordinary human love, such as "Love Knot" about the love between husband and wife, "Xingshang" about the love between father and son, and "Wandering Son's Song" about the love between mother and son. These themes have been popular for a long time. ignored by poets.
Meng Jiao took over the retro banner from the Yuanjie faction and continued to promote his retro ideas in social and political thought. He promoted benevolence and morality, praised the ancient customs of Yao and Shun, and criticized the current trends and rebels. He always showed the posture of a stalwart gentleman and adopted an uncooperative attitude towards the current customs: "Shame and new learning travel, and I am willing to bring ancient farmers together." "Most of the bureaucrats and friends he made, such as Zheng Yuqing, were people who valued morality and adhered to ancient times.
The main content of what he boasted as "a gentleman's talent is a gentleman's knowledge," mainly lies in his willingness to not go with the current customs, but to pursue the old-fashioned way. His thoughts and actions of defending and practicing Tao are similar to the "Tao" advocated by Han Yu, and his living standards are exactly the practice of Han Yu's "Tao" in social life. Meng Jiao not only cherishes the ancient Tao in his life, but also aims to promote this "Tao" in his creations.
His creative purposes of "Building Feng Jiao" and "Proving the Rise and Fall" directly express Yuan Jie's principle of "the emperor's way of regulating chaos is based on the ancients' rules and satire", which is consistent with the Yuanhe era. Bai Juyi's creative theory of "There is no empty space in every article, and every sentence must be in compliance with the rules...but when the people are sick, I hope the emperor will know about it" is consistent with his mother's creative theory, "Articles are written according to the time, and songs and poems are written according to the event" .
Thus, although Meng Jiao did not directly participate in Han Yu's ancient prose movement, nor did he intervene in politics with his bluntly satirical poems under clear literary principles like Bai Juyi, he still followed the path of restoration from beginning to end. He went on the road of ancient times, rectifying the imperial court, chunhua folk customs, and revitalizing the poetry world, and restoring ancient times was his fighting religion and spiritual weapon on this road. He is an outstanding representative of retro thought. Therefore, in the mid-Tang Dynasty, an era of strong retro style, he received praises that would be impossible to achieve later.