The autumn night is about to dawn, and I feel the coolness when I step out of the fence
Era: Song Dynasty Author: Lu You Genre: Qijue
Thirty thousand miles of river flows eastward into the sea, and thousands of Renyue climbs to the sky.
The remaining people shed tears in the dust and looked south to the king's division for another year.
Notes
[Creative background] Sixty-eight-year-old Fang Weng has been back to his hometown in Shanyin for four years. But the peaceful village life cannot calm the old man's heart. Although it was early autumn at this time, the heat was still severe. The hot and oppressive weather and the burning in his heart prevented him from sleeping peacefully. At dawn, he stepped out of the fence to relieve the heat and sadness, and wrote two poems. Here is one of them.
[Content Analysis] At the beginning of the poem, the sky burst into the sky, and the atmosphere was severe. Mountains and rivers are originally immobile, but the use of the words "ru" and "mo" makes people feel that the Yellow River and Huashan are not only majestic, but also alive. But how can one not feel extremely indignant when a great country falls into the hands of an enemy? These two sentences have a broad and deep artistic conception and neat contrast.
The word "end" in "The tears of the remaining people are all in the dust" contains infinite bitterness. I have shed tears for more than sixty years, how can I not stop crying? But even if "eyes are dry and blood will eventually see," those remnants who cherish their homeland still look to the south; the dust raised by the golden cavalry can't stop them from looking forward to the king's master. With "Hu Chen" as the background of "End of Tears", the emotion becomes even more painful.
In the concluding sentence, "Wang Wangshi has been to the south for another year." The word "again" expands the upper limit of time. The remnant people waited hard year after year, but the road was far away and the mountains were far away. How could they know that the monarchs and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty had completely forgotten them! The poet wrote about the bitter hope of the survivors in the North, but he was actually expressing his own disappointment. The whole poem uses the word "hope" as its eye, expressing the poet's hope, disappointment, and ever-changing mood. This is a tragic and profound voice. The poem is majestic, serious, desolate, sad and indignant, and it is inspiring to read.
Lu You was a patriotic poet in the Southern Song Dynasty. Facing the era of drastic changes when the motherland was divided, he had early ambitions to serve the country. In his middle age, he joined the army in the southwest. The magnificent real world and the enthusiastic battlefield life greatly broadened his poetic realm. Just as he recalled in "Shi Zi Dun", "I started to realize something in my middle age, and gradually wanted to see the grandeur"; as he said in "Reading Poetry Manuscripts on the Night of September 1st and Composing Songs with Impressions", "The poet suddenly saw Samadhi, and Qu Jia was there. Eyes are on the Yuan calendar; heaven’s secrets and cloud brocade are used by me, and the beauty of tailoring is not a knife or ruler.” Naturally, those who play with half-swallowing and half-sucking skills can't see the majestic rainbow and the magnificent clouds. In his later years, he retreated to Shanyin, but his ambition never faded, his iron horse was glacial, and he often fell into dreams. "The old man is in trouble, and his ambition is thousands of miles." He was infinitely indignant at the loss of the Central Plains, infinitely concerned about the fate of the people, and infinitely worried about the Southern Song Dynasty's ruling group's attempt to maintain peace and harm the country. The hatred is poured out freely in this four-sentence poem.
"River" refers to the Yellow River, the mother that nurtures the Chinese nation; "Yue" refers to the peaks and pillars that stand up to the sky, such as Dongyue Mount Tai, Zhongyue Mount Song, and Xiyue Mount Huashan. Towering mountains connect to Qingming; surging rivers rush into the sea. With two sentences, one horizontal and one vertical, half of China in the northern central plains is displayed in front of us in a clear, abrupt and boundless manner. The magnificent mountains and rivers symbolize the loveliness of the motherland and the people's perseverance, which have given readers rich associations. However, such mountains and rivers, and such people, have long been ravaged by the iron hoofs of the aristocrats of the Jin Dynasty. With the next two sentences, I suddenly felt that the storm was rising, and the poetic realm expanded in a more profound direction. The word "tears are gone" has been used thousands of times to fully express the heavy oppression suffered by the vast number of people in the Central Plains, the long process of torture, and the perseverance and urgency to restore their faith. Year after year they looked forward to the Southern Song Dynasty's Northern Expedition, but year after year this wish came to nothing. Of course, they kept looking forward to it. The people's patriotic enthusiasm is like a dancing flame suppressed in the ground, getting stronger and stronger over time; while the ruling group of the Southern Song Dynasty was drunkenly dreaming and dying by the West Lake, leaving behind the great rivers and mountains, the hatred of the country and the hatred of the family. It can be said that they have been dead for a long time. What a shame! Although the latter meaning is not explicitly stated in the poem, the strong critical spirit is clearly visible.
Volume 1 of Wang Fuzhi's "Jiang Zhai Poetry Talk" says: "Use happy scenes to describe sorrow, use sad scenes to write joy, and double the sorrow and joy." It points out that the dialectical blending of opposite scenes can multiply the intensity Art is contagious. Lu You's poem uses the wonders and beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers to set off the grief of China's Lu Chen, expresses the high sentiments of the broad masses of people, and satirizes the insensitivity of the rulers; it not only comprehensively and profoundly exposes the contradictions and conflicts of the society of the times, but also highly focuses on them. The earth is summed up in twenty-eight characters. Ideal and reality, love and deep anger are intertwined, and the inspiration they give people transcends the scope of time and space. How can it be limited by "hundred years" and "thousands of miles"? This kind of magnificent realm is rare in quatrains of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but it has been continuously developed in the writings of poets from the mid-Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty. It deserves our special attention and cherishment.