Yang Jiong
The flames of bonfires in Kyoto, Chang 'an City, crude gas oil.
Leaving the palace, the general will assume the command; Surrounding the enemy and attacking the city, the elite cavalry are extremely brave.
The heavy snow darkened the color; The wind roared and the drums rang.
I'd rather be a junior officer to fight for my country than a white-faced scholar who only engraved his chapter.
This poem borrows the title "Joining the Army" from the old Yuefu and describes the whole process of a scholar joining the army and fighting. There are only forty words, which not only reveal the psychological activities of the characters, but also render the environment and atmosphere, and the brushwork is extremely vigorous.
The first two sentences were written and reported, which aroused the patriotic enthusiasm of people with lofty ideals. The poet did not directly explain the military emergency, but said that "bonfires are shining in Xijing" and expressed the military emergency through the visual scenery of "bonfires". A word "photo" plays up the tension. "The grievances in my heart" are caused by bonfires. Every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the country, and he doesn't want to spend his youth between pens and inkstones anymore. A word "self" shows the scholar's sincere patriotic passion and writes the spiritual realm of the characters. The first two sentences explain the background of the whole event. The third sentence, "Zhang Ya resigned from Phoenix Que", describes the scene of the army resigning from Beijing. "Tooth Zhang" is a symbol of the emperor's transfer of troops. Divided into concave and convex parts, respectively in the hands of the emperor and the general. "Phoenix Que" is synonymous with the palace. The poet used the words "tooth Zhang" and "phoenix bird" here, which are elegant and steady, showing not only the lofty mission of going to war, but also the solemnity of the scene. In the fourth sentence, "The fighters rode around the Dragon City", it was obvious that Tang Jun had quickly reached the front line and surrounded the enemy's castle. The Fighter and Dragon City are relative, which shows the war atmosphere of enter the dragon. The word "circuitous" vividly depicts Tang Jun's military posture of encirclement and suppression of the enemy. Five or six sentences began to write about fighting, but the poet did not write from the front, but set it off through the description of the scenery. "The snow darkened the flag painting and the wind rang the drum." The first sentence starts from people's vision: heavy snow covers the sky, which makes the colorful paintings on the military flag look eclipsed; The last sentence begins with people's hearing: the wind whistling, intertwined with the majestic marching drums. Two poems, vivid and colorful, wonderful. The poet expresses himself in a unique way, symbolizing the "flag" and "drum" of the army, showing the brave and fearless spirit of the soldiers fighting the enemy in the snow and the tragic scene of bravely killing the enemy inspired by the drum. The last two sentences of the poem: "Better be a centurion than a scholar." Express the lofty aspirations and lofty sentiments of the scholars who joined the army to protect the border and defend the country. The hard and fierce fighting increased his love for this extraordinary life. He would rather gallop on the battlefield and fight to defend the frontier than be a scholar in his study.
This short poem tells the whole process of the scholar's joining the army. Being able to concentrate such rich content in a limited space shows the poet's artistic skill. First of all, the poet grasped the most representative fragment in the whole process and gave a general description of the image. As for how the scholar joined the army, how to bid farewell to his parents, wives and concubines, and how to March all the way, the poet omitted everything and did not write. Secondly, the poem adopts a jumping structure, jumping from one typical scene to another and developing by leaps and bounds. For example, just after the third sentence was written, the fourth sentence surrounded the enemy and then showed the scene of fierce fighting. But this kind of leap is very natural, and there is rich imagination space between each span. At the same time, this leaping structure makes poetry have a lively rhythm, such as turbulence on a cliff, giving people an indomitable momentum, effectively highlighting the strong patriotic passion of literati and the spiritual outlook of Tang Junbing.
The four outstanding poets in the early Tang Dynasty were very dissatisfied with the beautiful poetic style at that time. They have made fruitful explorations and innovations in the content and form of poetry, and Yang Jiong's poetic style is vigorous and passionate. Especially, it is not simple to write such a poem describing the battle of the golden drum in the form of strict rules. Generally speaking, only the two couplets in the middle are required to be couplets. Except for the first couplet, all the other triples of this poem are correct. Not only the sentence is correct, but also the same sentence, such as "Tooth Zhang" versus "Phoenix Que" and "Iron Ride" versus "Dragon City". The neat antithesis makes poetry more rhythmic and imposing, which is very valuable in the early Tang Dynasty.