Du Fu
I heard that Dongting Lake is magnificent before, but today's wish has finally reached Yueyang Tower.
The vast lake tore Wu Chu apart, as if the sun, moon and stars were floating in the water.
There is no news from my friends or relatives. I am old and sick, drifting in a boat.
The battle of the north gate began again, and I cried through the railing.
Appreciation of Du Fu's Poetry
In the spring of the third year of Dali (768), Du Fu wandered from Chengdu to Kuizhou (now fengjie county, Sichuan Province), then left East Sichuan, passing through Jiangling, Gongan and other places in Hubei, and moved to Yuezhou (now Yueyang City) in winter.
Climbing Yueyang Tower is the masterpiece of this issue.
This is a five-character poem. The first couplet is a set of strict sentences.
Yueyang Tower has a long-standing reputation. Du Fu "smelled" his name, but did not see it. Today, he not only saw it, but also "went up". That kind of joy can't help pouring into the poem. "Yesterday's news" shows that he longed for and yearned for a long time, and "Today's news" points out the joy of his desire. Generally speaking, there is no need to object to the first link of the five laws. The reason why poets use antithetical sentences is through this rigorous antithesis that they strongly contrast their own past lives and emphasize the joy of climbing stairs. Structurally speaking, this couplet cuts into the topic of poetry, resulting in the whole story about scenery and emotion.
Climbing Yueyang Tower is to enjoy the magnificent scenery of Dongting. Parallel couplets are closely linked to the "top" of the first couplet, and what you see after going upstairs is written. Dongting Lake is full of weather and infinite scenery, and the poet captures the most remarkable and typical feature of Dongting Lake-magnificence to describe it. The word "Huan" was written forcefully by the poet, as if the vast area of Wu Chu was torn by the waves of Dongting Lake, showing the majestic momentum of Dongting Lake. The word "floating" has a very obvious sense of dynamic. In the poet's pen, Dongting almost contains the whole world and dominates their ups and downs. The sun, the moon and the stars all rise and fall with the fluctuation of the lake, and a magnificent picture is presented to the readers.
These two poems, which describe the weather in Dongting, have become the swan song of the ages and touched poets and poetry critics of all ages. In the Song Dynasty, Liu said, "The atmospheric pressure of one hundred generations is the absolute power of five words" (Yang Lun's Du Shi Jing Quan). In the Ming Dynasty, Wang Siyuan thought that these two sentences "made a grand view, and later poets could not be caught off guard" (Du Yi, Volume 10). The admiration for these two sentences can be described as extreme. Meng Haoran once described the magnificence of Dongting Lake as "a fog in Yun Qi trapped Yueyang". Shen Deqian, a poetic theorist in the Qing Dynasty, compared these two poems and said, "Meng Xiangyang actually wrote Dongting in three or four languages, but only in an imaginative way."
(Collection of Tang Poems, Volume 10) points out the difference between the two couplets in "reality" and "emptiness". Meng Haoran's poem is that he only expresses his personal desire to cross the Dongting Lake without a boat, and he wants to be an official without being introduced, but he can't help but be limited to his personal gains and losses as an official.
Du Fu wrote not only from Dongting Lake to Jiangnan, but also from Jiangnan to heaven, earth, sun and moon. Describe Dongting Lake from this extremely broad perspective, and show the magnificent atmosphere of Dongting Lake from a larger spatial scope. This is of course related to Du Fu's embrace. Throughout his life, "worrying about the people's livelihood and cherishing the country" (Yang Lun's Complete Preface of Du's Classic) always takes the safety of the people and the fate of the country to heart. Therefore, in his eyes, he is not just a Dongting, but the whole of Wu Chu, even Gan Kun; He not only has himself in mind, but also the people of the world. This makes his two poems more imposing and earth-shattering than Meng Haoran's. Therefore, Xiqing's poetics says that "greatness is different from other schools", but don't swallow a few clouds and dreams in Shaoling's chest.
Next, the poet turned from the scenery of the first four sentences to the lyricism of the last four sentences. Friends and relatives are separated, and the old sick boat is the companion. One is "nothing" and the other is "loneliness". Emotional color is particularly strong, and the words are very accurate. At this time, Du Fu, who was 57 years old, was seriously ill, lost and helpless, and the evening scene was bleak. In the vast world, the poet feels lonely, and it is even more heartbreaking to think of the long road of life and all kinds of hardships he has experienced. This period includes the poet's painful memories of the past. Huang Sheng said: "The scenery is so vast, the self-narration is so lonely, and the poetic realm is wide and narrow, and each is different" (Pu Qilong's Reading Du Xin Jie, Volume III), which points out the ups and downs of the poet's mood and the poet's clever expression. With this sharp contrast between broadness and narrowness, the poet described his bumpy experience more prominently. As Pu Qilong said, "not wide is narrow and not bitter, narrow is narrow, and the wider the realm, the more empty it is", which plays a role in setting each other off. This couplet, from scenery description to lyricism, from seeing to feeling, from broad to narrow, from the joy of boarding a ship to the desolation of life experience, is rigorous in structure, changing layer by layer and deepening step by step, showing Du Fu's skillful poetic expression skills.
At the end of the poem, the poet jumped from the narrow to the wide, from the individual to the country. The ten-year Anshi Rebellion has caused great losses to the country and people. Since then, foreigners have invaded, and the people have been in trouble. How can a poet not worry? In August this year, Tubo invaded, the capital was under martial law, troops were stationed in border areas, and wars were frequent. In June of the same year, the military forces in Youzhou made Zhu and others insurrection, killed my envoy Li Huaixian, claimed to stay behind, and forced the court to recognize him. This is the historical fact that there are wars and mountains to the north of this wall.
Thought of here, the poet couldn't help crying. In these tears, there are thoughts of relatives and friends, sadness of loneliness in old age, anxiety about the future of the country, and self-mourning for the country that cannot serve. In the last link, the poet expanded from the individual to the country. The word "there are wars and mountains to the north of this wall" shows that the poet has a country of Li nationality in his heart, and his mind is extremely broad, which complements the vast and magnificent weather of Dongting Lake.